Picasso Museum, Paris

Paris' Picasso Museum was closed when we were last in the city, in 2014. It had been closed, for renovations, for five years. At length, the ministry of culture ran out of patience and sacked the director. The museum opened, to great fanfare, in October, 2014; under new management. We are not Picasso fans, but this is one of the great museums. The 5,000 works of art, manuscripts, notes, sketches, etc., came to France in lieu of payment of death taxes. The collection is housed in the ancient Hotel Sale in the Marais.

Thus

L'Arbor, 1907

Verre D'Absinthe, 1912-1914

The museum is noted for its collection of
Picasso sculpture

Thus

Stairwell in the Hotel Sale

Femme a L'Enfant, 1961

Didn't get its name

Picasso also did sculpture in metal...OK, not Rodin

And other media

Jeanne, 1901

Autoportrait, 1901

He was always sketching something...

The hotel in Antibes evidently did not accept this as payment
...too bad for them

Portrait de Marie-Therese, 1937

Vaulting in the ancient Hotel Sale

La Baie de Cannes, 1950

Cafe a Royan, 1940

Corrida: La Mort du Torero, 1933

Bacchanale avec Chevreau et spectateur, 1959

Not quite the entertainer that Dali was, but he had his moments...not pictured:
items from his collection of works by Matisse, Courbet, Renoir, et al.

Paris Scenes, 2

More assorted pix from our 3-4 days in Paris...

Near the Picasso museum

An Irish pub...but closed

More wall art, in which Paris excels

Somewhere on the Left Bank, an intact Guimard Metro entry

Palace of Justice

The Plage going strong

At the Lego Store

Actually, the Lego Store was the only thing of interest in the Forum des Halles,
the rest just the usual shopping center crap

Remains of the very old Hotel de Bourgogne;
14th century

Montmarte, en route to

We walked the length of this street, now undergoing French gentrification

The usual interesting architecture, however

Ghost signs and graffiti

Encampment at Bois de Boulogne

Paris Scenes, 1

Vicki and I had wanted to spend a few days in Paris, primarily to see the Fondation Louis Vuitton and the Picasso Museum, neither of which was yet open during our long visit in 2014. The Louis Vuitton thing did not work out, but other things did, on which I'll do subsequent posts. In any case, we stayed the next 3 nights and days, and spent most of the time just walking around this city we have come to love. Below and in the next post are a few pix from those days.

Near the Champs Elysees

Always breath-taking at first sight

We saw the exterior well enough in July, 2014, but wanted to
see it all; now, however, two years later, it is all garbed in these
tablecloth-like disasters; like seeing the Winged Victory
spray-painted; we'll wait till it returns to its former glory

Beach volleyball at the Hotel de Ville

Somehow we always end up spending a couple hours at the
culinary floor of BHV...

Another bike barista

View from Left Bank

Planted in 1602

Beautiful Guimard-like grill

Capital in the very old church of St. Germaine de Pres

Theatrical performance aboard the Metro

Still processing this one...

The American Dream...must go there sometime

Opera Garnier

Interesting Art Nuvo buildings I may have posted before

Thought for the day

End Of Visit

After six nights at the Domaine des Ormes, the plan was to drive to Paris, collect Rebecca, and then get both Rebecca and Penelope on the plane the next morning, August 11th. In Penelope's view, however, no visit to France is complete without seeing the Eiffel Tower. Accordingly, we moved our schedules around a bit to arrive in Paris in the afternoon before the flight, camping at old friend Bois de Bulogne, now Camping Indigo, and taking the Metro to Rebecca's hotel in the Opera district. From there we all walked across the river to the Champ de Mars to fulfill P's wish...one very happy little girl. Next morning, very early, we drove to CDG and Rebecca and Penelope both embarked without difficulty for the long flight to SFO, ending a wonderful three week visit.

Penelope presents...

Le Tour Eiffel

Wish fulfilled!