On Monday October 8 we left New York for Paris. Our flight left at around 6:45 p.m. and with a strong tail wind, we arrived in Paris at 7:30 a.m. (almost 30 minutes early). However, we had a period of very strong turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean near England, which was a bit scary for me (especially as flying is not my strong suit). Needless to say, we did not sleep, but decided to keep awake during the day on Tuesday. We took the RER and Metro and arrived at our AirBnB in the Latin Quarter. Our key was waiting for us in the coffee shop next to the apartment building.
We are in a very nice quiet building on Rue Linné near Jardin des Plantes. Our studio flat is small but comfortable. The only downside, which we just realized is that while there is a microwave and fridge, there is no cooktop. Luckily, I read up on cooking fish in a microwave, and learned that it is great way to cook fish (a bit of water/white wine and lemon for 5 minutes). We are in a great area, close to the Sorbonne and about 20 minutes closer to the Seine than the places we have usually stayed in.
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| Courtyard area |
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| Lovely doors to the building |
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| Alain in our entrance-we are on the first floor (one up in Paris) |
We met our host Tuesday evening. He lives in the apartment (with two floors) with an entrance on the left of where Alain is standing (with the overhang). He leaves us a breakfast tray every morning with a croissant and baquette. He also left us a jar of apricot jam and milk for Alain. A very nice touch.
After we got settled in on Tuesday morning, we headed to the nearby Strada Café, on Rue Monge, where we have often had coffee in past visits. The weather is exceptionally warm and sunny for Paris-- high of 23C. Everyone seems to be sitting outside in cafés, enjoying food and wine.
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| Alain with his first noisette in Paris |
We were exhausted but wandered down to the market/ store area on Rue Saint Germain and picked up some fish, cheese and other provisions for dinner.
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| Passing one of the beautiful flower stores with roses |
We took our food back to the apartment and then headed out again. We stopped at Grom gelato on Rue de Seine.
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| Enjoying our sorbetto/gelato |
We had a delicious piece of dorade (sea bream), potatoes, a salad, wine and a dessert at our flat. We got to sleep at about 10:00 p.m. and slept until about 10:30 a.m. the following morning. We were then ready to go.
Wednesday October 10 was another beautiful warm, sunny day. The high was around 26C. We walked by a newsstand near our flat and saw a poster for a magazine with an article about Trump. He is much laughed at in Europe- but people see the implications-- for instance, climate change is taken very seriously here and folks know that Trump is doing nothing (or going backwards) on this issue.
We headed across the Seine into the Marais.
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| Beautiful day and view of Notre Dame crossing the Seine |
We stopped for a coffee at La Caféothèque on Rue de l'Hotel de Ville on the river. It is one of the older (since 2005), but very good third wave coffee shops, in Paris.
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| Outside La Caféothèque |
We had decided that as it was already mid afternoon that we would visit one of the smaller museums on our list.
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| Street art in the Marais |
We decided to see two new exhibits which were just opening at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaisme (Museum of Jewish Art and History). The museum, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary is housed in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan built in the 17th century.
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| Hommage to Alfred Dreyfuss |
The first exhibit was entitled Sigmund Freud: Du regard à l'écoute. The exhibit, the first of its kind in France is devoted to providing a fresh insight into the intellectual and scientific development of Freud (1856-1939). It featured more than 200 paintings, drawings, prints, books, objects and scientific instruments which provide the context for Freud's invention of psychoanalysis.
The exhibit focused on Freud's years in Vienna and Paris. He had been fascinated by Darwin's theories and he began his career as a neurologist. Freud had spent time under the aegis of Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. The exhibit traces the influences on Freud and the development of his ideas on the interpretation of dreams and listening and word associations in his practice. There was also a series of home movies taken from 1938-39, and narrated at a later date by his daughter Anna. The home movies documented life in Vienna, the forced exile in 1938, when the Nazi's took over Austria, to a short time in Paris and their life in London during Freud's last years before he died.
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| Portraits of Sigmund Freud Paris 1884 and 1932 and Freud, Professor Antoine Lacassagne, Martha Freud, Marie Bonaparte and Anna Freud in the garden of 20 Maresfield Gardens, London 1939 |
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| André Brouillet (1857-1914) Une leçon clinique à la Salpêtrière (Mars 1887) |
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| Anonyme Photographie spirite (médium et spectres) 1910 |
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| Georges Moreau de Tours (1848-1901) Les Fascinés de la Charité 1890 |
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| Max Pollak (1886-1970) Sigmund Freud 1914 |
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| Charles Matton (Paris 1931-2008) Le Cabinet de Sigmund Freud 2002 |
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| Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) Hysteria (around 1901) |
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| Hans Hollein (Vienna 1934-2014) Sigmund Freud Couch und Sessel |
Freud's theories had been heralded by the Surrealists in the 1920s-1930s. André Breton had studied medicine and had been exposed to the writings of Freud. In 1921, he travelled to Vienna to meet him. In 1932, there was a rupture, as Freud wrote to Breton, distancing himself from Surrealist ideas. Later, Freud met with Salvador Dali in London in 1938 and changed his opinion. Dali did a number of portraits of Freud during his visit.
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| Salvador Dali (1904-1989)- Portrait of Sigmund Freud London July 19 1938 |
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| Freud and his daughter arrive at Gare de lest Paris June 1938 |
There was a second exhibit in a separate gallery for contemporary art. It featured the work of David Perlov, a painter, photographer and film maker (1930-2003) who was born in Rio de Janeiro, lived in Paris from 1952-58, and then moved to Israel, settling with his wife on Kibbutz Bror Hayil. He was a pioneer of Israeli documentary films and taught at the University of Tel-Aviv from 1973 until his death in 2003. The exhibit featured a film he made from 1973-1983, which documented his everyday life alongside events that took place in Israel during those 10 years. BBC Channel 4 expressed an interest in the project in 1983 and it became
Diary. In 1999, Perlov was awarded the Israel Prize for his contribution to cinema.
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| Arieta 1964 |
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| Le Mannequin animé de l'avenue João Pessoa 1964 |
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| Le Magician 1953- pictures of the artist's father |
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| Self Portrait 1951 |
We then walked into the Marais and noticed a sign for an exhibit in a building in a courtyard on Rue Charlot.
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| Signage in the Courtyard for exhibit at Photo Doc. |
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Inside the entrance of the building
The exhibit featured a small number of photos taken by Yan Morvan, a Paris photographer, in 1981 in Belfast just after Bobby Sands and a number of other prisoners had died following a hunger strike for better conditions. Yan Morvan took photos of Belfast and the funeral. The photos in the gallery were very powerful. The gallery also had a book that featured many more photos taken from that day in May.
Hanging in a separate room - my favourite photo
While I wasn't able to take any other pictures at the gallery- I found my favourite and two others on the gallery website.
The funeral
We had a chat with one of the gallery owners. The photographer is now 64 and still lives in Paris. All of the pictures in the book were taken from one day in Belfast- during the funeral for Bobby Sands.
Heading down the stairs in the gallery
Hello Handsome
After wandering around the Marais for a bit, we headed up Rue St. Denis into the 10th arrondissement to meet my French cousin Laure (an architect who lives in Paris). She had suggested Floderer, an Alsatian Brasserie. It was a beautiful evening, so we had a table outside. The original restaurant was founded by two Alsatians in around 1909. It had been ransacked during WWI by the French as Alsace was still German at that time. After it reopened in 1918, it had its name "frenchified" to Brasserie FLO. In February 2018, a new Alsatian owner changed the name back to its original name, Floderer.
My cousin Laure and moi
Laure's gorgeous seafood platter, which included my oyster appetizer
My duck and potatoes (they left off the cream sauce for me)
Alain with his Strasbourg plate of sausages and sauerkraut
Wonderful old-fashioned interior of restaurant
Entrance to inside of restaurant
After a wonderful dinner, Laure sent us back to our apartment in an Uber. Our driver was an international commerce student who spoke English. He told us that he drove Uber usually two days a week to give him some needed income during his studies. He has one more year before he gets his Masters. It was a wonderful day in Paris, exploring old and new sites.
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