Paris, April 23 - 29, 2014

Having flown direct from Salt Lake City, we arrived in Paris on April 23 to spend a week in an apartment in Neuilly-sur-Seine, some 200 m. from the city’s eastern border.  We had rented our apartment through “Vacation Rental by Owner,” an internet site, and it was exactly as advertised, compact but properly furnished and located in an upscale district with a fine boulangerie across the street for our morning baguette.

Boulangerie on rue de Madeleine Michelis, Neuilly-sur-Seine

Our nearby Metro line connected us with the heart of Paris, and we used it to explore locations that we had never visited as well as old haunts.  The only downer was the drizzly April weather, which treated us to showers every day, albeit interspersed with minutes of sunshine.

     Place de la Concorde in the rain

     Palais de Luxembourg during a sun break

View from Centre Pompidou

In addition to the great collection of modern paintings, the Centre Pompidou features a recreation of the workshop of Constantin Brancusi, the Romanian sculptor and long-time Paris resident who bequeathed his art to the French government on the condition that they maintained his workshop where the arrangement of sculptures constituted a work of art in his view.  We encountered a further example Brancusi’s artistry adorning a grave in Montparnasse Cemetery.

Brancusi workshop

Brancusi’s “The Kiss” on a Montparnasse tombstone

Also at the Montparnasse Cemetery we visited the grave of Jean Seberg, the teenager who was plucked from Iowa obscurity by Otto Preminger to star in his production of St. Joan in 1957.  She went on to a successful career in French and American films, but her unsettled personal life ended in an apparent suicide in 1979.   Before Preminger, however, she was a high school debater, tangling with such worthy opponents as Georgia Elwell, who paid her respects to Jean during our visit.

Georgia at Jean Seberg’s grave

Love blooms in Paris, of course, and some lovers attest to the permanence of their relationships by attaching padlocks with their names or initials to a fence at the Pont Neuf.   The New York Times recently reported, however, that Parisian officials have taken exception to this practice, considering these locks an eyesore, and are plotting their removal.

Tokens of everlasting love on the Pont Neuf

At an elementary school in downtown Paris, we found more locks, but these reflected not love, but fear of theft.  It appears that scooters are a favored form of commuting for the younger set, and their owners securely fashion them to a fence in front of their school.

Scooter parking at a Paris school

While the city fathers may frown on permanent tokens of love, the French are clearly interested in more effervescent manifestations.  The SIXT car rental company recently posted a full-page ad, which read (loosely translated): “Mr. President, lose the scooter.  SIXT rents sedans with tinted windows.”  Then L’Express advertised its current issue with the placard below.

The President and his women

Yes, we did visit some traditional tourist sites in addition to the Pompidou.  One was a visit to the Museum of French History, which traced the past 400-odd years with physical objects, including  furnishings from Louis XVI’s  (very cramped) quarters before his beheading and a model guillotine, all executed in ivory, with soldiers, attendants and the victim awaiting the blade to fall.  More happily, we attended a Sunday afternoon concert in the Madeleine Church, where the violin soloist performed from the pulpit.

       Concert in the Madeleine