Scenes From Diverse Walks, 1

After Tawana's and Cara's departures we spent a couple days not sightseeing but merely running some errands and reconnoitering things of interest. And getting our steps. Ths first walk was to take us to the Decathlon on St. Germaine for some shopping, then a stop for kouign amann at Georges Larnicol, then further back down St. Germaine until we got tired and headed back home.

Today's video shoot, on Vaugirard, across from the park

Not a big production perhaps

Fish drying at the Marche St. Germaine

So we're crossing the Boulevard St. Germaine, and I
notice this bag of archaeological grade lumber, removed
from a renovation site nearby

Just down from the statue of Danton

And, for want of a nail,  Vicki boldly extracts an archeological grade
(=not from Home Depot) nail for our collection of found/extracted/
otherwise-obtained items that inevitably get tossed eventually for lack
of a label describing their provenance

Looking around for the reno site, we discover this

beautiful alley, which we've no doubt walked past

dozens of times

Including the back side outdoor seating for Procope

Always something new to discover

In the courtyard park of the church of St. Germaine
de Pres, this monument to the 11,000 Jewish children
in Paris taken by the Vichy government and handed
over to the Germans, and Auschwitz

Finally, another item we've walked past dozens of times without

looking up...the Sevres portal from the Paris 1900 Exposition 

(world fair), one of the few architectural items that have survived 

that famous event; Sevres is of course France's famed manufacturer 

of fine porcelain

Paris Restos

We wanted to offer Tawana and Cara a good sampling of traditional fare, so we chose 1) a "typical" Paris resto we like, Le Louis Philippe on rue Tivoli by the river, in the 3rd, 2) something historic, namely Procope, in the 6th, 3) something Art Nouveau, Mollard, by the Gare St. Lazaire, and 4) a creperie, La Creperie Bretonne, at Montparnasse. Good eats and good company! 

Boeuf Bourguignon and salade Nicoise at Le Philippe Louis

Sans pomme de terre, it was noted

Not so the boeuf

Oeufs mayonnaise

Crevettes and avocado

Bream

Risotto with mushrooms and truffles

Steak and frites

Ile flotante

Lemon and pistachio ice creams...the pistachio was the best ever
for me; Vicki was more reserved; Voltaire wrote that Procope's
ice cream was so good it should be outlawed

Cara and Vicki at Mollard

Swordfish (oops, forgot to picture the oysters) 

More steak frites

Trout

Salmon

Flaming omelette surprise (sort of a baked Alaska)

Cheese assortment

At Mollard, a peek into the private dining room

A crepe complet, with egg and sausage

Van Eyck Exhibition At The Louvre; And More

We are fans of the early 15th century Flemish painter Jan van Eyck and of the early Flemish and German masters generally. Memmling, Rogier van der Weyden, Martin Schongauer, Bosch, Brueghel, et al. In fact, we'll be spending nearly a week in Bruges and Ghent soon just to see some of them again. The Louvre had recently cleaned and restored its major van Eyck holding, The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin, and to celebrate the achievement, created a special exhibition concerning it. Something we couldn't miss. There's a fine video on the painting and restoration here. And with English subtitles too.

Chancellor Rolin was the principal administrator for
the Duchy of Burgundy, which then included the Flemish
lands; van Eyck's patron and employer

And there it is...by no means a large painting, but as detailed and colorful and 

luminous as anything you'll ever see...and from the early 15th century, using unheard-of 

materials and techniques....

Details, details, details...apart from inventing,

pioneering, and perfecting oil painting, van Eyck 

remains unsurpassed in detail work too

Closer up of a bit of the landscape, which is fairly
incredible for the time

Hi-tech mega close-ups in the exhibition

There are some great mega-close-up sites on van Eyck's masterpiece,
the Ghent Altarpiece, on the web; impressive, fascinating stuff; what
you're looking at in the painting is hardly postage-stamp size

The exhibition included also several paintings by contemporaries
or followers; also several more by van Eyck; above is an interesting
copy of a generations-later van der Weyden painting of St. Luke,
patron saint of artists, making a sketch of the Madonna and Bambino,
breast-feeding; note similarity to Chancellor Rolin...

Bosch's Ecce Homo, late 15th century

Petrus Christus (great name!), Virgin and Child with
Saint Barbara and Peter Vos, 1450

Studio of Robert Campin, Nativity, 1430

Another Petrus Christus, Virgin and Child, 1450

Van Eyck, The Lucca Madonna, 1437

Van Eyck, Portrait of Badouin Lannoy, 1431, another
prominent figure in the court of the Duke of Burgundy
 

Van Eyck's Annunciation, something we never miss
at the National Gallery in DC

Detail...

Last look...

OK, so you can't go to the Louvre for just one painting; can you?!
Here is another 15th century painting, one of Ucello's Battle of San
Romano depictions

Anonymous, 15th century portraits of Giotto, Ucello, Donatello,
Manetti, and Brunelleschi

We have always been fans of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, a 16th
century Italian painter whose works adorn museums in Vienna,
Paris, Madrid, and more; the Louvre has copies-by-the painter
of the Four Seasons series, which Holy Roller Emperor
Maximilian ordered made and sent to his royal bud August
of Saxony way back when; the four had been cleaned and
restored recently and just re-hung during our stay here... 

What they looked like before the restoration...sometime
after the copies were sent to August of Saxony, someone
painted leafy borders around them--probably to match the
sofa, we speculate--and the restoration removed the
borders to match the originals

More Louvre

After a major repas at Procope, we waddled on to the Louvre for a brief Friday evening visit. Most of the time we spent hunting down les biggies, but we did stop for a few pix. Tawana's and Cara's stamina, despite the jet lag, was impressive.

Joyeux anniversaire fireworks at Procope; they even sang it en Francais

Attempted artsy shot looking toward the Cafe Mollien terrace

Le Biggie

Finally, a helpful, if partial, model of the Louvre!