The Weekend of November 1st

OK, I did it.  I confess.  I went back to the Salon du Chocolat on Saturday.  Without Maxine this time.  And had chocolate for lunch.  No real food until dinner at 8pm.

Dinner was nice though, as an experience more than a meal.  We wanted to take advantage of the extraordinarily good weather so we went over to Montmartre (it’s a high area in the city).  First stop was Sacre Coeur church.  It’s largely round.  Which is an odd way to see a church.  Mostly they’re made up of squares or rectangles, but not this one.  We’ve got a theory that it might have been built in the era where the Crusades influenced things, but don’t know.  Quick walk through the cathedral then walked a few blocks to Place du Tertre with open air restaurants and artists doing sketches.  Yup, classic France experience!  Had an OK meal – the service was slow and the food only OK.  But, it was nice to eat outside.  Afterwards we watched one of the artists do such a great job on his sketch of a couple that we’re thinking of coming back later in the trip to have him do ours.

Forgot to mention – Emmy started the day getting me introduced to Russians!  She and I went to the Avenue Foch park (technically a violation which we learned the day before when the park police chased us away…).  I get there and 2 dogs, neither on their leashes, come over to greet Emmy.  One owner was leaving so she let the dogs say hi, then left.  I followed the other dog and owners to the grass.  Turned out they were Russian, living in Paris.  They were both very friendly, spoke French fluently (and switched to Russian when they said something directly between themselves), and talked with me for 20 minutes while Emmy played with her newest Jack Russell terrier friend, Martha.  As the couple lived in Paris and were very happy to tolerate my stumbling French, I got a number of questions answered.  First, “it isn’t criminal” to take your dog to the grass at Avenue Foch, just against the rules.  They suggested the next time it happens we should apologize, leave, then come back.  That’s it.  Second, apparently it only snowed twice last winter, so I’m starting to have some optimism about the upcoming weather.  Third, there’s a dog play group that meets each evening between 8 and 8:30 and that Emmy was welcome to join in!  So, because of Emmy I spent time in Paris talking to Russians in French.

Sunday was eventful in a different way (no more chocolate visits despite the fact that the event went through today!).  The first Sunday of the month the museums are free, so I took advantage of the opportunity and went to the Musee D’Orsay.  Last time I’d been there was 14 years ago, and we were pretty much just off the plane.  I don’t remember a thing about that visit.  This time, much more.  And, here’s my short critique of some of the major artists:  Van Gogh – outlined everything, Renoir – something special in his paints that made them luminescent, Monet – gloomy colors, Matisse – bright childlike colors (liked his best), Picasso – crazy art.

The other interesting thing in looking at the paintings was that some were village or rural scenes.  Painted over 100 years ago.  I’m certain that some parts of France still look just like they did 100 years ago.  And I wondered if it is the same in the US???

The oil paints Van Gogh used in Starry Nights looked so fresh they glistened.  A cap stone to 4 hours at the museum.

Evening we went to our second “salon”.  Recall the first was last Sunday at Jim Haynes’s.  This was Patricia’s.  She was holding it at a Tibetan restaurant, so I had a picture of the Dali Lama staring at me while I ate. Patricia had about 20 people at her dinner.  She does a nice job of introducing everyone and has a speaker as part of her dinners.  Tibetan food was nothing special but we did meet a variety of people – an American who’s been living in Paris for almost 20 years, an Israeli performance artist, a Swedish visitor, an American doctor from our own neighborhood in Los Angeles who is a part-time Parisian coming to Paris twice a year for two months at a time.  It was an interesting group and we’ll go back when Patricia’s event is held in an apartment where it’s easier to mingle.