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.