Tag Archives: People Watching

Scary Metro Ride Home

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Tonight coming home on the metro about 8:00 I had an rather unsettling experience.  I could hear someone speaking very loudly and than a series of loud bangs. Soon I see what it is all about, a very large, very upset man is walking through the metro cars yelling and slamming shut all the vents at the top of the windows.  He is either drunk or deranged, perhaps a bit of both, to judge from his appearance.  He is strangely dressed with all sorts of things tied into his hair and his pants appeared to have not much of a bottom in them, his bottom was quite visible.  To make matters worse he stepped into the area between me and the passengers facing me and almost fell on the lady beside me!

I was worried he was going to stay here, but he moved on, slamming more window vents. Everyone looked a bit upset, people were looking at each other with raised eyebrows or other facial expressions that clearly showed they did not like the situation.  A few minutes later he is walking back the way he came from, still slamming windows, as some people had opened them after he passed by.  This time no one reopened the windows!

He disappeared towards the back of the train and then a whole lot more people got on, so I figured he would not be able to make his way back to where I was sitting.   This is honestly the first time in Paris that I have felt uncomfortable, or worried about a situation.  In hindsight, I think the best thing to do would have been to get off the train and wait for the next one, but I was rather shocked by the situation and didn’t think of this until after it was all over.

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I did do some drawing on the metro today, but wasn’t able to do any after this incident.  I actually got a terrible headache, just the stress of it all I guess.

Then when I arrive at the metro station at the end of my street there are a whole lot of metro security and they are in a semi-circle around a man who is wearing an old jacket that says ‘Security’ on the back.  He has a very big muscular doberman and it appears that he wants to take the dog on the metro?  Not exactly sure, but the dog is wearing a muzzle and he is getting agitated, as is the man, who appears to be trying to explain something to the metro police.  The man ties the dog to the exit booth, so the metro people have to open a special gate so people don’t have to go through the booth.

I decide that I need to get home and shut the door on all this!  I even checked the internet to see if it is a full moon, but it isn’t, so can’t blame it on that.

There is a soccer match on tonight that Paris is playing in and they appear to be winning as there is a lot of cheering and noise periodically.  I couldn’t figure out what all the noise was about but when I went out to get a few groceries I saw a bunch of men standing outside and inside the cafe on the corner.  I go see what they are watching on TV,  turns put to be soccer, and I ask who is playing.  A man tells me, and says Paris was up by two points.  That was almost an hour ago and there is still lots of noise every now and then so I assume they are still in the lead.

Anyways… I attended two life drawing sessions today and then went for drinks with my two new friends and met a friend of theirs as well.  This gentleman is an American who came to visit Paris with his wife for three months and is still here, more than a decade later.  That seems to happen to people when they visit this city!

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Here are a few of my drawings from today.  The first model was older, probably at least my age, and very thin, so interesting to draw.

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I could see bones and musculature very clearly, so I concentrated on trying to sort those things out, especially in the neck and collarbone area, trying to sort out the shapes and shadows in this area.  They are over emphasized a bit in these drawings but I was concentrating on a study of bones and muscles.  This model was wonderful for that.

 

Our second model was rather voluptuous, so quite a contrast from the first session.

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Sorry for the long rant about the trip home, I think I just needed to talk about it.  Thanks for listening.

 

Sublime to Strange

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Earlier this trip I visited Giverny, so I really wanted to see Monet’s water lily paintings.  The metro stopped at the Concorde Station, which has walls covered with the text of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, one letter per tile, no punctuation or spacing between words.  I knew about this see this, but wasn’t sure where it was located, so it was a nice surprise to find it completely by accident.

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I headed off to the Orangerie today and although there was a bit of a line it only took about half an hour before I was inside.  I was going to have a cup of tea and a bite to eat before taking a look at everything but was surprised to find that there were no facilities here for eating, or even getting a tea or coffee, so I was out of luck.

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There was a special exhibit of Emile Bernard’s work so I headed there first.  No photographs allowed in here, but there were eight rooms of his work and it was an excellent collection.

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The permanent collection also featured Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Modigliani, Derain,  Laurencin, Rousseau, Utrillo and Soutine.  Unfortunately most of the Modigliani’s were not available for viewing today.  There was  a hallway full of Renoirs!

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Some of Picasso,s earlier works.  The Orangerie isn’t a huge place but it still took a while to see everything, and then I went to view Les Nymphéas.  No photos in here either.  I tried a sketch to get a feel of the size of these paintings but it wasn’t very successful, so I sneaked a photo from the entry to one of the two galleries. I am going to have to practice some architectural drawings, not having much success with them at all.

imageMonet designed these galleries himself and I couldn’t imagine these paintings  displayed any other way.  I knew they were huge works and I have a beautiful book at home with great close up views of the paintings but I was certainly not prepared for the impact of actually being in their presence.  There are seats in the centre of each gallery to sit and contemplate, and I certainly did that.  This a monumental work.  I could picture Monet painting these canvases, and there are so many layers of paint that the surface of the paintings are actually quite heavily textured.  Looking into the layers of paint was much like looking into the dark reflective waters of lily pond at Monet’s Giverny.

I planned on going to the Louvre for of a couple of hours but on the way there were a lot of people milling about near some big white tents.  So I went to see what it was all about.

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This is Fashion week in Paris, a very big event, and a fashion show had just ended.   The attendees were leaving and posing for photos.  There are photographers with huge lenses everywhere, it was rather chaotic and surreal.

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I have no idea who the lady in the black coat is, but she generated a lot of attention and was pretty much mobbed by professional looking  photographers who seemed very pleased to have taken photos of her.

There were the certainly lots of very beautiful people and then there were some rather strangely dressed people as well.

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And, perhaps one of the strangest of all!  He posed for a lot of pictures and seemed very pleased with himself.

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By the time the crowd was thinning out it was too late for the Louvre, so I found a cafe in the Jardin des Tuileries and ordered a salad and a pot of tea.

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It was good, but it was also 21€, which is thirty dollars Canadian!  Having my own little kitchen and preparing meals has certainly saved me some money!

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Stopped for one last photo on the way home beside one of the dozens of big tents erected for Fashion Week.

Académie de la Grande Chaumière

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I went to my first drop in life drawing session today at the Academié de la Grande Chaumière. The Academié was founded in 1902, and nothing much has changed in the studios since then, the original easels, stools and pot belly stove for warmth are still there.  No cameras allowed in Life drawing studios but I snapped this quickly before the class started.  I’ll take more the next time I am there.

imageIt was quite amazing to be drawing in this historical studio.  Modigliani, one of my favourite artists drew here often, who knows, maybe sitting on the same bench as I was.  The benches and stools are terribly hard on the bottom, perhaps I need a little pillow! Unfortunately the model was quite uninspiring. She was nice enough but had no energy and quite boring poses.  Quite a few people left halfway through so I am hoping this is unusual; but you know it didn’t really matter, it was still a great afternoon.  I’ll post pictures tomorrow as I need daylight to take the best photos of drawings.  They are a bit hard to photograph, scanning works much better, but alas, no scanner.

Thanks to my dear friend Christine, I now know how to access the French key board and add accents. I didn’t know that they do not use the same letter arrangement on their keyboard as we do. Good thing I don’t have to use a French computer, way too many typos would be happening.

I love people watching here, and wish I had a camera built into my glasses so that I could snap pictures of the interesting people I see!  I took this one of a lady dressed all in red through the Metro train window after I got off, and she looked up just after I snapped the photo; our eyes met and she smiled.

imageThis fellow was practicing his skills beside my neighbourhood skate park.  I stop there every night on the way home to watch for a while.  I love the way the older boarders encourage the little ones, and some of them are very little, maybe five or six years old.  There is also a protocol for whose turn it is next and there is a lot of encouragement and congratulations given when someone pulls off a good trick, even for the little ones.  I am starting to recognize the regulars and I hope they are getting used to me watching as I would like to sit and draw them one day.

imageSkateboarding is very popular here, and it is quite common to see a boarder or two, or three, flying down a hill in the middle of the road with all the cars!  All ages too, even some grey haired oldies.

imageI went to the Louvre for a couple of hours before I went to life drawing, but only did one very mediocre drawing of a sculpture.  I think it will take a couple of times to feel comfortable drawing here, and to figure out the best places to sit. There aren’t too many benches or chairs placed in good positions for viewing pieces for drawing, and the marble floors are very hard.  Hmmmm, maybe I really do need a little pillow?

I saw this window display yesterday.  anyone want to buy a machine gun, or maybe a hand grenade?  Certainly not something I would ever see back home!

imageThe sun was shining on my apartment building when I came home. I am on the fourth floor, (called the 3rd here).  It is the apartment with two flower boxes on the windows, two stories above the top of the truck. Take note of the graffiti on the delivery truck, a very common sight.

imageI was really tired coming home tonight.  I do love the Metro, most of the trains arrive every three or four minutes and quickly whisk you away to your destination, such an easy way to get around a city.  Sometimes entertainment is even provided, as with this ‘oom pa pa’ group.

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I made a yummy supper wrote my blog post and I am off to bed.

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Vous Etes Magnifique!

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This morning I woke with a smile on my face.  Yes I thought, I really am in Paris.  Sometimes dreams do come true, and this trip is certainly a dream come true for me.  When Bob and I were in Paris several years ago I kept an art journal. I wrote in it that I wondered if I would ever be able to return to Paris and spend as much time as I wanted looking at my favourite paintings in the Louvre.  I will be able to do that and more on this trip.  It is a lovely indulgence to only think about and do those things that interest me.

Closing both windows and their curtains and pulling down the blinds all helped to muffle the street noise so I had a fairly good sleep.

I went out for a walk this afternoon and headed over to the Gare de l’Est to purchase a Navigo Card, only to discover that the booth had just closed   This card gives unlimited travel on the metro and bus lines for about 60 Euros per month.  I like the idea of being able to hop on and off the bus or metro whenever I like all for one easy price. I will do that tomorrow.

I spent the next couple of hours wandering the streets, watching children playing, skateboarders skating and people strolling everywhere.  Parisians love to enjoy their city on Sundays. The streets and green spaces were teeming with people of all ages, which offered some great people watching!

Sunday afternoon in ParisOn my trip to New Zealand I took lots of tree pictures and in Paris I think it will be lots of building and church pictures.  They are all so old and have such beautiful ornamentation.  I find them fascinating, there is so much to see here that it is hard to know where to look sometimes.  I visited  the Church of St. Laurent today.  Construction of this church began in1429 and was not completed until 1667.  By the way, if you tap or click on a photo it will load a larger version, for a closer look.

St-Laurent Church

There was a very interesting lady inside, who was dressed all in white, from head to toe.  I wondered if there was some significance to this or if she just liked the colour white!

Lady in White

On the way home, a young man passed me and  as he walked by he turned and said “Vous etes magnifique”. I didn’t say anything as the guide books I had read said not to smile at men on the street or it might be misinterpreted as an invitation to something more.  He turned and said “Vous devriez dire Merci.” (You should say thank you) so I rather sheepishly replied “Merci” and he nodded his head and walked on.  Perhaps a compliment can just be a compliment.  In any case, I walked home feeling rather special.

Belgium StrawberriesBelgium strawberries and dark chocolate for dessert.