Stay Forever? - Thursday, 7 November

Over the past few weeks I've been telling people that, given my next trip to Paris would be two days after the election, I would either have to miss all of the parties or figure out some way to just stay there.  I was kind of joking, of course, and as an introvert the prospect of missing parties (as I was pretty confident would be the case) wasn't really that bad.  

But now Trump's very-likely-emboldened pal Putin is probably salivating over the thought of annexing more of eastern Europe.  And can western Europe, including France, be far behind?  

No place is actually "safe," of course, and the prospect of uprooting one's life is pretty daunting.  For now I'll take it just a day at a time, enjoying unparalleled beauty in food, art, culture, environment, people, ....  

Just in case you're wondering about the weather, here ya go:

Tonight's Entertainment, Direct from Where?!? - Tuesday, 31 January

If you look back at my 19 January post, you'll see that I ran into one of my fellow Twin Cities Horn Club members Ingrid Welna, at the gate while waiting for my flight to Paris.  She was there with a gaggle of Gustavus Adolphus musicians, heading off on their tour to Spain and France!  (For those of you non-Minnesotans, Gustavus is a liberal arts college in Saint Peter, MN, about 70 miles south of Minneapolis).

Well, tonight I caught their concert at Salle Jacques-Higelin, part of the Marché Saint-Germain complex in the 6th arrondissement.  It was the last concert of their tour, so emotions were high and the performance was wonderful!  And I got to experience a venue I hadn't been aware of before.

And here's Ingrid, conducting one of the pieces on their program.

Lots of People Escaping the Snow! - Thursday, 19 January

Yup, it’s that time again. Time, that is, for the traditional blue cheese burger and a terrific Surly Imperial Ale (it was chocolately and sweet and deep - who needs dessert?) at Stone Arch before jetting off to Paris.  One doesn’t want to get too fancy too early! 

It was an entertaining morning - my Uber arrived early, at exactly the same time as my snow removal service, which blocked the alley.  So just a few minutes of chillin’ and then off to the airport without incident.  See ya later, snow!

Then I'm at the gate, and I hear someone call out, “Mariellen is that you?”  Lo and behold, fellow Twin Cities Horn Club member Ingrid Welna is on her way with a gaggle of Gustavus Adolphus musicians to Spain and France for their Wind Orchestra tour!  And my schedule is free for at least one of their performances in Paris!  They will be at the Madeleine on the 30th at 4:30 and at Salle Jacques-Higelin (new to me, in the 6th arr.) on the 31st at 7:30.   https://gustavus.edu/music/winds/gwo/touringschedule.php

I had been slightly annoyed that my flight is completely full, but knowing that a ton of the seats are occupied by young musicians makes it worth while!

Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Nielsen and a 19-Year-Old Phenom! - Friday, 30 September

Tonight, an Orchestre de Paris concert at the Philharmonie.  Paavo Järvi conducted them in Grieg’s Peer Gynt Prelude to Act I and Suite No.1, Nielsen’s Symphony No.2 (“The Four Temperaments”) and the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with 19-year-old Spanish phenom María Dueñas.  

The place was packed (I took this picture about 10 minutes before the downbeat).  As you can see, I was up in the nosebleed section!  (Search my blog for several other articles about this unusual building, which opened in 2015 - the first one is here: https://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-new-philharmonie-de-paris-imagined.html )

I haven’t heard the Grieg Prelude to Act I very often, and it was a wonderful surprise.  The principal viola really rocked the Hardanger fiddle style dance tune solo, complete with thumping and stomping!  Then the Suite No.1 was beautifully executed.  Audiences here don’t have any problem with applauding between movements, especially when they end loud!  But they also don’t seem to need to give standing ovations even though they clearly loved the performance.  I like this - in the U.S. we seem to stand for almost anything!

Next up, the Tchaikovsky concerto.  I haven’t heard of this 19-year-old violinist María Dueñas before, but apparently her awards, recordings and career are skyrocketing!  Read about her here:  https://www.mariaduenasviolin.com/en/bio   I thought her tone was a bit harsh in places in the first movement, and there were some attack and pitch slips, and a few balance problems.  But hey, she’s 19!!!  And that second movement - absolutely meltingly gorgeous, with wonderful dialogs with the wind soloists.  And the third movement, quite the romp!  She definitely has the technical skills.  After her first bows, two curtain calls, then an encore (sorry, I don’t know what it was, very bird-like and peaceful), then two more curtain calls.  And again no standing ovation.  

I brought my wrinkles
and double chin and all!

Then the Nielsen “Four Temperaments” Symphony No.2 (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine).  Loved it!  Really don’t hear this enough.  Wonderful themes, energy, moods, subtleties, lilting rhythms, performances.  Hey, Thomas Søndergård and the MN Orchestra, how about programming this soon?!?  It should be right in your wheelhouse!

Upon arriving home at 11:20 (traffic is always bad in Paris!), my driver had to drop me at the corner because the street was barricaded and a fire truck was right in front of my building.  They were just packing up their hoses and gear, so I seem to have missed the main event!  I didn’t smell any smoke, so hopefully it was just a small fire somewhere.  The firemen wear shiny silver rounded helmets - love it!

Pionnières Creating Beauty and Doing What Needed to be Done - Thursday, 21 April

So this afternoon I headed down to the Musée du Luxembourg to see their recently-opened exhibit of works by Parisian female artists of the Roaring ‘20s - mostly paintings, but also works of sculpture, architecture, literature and design.  

As you entered the exhibit you encountered videos from the late 19-teens of women performing what were formerly men’s jobs before they went off to war - in factories, on railroads and trams, on roadways (including devising fulcrums and levers to get trucks out of muddy ruts), assembling and packing munitions, sweeping chimneys, lighting streetlamps, etc. - many of the snippets were quite amusing.  

Another video presentation, though, was the most affecting for me - you saw women artists and craftspersons creating masks for soldiers who lost parts of their faces in WW1 - measuring the portions of the faces that should be covered, forming the masks, fitting them, painting them to look realistic, calculating and attaching straps that allowed the masks to stay in place without being too obvious, all while obviously interacting with the wounded men in a very caring and sensitive manner.  It was moving and heartwarming and inspiring.

Ya, the artwork was great (although there were a few too many nudes for my taste), but the video glimpses into the century-ago world of clever and hard-working women at work was most rewarding.  

https://museeduluxembourg.fr/en/agenda/evenement/pionnieres

I took a walk in the gardens after viewing the exhibit.  The spring bulb flowers have gone kinda wild and are on their last legs, but they’re still beautiful. Perhaps a lesson for us all!

Accommodation, Unexpected Holiday, Cheap Entertainment - Monday, 18 April

Well, I finally gave in.  I decided that it wasn’t worth wearing out my wobbly legs on the LONG trek from the arrival gate to the shuttle train, through passport control, and down to baggage claim, so I booked the wheelchair service.  (Besides, I didn’t want to run into the airport employee who upbraided me last fall - see this post: http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2021/09/airport-taxi-real-estate-and-roof-guys.html ).  As my “driver” and I were zipping down the handicapped aisle next to the massive zig-zag line at passport control, I saw a sign that said “average wait: 45 minutes.”  Yikes.  People are traveling again.  And “accommodation” is my new byword!

The owner of the apartment I’m renting recommended a car service for transport into town.  I thought I’d give it a try it since it was about the same cost as a taxi service or Uber when buying the round trip version from them, and the driver would be at the terminal exit waiting for me.  Thanks to my speedy ride through passport control, I arrived in the reception hall before my driver did - no worries, though - I just gave the service a call.  There was a long walk to the car, much longer than to the taxi stand.  But the ride was nice and smooth!  Surprisingly, the traffic was the lightest I’ve seen - it turns out that today was a national holiday.  What???  They were celebrating the midnight ride of Paul Revere???  Nope.  Apparently, back in the Middle Ages the eight days following Easter were called the “Octave of Easter” and were celebrated in the Catholic Church with daily Masses and time off work to make pilgrimages.  Only Easter Monday remains from that tradition, with most small shops closed (but bars and cafés open, thankfully!), and hence much less traffic on the big highways. 

Paris treated me to a spectacular blue sky and about 60 degrees when I arrived.  The apartment manager showed me how to use all of the appliances and equipment and WiFi, and just before he left he said “of course you have everything on rue Montorgueil” (just 1/2 block away).  Yup!  It’s my favorite street in Paris - three blocks of bakery next to wine shop next to vegetable stand next to fish/seafood market next to butcher next to florist next to cheesemonger next to olive oil purveyor next to foie gras and preserved food vendor next to chocolatier next to café next to supermarket next to Italian deli next to tea merchant next to pharmacy – you get the picture! Pâtisserie Stohrer, a spectacular bakery established in 1730, is just a few steps from my front door.  E. Dehillerin, my favorite cookware shop, is just a few blocks away and A. Simon, a great porcelain shop, is even closer.  G.Detou is the place for chefs and bakers to go for flours, oils, chocolates, dried fruits, mustards, preserved fish and poultry, gelatins, candied flowers, vinegars, honeys, nuts, etc.  I recently read that Paris passed a "Local Urbanism Plan" law in 2006 to give zoning protection to historic streets like rue Montorgueil - ground-floor artisanal shops can be replaced only by other artisanal shops (so no Monoprix or McDonald's!), thank goodness!  Hopefully this will preserve the street's charm for many years to come.

BTW, this is the apartment I've rented for this trip:    https://www.vacationinparis.com/listing/79/vieux-paris-one-bedroom

The apartment manager warned me about pickpockets - apparently they’re more prevalent since Covid, as is crime in general due to anxiety and genuine hardship.  And I noticed much more graffiti than before, mostly in the second “ring” of arrondissements.  Sad. 

But today was a glorious day.  And you don’t have to go far for entertainment!  Since it’s a public holiday, everyone is out and about - just sit at a table on the terrace of a rue Montorgueil café and watch the world go by!  In my half-hour enjoying a Grimbergen I saw kids, parents, locals, tourists, bicycle food delivery guys, flâneurs, ice cream cone eaters, crêpe and galette eaters, every nationality and color of the rainbow, old folks with canes, apparent models (female and male), gaggles of teens, fancy athletic wear, casual wear, bare arms, sweats, scooters, plain & fancy scarves, backpacks, tiny purses, fanny packs, strollers, skateboarders, bikers, big dogs, tiny dogs, fat guys, muscle guys, phone-focused people, find-an-available-café-chair-focused people, queues for pastries, very few masks, long dresses, very short dresses, smokers, vaperers, blazers, waiters scanning their tables, dresses with boots and ankle socks, a couple taxis, dark clothing (black, blue, khaki), jeans, stretch pants, shorts and leggings, a family mom pushing the baby in a stroller and dad holding the toddler on his shoulders while pushing a child’s blue bike (unfortunately, I couldn’t grab my camera in time to catch the charming scene), a guy muttering to himself and looking vacant, Muslim head scarfs and dresses, pigeons, French sailor shirts, a guy on a hover wheel, rolling luggage, shopping roller bags, neon sneakers, people having phone conversations on wireless earbuds (it still surprises me to see someone talking to the air!).  See, you would fit right in!  The little kids in strollers and on shoulders and toddling along were especially curious about everything around them - I enjoyed making eye contact with several of them!  And I just sat there, watching the whole circus while trying to not bring down the average attractiveness of the participants!

And later, a little restorative before heading back to the apartment!

A Dark and Stormy “White Night” - Saturday, 2 October

Well, it was a dark and stormy night for the 20th annual “La Nuit Blanche à Paris,” which also happened to coincide with the launch of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad.  

La Nuit Blanche, held the first Saturday of October each year all over Paris, incorporates concerts, art installations, dance, exhibitions, staged scenes, video shows, neon light shows, disco-rollerblading (I kid you not!), etc. - mostly performing events but some participatory ones - from both French and international artists.  It was canceled last year due to the pandemic and apparently was a bit underfunded this year, yielding more video productions of performances than actual live performances.  Still, about 200 artists registered for the event.  It’s an all-night festival - the buses and Métro run through the night and some streets are closed.  

Sad to say, after a week of glorious sunny and warm weather, it drizzled all day today, started raining more heavily tonight, the wind picked up, and the temperature was in the low 50s F.  I had thought about venturing out to see something - there were some dance/orchestral events scheduled for Place de l'Hotel de Ville just a few blocks from my apartment, but I wimped out.  A sad response for a Duluth native - what happened to that old Nordic toughness?!?  In any case, I read that some events were canceled at the last minute.  Hey, I wouldn’t have wanted to be out performing in those conditions either!

https://quefaire.paris.fr/nuitblanche

What's Happenin' in Town - Thursday, 19 September

So, back in the day my favorite thing to do upon arrival was to pick up a copy of the weekly "pariscope" magazine - usually about 180 pages of in small fonts on light newsprint that listed all of the "stuff" going on in town for the week (published every Tuesday) - resto news, theatre listings, movies, special art exhibitions, music of all kinds, festivals, industry shows, events for children, etc. etc. etc.  I would grab one at the airport and start planning my entertainment on the journey into town.  For a while it even had an English-language section.

When it went out of publication a couple years ago, another similar magazine called "l'officiel des spectacles" picked up the slack with a similarly formatted weekly.  Today I didn't even see that at the neighborhood newsstand (perhaps they were just out of stock).  Happily, you can find articles, listings, photos, etc. on their website:  https://www.offi.fr/

Today I didn't even see l'officiel des spectacles at the neighborhood newsstand, but I did find a new monthly color glossy called "Arts in the City."

It's a little hard to tell from this photo, but the descriptions are mostly in French with an English synopsis just below the green separator line.  (Click on the photo to get a larger view.)  Lots of fun stuff in this month's 135 pages!  And it's only 3.9 euros - do yourself a favor and pick up a copy!

La Seine Musicale - Far Out! - Friday, 5 October

The concert hall is in the round bubble
in the center of the picture

The ring corridor inside the
concert hall "bubble",
looking outward

My Friday night adventure was checking out the newest concert venue in Paris, La Seine Musicale. It opened about a year ago, and features a concert hall primarily for unamplified music (mostly classical and jazz) seating 1,150, plus a larger modular hall accommodating 6,000 where rock and popular/musicals/dance are performed and other events are held.  It’s in the far western suburbs of Paris, in the middle of the Île Seguin in the middle of the Seine, in an area called Boulogne-Billancourt, about 5 miles downstream from the Eiffel Tower.  The Pont de Sèvres terminus of Metro line 9 is just a few blocks away on one side of the river, as is the RATP line 2 Brimborion Station on the other side of the river.  Of course, taxis and Uber also serve the area, but it’s a long way from central Paris so it's pretty pricey, especially during rush hour (ask me how I know!).

I hadn’t been there yet, so I just had to check out a concert by Patricia Petibon, a coloratura soprano who specializes in baroque, Mozart, etc., but who also takes on modern and opéra-comique work with her unique theatrical and almost cartoonish (at times) style.

Inside the concert hall

La Seine Musicale has a modern industrial feel – lots of concrete and a bit of glass – very sterile in the corridors, bars, restrooms, etc. – it felt like they could hose down the place pretty easily!  The concert hall’s wood and red upholstery has a much warmer feel, but it’s at the other end of the facility from the entrance, so the journey there is through the concrete jungle.  It’s in a big dramatic glass, steel and wood bubble which I’m guessing provides acoustic separation from the rest of the facility (as the ring corridor does at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis).

Apparently this was a concert to celebrate the release of Ms. Petibon's new album, “Alchimia.”  She performed with two pianists and a violinist.  The performance was amplified and included some prerecorded tracks, looping, etc.  There were some original works, some jazz interpretations of classic works (such as Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro” done in both a straight style and a jazz style), some pieces just for piano and amplified violin, etc.  As I mentioned, Ms. Petibon has a very theatrical style – for the first few pieces the stage was quite dark and she had lights attached to her hands to amplify her dramatic sweeping arm movements.  It was a bit “over the top” for me, but then the songs were in French so I didn’t understand the lyrics, so the melodramatic effects might have been perfectly appropriate!  All the performers displayed excellent technique, but the style just wasn’t my cup of tea so it got tiring.  I’m glad I went to check out the place, though.

The entrance plaza, with multiple
outdoor cafes

They have a restaurant, a café, and several bars on the premises.  Since I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get there and figure out the venue, I decided to have a light supper in the outdoor café.  Nothing fancy, so the bill came to just 32 euros (about $40).

The Whole Evening was a Gift - Schubert Monday, 1 October

So tonight it was some Schubert!  At Theatre des Bouffes du Nord, none the less!

But it almost wasn’t, for me anyway.  When I bought my ticket a couple months ago the concert was already almost sold out.  But I nabbed a seat I thought would work up a few steps from the floor in row G.  Little did I know how treacherous those steps were, or that there was a big post blocking my way.  Ya had to be skinny and nimble to reach it.  Neither are words that describe me!

The nice usher suggested that I wait until everyone was seated, then he convinced a row of people to squish together to make room for me on the aisle of row C.  I couldn’t have picked a better seat if I tried.  What a gift.

The first half was Schubert string quartet #15.  Then, “Death and the Maiden,” #14!

Quartet Van Kuijk is VERY good.  And the guys are very cute!  Just wow.

And Schubert!  The spectacular beauty, the power, the humor, the melodies, the complexity, the material for collaboration, the craft, his almost frightening ability to control one’s breathing, ....  One of a kind.

The crowd went wild.  Multiple curtain calls.  Euro-clapping.  Then we got an encore of Poulenc’s “Les Chemins de l'amour” arranged for string quartet. Sweet!  Two more curtain calls before we were sent out into the balmy evening.  Aaahhhhh.  Life is good!

Street Scenes and Other Fun Stuff - C'est la Vie! - Wednesday, 2 November

It’s a wrap for this trip! Just a few more photos and brief explanations….

The sculpture “Écoute” (“Listen,” or as I like to call it, Big Giant Head) sits just outside Église Saint-Eustache a few blocks from the apartment, and it’s been a favorite of mine since my first solo trip to Paris in 1989 when I stayed in the cute little Hotel Tonic on rue du Roule. There are always little kids climbing all over it – into the hand, then up on the nose, then to the eyebrows, then to the top. No soft landings on nice grass if you tumble – the sculpture has always sat on stone pavement. I wonder how many arms have been broken there over the years!

Fashion!  I wish I had been quicker with my camera to get a better picture of this woman’s outfit – the skirt had pieces of fabric of various shapes and sizes sown onto a few petticoats.  And the fake fur shawl! And the hat!  And the boots! Loved it!

Checking out the architecture? Contemplating profound truths? Wondering how soon I’ll be in a café with a decent … um … water closet?

A little silverware sculpture for all of my bass player friends!

The late-night crowd on our street – it’s a lively part of town, and the partying often continues until about 2 am!

A new vehicle for the conveyance of packages – trucks get stuck in massive traffic jams, and this thing could slip between lanes. Have nerves of steel? You too might be able to get a job like this!

There are specialty shops for everything, including rodent traps. Here’s one that displays taxidermied rats caught at Les Halles in the 1920s in its window. Charming. But there’s no doubt what kind of store it is! (The building across the street is reflected in the top portion of this photo.)

How I spend half my day, it seems, at least when I’m not in a café watching the world go by! But since my legs can’t handle a lot of walking, and since technology allows me to work anywhere, I really don’t mind spending time in the apartment writing blog entries, reading emails & Facebook & news articles (given my hand-on-hip posture here, I’m probably reading an irritating article about a certain Presidential candidate!), doing work for various nonprofits I’m involved with, etc. And back in my pre-retirement years I was even known for participating in the occasional work conference call via Skype. Of course, my habits can be a bit irritating to my travel companions!

Driving through the northern part of Paris in an Uber one night, we saw lots of little tents and groups of people standing around. These were likely migrants who had shifted from Calais to Paris, according to this NY Times article (photo from the article). So sad:  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/world/europe/paris-migrants-refugees.html?emc=edit_th_20161104&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=25767547

The weather was great the whole 10 days – this might be a record – just short spurts of drizzle a couple days. I did carry an umbrella in my purse the whole time, so I’m sure that that’s what kept it sunny for everyone! It was in the 60s F. most days.  (P.S. the forecast for the week after we returned is highs in the 50s F. and rain most days!)

This was the scene walking home from Maison Eric Kayser with our morning baguette and croissants one day. C'est la vie!

Dining, Duttilleux and Dance at the Philharmonie - Monday, 24 October

me & my baguette outside of my
favorite Boulangerie Eric Kayser

After a day of bumming around the 'hood and picking up a few provisions, we headed up to the Philharmonie de Paris in the far northeast corner of Paris, designed by architect Jean Nouvel at a mere €534 million (which was about  €173 million over budget - yikes!) for dinner in their resto "Le Balcon" and then a concert of Henri Duttilleux' music. It's the 100th anniversary of Duttilleux' birth, and there are concerts honoring him all over France this year.

the view from my seat

Sure glad I sat in the back row
 of my balcony section -
these are steep steps
with no railing!

The Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire performed four of his works in this one-hour program, accompanied by modern dance from the Centre national de danse contemporaine and some abstract scenic and floating-watery-color type projections on a white scrim behind the dancers. The music was modern/abstract with fascinating tone colors, long arching lines, some haunting and some peaceful soundscapes punctuated by percussion and other rhythmic elements. At times there was almost too much to observe - the music, solos within the orchestra, the dance, the projections, the background of the hall - all vied for my attention. It was all movement and color, as is the hall itself! A cimbalom was used in two of the pieces; perhaps not so unusual, you might say, but I've heard it played in person only twice in my life and the other time was one week ago at a MN Orchestra concert!

Our pre-concert dinner at Le Balcon was surprisingly tasty - not top tier gourmet stuff but not bad! For an appetizer we shared sautéed forest mushrooms served over a bed of warm mushroom mousse; Barb had cod, and I had pork, both with appropriate accompaniments. The chairs and tables, which repeated shapes used on the exterior and floors of the building, were almost as amusing as the food!

a haunting image!  (actually just a reflection in the window at Le Balcon)

Departing the mother ship.....