More Memories of Paris

Jeanne
Mar 26, 2019
to alan

Hi Alan, I laughed at your comment about the “different” French keyboard! There are international keyboards on the iPad/iPhone and Mac - shift - control keys on the ISO devices, so it’s easy to access them when typing in French with the accent marks.

Thanks for sending your journal comments. I have a stack of journals from Paris trips; they’re all written in longhand. I reference them when compiling the content for photo books or DVDs - I was creating DVDs with music, titles, etc. of the trip but it’s easier to share photos in books. What I miss in the book is the inability to capture the sounds of street musicians or music from the metro. I recently learned that the musicians in the metro (and possibly the ones on the street, like the quartet that we heard outside of l’église Saint Germaine this past visit, have to apply for a permit to play. There’s a judging process to grant permission. The past few years, I took a series of art history classes at Alliance Française en Chicago (all in French) taught by an instructor who grew up in the town of Versailles. She shared a lot of the culture and not-so-known facts about Paris.

I did stump her one time in a French culture class. We had a homework assignment to present “Paris hors des sentiers battus” (Paris off the beaten path). In spite of her in-depth knowledge of Paris, I included places in which she was unfamiliar. The assignment was a three minute presentation. To contain the time to three minutes, I created a DVD that showed the following:

Description

1) Île aux Cygnes (a small artificial island on the river Seine in Paris, 15th arr., with a monument to the rafle (round up) of the Vel’d’hiv — across the street from where the actual Velodrome d’Hiver once stood and was demolished;  a bad memory of the Nazi-Vichey cooperation to round up children & women to transport to the death camps. It surprised me that the instructor (in her mid 40’s) didn’t know about this piece of sad Paris history.

2) Pacine Joséphine Baker - a barge moored in the Seine which is a public four lane swimming pool, with a sunroof that opens in the summer. In the winter, it’s an indoor pool. Located in the 13th arr, close to the Bercy Park, not far from the Musée Cinématique (housed in a Frank Gerry building) — The attendant was friendly and invited my husband and me inside, as long as we promised not to take any photos of the swimmers. I think the pool opened in 2006 but in the recent couple of years, it has had problems and frequent closings.

You mentioned that you visited Chartres multiple times. We haven’t been there. What drew you to the town for repeated visits? I recall when you posted photos from France and asked for their identification, the cathedral was among the photos. I identified it from seeing previous photos in art history classes studying churches.

The Centre Pompidou isn’t a favorite museum of ours except for the top floor (Picasso, Miro, etc.) - the rest is too contemporary, like a blank canvas with a name. We usually stop in the Pompidou for the nice washrooms and to warm up, if it’s a cold day. The Musée de la Poupée (Doll Museum) is located back across the Pompidou plaza — we visited it several years ago and my husband is still talking about it, as in “if you EVER even think about going back there. . .” Not his favorite museum! We were there the day that seemed like most of the toddlers and their nannies or grandparents in all of Paris were visiting.

From your FB posts, I see that you do a lot of traveling. But if you should decide to return to Paris for more than a day or three, there are some new developments. A large reconstruction across from Pont Neuf is the old La Samaritaine department store. The store closed in 2005 because the infrastructure was so deteriorated that it would be costly to repair. I’m glad that we visited the historic dept. store many times before it close. LVM (Louis Vitton corp. & other high end French products) has been redeveloping the building with retail on the lower levels and high end residential above and underground parking below. It may be open next year; it wasn’t open this year, per the article.
 
https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/LVMH-to-reopen-Paris-La-Samaritaine-complex-with-DFS-luxury-store-in-2019,942282.html#.XJrUGxpOmhA

Also Hotel Lutetia, 6th arr/St. Germaine de Près, where we first stayed before renting apartments in the same arrondissement, had a three year renovation; my opinion, it lost it’s charm with the modernization inside. I think this hotel is now a Left Bank competition to the Ritz and George V (Four Seasons, off the Champs Elysées) Because of it’s history, the outside of Lutetia has been cleaned but unchanged.

Sorry about the length of this reply. I love the City and my finger kept typing. . .

A bienôt,
Jeanne
DescriptionÎle aux Cygnes is a small artificial island on the river Seine in Paris,

Envoyé de mon iPad


Jeanne

Thank you for this further wonderful message sharing your love and experiences in Paris.

I will print it out to read it slowly and more thoroughly.

I will respond to a couple of your questions now.

1. computer keyboards in 2001 I did not have a laptop that I could carry.  The only laptop I owned then weighed a TON.  I bought it used in 1985 to write two manuals for the AMA - American Management Association when I was driving everywhere I went.

In 2001 I use INTERNET CAFES and used their table top computers in everyone of the 20 countries I was in from June to October on 5 continents.

As I traveled around in 1977 during those 110 days I learned how I enjoy traveling the best and developed many of my habits or strategies.

I usually go see what most people want to see

I go to see what I WANT TO SEE

I wander to discover things I didn't know existed.

i.e. in Paris when I was on top of the Eiffel Tower the first time photographing 360 degrees I saw some strange high rise towers beyond the Seine to the East (I believe to the East).

When I got down on the ground I walked to the closet bridge, crossed the Seine and keep walking until I found the location of the free from floor plan buildings.

Similar in nature to the famous Lakeshore Towers in Chicago on the lake side of the road.

The buildings looked like abstract paintings of trees, clouds, animals (not sure about that.  I haven't looked at my slides from that trip in a long time and have not digitize them yet)

Close up I found out they are apartment buildings and the exteriors are covered with ceramic tile from ground to roof.

Eiffel Tower
Notre Dame
Pompidou Center
I. M. Pei's Pyramid at the Louvre

have one thing in common.

They were hated when they were first built, by many Parisians.

In 1977 I heard about the Pompidou Center over and over again until the last night when I decided to find it..

I arrived by the Metro deep underground and saw it the first time as I road up the escalator.

The design concept is basically the same as the other structures

The design comes from the superstructure in each case

stone, steel, glass, utilities

The Pompidou Center all the superstructure and utilities create the exterior to provide maximum open space inside the building.

When I have visited it again and again I have seen thousands of people waiting to get inside each morning

Yet some Parisians still say they HATE IT!

After I have read your email more thoroughly I will respond more.

During my 10 days at the end of the Summer in 1977 I spent in Paris I also explored many parts of the city that most tourist never go see or know exist.

One challenge I gave myself was to find and photograph every building Le Corbusier had anything to do with including his various offices before he died of drowning in 1964.  I know that date because I was the only news reporter in Detroit who wrote about his death that day after I saw the item on the UPI fax machine.

One was out to see the Savoy House that the government had finally saved and turned into a museum after it had become used as a BARN.