Adieu to Paris 2013!

Monday July 1 (Canada Day), was our last full day in Paris.  It was a beautiful day- warm with blue skies.  We started our usual meandering after lunch with a sorbet at Grom (my favourite on Rue de Seine.

Grom on Rue de Seine

Toby with sorbet and new shoes

We passed the sculpture of Thomas Jefferson, ambassador to France from 1785-89

Thomas Jefferson statue

Alain on another bridge with locks

We walked through the part of the Tuileries near the Concorde.  We hadn't seen this bronze tree before.

Giuseppe Penone (b. 1947)  L'arbre des voyelles 1999

We reached our destination of the Pinacotheque near Place Madeleine, to see the other  exhibit (we had seen the Tamara de Lempecki exhibit on Sunday) entitled L'Art Nouveau: la Revolution decorative (The Decorative Revolution).

Poster for Exhibit

Art Nouveau was a reaction to classicism,  and was an international art movement that was at its peak between 1890 and 1905.  The exhibit at the Pinacotheque was the first French Art Nouveau retrospective in Paris since 1960.  Two hundred objects were on display, including paintings, furniture, jewellery and many posters.  The exhibit was interesting, especially in the context of having just been in Vienna where art nouveau flourished.  The movement was a short one as it faded just before WWI.

Alphonse Mucha-La Dame aux Camelias

Beautiful vases

     Cherry brooch

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), dominated the theatre scene for half a century and she was a muse for many Art Nouveau artists.  Mucha did many posters featuring her and Sarah Bernhardt was an artist herself.

Sarah Bernhardt

There were many posters by Alphonse Mucha, who was born in Moravia, Czechoslovakia in 1860, but lived in Paris around the turn of the century and was a major contributor to the development of Art Nouveau.  Interestingly, his art was a target for the Nazis and he was arrested by the Gestapo when they invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939.  He caught pneumonia during his interrogation and while he was  later released, he died shortly after his release of a lung infection.

Mucha poster

Many of the posters were done for the Salon des Cent on 31 Rue Bonaparte from 1894-1900.

Eugene Grasset 1894

The last piece in the exhibit was the wonderful Le Chat Noir by Theophile Alexandre Steinlen.

Theophile Alexandre Steinlen Le Chat Noir 1896

After the exhibit, we walked around the Place Madeleine and looked at the pastries at Fauchon - quite amazing colours and shapes.

Pastries at Fauchon

We took the Metro back to the Marais and did a bit more wandering.  We saw a new plaque (June 2013) in front of the Lycée Simone Weil where a number of students had been deported from 1942-44. It is interesting that the plaques now refer to the active complicity of the Vichy government.



We stopped at Merci, the concept store, which had a display/exhibit with a Paris theme.  Lots of copies of the Paris versus New York book.

Merci aime Paris

We then went for an apero at L'ebouillante, a lovely cafe in an alley not too far from the Seine.

Courtyard in front of L'ebouillante

Our drinks-- non alcoholic with lots of mint

We walked back to the apartment for a rest and then headed out for dinner at Da Rosa, a very good Italian spot on Rue de Seine.

Outside of store at Da Rosa

Da Rosa-- we also sat outside

We shared some tomato bruschetta, penne and chorizo.   It was a lovely warm evening to eat outside.

Thus ends our two weeks in Paris.  There is something magical about the city that keeps pulling us back.  We will return next year.

Alain waving adieu to Paris

Toby saying good-bye for this year

On Tuesday, July 2, we flew back to Toronto.  I'm just finishing this post from our condo.
Hope everyone has enjoyed the blog.  We've had an amazing five weeks.

More Wandering, Tamara de Lempicka

We woke up to a bit of rain on Saturday June 29, but by the time we headed out, it had cleared and the sun came out.  We went for a long walk checking out a number of stores we wanted to stop at--- Le Bon Marche's Le Grand Epicerie (the amazing food store); Pierre Marcolini (for some chocolate covered marshmallows); DSqaured (Alain looked for some jeans, but didn't buy); Maison Martin Margiela's M6 store (Toby looked but didn't buy); Uniqlo (Japanese) near L'Opera (Alain got a top for running).  It was so nice to be walking in the sun.

This Bistro is around the corner from us and a shot of it was in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris

We walked across the Seine- always so serene.

The Seine on a clear day

We passed by the ferris wheel in the Tuileries.  

Ferris Wheel at the Tuileries

On the way back to the apartment, we saw lots of people hanging out by the Seine, enjoying the sun for the first time in days.

Summer hangout on the Seine

It was also a perfect day for the Gay Pride March in Paris.  The parade was in the Bastille area, which we didn't visit this year, but we did see a group of Pride celebrators heading down the Seine in a party boat.

We headed back to the apartment for a late afternoon rest and then ended up going for dinner at a small bistro nearby on Ile St. Louis, called C'est Mon Plaisir.

Sign on a building on I'le St. Louis-- dating to 1645

Alain had chicken and Shirley and I had lamb.  We stopped afterwards at Berthillon for some wonderful sorbets/glace.

Beautiful building across from restaurant on I'le St. Louis

 C'est mon plaisir

Inside the restaurant

Alain and Toby- window seat at the restaurant


My salmon tartare appy

Our lamb with zucchini

Alain's poulet

On the way back across the Seine, Notre Dame was beautifully lit.

Sunday June 30 was a beautiful, sunny, warm day.  Alain went for a 8.6 km run in le Jardins des Plantes.  We decided to walk to the Pinacotheque in the Place de Madeleine on the right bank to see the Tamara de Lempicka exhibit.  We passed Shakespeare and Company, the famous english language bookstore and then crossed the Seine at another bridge with locks.

Outside of Shakespeare and Company

We also stopped at Laduree on Rue Royale, where Alain and Shirley 

bought pain au chocolat pistachio.

Crossing the Seine

Shirley making her purchase at Laduree

Alain and Shirley with their fresh pain au chocolat pistache

We finally reached our destination- Tamara de Lempicka: la Reine de l'art deco (the Queen of Art Deco) at the Pinacotheque near Place de la Madeleine.

Poster for the exhibit

Tamara de Lempicka was born Tamara Rosalia Gurwik-Gorska in 1898 (birth date not entirely certain) in either Warsaw, St. Petersburg or Moscow (also uncertain).  Her mother was Polish of French origin, her father was Russian.  She married Tadeusz Lampicki, a Polish lawyer, born into the nobility, in 1916.  They left Russia in 1918 and moved to Paris.  Tamara had many affairs, with both men and women.  She travelled to Italy a number of times and had a major exhibit in Milan in November 1925.  In 1928, she and Tadeusz divorced and Tamara began an affair with Baron Raoul Kuffner, a collector of her works, whom she later married.  

She travelled to the US in 1929, where she was a great success, exhibiting in the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh.  Tamara also exhibited in the Salon of Modern Women Artists in Paris from 1932-38.  Starting in 1932, she had symptoms of depression that would reoccur throughout her life.  In 1939, she and her husband moved to the United States.  She had a number of successful exhibits in the 1940s and again in the mid 1970s, when she was rediscovered as a protagonist of the Art Deco movement.  Baron Kuffner died in 1961 on a boat returning to the US from Europe (Tamara had flown back to New York City). Tamara died in Mexico in 1980.  

There was one room of the exhibit dealing with her relationship with the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio.  They had met at her 1925 exhibit in Milan.  As an ambitious thirty year old, she wanted to paint his portrait.  He, at 60, was interested in seducing her.  According to the exhibit, she turned him down.

The show at the Pinacotheque was excellent.  It was curated by Gioia Mori, a renowed specialist of Tamara de Lempicka.  Ms. Mori describes Tamara as decorative, international and modern, the characteristics of the Art Deco movement that began in the 1920s.  A fascinating woman, a pioneer, and a self-promoter.

Portrait of Prince Eristoff 1925 (shown at first solo show in Milan)

Irene and her Sister (1925)  These were the artist's cousins

Portrait of Baron Kuffner 1928

Portrait of Louisanne Kuffner 1940 (daughter of Baron Kuffner  who was born in 1925 and lived until 2009)

Portrait of Kizette Adult I 1955 (Tamara would visit her daughter Kizette who lived in Houston once a year)

Young Girl with Pansies 1945 (after Girl with a Pearl Earring (Vermeer 1665)

Saint-Moritz 1929

Cover of Die Dame 1929

The Blue Scarf 1930 (liked by the critics- picture of a modern women, wearing a beret, in the manner of Lempicka's favourite actresses, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo

Leaning Nude 1925 (not shown since the 1925 exhibit)

Portrait of Arlette Boucard 1928  (12 year old daughter of Doctor Pierre Boucard,
one of  the richest men in France at that time (owner of a pharmaceutical company)

Tamara modelling (all part of her image creation)

We next stopped at Galeries Lafayette.  The department store is not usually open on Sundays but this was an "exceptionale" opening of many stores today, as it was the first Sunday after the official sales started on Wednesday.  It was crazy busy, so we didn't spend much time there.  However, the ceiling and balconies were amazing.  The whole of Paris was out today either shopping or hanging out in the cafes.

Ceiling at Galeries Lafayette

We walked back into the Marais and stopped at La Terrasse des Archives on Rue Archives.  We sat outside and Shirley had a beer and Alain and I had mojitos, which seem to be very big in Paris.

Alain with his Mojito

Toby with her Mojito

We walked back across the Seine to our ancient street. 

Shirley walking up Rue de Bievre

We had appetizers and a delicious steak dinner cooked by Shirley.  We were finishing our dinner at 10:00 p.m. and it was still light out.  Shirley leaves very early tomorrow morning.  It will be our last full day in Paris.