Christmas 2018. It all started with breakfast, la petite dejuener:
Joyeux noel de paris
Joyeux Noël de Paris!
From the Galeries Lafayette, Christmas 2018! I tried to capture some of the magic in the extravaganza display in the main store and in the windows outside. I got a few decent pictures, but it was too much for an amateur, especially one fighting crowds!
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Walking through Montmartre yesterday, I saw this guy carrying his tree home:
And then today there was this, in a different arrondissement, with an entirely different message!
In French “Share magical moments!”
Merry Christmas y’all!
What if?!!
Buone feste! Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël!
Merry Christmas from Cannes!
Feeling French quatre (4)!
Stromae, ‘Alors on Danse’
Life getting you down? Just leave all your worries behind… so we’re dancing… with this song written and performed by Belgian musician Stromae.
Randomly keeping up in Paris
Just trying to keep up with posting all the amazing things I’m seeing here in Paris!
While most of us are familiar with the iconic Parisian art nouveau metro appearance, like this:
A more modern take is this:
Very cool, no?
What movie are the French going to see? Just like the rest of the world, they want to see the film about the life of Freddie Mercury and Queen:
Parisian architecture is still fabulous:
And walking not far from the opera, I noticed this inscription on a plaque:
In English the inscription reads: “here fell for the liberation Guillois Michel Peacekeeper 20 August 1944”.
Knowing only that the Liberation of Paris took place between August 19-25, 1944, I searched Google for info on this patriot. You can read about him and the liberation here:https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://liberation-de-paris.gilles-primout.fr/michel-guillois-annonce-la-treve&prev=search.
Wherever in the world I am lucky enough to travel, I am always entertained by the fact that there will be references in that place to other places. How many people would love to be in Paris? Millions I am sure! But here in Paris, an exhibition is devoted to Venice! When in Venice, there will be references to other places as well. It goes on and on, ever thus!
And no matter how many illustrious persons lived in France throughout history, what entertains the French now, apparently, is a look back at Michael Jackson!! An exhibition about Michael Jackson at the Grand Palais! Never thought I’d live to see the day…
Anyone reading this post in December of 2018 will know that Paris has been in turmoil with the protests of the so-called gilets jaunes, and as a matter of fact I thought about canceling my long-planned trip to this city because the news coming out of Paris was so dire. Paris has calmed down the past week or so and I was amused in front of Notre Dame to see that the French gendarmes are a lot like the Italian carabinieri, they tend to congregate to chat and check their cells. I doubt that was what authorities intended.
La belle Paris!
It’s been a few years since I’ve been in this elegant beautiful capital and I’ve missed her! Just arrived last night and spent a fun day revisiting old haunts. More to come!
Green is the color of the best shots of the day:
So, what’s new in gay Paree?
Well, the I.M. Pei Louvre Pyramid has a gold throne floating inside:
It’s the Throne by Kohei Nawa, exhibited from July 2018 – January 14, 2019.
A monumental floating throne by the sculptor Kohei Nawa. As part of “Japonismes 2018: Souls in Resonance,” the pyramid of the Louvre will house a monumental sculpture by Kohei Nawa, beginning in the month of July 2018 and running through 14 January 2019. The work, inspired by the shapes and origins of the chariots used in the Orient during religious festivals, is a combination of the art of gold leaf gilding, which dates back to Ancient Egypt, and the latest 3D modeling techniques.
This 10.4 meter-high monumental sculpture will float in the middle of the Louvre Pyramid for six months, in order to question the notions of power and authority that have been perpetuated in the past, and to question the future that awaits us.
Place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville; no other city hall ever looked so good! I am still a sucker for great Neoclassical sculpture:
Strolling through the city I saw this fashion photo in a vitrine; the best way to ride a horse is in your pink silk taffeta ballgown! I wish I had known that growing up on the back of my horse!
Not far from city hall I wandered by Place Louis Aragon.
I was intrigued by the inscribed lines speaking of a tranquil island.
Connaissez-vous l’île
Au cœur de la ville
Où tout est tranquille
Éternellement
In English:
Do you know the island
In the heart of the city
Where everything is quiet
Eternally
I looked Louis Aragon up when I got back to my hotel: Louis Aragon (1897 – 1982) was a French poet and one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. Place Louis Aragon is located at the tip of Ile Saint-Louis, near Quai de Bourbon, with amazing views of the cathedral of Notre Dame and the Seine. This small but extraordinarily located square is close to the apartment of Aurelian, where in Aragon’s novel of the same name the hero lived.
The apse end of Notre Dame begins to beckon:
I spy the famed flying buttresses!
Once a garden designer, always a garden designer. I was interested to see that the gardeners here had tied up the ornamental grass plants. That must mean that the grasses don’t winter kill in Paris (they do in Colorado where my garden is), so they want to maintain the foliage. Who knew?!
Walking along the Seine and rounding Notre Dame from the back to the front, I saw other gardens with roughly-cut and crudely crafted structures for plants to climb. These came as a surprise in Paris, where everything is so formal and structured.
I’m going to post the next few pix of Notre Dame in silence. This beautiful, iconic building needs nothing from me:
So you want to be French?
RÉVEILLON VS CHRISTMAS DAY
If you’re looking to pull out all the stops for a French Christmas dinner, make sure you’re doing it on the right day! The biggest meal of the holiday is usually eaten on Christmas Eve, known as le Réveillon, instead of on Christmas Day. The starters often consist of foie gras, oysters, or escargots, followed by a bird–often a capon or turkey–and finishing with the bûche de Noël, or Yule log, as well as other treats like chocolates and nougat. All washed down with wine, it’s a wonder the French ever make it to midnight Mass afterward.
Feeling French trois (3)!
This hypnotic track is made even more intriguing because not much is known about it. It was part of the 2-CD Francotronic electronica compilation released in 2004. In any case, it ‘comes with a message’.
get back, lauretta! 
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