Side Quest - Paris (Part Deux)

In a previous post I shared that our recent visit to Paris was planned primarily around seeing the Gerhard Richter retrospective at the Foundation Louis Vuitton. There's obviously lots of other things to see and do in the City of Light and I wanted to follow-up some more pics from that trip.

We typically stay in the Latin Quarter near the Seine and a couple blocks over from Blvd St. Michel. It's an area that maybe isn't highly regarded by "travelers in the know" since it's pretty touristy, but like it or not, we're tourists. The fact is it's close to a lot of things we love (Jardin de Luxembourg, Musée de Cluny, the Seine, Notre Dame), walking distance to others (the Louvre, the Orsay, Jardin des Plantes), and it's central enough that you can get anywhere in the city pretty easily. Plus, there's nothing like taking the RER train from Charles de Gaulle airport and entering the city via the Saint-Michel-Notre Dame metro station. It's just magical.

The hotel we like is Hotel Henri IV on Rue Saint-Jacques. It's a couple blocks off the Seine, around the corner from Shakespeare & Co. bookstore, and steps from the Eglise Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, a cozy and ancient Greek Catholic Church that hosts regular evening concerts. If that sounds like your speed, and you decide to give the hotel a try, you might request room 302. That room faces the street (so maybe noisy) but it offers some fun people watching as well as a lovely view of the exterior apse of Eglise Saint-Séverin. 

So, what else did we do? Well, our trip was well-timed in that there were a couple of other exhibitions I was really excited to see while we were there.

On Day One we saw Magdalena Abakanowicz, The Thread of Existence at the Musee Bourdelle. Abakanowicz is a Polish sculptor and fiber artist whose work I've loved since first seeing it at a fiber art exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts. She'd had a large retrospective at the Tate Modern a few years ago, and while the Bourdelle exhibition wasn't that ambitious, it did not disappoint.

The Musee Bourdelle itself is dedicated to the works and collections of Antoine Bourdelle, a major sculptor of the early 20th century who is more well known in France than here in the U.S. I wasn't familar with the artist or the museum, but the TL;DR version is that Bourdelle is the missing link between Auguste Rodin and Art Deco. That sounds weird, but I've seen the work and it checks out.

We also got to see Mickalene Thomas All About Love at the Grand Palais and were just floored! I've seen plenty of works by Thomas over the years, but this was my first chance to see her vision brought wholly to life in a major exhibition. It was stunning. There were films and videos, installations, environments, and of course her signature sparkly portraits. Being a huge Manet fan, as well as someone who appreciates the discourse between art then and art now, I was particularly giddy to see her reimagining of Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe.

As it turned out, our trip had us in Paris on Valentine's Day. That was something we had to celebrate and so made we made reservations at Le Procope, purportedly one of the oldest restaurants in Paris. It was part fine dining, part history museum, and part camp charm. The venue featured great food and service, plenty of odd artifacts from its long history in Paris, and a waiter (thankfully not ours) who really needed his own sitcom (or at least a minor role as a spirited foil in the Paris dinner scene of a romantic comedy). Also, hearing him speak French with an Italian accent bent my mind. All of which is to say we had a lovely time and especially enjoyed the Valentine's Day themed dessert.

I mentioned that our hotel was right around the corner from Shakespeare & Co bookstore. In spite of that proximity though, we'd never actually been there. The fact is it's quite the tourist destination and so they only let a limited number of visitors in at a time. That ensures an ever-present and always daunting line.

We'd happened to be up early one morning to visit Notre Dame though and decided to join the queue before opening and check it out. I was glad for the chance to visit, but don't feel like I need to go back again. Really, my favorite thing about it was the strictly enforced "no pictures" rule. For as guilty as I am of taking pictures of everything, it was weirdly liberating to be in a place where neither I nor those around me could.

In and amongst all that we saw the restored interior of Notre Dame, hiked up to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, visited the Jardin des Plantes, and walked through the Marché Raspail.

For anyone heading over anytime soon, I can report that the French are keeping the dream of cigarette smoking alive and well. They also still use paper tickets for the metro (though phones and a rechargeable Navigo card are an option now too). They accept my ham-handed attempts at their language with good humor and switch to English with aplomb. Also, as prices for dining out in Columbus continue to climb, the prices in Paris start to feel ever more reasonable. And if you still can't find a place that fits your budget, there's probably a Monoprix close by (just remember to keep your receipt so you can scan yourself out at the exit). 

Upon reflection, four days in Paris wasn't nearly enough time. We should have stayed longer! That said, I'm satisfied with all we managed to pack in, and I can't wait to go back!