Paris Art Nouveau, 2012

So one day, probably Saturday--I should have posted this before the Louvre--Vicki and I took the RER to the 18th to do a Paris Art Nouveau walk. It mostly featured the work of turn-of-the-century architect Hector Guimard, but much else too.

The walk began with something decidedly not art nouveau,
the contemporary Radio France building, which Parisians
derisively call "Le Camembert"

But quickly got into the spirit with Guimard's
Castel Beranger

Entry; it's an apartment building, early 1900s

More Castel Beranger; it was the best

Ditto

Ditto again

Then we walked into a real flea market--real people selling
things off tables--and probably spent an hour or more there
shopping and modestly stimulating the local economy

But then resumed the walk

Rue Agar, in Art Nouveauese

After WWI, Guimard designed this build-it-
yourself (!) wonder, which never really caught
on

Interestingly, nearly all the buildings we saw were signed,
so to speak

After the build-it-yourself experiment, Guimard emigrated
to New York, and art nouveau morphed into art deceau

There were many other things to see: here,
the only Rodin sculpture that is life-size; the
jury for the prize he was competing for accused
him of casting directly from the model, and he
never again did anything that might be open
to this accusation

And still more beautiful buildings

Paris...