Marvelous Montorgueil

On Sunday morning I dropped our son off at a birthday party in the 2nd arrondissement. I had two hours to kill and decided to head towards rue Montorgueil, a lovely road full of restaurants, cafés, specialised food shops, charcuteries, cheese shops, chocolate shops, amazing looking bakeries, florists and more. To get there I wandered down Rue Réamur which is a large boulevard to the north of Rue Montorgueil. It was so quiet, hardly a car or pedestrian in sight. When I turned right into rue Montorgueil, however, that all changed. Suddenly I was amidst a throng of people, the small cobbled street was heaving. Claude Monet painted Rue Montorgueil in 1878 Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of June 30. It was heaving then too.

When I worked in rue Montorgueil  20 years ago they repaved the road with white marble cobbles. As the years passed these blocks were quick to crack and break and I noticed that they have now been replaced with granite cobbles. The white marble blocks remain on the pavements.

I was alone with no children tugging at my arm begging me to stop being weird, so I was able to walk slowly down the road looking up at the shop fronts at my own pace. Some are beautifully intricate but in need of restoration. 

In contrast, some of the facades have been recently restored and look very crisp and clean.

There are small interesting details to be seen the whole way along the road. Notably at 'La Fermette' where there's a cow observing the goings on from the first floor.

I love this sign.


Flowers.


Wrought iron with gilded details.


Woodland imagery.

And then one of my favourites, a giant escargot at the infamous L'Escargot Montorgueil, a restaurant that has been serving snails for 200 years! 

Place Vendôme

I always find the scale of Place Vendôme in the 1st arrondissement of Paris disconcerting. It is vast, and largely empty. I think it must be about 120 metres from one side of the square to the other. There are only two ways into the square, and two ways out.

It was built between 1702 and 1720, a hundred or so years after the Place des Vosges. As with the Place des Vosges, the architectural style of the facades on all sides of the square is the same. Here is the view as you approach from rue St Honoré (the south-west). That's Napoleon, perched on top of the column.

When ever I visit the Place Vendôme I always seem to gravitate towards the column in the centre.

Over 40 metres high, the original column, built by Napoleon to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz, was modelled on Trajan's Column in Rome. Originally, at the top of the column was a statue of Napoleon riding a horse. The column was dismantled in 1871 upon orders of the government ruling Paris at that time. It is was later re-erected using the original bronze panels. The statue of Napoleon, which had been melted down when the column was dismantled, was replaced, this time there was no horse. There is apparently a spiral staircase on the inside of the column that takes you to the top. Not for the claustrophobic I would think.

The bronze panels are apparently made from 133 melted down canons retrieved from the battle of Austerlitz (1805).

I love the colours and intricate details of the bronze panels. Look at the tassels on that blanket...





...and the feathers on this helmet...


I love the green bronze set against the creamy Parisian stone.


Lampposts and column vie for attention.


Here's the column admiring its' reflection.

Palais Royal at nightfall

Yesterday the kids and I headed down towards Opera to go to the bank. Oh yes, I know how to spoil the small people round here. Who needs Disneyland when you have a banks?! The plan was to go roller blading in the beautiful square at Palais Royal afterwards. Of course we got to the bank three minutes after it had 'exceptionnellement' shut early and by this time it was drizzling. Great.

Not to be thwarted and not wanting to feel we'd completely wasted out outing I suggested we go to the Palais Royal anyway and see how we felt. The courtyard of the Palais Royal is called the Cour d'Honneur. It is dominated by 280 black and white striped columns of varying heights, an art installation conceived by the artist Daniel Buren in 1986. I think it's pure genius. 

We got there as it was getting dark, the ground was wet. The light and the reflections were amazing.

Gradually it got darker.





And darker.



Until I could no longer focus.


The kids had a ball.


!HAPPY NEW YEAR! - !BONNE ANNEE!

Iconic Parisian park chairs

The green chairs in the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Jardin des Tuileries are an iconic symbol of Parisian parks. I've been trying to find some information about the history of their design and have had little joy. These days there are two main types, the ones for reclining. These rather dark green ones are in the Jardin des Tuileries.

As are these upright ones.

Here are some in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

These two are chatting.

Apparently, according to my mother who lived in Paris at the time, these particular ones were introduced in 1954. I can confirm, for a fact, that they had the same chairs in 1969...in the background is one of the first Maclaren buggies as well!

More Parisian park chairs can be seen here (thumbnails) and here (slideshow).

Jardin des Tuileries with sun and stripes

On Sunday anybody who lives in Paris will know that it was a beautiful day. Blue blue skies, not a cloud, and mild. In order to try and catch as much sun as possible we headed to the Jardin des Tuileries which has large open spaces, and consequently a big sky, thus maximising our chances of catching the rays. It was such good medicine for the soul.

Look at this blue sky.

Gold looks better in the sun too, not to mention galloping horses.

We were treated to a moon as well.

The pigeons were still grumpy, however.

There were still a few puddles, but even they were bright.

I then became preoccupied with stripes. Long looooong winter shadows.

Sometimes the straight lines curled.

If you stand at the right angle the heavily pruned trees have a red fuzz around them.

Which close up looks like this.

We ended up having a tussle with a lion.

For more photos of the Jardin des Tuileries press here (thumbnails) or here (slide show)