Paris Out-Takes, 2025, Part The Second

Good, very good, excellent, delicious, order another

At the Napoleon Shoppe

Very, very, very major landmark; don't even ask

Parade of rental Citroens

One wonders what it would be like in French...
I once watched a bit of The Big Lebowski in French...
completely different movie..."Le Duke"

...

Green Man at the annual St. Sulpice flea market

Mothers' Day in France, May 25th

At the Dior wind tunnel test center outside Paris

Where else but Paris? Rimaud's "Le Bateau Ivre" inscribed on this
wall, near St. Sulpice (click to enlarge)

Also near St. Sulpice

The Poet Riding Pegasus, in the Square de l'Opera-Louis-Jouvet

Extremely rare dorsal view

At a book repair, rebinding shop near us

The old-fashioned way

Mr. Smokey's Special Lady Friend, May 28th

Hang on! Miller Time in just 30 minutes! I mean apero time...

The Three Graces as toddlers

Aquamaniles at the Louvre...obviously on loan from the Met

Suspiciously happy dancing bear

Parking outside a nearby Ecole Maternelle (pre-school)

Madame Pompadour's coffee grinder; mine is very similar,
but stainless steel with ceramic blades; also, not in the Louvre

Return To Art Nouveau Walk, Again, In The 16th, 2025

June 9th we got out again, undertaking an interesting bus ride to the Ranleigh stop in the 16th, to do an art nouveau architecture walk we'd done in past years...the first time, I think, in 2012. I am posting the 2025 pix below, just to reinforce the view that I always take the same pix, of the same things, from the same angles, etc. Plus a few new items of conceivable interest. Hector Guimard is the Paris architect of art nouveau fame, best known for his design of the Paris Metro entrances and similar things.

16th street view; pretty nice place, if a little far out from 
the center of things

Guimard's very famous Castel Beranger

Pretty characteristic

First place, but of course

Assorted views, flourishes

Interior of portal; alas, this is somebody's home, not
a museum, so you can't go in; I am courageously sticking
my phone through the grill work for this pic...

Muy famoso

More Guimard...Rue Agar

A small house Guimard designed in 1911; now part of the local lycee;
occasional gallery/hostel for artists

Rare full dorsal view of a Rodin whose name I forgot

Full frontal: "Oh crap, my phone's dead!"

Interesting door; not Guimard

Art nouveau is over, but Guimard was still designing:
this is a proposed "mass-produced" home; didn't pan out

Mallet-Stevens was one of Guimard's successors, and a leader in the
art deco movement

Thus

So we are walking along a pretty pocket park, minding our own
business, when up pops this BYD (Chinese EV), the first we have
seen; so deflating when, a few days later, Rebecca told us they actually
rode in one, an Uber, somewhere on their trip; she and Jeremy are
Tesla owners and thought the BYD was highly derivative...

St. Sulpice, Market And Church, Vavin/Brea Flea Market, And An Organ Concert

Our major task for June 5th was getting Penelope to CDG to rejoin her parents and begin their week-long tour of the Loire and then Normandy. That accomplished, we returned home and crashed. The next few days we stayed close to home, doing the brocante/antiques market at Saint Sulpice, the church itself, the Vavin/Brea vide grenier pop-up flea market, more of the Louvre couture show, and then a couple days later, an organ concert at St. Sulpice.

Nearby, en route to St. Sulpice, a high-end watch manufacturer...
the old-fashioned Swiss way...don't even ask about the prices

At the St. Sulpice brocante market...Grandma's eyeball collection

A worn but beautifully carved meerschaum; apart from the eyeballs,
it's really a formidable market...sometimes books, sometimes art, 
sometimes collectibles

And if you don't have time to reload...

Now in the church...one of the most evangelically-
in your face Catholic churches we've seen; and one
we've visited many times before; this is a traveling
Shroud of Turin show we've seen in countless churches
on the Continent; I've always thought the St. Veronica
Turin Shroud would make a great tea towel...

Blessings for every budget, price range...

Main altar

Above: they only did swirlers in the Renaissance

Chapel of the Virgin

We'll be back: St. Sulpice has one of the great symphonic
organs

The Gnomon Astronomique: read Dan Brown for the
more interesting story

St. Sulpice's flying pulpit: don't go up the downstairs

Now at the Vavin/Brea pop-up flea market

A street barricade, not for sale

Most interesting St. Sebastian yet

Now back at St. Sulpice for the organ concert, a guest organist from
Bordeaux; note, it takes three to play this monster, with its five manuals
and more than a hundred stops; the two assistants are pulling out and pushing
in the various stops; this is Charles Marie Widor's organ; my favorite organ
 composer, after Bach and Buxtehude, of course; played it at St. Sulpice for
sixty-three years; sitting in the church, your back is to the organ, and of
course, the organist and team are completely out of (natural) view; but the
miracle of TV allows you to see what's going on

Intricate footwork; never mind the non-matching socks; if you watch
organ recitals on YouTube, like I do, you know that it's no longer 
just about the sound, but also the keyboard, the footwork, the performer's
body language and facial expressions; gives a whole new meaning to
"organ videos," and you don't have to be eighteen to watch

Taking a well-deserved bow