Author Archives: Trudy

Académie de la Grande Chaumière

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Day 88,  Friday, November 24, 2023.

Rodin’s statue of Balzac is just a couple of blocks from the Académie de la Chaumiere. I wanted to take a photo of this famous statue but I kept forgetting, so I planned on doing it today. Wouldn’t you know it…there are workmen putting scaffolding up and most of the statue is hidden! Guess I’ll have to return one day to take this photo!  I stopped at an art store nearby to get some conté crayons for a friend but they had almost none left!  Darn, there was a good supply when I checked in September.  I guess I should have bought them then.
My favourite spot for drawing, when I get here early enough to claim it, is in the second row on the left side of the room.  You can see the stool I use for a little side table with my blue cup and some of my drawing pencils beside my chair. I also come early so that I can snag one of the two available chairs… they are so much more comfortable than the stools.  Kamelia, the young woman with the long red hair is our lovely model today.These stairs have been worn by countless footsteps, by countless artists over the years since the Académie opened in 1904.  I hope they never renovate and repair these step… I love seeing traces of those who have come before.The bulletin board by the front door lists all the life drawing drop in sessions.  When I was here in 2014 there were more sessions offered, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays there were two sessions back to back…one at noon and one at three o’clock.  I liked attending those days and really enjoyed spending most of the day drawing.  The sessions were also longer, 2 3/4 hours compared to  2 1/2 hours.  The sessions I attend back home are 3 hours long with one 15 minute break…2 1/2 hours flies by very quickly, especially with two 15 minute breaks for the model.  I was told that the hours changed after Covid which is too bad, but hey, I am still drawing in Paris!

Two 10 minute and a 20 minute pose

Three 5 minute poses

A 30 minute pose

And my favourite drawing of the day, the final 30 minute pose.Bob did a bit of exploring today but it was a cool day and he didn’t take very many photos. The Pont Alexandre III is considered the most beautiful bridge in Paris. The glass domed building is the Grand Palais. It was built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition and houses many of Paris’s large scale exhibitions and events.  I haven’t been inside yet, and I don’t suppose we will have time this trip…another trip to Paris is definitely in order!

This sculptural sign is counting down the days until the Paris Olympics…Only 278 more days to go.

We both arrive home about the same time, make dinner and have a quiet evening.  Our trip is coming to its end, we leave for home in just three days!

Musée D’Orsay

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Day 87,  Thursday, November 23, 2023

Today is dedicated to the Musée D’Orsay, one of my favourite museums in Paris. It is in the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens. The museum is in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. So the building itself could be considered as the first “work of art” in the Musee d’Orsay, which displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914. There is a wonderful temporary Vincent Van Gogh exhibit that we really want to see, so we reserved a 12:00 time to enter the exhibit.  That was a wise move as the lineup without reservations is very long, and people are waiting for up to two hours to see the exhibit!  My friend, Ivy,  also told me about the Louis Janmot exhibit which she really loved, so I’m looking forward to seeing that too.

The Musée d’Orsay is a beautiful building, with two enormous clocks. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and  post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Berthe Morisot, Edouard Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gaugin and Van Gogh.

I think this is my fourth time visiting this fabulous museum and it is wonderful to revisit many of these paintings. There is always something new to notice and appreciate on return visits.  We are a bit early for our entry into the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit so we browse a bit. Here are a few of the main floor paintings.

The Gleaners (1857) by Jean-François Millet

I didn’t remember seeing this painting before, Goustav Courbet’s ‘The Cliff at Etretat After the Storm’,1870 but it caught my eye.  We visited this exact location on the north shore of France earlier in our trip.  I sat and drew this very same cliff!

Goustav Courbet’s, The Origin of the World was daring when it was exhibited in1866 and still draws a crowd and lots of interesting comments. 

At noon we enter the Van Gogh exhibit.

“This exhibition is the first to be devoted to the works produced by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) during the last two months of his life, in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. Vincent Van Gogh arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise on May 20th 1890 and died there on July 29th following a suicide attempt. Although the painter only spent a little over two months in Auvers, the period was one of artistic renewal with its own style and development, marked by the psychic tension resulting from his new situation as well as by some of his greatest masterpieces.”  ~Musée d’Orsay website

I found this 12 minute video that has a walk through the exhibition…It takes me right back to our visit.  https://youtu.be/ntW7zadEEl4?si=aXna2cxoHvPw4lr-

Although I knew some of the paintings on exhibit here there were many new ones to discover. Here are some landscapes….

village and farm buildings….

Oh, did I mention that it was very crowded!  Bob kindly sat and waited for me when I needed a bit more time than he did to view the paintings.

In just two months, Vincent Van Gogh produced 74 paintings and 33 drawings.   The exhibition here highlights 40 paintings and 20 drawings.

Drawings of peasants working in the fields.1890

The church at Auvers-sur-Oise  

There were several of Vincent’s sketchbooks on view.  How I wished I could have held these in my hands, turned the pages and explored their contents.

One room held thirteen ‘double square’ paintings which I thought were particularly intriguing.  These paintings were produced in just over a month right before the artist’s death. I have included a close up shot to show the brushwork with each of these.  

I recognized ‘Wheatfield With Crows’ but it was much more impactful in person. I also really appreciated that I was able to stand very close to all the works and really study the brushwork and details…no museum guards came to tell me not to stand so close!

It was crowded but I was able to take my time and spend enough time up close with each painting and drawing.  It was amazing to see so many of van Gogh’s paintings and drawings.

Next we visited the Louis Janmot Exhibit.  It was not nearly as crowded but it was a  wonderful exhibit as well.   I was not familiar with this artist until my friend Ivy told me about this exhibit yesterday when we went for coffee after life drawing.

‘The Poem of the Soul’ is the great life-long project of the artist Louis Janmot in the 19th century. Begun in 1835 and completed in 1881, this ambitious work, consisting of 18 paintings and 16 drawings is accompanied by a poem of more than 2,000 verses. It recounts the journey of a soul on Earth.   This video explains the story behind all the works and walks the viewer through the exhibit.  It is in French but has English subtitles. It is long, almost 38 minutes but quite interesting.    https://youtu.be/yFImBcII72Y?si=oTBIhNgg6eqHP4eX

‘Nightmare’1849-50. The paintings were interesting, and well done but I was really intrigued with the drawings.

Details of some of the large charcoal drawings.  I loved them!

There were also studies that Janmot had made for his larger drawings.  These are particularly interesting as I can almost see the artist’s thinking and working process.

Study of a foot with interesting lighting.We decide it is time to find something to eat.  This restaurant is behind one of the Musées famous clocks but it is quite expensive and has a long line of people waiting for a table.  We do find a little cafeteria and we only have to wait about 15 minutes to get a table.  We are tired and hungry and it is so good to sit and rest for a while.  Museums are wonderful places to visit, but also very tiring.Refreshed, we head up to the top floor to see the permanent collection.  So many famous impressionist and post Impressionist paintings!  Cezanne’s ‘Still Life, Apples and Oranges’ and ‘The Card Players’, Berthe Morisot’s ‘The Cradle’ and ‘ The Dance Class’ by Edgar Degas

Gaugin’s ‘Tahiti Women’, Toulouse- Lautrec’s ‘The Clown Cha-U-Kao’, Van Gogh’s ‘Bedroom In Arles’, and an artist who I was not familiar with, Blanche Derousse’s ‘Two Little Girls’ which is a copy of Van Gogh painting.   VanGogh’s ‘Night Over the Rhone’.  We stood in the exact location where Vincent stood when he painted this. Check out the post here. http://Arles, France…Walking in Van Gogh’s Footsteps

I have always loved Degas’ ‘Little Dancer’ and was pleased to have another visit with her.

I am happy to see Renoir’s ‘Dance at the Moulin de la Galette’ once more…

and of course Edouard Manet’s ‘Luncheon on the Grass’, which caused quite a scandal when it was first exhibited. A nude woman casually lunching with fully dressed men was an affront to audiences’ sense of propriety at the time.  

We peek out a window at the museum and discover that it is pouring rain. We can see the ferris wheel set up in the gardens just outside of the Louvre, across the Seine river.

A view of the main floor of the museum. It is time to go home.  We have been here for over seven hours, and we still didn’t manage to see everything!  I guess we will have to return to Paris someday for another visit.

Académie De La Grande Chaumière and Les Invalides

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Day 86,  Wednesday, November 22, 2023

I have a life drawing session at L’Académie de la Grande Chaumiere and Bob sets off to explore a bit more of Paris.

Today he visits Les Invalides, which was built in 1670 by Louis XIV in order to provide housing and hospital care for wounded soldiers. Today it is a museum, a monument, a mausoleum that contains the tomb of Napoleon and a hospital for war veterans.

This was the tallest building in Paris before the Eiffel Tower was built.  Napoleon’s tomb is located below this golden dome.

Les Invalides is enormous, and was once a city that housed over 4,00 inhabitants.  This arial view gives an idea of its size.

The huge central courtyard, which can be seen in the above photo houses a collection of cannons.This is one of the building entrances that face the central courtyard.  Les Invalides houses huge military museums with thousands of artifacts in its collection.  We visited inside on a previous trip.  It took a whole day to visit the numerous museums dedicated to all things military from ancient to modern times. Today Bob wanders outside, in the gardens and the courtyards.

I spent the afternoon at my beloved Académie de la Chaumiere drawing a lovely model named Inez.  These are five 3 minute poses and one 15 minute.

Three 5 minutes, the portrait was a bit longer but I forgot to mark the time.

Two 20 minute poses

And a 25 minute pose.

I had arranged to meet a friend that I met years ago during my month in Paris.  Ivy met me at the Académie, we drew together and then went for tea at a nearby café. The same café that I visited in 2014!  We had a lovely visit, catching up on the last nine years!
image Finally I headed home where Bob had supper waiting.  Quite a lovely day.

Le Mans, France

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Day 85,  Tuesday, November 21, 2023

We are taking the TGV High speed Train to Le Mans.The train station with all the tracks and overhead electric lines that power the trains.

This link to a short video which shows how fast the countryside was flying by.  The vehicles on the highway are going 130 km an hour and we fly past them!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wt-AzdJG54

We are travelling 282 km an hour!

I thought I should snap a photo of our train.We are in Le Mans.

Just one of the many beautiful buildings in Le Mans.

We decide to wander and see where we end up.  Notre Dame de la Couture dates mostly from the 12th century.

We were the only people visiting the church, which seems even larger inside than it did outside.

The pillars in the church are beautifully decorated.

We don’t really get tired of visiting all these magnificent old churches.  Each one has something different and interesting to see.

So many of the churches we have visited are undergoing restoration of some type, this one is no different.  I think if you are in the restoration business in France there is no shortage of work.

I loved this simple sculpture.

We sat in the sun with a view of the Cathédrale de Saint-Julien de Mans to enjoy our picnic lunch.

This cathedral was built between the eleventh and the fifteenth century in a mixture of architectural styles and has some of the oldest stained glass windows in France still in their original location.There are also many sculptures in this church that retain their original polychrome finish.  We are so used to seeing bare stone sculptures that it is easy to forget that many if not most sculptures were originally painted in realistic colours.  These are some of the most beautiful that we have seen on this trip.

This Madonna and Child was stunning, as were the other polychrome sculptures in this church.

Some of the buildings in town have started to decorate for Christmas.  This one was rather unique!

Another interesting old building…I wonder what the inside looks like? There are cobbled streets everywhere,

There aren’t many people out and about in the old town…we are the only people on the these streets.  It feels strange, like the place is abandoned.

The old town is on high ground and we walk over this road which somehow passes beneath us…a tunnel perhaps?

More very old buildings, but everything is closed…too bad.

We finally see a few other people!

Even this beautiful, ornate merry-go-round is closed!  I love riding merry-go-rides. Too bad I won’t be able to try this one out.

After much searching we find a Paul’s and have some hot chocolate and yummy pastries….only 22 euros, or $32.00 Canadian!!  At least it was all delicious.

We walked past this beautiful variegated holly bush which was very Christmassy on our way to find the Musée de Tessé.We have seen several tree sculptures in different towns by this artist, whose name I have forgotten!  I quite liked them all.

We find the Musée Tessé and are surprised that there is no admission fee.  It isn’t a big museum, but it is just the right size for an afternoon visit.  This museum opened in 1799, and is one of the oldest in France. It has a collection of French, Italian and Flemish paintings from the 14th to the 20th century and a unique space dedicated to ancient Egypt.  Each era has a room dedicated to that period with a nice selection of work…not too overwhelming which suits us well today.

I liked this little portrait by Théodore Gericault…

this tempera on wood painting of Saint Agathe from 1315…

and this terra cotta sculpture of Saint Antoine from the last half of the 17th century.

We make our way to the basement down several flights of stairs to discover an area which has the reconstructed tombs of Nefertari and Sennefer.  The photos with their light reflections do not do this area justice.  It really reminded us of our time in Egypt. We were able to visit the tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens.  This reconstruction is not the same as being in the real tomb but we really enjoyed seeing it all anyways.

These are canopic jars that contained the organs of’Ânkhouahibrê  that were removed from the body in the process of mummification: the lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach.

I thought these bird mummies were interesting.  I have seen cat mummies before but cannot remember seeing any bird mummies.

There are  bronze plaques of the ’24 Hours of Le Mans Race’ winning team’s hand prints set into the sidewalks of Le Mans.

All too soon it is time to catch the train back to Paris.  We didn’t have time to go visit the Le Mans Race museum as it was on the outskirts of town and it would have taken too long to go and visit, but we are happy with our day in Le Mans.

Catching the metro home…the station was very busy!  It has been full day and we are happy to be back home in our Paris apartment.

Life Drawing and Bob’s Paris

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Day 84,   Monday November 20, 2023

I want to attend as many life drawing sessions as I can these last few days in Paris.  I am still feeling quite tired after getting Covid the beginning of the month, so most days I am going to life drawing and then coming straight home.  I don’t have the energy for much else.

I am back at the Grande Chaumière again this afternoon.  Bob and I took the same metro.  I got off at the Vavin stop to go drawing and he continued towards the Place de la Concorde on the north side of the Seine River to do some more exploring.

The session is from 2:30 to 5:00 …only 2 1/2 hours, not the 3 hour sessions I am used to at home.  The time goes by much too quickly.  Today we have a wonderful model named Fanny.

Three 3 minute poses

I tried my Derwent Drawing sanguine pencil, but I didn’t like how it felt on the paper in this sketchbook.  Three 5 minute poses.

Fanny’s poses were naturally graceful.  Two 15 minute poses…

a  20 minute pose…

a 15 minute pose……and a final 30 minute pose.  Fanny was such a great model.  It was a good day!

While I was drawing, Bob explored the north shore near the Champs Élysées.  This photo shows the hoarding which looks like a giant trunk during renovation work on a Louis Vuitton building. How clever!  He saw a lot of the highlights in this area of Paris.

Bob checked out the Christmas tree in a Galeries Lafayette store.  I’m not sure I will have time to go see it for myself, so this photo might just have to do.

The 72′ tall golden tipped Luxor Obelisk on the Place de la Concorde was erected in 1829, on the very spot where Louis XVI was beheaded!  It has now become a symbol of peace and harmony.

The Fountain of Rivers is ornately decorated with mermaids and mermen.  

Jean Dubuffet’s Le Bel Costumé caught Bob’s eye in the Jardin des Tuileries.

This is a long street of shops near the Place Vendome…

with very expensive merchandise!

The original Vendôme Column at the centre of the square was erected by Napoleon I.  It was torn down on 16 May 1871, but it was subsequently re-erected and remains a prominent feature on the square today.

Too bad all these people who are lining up to get into the Louvre don’t know about the side door, where there is usually no line up at all!

The Roue de Paris is a 60-metre tall transportable Ferris wheel, originally installed on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, for the 2000 millennium celebrations. Too bad we didn’t have time to ride on it this trip, although it does look a bit scary.

The Pont Alexandre III is a bridge that spans the Seine in Paris.  The bridge is widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in the city.  It has been classified as a French historic monument since 1975.

We both arrive home in time to make dinner and relax.  Our days in Paris are fast drawing to a close.

Life drawing and Exploring Paris

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Day 83,   Sunday November 19, 2023

I have two life drawing sessions planned for today.  One at the Montmartre Life Drawing Studio in the afternoon and another at an artist’s studio from 5 to 7 pm this evening. Bob goes out exploring while I am drawing.  Today there is some sunshine, and no rain!

The Eiffel Tower is visible on the skyline.

This interesting exterior belongs to Stade Jean-Bouin. The 19,904 capacity stadium is used mostly for rugby, but is also used for American football and association football matches.

Pont Mirabeau was built at the very end of the 19th century and  is adorned with four bronze sculptures representing the City of Paris, Commerce, Navigation, and Abundance.

A clever shot through the tree branches.

Can you take too many photos of this iconic structure?  I don’t think so.I attended sessions with the Montmartre Life Drawing group in September so no problem finding their location even though I was coming from a different starting point.  The first thing I see when I leave the metro is this impressive statue in the centre of a traffic circle.

There is a flea market on the median.

There are lots of interesting items but I don’t have time for more than a quick look.

Next I cross a bridge that goes over the top of the Montmartre cemetery rather than cutting it in half… again no time to go exploring.  Life drawing awaits!  I later read that Nijinsky, Degas & Zola lie in this tree-lined burial ground that opened in 1825.

We have a male model for the afternoon, Guiseppé.  We start with five two minute poses

followed by three five minute and a 10 minute poseA 25 minute pose…

and a 15 minute one,

then we end the session with a couple 10 minute poses.  Guiseppé was an excellent model, and fun to draw.

During the break I was checking out Google maps to make sure I could find the second session and I discovered that I had no internet!  Panic!!  A very kind young lady lent me her phone so I could write down some instructions, but I was worried about being able to find the next life drawing location.  Luckily when I was ready to go to the evening session the internet was back!  I was very relieved that I didn’t have to rely on my hastily drawn map.

Life Drawing Montmartre posts on their Instagram page…Here I am!

Screenshot

The second session was at the photographer J R Franco’s studio/apartment.  These two photos are from his instagram site.  You can just barely see part of my knee and sketchbook in the bottom right corner of this one…

and the top of my grey head I this one.  

We started with two 5 and one 10 minute pose of our lovely female model…seems I forgot to note her name.  I like having that information in my sketchbook.

I loved this 13 minute pose, draped over a couch and chair with her torso hanging in the space between them

It was going to be a session with two models but the male model had to cancel at the last minute, so Jean Robert modelled for us. We started with two 5 minute poses. I concentrated on his face…he had an interesting face.

two 3 minute and one 5 minute pose.  Then we drew both models together in a 10 minute pose,

then one more 10 minute pose.

During the break we had goodies upstairs in a loft area and a tour of Franco’s studio which was also his apartment.

It was a wonderful, full day, and I head home in the dark, but the metro is close by and when I get home Bob has supper waiting!

Back at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere!

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Day 82,  Saturday, November 18, 2023

I am off to drawing this afternoon at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere.  This part of the subway system seems quite new and I don’t think it was operational when I was here in 2014.  I love the Paris metro system, it is easy to use and it is a great place if you like people watching, or drawing…and I like doing both!

I do remember to snap a quick photo during the break just before the model resumes her place on the stand. It is taken from my drawing spot today. I like sitting fairly near the front… I’m just one row back and a bit to the side.  

Four 5 minute, one 10, and one 20 minute pose

10, 20 and 35 minute poses

45 minute pose

While I was at life drawing Bob went exploring and walked far enough that he could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance.  It isn’t really the nicest day for a walk, wet and chilly, and he only took this one photo.

Paris

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Day 81,  Friday, November 17, 2023

We take the rental car back and then take the metro home. The nearest metro station to our bnb is about a 15 minute walk which isn’t too bad. There is artwork on the wall of a building right when we leave the station and… 

More artwork on the wall that runs along the metro line.

Bob decides to stay at home and I head back out to attend a life drawing class at the Academié de la Grande Chaumière.  I change lines at Montparnasse Station and it is very busy!  The metro stations are very well laid out, with lots of signs so they are actually very easy to navigate,

My one disappointment on this trip was how few life drawing sessions I was able to attend in the different cities that we visited.  Covid closed down some of them and they just never opened up again, and sometimes the days that there were sessions didn’t match up with the days that we were in a particular city, or for some reason there just wasn’t a session the  week that we were there.  Now that we are back in Paris I plan to attend as many sessions as I can in the next nine days.

I am a bit out of practice and and a bit tired…today’s drawings weren’t the best but it was still really good to be back at the Grande Chaumière.

Reims to Paris

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Day 80, Thursday, November 16, 2023

Today we drove to Pairs, in the rain!  This will be our last stop before we fly home.  It is a two and a half hour drive and we both just want to get to our next airbnb and get settled.  Sightseeing in the rain isn’t much fun.

There is no way I would want to be navigating using a paper map.  The roads can be very complex…like this interchange below.

We pass through several tunnels with lots of traffic. Bob does an excellent job following my navigational instructions, but I think we will both be quite happy to return our car tomorrow and use the metro to get around Paris.  

These two buildings, or maybe it is just one, looked so wonky.  Not sure why anyone wants a build a high rise that looks like it is falling over?  It is still pouring rain. but we are almost to our destination.

On our way to our bnb we passed a church with four angels high on its steeple.

I wasn’t able to find out the name of the church, but really liked the angels.

This lovely house with its beautiful fall colours was just down the street from our bnb.  

We parked on the street close to our apartment to unload but needed to move the car for the night.  As Bob pulled into the parking spot the car made a strange noise.  Upon investigation we realized that a rough curb had caught the side of the tire, tearing it and scraping the hubcap.  We return the car tomorrow morning…we almost made it the whole three months without any car issues….this little incident problem ended up costing us $500!

Our twelfth and last Airbnb on this trip.  It was difficult finding a place when we were booking last Spring.  Our apartment is very small, probably the smallest that we have had on this trip.  In the photos it actually looks a bit bigger than it is in person!  Not ideal for the end of our trip but it will do.

 

Reims Cathedral, Carnegie Library and the Saint Remi Museum

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January 1. 2024

I have thirteen days left of our holiday that I did not post on my blog.  I really want to get them finished so I’ll be working on them this month.

Day 79,  Wednesday, November 15, 2023

This is our last day in Reims and we catch the metro downtown.  Reims has a great metro system that is all above ground because of all the champagne galleries beneath the city.

First stop is Reims’ famous cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This cathedral is bigger than Notre Dame in Paris and has more than 2,300 statues on its facades, including a gallery of 56 kings.  All but seven of France’s kings were crowned at Reims.

Inside there are wonderful stained glass windows. There are the traditional rose windows but there are also several modern windows, including this set of three windows behind the altar that were designed by Marc Chagall.

This golden eagle makes me think of the Nazi eagle symbol…it seems out of place here.  A bit of research and I discover that the eagle is also the symbol of John the Evangelist.

The enormous pillars each have a candle holder with a red cross in a circle painted on the pillar.  I wasn’t able to find any information about this symbol, but I am curious about their meaning.

The front doors to the cathedral are enormous and they are flanked on either side by a wall of statues.

The second winged angel just to the right of the central statue is the Reims Cathedral’s famous Smiling Angel.  During WWI the cathedral was the target of German bombing. Struck by a beam of burning scaffolding, the angel was decapitated and its head broken into more than 20 pieces. It became a symbol of the suffering of the people of France, and its photo appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. A priest collected the 20 pieces of the head and with the help of a plaster cast of the statue kept in a museum, the angel was restored in 1926.

The cathedral was heavily damaged during the war and reconstruction appears to be an ongoing process…these statues look quite new.

Next stop is the Carnegie Library. The Carnegie Library of Reims is a public library built with money donated by businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to the city of Reims after World War I. It is built in an Art Nouveau style and is very beautiful.

The card catalogue is still on display.  I remember looking up books using this system and now it is all computerized!

What a gorgeous place to study.  There is even a monitor to make sure all is well.

It isn’t a big library.We are beginning to see some Christmas decorations.  This huge Christmas ornament is just outside the library.

Next we walk for about half an hour, in light rain, to see some restored tapestries in the Musée Saint Remi.  It is a large museum with many other exhibits besides the restored tapestries depicting the life of Saint Rémi.  The museum is in a former abbey and has a magnificent central staircase.

I adored the expression of this bird on a fragment of XII century sculpture.

We finally find the room with the tapestries and once again we are absolutely astounded at the size, complexity and beauty of these tapestries.

There are only three panels of the original ten that have been restored and returned to the museum. Here are the other two tapestries.They are very large!

Close up photos showing some details…

and here’s a couple more.

This large sculpture from 1500 was on one of the staircase landings.  I thought it was quite beautiful .

There was huge room full of model boats and other nautical items…

and rooms with amazing mosaic floors and Greek and Roman pottery.

This very ornately carved piece is a sarcophagus from 367 A.D.

One of the people working at the museum told us to make sure we saw the display about early Magdalenian people who lived at Lascaux.  I particularly liked these wonderfully constructed miniature models.  We had visited so many caves and learned about the people who lived during this time.

The simple entrance to the museum is deceiving.  There was more than we could see in the time we had there.  All too soon the museum was closing and we were ushered out.  Bob is checking Google Maps to figure out how we are going to get home.  Thanks heavens for Google maps…it certainly makes it so much easier to find our way around.

We walk past the enormous Saint Remi Basilica.

It seems to never end…

but we don’t get a chance to go inside as someone locks the entrance door just as we get near.  It is late anyways and time to head home.We saw starling murmurations as they were looking to settle down for the night.  It is such an amazing sight to see so many birds flying together.