Jardin Des Plantes; Aka Garden of Plants

The week of June 3rd revolved mostly around Penelope and the cool and wet weather. Her Mom was in London, enjoying a week off. We got out a bit, in between rain drops and high winds, but even our outings were not always successful. On the 4th we walked over to the Jardin des Plantes to see the flowers and to visit the museum, which has a children's area.

Another big park, with zoo and several museums

All presided over by Lamarck, "founder of the doctrine of
evolution" (Darwin filled in the details)

Le Petamaine, founder of the doctrine that the egg came
before the chicken

Alas, on closer examination, we discovered that all the museums in the park,
including the sought-after kiddie areas, were closed; contrary to the theory that
only the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays

So we spent a fair amount of time smelling the roses

And looking at some of the outdoor geology exhibits

Etc.

Later we walked around a bit, and had lunch at a Chinese trattoria

Paris mosque

Still more flowers

And historical fauna

And then spent the rest of the afternoon at the neighborhood playground

Adventurous and adept; on a playmate's dad's 2 wheeler

Pompidou, 2019

We had Penelope for the afternoon Sunday, June 2, and thought she'd enjoy the Pompidou. Having suffered through two days of the Louvre with her parents, she was not so sure. But the Pomp has some fun things, including a children's play area, and she was further induced by a children's guide book Vicki had bought for her a few years back, and which she produced for the occasion. We had been to the Pompidou on several occasions in the past (http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/08/centre-pompidou-1.html, http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/08/pompidou-2.html,
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2009/08/pompidiou-i.html), and although I sometimes disparage the building, I generally find the collection and special exhibits interesting, even stimulating. This day I was trying to view things through a younger lens.

Since the day was to be a scorcher, we headed to the roof first thing for the views:
the first, a sad one, the roof-less Notre Dame Cathedral, greatly damaged, as
everyone knows, but saved, and now to be repaired and restored

Paris has so many landmarks, they get in the way of each other...Les Halles, the
church of St. Eustache, La Defense in the distance, and much more in between

Louvre, Eiffel Tower, the Petit and Grand Palais...

Montmartre

The Pompidou has a large collection of Roualt's paintings,
(this one Le Clown Blesse, 1932), which Vicki likes
because of his Portrait of a Boy, which, she says, reminded
her of me, when we both were young

Said painting, off the web, was in storage in 2009, again
in 2014, and, I assume, again in 2019; maybe next time

Picasso's Pink Period coincided with a world-wide glut of pink pigment

One of his lesser known masterpieces, La Pisseuse (1965),
done when he was well into his Dirty Old Man Period

I have never quite gotten in to Miro; but after enough Miro, Braque, Modigliani,
Picasso, et al., we were later inspired to watch Midnight in Paris again; a
favorite

Dado's Le Grande Ferme, which did appeal

P with her Pompidou book, finding most of the paintings and
other items

Chopin's Waterloo, by Arman; when I asked P whether she knew what a "Waterloo"
was, she said it was a toilet with running water...a really well-traveled American child

A stone's throw from the Pompidou is the gorgeous Syndicat
de L'Epicerie Francaise building: "Tous pour Un" and "Un pour
Tous"; such a contrast!

Louvre Out-Takes, 2019

So we have been to the Louvre before...

http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/08/le-musee-du-louvre-une-derniere-fois.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/06/paris-scenes-vingt-trois-deux-jours-au.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/09/louvre-lens-museum.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2009/08/louvre-i.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/09/louvre-lens-collection.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2012/07/louvre-again-3-out-takes.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2012/07/louvre-again-1.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2009/08/louvre-2.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/06/paris-scenes-vingt-trois-plus-out-takes.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/06/paris-scenes-vingt-trois-out-takes-du.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/06/paris-scenes-vingt-troi-paris-et-le.html

and our visit on June 1st, at nine hours, was not even our longest. And the above do not include many visits prior to retirement. We like the place. A lot. If you want to see pictures of our favorite items, pour yourself a tall one and have a go at the above. Sorry for the inevitable repetitions. I did not want to repeat any more here.

Looking down on a stray sculpture courtyard; at this point I was thinking that
Sully, Denon, and Richelieu would be a cool name for a Parisian law firm

95% of visitors to the Louvre go to just three sites: Mr. Smoky's Special Lady
Friend, Sam O'Thrace, and the gift shoppe; 4% are guards or custodians; the above
is an attempted pano of a room that had (Vicki counted them) 17 Rembrandts;
we had it all to ourselves for a full five minutes or more until one older guy showed
up to briefly sketch the lone non-Rembrandt in the room; Sic Transit, Gloria

Right foot of Jesus, from another Last Supper, I thought I'd throw in since Mr.
Smoky's version had it cut out

Detail of a Temptations of St. Anthony by Pieter Huys, who clearly had been
studying Bosch

Maybe the French don't really abhor a vacuum; filling this space is probably
stuck in a committee somewhere

Helpful model of the Louvre/Abu Dhabi, the only Louvre we have not yet visited

I am still not reconciled to this

La Defense from the Louvre; note Arc de Triomphe and its relation to La Defense

Humiliation time: I know nothing about frames and consequently slight or ignore
them; the Louvre has some 3,000 surplus frames and has undertaken several
long-term studies of its massive frame collection (the first while the treasures were
hidden away from the Germans in WWII); maybe I'll live long enough to do better;
anyhow, this is part of a multi-room display and explanation of frames, many with
the painting in context; I promise to do better

Very historic; it wasn't always a museum

Best angle

Spare parts

Your art work here

The place was sold out for the day, but, by later afternoon, this was absolutely
the smallest crowd I have ever seen looking at Mr. Smoky's Special Lady Friend

Now that, thanks to the Pinoteca Ambrosiana, I know who Luini was, I am well
able to appreciate the Louvre's several excellent Luinis

There were more surprises and personal discoveries, always one of the pleasures
of visiting a great museum, and especially the greatest

Not an empty space

Vicki wanted this picture because she wrote a paper in the
8th grade, which she still has, on the Venus de Milo, the
subject of Heningway's famous novel, A Farewell to Arms

View you'll only see here

Us, there, again