Parisian Story - Part 1

                                       PARISIAN   STORY – Part 1

I left my hometown Iasi, in the North-East of Romania with a company I don’t recommend and so I don’t name it, via Vienna where I had an half of hour between planes so I nearly run. People at the airport were kind and even I was the last one to arrive they smiled to me  welcoming. I was several times in Paris, a city I love like the most of people I know. Each time I take a taxi to the address I stay. As it is always in the central area, it is 50-60 euros. This time I stayed near Jardin de Luxembourg, where you can find restaurants of all kinds opened till late in the night. And the atmosphere is lively as you can imagine, being near Sorbonne. My host lived long years before in the 16^th arrondisment, an area with beautiful buildings, but more posh. Now she is happy to live in this part of Paris. In the evening I arrived we had a late dinner at a splendid French restaurant as this was my choice between French, Italian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Moroccan, all along the same street, rue Monsieur le Prince. And I must add the restaurant was full.

I’ll start the photo diary with a place your readers can’t visit unless they become friends-or customers – with my lovely host the French-Romanian artist Marguerite Iuca. The window is from her kitchen  where I check up the weather each morning waiting for the coffee to be ready.

1 the kitchen window where I check up the weather each morning

2 my host the  artist Marguerite Iuca

As the weather was good in the second day, my friend Radu Negresco-Soutzo invited me to visit Domaine de Chantilly, meaning le château, les grandes écuries, le parc .We took a metro train and made a nice trip for 20 euros each tour-retour. In the station it is a bus with the end stop in front of the Chateau.

  The last owner, le duc d’Aumale, son of the King Louis-Philippe, was a collector and made  his museé Condé ,the second after Louvre.  After a long visit we had luncheon in the  Vatel’s kitchen where I wanted something with crème Chantilly , the French for whipped cream.

3 Chateau de Chantilly

The most famous story related to the Chateau de Chantilly is from 1671 when  the King Louis XIV visited the place and the maitre d’hôtel Vatel to the Grand Condé, the host, committed suicide when he feared the fish would be served late and so his honor was destroyed. You maybe saw the film with Gerard Depardieu.  

 4 Radu Negresco-Soutzo taking a photo of the staircase detail

Once there you start to take photos and stop only the memory is full. Everything is Art in the most little details.  

5 I did the same thing.

6 I have an weakness for Tanagra statues

7 Two portraits by amazing Flamand  painter Memling

8 The library 

 9 The Chapel

10 the chapel

11 gardens designed by Andre Le Notre.

12 the gallery

13 Famous paintings : a Holy Family by Raphael near the portrait of Simonetta Vespucci as Cleopatra by the Italian Renaissance painter Piero di Cosimo(about 1480-1490)

14 another famous painting The  Three Graces , an oil painting by Italian painter Raphael, 1504-1505

15 Loncheon in the Vatel's kitchen

And then we walk to the stables where some horses and ponies and mulls, all very good looking and very calm, uninterested by all the people staring, talking in different languages, walking in front of them.  

 The Grand Stables are still functional and  the French Jockey Club  use the hippodrome. 

  The locals enjoy an evening ride like the gentleman I took a photo. Could be in an English village, at 30 minutes from Paris.

 Chantilly is a place with rich people since the 19^th century and the buildings are well kept.

As we lost the last bus to the station we took a long walk enjoying the beautiful houses and their gardens. It was a lovely day.   

For me it was easy as it was at two steps from my host. 

 A medieval wood statue of Christ on the mull. Incredible how impressive is to be near.

 Original  sculptures from Notre Dame de Paris, the heads from the gallery of Kings, removed by mobs during the Revolution from 1789.  

The Golden Rose of Basel (1330) 

 The Lady and the Unicorn  tapestry.

We left the cold walls of the Cluny museum for a quick visit at marche aux puces at Porte de Clignancourt by metro, of course. As it was lunch time and for the French people this is something undisputable, we eat at a popular restaurant right in the middle of the flea market  founded in the late 19^th century.

In the kitsch charm of the restaurant, live concert with Edith Piaf and Yves Montand repertoire.

  After Cluny, another museum, something of an unknown gem, is Gustave Moreau Museum established in the artist’s family home with the second and the third floors occupied by huge studios showing his work as undisputed master of French symbolism. You can see there also artists at work, as you can see at Louvre.  

The private family mansion built at the end of the 19^th century.  

We see in the house how the Parisians lived in La Belle Epoque. A bourgeois way of life.  

 In 1895 Moreau built two huge glassed-over workshops on the upper floors linked by an iron spiral staircase.  

There are more than 5,000 paintings displayed on the pink walls. 

Near the museum, a church Eglise de la Sainte Trinité, with a rare sculpture of Jeanne d’Arc in skirt. 

It was Saturday and there was a wedding. Of course I entered to see the bride.

  The French heroine, a Sainte, Jeanne d’Arc here in skirt. Very unusual. 

 The bride and the groom just went outside the church on these steps.

  And they leave in a sumptuous vintage Bentley in the way of their new life.