A jonquil for Curie

A fundraiser for cancer research and some welcome color on a gray day.

Auvers sur l'Oise

We've been very interested in Vincent Van Gogh lately. Last month we visited the Orsay Museum which owns over 200 of Van Gogh's paintings. Last week we visited the town of Auvers sur l'Oise (less than 25 miles north of Paris) which is where Van Gogh spent the final two months of his life. Do you remember his famous painting of the Auvers church?


Van Gogh lived here in the Auberge Ravoux from his arrival on the 20th of May 1890.
He had a tiny room upstairs in the back of the Auberge. He died here on July 29, 1890 two days after shooting himself.
Vincent is buried in Auvers sur l'Oise. His younger brother Theo died six months later and was interred by his side
Next week we will be taking a trip to Belgium and Holland. We'll be visiting the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and the Kröller-Müller museum in Otterlo. I think that should be enough of Van Gogh for awhile.

Parc de Bagatelle

Finally. A few days of sunshine and warmer weather. Hints of spring in the air. One of my favorite spring visits is the Parc de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne. The Bagatelle is one Paris' four botanical gardens. Although mostly known for its rose garden; the park includes over a million spring bulbs planted directly in the grass - creating a blanket of color from March through early May. Besides, Patrice has never been there, and I continue to introduce him to the sights of Paris that he's never seen.
There are lots of peacocks in the park, but they didn't grace us with a dance.

Berenice Abbott

In hindsight, I wish I had more carefully documented the passage of the organ grinder that I saw earlier this week. A reader reminded me just how rare these sightings are. . .
The careful documentation of a changing city was the theme of a photography exhibition that we attended earlier this week. The Jeu de Paume is presenting a retrospective of the works of Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), an American photographer who spent several years in Paris in the 1920s where she was influenced by the work of Eugene Atget.

Abbott is best known for her series Changing New York (1935-1939) in which she systematically photographed the city. She captured not only NYC architecture, but a way of life that was disappearing - like organ grinders.

Here are a few representative images from the exhibit at the Jeu de Paume:

For more details on the exposition at the Jeu de Paume click here. And the Museum of the City of New York has over 1600 of Abbot's images online here.

Organ grinder

I was surprised to hear an unusual sound in the courtyard behind our building yesterday. An organ grinder! (No monkey, though.) When was the last time you heard one of those?



BTW, today's stroll through Wikipedia turned up this photo by Eugene Atget of an organ grinder in 1898.

Lady bikers

Last weekend, an association of women bikers organized a ride through the streets of Paris in honor of International Women's Day. It was a great subject for Sunday's photo expedition. Here are a few of the participants.




Plenty of men showed up to ride in solidarity with the women.



Speaking of motorcycles, Patrice has hung up the keys to his motorscooter. Amazing what one will do for love. . .

Musée de la Grande Guerre

Patrice is feeling much better and we've resumed our excusions in and around Paris. Yesterday we took a trip backwards in time to WWI. We visited the recently opened Musée de la Grande Guerre (Museum of the Great War) in Meaux, about an hour east of Paris. Here's the entrance to the museum.

The museum presents a multi-sensory experience making ample use of film and sound files. I could imagine life in the trenches with the sounds of boots slogging through the mud against the backdrop of bullets and bombs.
The exhibit featured the usual guns, tanks, and early airplanes but one of the most curious vehicles (for me) was this pigeon-mobile which was used to transport the carrier pigeons vital to communications. Over 100,000 pigeons were deployed during the war with a 95% success rate of getting through to their destination with their message.

Patrice has a personal interest in the war as both of his grandfathers served and survived the war. Here is a photograph of his maternal grandfather, Fernand Laborde:
And his paternal grandfather, René Neger:
Here's the link to the museum for your personal virtual visit.