Perambulating Paris

Shane and his E3.00 bottle of Wine

G'day Possums,

Mrs Wombat and I went for an early wander on Sunday morning.
We were looking for a supermarket and came across much in the way of Art Nouveau architecture down side streets but particularly along the Rue Montparnasse where the names of the entrepreneurs as well as the architects are carved in low relief into the facades.
A practice probably indicating pride in their buildings and aesthetic and one which should be implemented in Melbourne but only so we can know who to blame!

Rue Montparnasse

off Rue Montparnasse, Rue Compagne Premier

Then as you'd expect, in a working city noted for its fashion, food, architecture and art it's quite normal to come across a fashion shoot combing all of these elements in one.

Fashion shoot models, Rue Raspail.

The models, the clothes, the architecture, La Rotonde, and Rodin's Honore de Balzac....ehhh, what more could you want at 08.00 on a Sunday morning?
 We then ambled down to the Luxembourg Gardens to find squadrons of children on Shetland ponies, Tai Chi aficionados, marathon men and women, Yoga devotees and and a Renoir-esque scene of parents having fun with boats.

1. 

   Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Palace

We had passed the Arab Institute building on our way and you couldn't but help notice that the decorative frieze along the bottom of the building facsimiled many works that recently have been deliberately destroyed by bogans of the self styled Islamic State in a pathological display of narcissism.

Arab Institute

Which is an act in stark contrast to the four or five young people we happened upon in the gardens on our return journey. With easels set with known art-works and one original they, off their own bat, were engaging passers-by to discuss the works in any terms as a means of promoting art and an understanding of it. It was a sort of altruistic, non-didactic performance art of a very social order.

big man little bike

electric car re-charge point

The above pic showing a forward thinking attitude that unfortunately would be foreign to the ruling rabble in Oz.

Maillol with attendants

The Tuileries  Gardens were pretty crowded too with many cavorting in tableau vivant style and so we meandered till

Tableau Vivant

 we found a little hole-in-the-wall type restaurant and had some lunch, slaked our thirsts and rested our feet .
 

Pizza in Paris

Shakespeare and Company was nearby and having had no luck at the book-stalls along the Seine popped in out of curiosity expecting to find what I was after,

Shakespeare and Company

only to be not only mistaken as to the extensiveness of the stock but also surprised by the apparent "branding" that has commodified a bookshop into a tourist attraction and seemingly little else.  There was a loud Septic Tank on the desk proclaiming that he "....had all the time in the world.." for some reason (perhaps a "performance" piece?) and a sign which said NO PHOTOGRAPHY and much of what you'd find any where else.
I suppose the creative and nebulous circumstances which coalesce into making a business have a frisson of life can't be manufactured. The elements , as in a play,  have all to exist in their appropriate order and be quietly recognised for their worth at the appropriate time by all participants for the "thing" to work. It's the difference between real experience and a theme park re-creation.

BAD PUN

C12th Pigeon, Cluny Museum

for K.

Famiglia Italian.

The last stop on our perambulation was the Atelier Zadkine,  a few hundred metres from the present burrow.Ossip Zadkine for a short time mentored the man who taught me sculpture so the visit there was in the vein of a pilgrimage.

Ossip Zadkine

....and I'll finish this little tome off with some night shots....

Port Royal

Rue D'Assas

Rue D'Assas

"Bullier"

...and another for H and D to note: "C'est Mon Plaisir" 150, Bv Du Montparnasse.

Highly recommended.

Hoo-roo petals,

Shane