3 Years Ago on La France Profonde -- Good-bye to a Neighborhood

Le Printemps celebrating "le printemps"

I had hoped to do better blog-wise by my lovely Easter weekend in Paris. It was my first real dose of spring, and there is so much to tell, as usual when one spends a weekend in Paris.

But spring continued to move into full bloom phase here, and time went by without my feeling like spending evening time on the computer.

(This is where I should tell you that I was spending my evenings whipping our yard into shape, but in reality I was lolling on the couch admiring spring blossoms from our sunny living room.)

The light, the light...

For new readers of this blog, our eldest daughter has lived in Paris for nearly three years now, and that has given me -- or us --  the opportunity, or at least the impetus, to head up there much more often.

More impetus for this trip...

I had definitely wanted to get up to Paris for the David Bowie Is exhibit at the newly opened (January 2015) Philharmonie de Paris. I'm quite a Bowie fan, but a bit leery of rock music exhibits and museums. It is such a challenge to translate a musical experience into a musical and visual one without the actual presence of the artist.

But Bowie's work and persona are definitely up to this challenge, and I would call the exhibit an unqualified success. It is on until the end of May, so if you have been wondering about going, get your tickets!

We also went to the recently renovated Musée Picasso. I hadn't visited this museum in decades, and appreciated the airy, uncramped feel of the new version. They are also doing a good job with crowd management; despite a huge line on a day (the first Sunday of the month)  when the museum was free, the galleries were not overly crowded. 

Of course I took plenty of photos, but will just share a few views from the building: 

I often find looking out from museums almost as interesting as looking at the works inside them... 

Back in Aveyron -- oops, Paris 12me

This weekend had special meaning as it may well have been the last based in the "quartier des Aveyronnais," or a small portion of the 12me arrondissement near the Cour St. Emilion and Bercy Village. 

My daughter has been lucky enough to live the past three years in a special, and very reasonably priced,  apartment building for young people from the Aveyron, L'Oustal. 

But all good things must come to an end, and in mid-July her lease will be up, and she will be looking for new lodgings. 

I will miss many things about this calm and relatively little-known neighborhood of Paris.

I will miss the delicious food from the Auberge Aveyronnaise, pictured above. Of course we can go back there -- and even eat the same type of food here in Aveyron! 

My first stop every morning I spent in the neighborhood

And yes, I will miss the relatively un-touristy Starbucks that was just a few minutes away from her apartment.

But, assuming that she finds a decent apartment in an interesting area of Paris, there will be more discoveries to make.

Paris 1: Les Douches, la Galerie

Entrance to Les Douches, la Galerie

As a student in France in the 1980s, I was always fascinated, and a bit perplexed, by the many municipal bath and shower facilities I saw -- especially in Paris.

For some reason or another, I even ended up using one once -- I think a youth hostel I was staying in only had toilets, not showers, and we were guided to the city showers.

I thought they were a thing of the past, but before writing this post, I learned that there are still 17 operating municipal shower facilities in Paris. There is even an official video about them on Daily Motion (all in French.) And according to the newspaper Libération, their popularity is on the upswing, as users include people trying to save money any way they can, including on hot water.

Be that as it may....

...I didn't start my Easter weekend in Paris off with a public shower. My husband had scoped out a photo exhibit of shots of New York, so we headed off to Les Douches, La Galerie. 

It was an interesting show, albeit just enough to whet one's appetite for photos of New York City. I was especially interested to see some photos by the mysterious Vivian Maier, and hadn't realized that this gallery had housed her Paris exhibition in 2013. 

No doubt here as to what this place used to be

It was fascinating to see how this gallery has kept its "public shower" atmosphere. 

The New York photo show is open until May 22nd, and entrance is free -- but showers are not included.

Pieces of Paris 2 -- Galerie du Jeu de Paume

A quick view of the Jeu de Paume Gallery as we were waiting in line, until our daughter bought tickets with her iPhone

Despite a lazy morning and having to leave Paris a bit after 2pm on Sunday, we were able to squeeze in an exhibit at the Galerie du Jeu de Paume. 

Looking up from the entrance hall

I'm a bit ashamed that I hadn't been there since its impressionist museum days, and downright embarrassed to admit I was only very vaguely aware of its tranformation into a contemporary art gallery (in 1991...cringe...)

Sunday gallery visitors heading down to the bookshop 

This place has definitely been done up right. It was a grey day, but the open spaces were still flooded with light. 

I like the idea of inventing the possible, but we didn't have time to go to the video area. I guess we weren't able to invent that possibility.

What we did get to see was this exhibit, now transferred to the Jeu de Paume, of the American photographer Garry Winogrand. 

The Met site for the show explains: "While Winogrand is widely considered one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century, his overall body of work and influence on the field remain incompletely explored."

It has certainly been completely unexplored by me! I somehow had never heard of this most intriguing American photographer, and frankly didn't recognize any of his photos. But they were fascinating, depicting American life in New York, California and other regions in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Another exhibit, another discovery...

Pieces of Paris 1

Paris was looking a bit on the bland side this morning, I'm afraid

One of the reasons I cast this blog aside 4 years back was that I felt my life was increasingly happening elsewhere than in Aveyron.

One of those elsewheres has been Paris.

Exquisite Sunday morning calm today near L'Eglise de la Madeleine

I started to go up, or as they say here in Aveyron, "monter à la capitale," for work in 2008. 

Just 3 or 4 times a year for meetings: sometimes with an overnight stay in a slightly ratty hotel; sometimes doing an exhausting round trip the same day, during which my biggest "Paris experience" was a quick glance of the Arc de Triomphe as I emerged from the RER, in great need of the morning's fourth coffee.  .

La grande roue, looking less than grand under grey skies

Then in autumn 2012, our eldest daughter moved there, giving me more occasions to reconnect with Paris...plus a place to stay, which is not to be spat upon! 

From the start of my expat experience in 1990 and until 2008, I used to sorely regret not getting to Paris that often -- maybe once every two years at best.

Since 2008, it would be safe to say I have gone up at least 25 times.

But they are always short stays, giving me the impression of experiencing Paris in bits and pieces....as I did this weekend, and as I will share with you this week.

Wordless Wednesday 96

Looking up in Paris 3

Same blue sky as yesterday's post, and the same great trip: April 2008 with my youngest daughter and two of her friends.

Looking up in Paris 2

Apartments near the Eiffel Tower...wouldn't that be a nice place to live?

Looking up in Paris 1

One of the great things about my current professional situation is that I get to fly up to Paris for meetings three or four times a year.

My time in the capital city is always limited, and most of it is spent in a windowless conference room. But I always try to make the most of the business trip by stopping off at a café before and after my meeting.

Off to Paris

I'm off to Paris for work today, which means getting up at 4:30 am and getting home at 10pm -- providing there are no plane delays! So this will be my semblance of a post for today...

Paris: a jumbled view

Today I'm taking advantage of Blogger's time warp to get my daily post up before midnight on Friday the 14th! I sure didn't have much blogging time on that date here in France, as I flew up to Paris for work and was lucky to get home on my scheduled flight.

One-day work trips to Paris are not times when I get to see a lot of the city, but I always take my camera and try to get s shot of something.

This was the view from the 4th floor conference room of the Maison des Universités. Like many views out of the back side of Paris buildings, it was a jumble -- but an ever-fascinating one.

Wordless Wednesday 16

My Paris

The Paris I visit immediately becomes my own.

No other city takes hold of me and makes me feel a part of it the way Paris does.

Every time I have been to la capitale -- including one-day trips for work this year -- I feel at home there.

Is it me, or is it Paris?

It's been almost one week since I got back, and I'm still trying to decide.

There and back

My five-day trip to Paris was rich in memories, exciting new experiences, and thoughts of what used to be... what is...and what could have been...

It will certainly provide me with plenty of blogging material to take you away from the French countryside for a while.

For now, though, it's time to catch up with everything and face up to a number of things. But I'll post more as soon as I can!

In the meantime, here's proof that my trip took place, and that I am overcoming my acrophobia.

Good-bye to all that

(Click on photo to enlarge)

See you later, laundry.

Ciao, cooking and cleaning.

A plus tard, working hard.

Tomorrow night I'll be at the Rodez train station, settling into a sleeper compartment with one of my daughters and two of her friends.

We'll wake up in Paris for five days of culture, fun, shopping, mouse ears and grandeur.

Salut!

Paris, I Knew You Well

There was a time in my life, too many years ago, when Paris meant France and France meant Paris.

As a French teacher in the USA in the 1980s, I took a number of trips to France, including a 6-week stay in Paris on a Rockefeller Foundation Grant. My French stays always included at least a week in la capitale -- and preferably many more. By 1989, I felt much more at home in Paris than Seattle, even though the Emerald City was only 60 miles from my home town.

Sure, I had visited parts of la province, all of which somehow felt parenthetical compared to the big city.

I had even spent four months as a student at the now-defunct "Stanford in Tours" campus -- only a few hours from Paris by train, by the way, even before the TGV. In those heady days of Eurail Pass train travel, my friends and I would sometimes "hop up" to enjoy a Parisian dinner. We would leave Tours at about 5pm, get to Paris just in time to eat, and catch a midnight-ish train back.

I moved to France in 1990, with visions of Paris dancing in my head. Not that I necessarily wanted to set up house and home there... but if I had spent months in Paris while living in the USA, I was certainly going to be heading there all the time...wasn't I?

Or was I?

What do you think?