Finally after being in Paris for 11 months I went to the Louvre. To my delight I can get in free and cut all the lines because I am registered as an artist at La Maison Des Artistes of Paris.
It was an unusually sunny day a white sunlight. My mother and I took the bus to rue du Bac and then walked across the Seine to enter the Louvre area from the Tuilleries side. Aristide Maillol's nudes float on pedestals. They look light in weight despite their robust build and bronze mass. Going into the pyramid was exciting. I couldn't help but think of Dan Brown's the "Da Vinci Code." That is sad but hey, I never saw the Louvre before the pyramid. Inside my goal was to avoid the whole wing where the Mona Lisa hangs. It is easy to tell which side it is by the hoards of tourists that rush there, smashing into you. We ended up going on that side first in order to see the Cycladic art, then went to see the European painting.
There were two artists copying in the Ruebens room that illustrates the life of Maria di Medici. It seems that the louvre is so big that one takes more time walking than actually looking at the paintings. I am glad that I can go back for free
After we left we went down to rue de Petit Champs and had a nice lunch at the bistrot Aux Bons Crus. The waiter was brusk when we entered and treated us poorly but relaxed when he heard that I spoke to him in French. We sat next a couple of italians that were working on a food guide so I had fun listening in three languages. My mother ate a quiche like thing with ham and some cheese on a nice fresh salad, a humungous meal. I had a tuna steak that came out so raw i sent it back. Both were excellent. A bottle of San Pellegrino and a 1/4 of red house wine came to 39 Euro. Good considering the area and the quality.
Yesterday we went to the Phenicians exhibit at the Istitut de Mond Arab. I was dying to see this show and absolutely loved seeing the cuniform writing - the beginning of some written languages. There are sphinxes reproduced on everything from bowls to broaches to Faence. They navigated throughout the mediterranean leaving lots of stuff everywhere, the sarcaophogus in their symplicity were beautiful.
Then we went to the Courbet exhibit at the Grand Palais. Definitely worth seeing but make sure to reserve your tickets in advance. We got right in without waiting but the line of people with no tickets was long. Too long for the sub freezing temperatures.
Courbet had never been my favorite artist because all that I knew was one of his wild seascapes. I didn't know that he was such an iconoclast and that he was an excellent portrait painter. His monumental scenes of everyday life were overwhelming but what stroke me the most was a tiny portrait of Baudelaire. "The Origin of the World" -the infamous painting of a woman's vigina- was well hung in a little secluded area where there were "scandalous" photographs from the 1850's of women hiking up their skirts to expose their "secrets." I must go back to see Courbet's portraits, "the Origin of the World" doesn't interest me much except to see how he painted the skin tones over the pubic hair. I wonder if he let the black brushstrokes of the hair dry before going on top with the skin tones.
When we exited the Grand Palais it was dark and we were exhausted but we saw the beautiful christmas lights on the Champs Elysees. I thought what a shame to go back home so we braved the hike up the hill towards the arche de triomph and made our way to the peugeot store to buy some pepper grinders.
It is nice to see Paris in its splendor.
