A Night At The Ballet

Penelope was pretty taken with the Palais Garnier and especially its ballet productions and quickly discerned that there might be tickets still available for a performance. Grandma at this point stepped up, as she always does, and scored tickets for Friday night's performance of Giselle, the story of which Penelope knew well, and took P there as well. With the Louvre and then the Garnier Ballet it was a long day. And the action was only beginning.

About to leave the apartment

On the Grand Staircase (Vicki using the "make
other people disappear" feature on her new Pixel 8a)

Initially they had separate seats, but got together after the 1st act

Vicki's seat in the 4th tier, right up there with Chagall

Not for those afraid of heights

Now joined by P

Action shots; as it were

P seemed very pleased with the experience...Vicki
no doubt thinking ahead to two days at the Provins
Medieval Fair, two days at Disney, etc., starting the
next morning...

Louvre, 1

Apart from preparing and packing for the impending overnight trip to Provins and its annual Medieval Fair, we had scheduled a Friday visit to the Louvre. Vicki and I are members of the Amis du Louvre, with unlimited visits, and also are entitled to bring a guest each. Art history is a staple of P's home schooling, and she is quite knowledgeable. But she prefers getting her lessons from books, the internet, videos and such, and has never been much of a museum person. So we try to keep her museum-time relatively short and sweet. I think we took her to the Louvre three times during her visit. 

Just off the Pyramide, today's wedding pix

So we get to special entrance for Amis card-holders and are informed

the museum is closed: a strike is underway; while Vicki stands patiently

in line, hoping the strike will be resolved or otherwise end, Penelope and 

I cross the street in hopes of finding a cafe...passing, en route, the historic 

Comedie Francaise

The nearby cafe, between the Louvre and the Comedie Francaise,
is adorned, aptly, with these humorous futbol-themed renditions of
great works of art...

Caravaggio would have been proud

Returning to the museum, there has been no movement
in the line, and we resolve to try again another day; just
as we step out onto rue Rivoli, I glance back, the line
is moving, the museum is open!

Vicki and Penelope sprint up the stairs and down the
corridors and are able to see the Mona Lisa practically
alone!

By the time I catch up, the room is beginning to look as always

Moving right along, we look at some other
Leonardo paintings, including those with strange
perspective and framing...

Originally a St. John the Baptist, from a Leonardo
drawing, it was over-painted in the late 17th century
to become a Bacchus...assorted Bacchalian symbols
on view...he seems to be saying "the bar is over there"
(or possibly down there...)

Soon to become a tea towel when I get my Cafe
Press shop going...

Outside, at a terrace cafe, we are enjoying the view and a snack break

Then we are back to serious museum exploration

But before the next break, things were getting crowded, so we 
called it a day

Segue

Rebecca was with us the better part of four days, the main priority of which was delivering Penelope. There were secondary priorities as well, since Rebecca is a seasoned Paris visitor, with her own list of things to see and do. Some food, some shopping, some cultural stuff, most of which we got done in good order. Then it was time for her to take the train on to Amsterdam for several days there with Jeremy and then on to Bruge and Brussels before returning to Paris to pick up the kid. After Rebecca's departure, our attention turned strictly to Penelope.

At a favorite creperie on Charonne in the 11th;
a beautiful salted caramel dessert crepe

Vicki's; I generally pass on the dessert crepe, going
for the Calvados digestif instead; an apple a day...

Moving right along, now, after thr  Pavillons of Bercy, we are
at Galeries Lafayette

T-shirt not bought

Taking Maman to catch her train; attempting again to emulate
Monet's Gare Saint-Lazaire paintings; at Gare du Nord

After some shopping on Rue Vavins with P, a brief stroll in the
park; here, a line of Luxembourg's famous chairs

Luxembourg bee hives

Something other blogs don't show you: the pissoir in the bushes
behind the petanque courts at Luxembourg; dating, presumably, from
the time when boules was not a mixed sport

Pavillons de Bercy: Musee des Artes Forains

The Museum of Fairground Arts appears in Midnight in Paris: the rented venue of a Scott and Zelda party, where Gil (re-) encounters Adriana (here). It's a real place and not just a movie set: three large halls of restored circus, fun-fair, and fairground art and mobiles, mostly belle epoque, collected and presented by one Jean Paul Favand, and in its present location, in the Pavillons of Bercy, since 1996. At the time depicted in the movie it did not exist, of course, and Bercy, once the largest wine market in France, and probably the world, was in the last stages of its decline. (Something about the growing preference for "estate-bottled," changes in transportation, wars, taxes, etc.). The museum is housed in three large former wine warehouses--several more warehouses are said to contain spares, items in restoration, and so forth. In whole or part, it can be rented for assorted events--yes, weddings--but it also conducts limited tours. En francais, seulement. Through Rebecca's perseverance, again, we scored tickets. Granted, this is not one of the must-see venues of Paris, but it is a wonderful respite from all the seriousness and much fun for both kids and adults. See the museum website for much more. And in English, too.

In the Venice hall

Us, there

The tour is in French only, but the non-Francophones can read along
in the multi-page hand-out in the language of their choice; half our
group of four are Francophones; apparently the guide's lengthy narration
is replete with puns and humor...

Among the many working carousels

Our tour group in another hall

The place is more than replete with the relevant artifacts

Famous elephant-toting hot air balloon

More artifacts

More animatronics; sort of

Our guide explaining the first of several skee ball-powered race
tracks; from what I could tell and hear, she was very good

Penelope (purple jacket) came in second

Us all, there

Unicorn and piano

Fairground organ 

Many re-creations of iconic Parisian scenes

Toulouse-Lautrec painting

Victor Hugo writing

One of the halls

Between the halls, in what remains of the old wine warehouse district;
the tracks would go all the way to Burgundy, the Rhone, and Provence;
Bercy is right on the river, too, in the 12th, so there was that mode of
transportation before railroads

Whimsy everywhere

Lots of opportunities for shots like this

The piece de resistance for us was the skee ball-powered
derby of the cafe waiters

Based on a real annual event in Montmartre; 8kms without spilling

Yet another carousel

Peeking into another hall

The very famous velo-powered merry-go-round

Enjoyed more than once by our party

Now departing the much gentrified and attractive Bercy; great visit!