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Day 131: Roooaarrrr!

You’ve seen me posted entries of various street arts and mural paintings of Paris. Here’s another creative one – which is used to not only decorate the wall but also to frame the elements of the building, i.e. windows and doors. Pretty good job for a building that seems to be in need of major restorative works.

While I find the roar of the animal amusing, the picture is still slightly disturbing. It’s the body. I can’t wrap my imagination around it and no matter how I look it over, it still feels all wrong. Not my kind of art perhaps. If you want to see this for yourself, head over to rue Neuve Tolbiac, near Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand.

Day 130: Pájaro XIII

I pass by this bronze sculpture of a bird several times a week. In fact, each time I go for a run. Considering I would also complete numerous rounds of the loop of the park in Cité U, I’d see it for a few times within the hour that I huff and I puff my route in synchrony to whatever high-beat music I have loaded to my iPod.

Entitled Pájaro XIII (to signify the 13th such bronze statue by the same sculptor?) by Juan Soriano, it is part of collection from Centro de Arte de Reina Sofía. Unsurprising, given that it sits in the garden to the Spanish House. The thing is though, this sculpture is superfamiliar to me, even before I found out from where it came from. Now I wonder if I have saw something similar when I was in Madrid a few years back?

Day 129: Crafty at Blvd St-Germain

When one evokes the image of “shopping in Paris” one often thinks of the designer labels, the haut couture, strolling down Avenue Montaigne and the likes. Truth be told, it seems there are places to shop everywhere in the city, and I’m still trying to figure my way around, where best to get certain items etc.

What one would also commonly see in Paris would be open food markets (different locations around the city but there’s always some any given day of the week), flea markets (look out for signs for brocante antiques, usually at weekends) and then small craft markets, like this one at Boulevard St Germain. Passing them en route to Chloé’s, I didn’t really stop to look at the handful of stalls properly. This market is not there at all time, but I’ve definitely seen them here before. I suspect it could be a regular feature, perhaps once or twice a week?

Day 128: Ninjas in the park

I haven’t been enjoying picnic this much in my life until the last couple of months. I’ve lost count of the number of times when I packed a bag of food and drinks, plus a good book, and off I went to the park for a few hours in the sun with my friends. We certainly weren’t the only one with such idea, since the park was always packed, and today was no exception. We even got our own front row to a “spectacle”.

We called them ninjas. Let’s face it – they dressed the part. We have no idea what form of martial art are they practicing exactly but often time, we questioned their wisdom in choosing the park as the venue of practice. During the demo by the master, everyone would form a circle and observed. The ninjas then were paired, equipped with rope(s), and proceeded to tie each other up (in slow motion) in the craziest conformation possible, including strangling position. There were lots of kids around observing. I shudder at the thought of them playing at home, saw some ropes, and decided “I can be a ninja too and let’s do what they were doing at the park”…

Day 127: Sculptures of Miró

I <3 Miró. I first fell in love with him when I was in London, standing in one of the many rooms of Tate Modern, gazing at Message d’ami (Message from a friend). I was immediately smitten. What started as an attempt to get acquainted with modern art (I used to be a tad scathing about modern art movement) became a day of exploration and unspoken connection. That day, I learned a true lesson in the beauty of keeping an open mind and giving things a try. At least once.

At Musée Maillol, an exhibition of Miró’s sculptures is currently taking place and it is so good to see the familiar elements of his paintings also reflected in the sculptures. The one thing missing is the bold colour blocks, given most of the sculptures were casted in bronze and not cured in any other way. I miss those vibrant colours. There are a couple of coloured preparatory sketches in exhibition, along with 2-3 paintings proper, but that’s too few for my liking.

In writing this blog post, I discovered that another Miró exhibition is currently running in Tate Modern, which assembles paintings from public and private collection (what a coup!). I need to now find some free time to Eurostar myself over to London. Oh where in my calendar can I fit this in…?

Day 126: Stained-glass tulips

Another work week coming to an end, albeit this is a slightly lighter one compared to the past few. Nonetheless, it didn’t mean I could slack off, as I was scheduled to give a presentation today on my work project. However, with this now done, I could have a truly work-free weekend in the next couple of days, so I am happy, happy, happy!

On the way home this evening after dinner – Ani and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant – as we passed by Boulevard de Port Royal, the dim light against this stain window proved irresistable to me. By now, Ani knows what I’m up to and patiently waited for me to whip out my camera, snapped a couple of shots, and be ready to continue our journey. Don’t you agree this stainglass is pretty and rather apt given the season now for tulips to bloom just about everywhere? ;)

Day 125: Fairytale roses

Let’s explore a bit more of Cité U.

I’ve been walking around a bit more around the campus and each time, I find something that I think should be shared. Today, it’s this medieval looking door that, for some reason, reminded me of the story of Snow White and Rose Red. It has got to be the roses. Some of the pink ones light enough to appear white, and the luscious bold red to the other side.

The Deutsch de la Meurthe Foundation was the first building of the campus, and has since expanded to encompass a total of seven adjacent buildings. Inspired by English colleges such as Oxford and Cambridge, there are beautiful gardens landscaped around the Foundation, along with paved terraces which gives the Foundation a sense of connection between its buildings.

Day 124: The “Rose Line”

Not everyone’s pleased with Dan Brown’s writing and I guess one of them are the folks from St Sulpice, who may have to deal with the many queries that they put up this sign next to the gnomon inside the church, indeed built around a meridian but not the Paris Meridian.

“Contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent best-selling novel, this is not a vestige of pagan temple. No such temple ever existed in this place. It was never called a < Rose-Line >. It does not coincide with the meridian traced through the middle of the Paris Observatory which serves as a reference for maps where longitudes are measured in degrees East or West of Paris. No mystical notion can be derived from this instrument of astronomy except to acknowledge that God the Creator is the master of time.

Please also note that the letter < P > and < S > in the small round windows at both ends of the transept refer to Peter and Sulpice, the patron saints of the church, not an imaginary Priory of Sion.”

There you go, a little random information for the day.

Day 123: Le Passe-Muraille

Many years ago, Marcel Aymé wrote a short story called Le Passe-Muraille (The man who walks through the wall) and it became of one his most famous works. Set in Montmartre, at rue Norvins, where Aymé lived, the protagonist Dutilleul found himself with most unusual talent for walking through walls but later accidentally “cured” himself and was stuck in a wall following a late night rendezvous. Poor guy had no one but the painter Eugene Paul who occasionally sang, accompanied by a guitar, as consolation. (Read the translated work here.)

Today, at the corner of rue Norvins, sits a bronze sculpture to honour Aymé and this short story of his. It is a poetic tribute, for the location commemorates not only where Dutilleul found himself imprisoned for life, but also the writer himself living in the building just adjacent to the wall. Visitors today seem to believe that rubbing the hand of the sculpture would bring good fortune. The proof – shiny and sparkling hand of the bronze figure. ;)

Day 122: Tip a hat

One thing that you may have noticed by now, is that street art is never just something born out of vandalism. Especially in Paris. Some are works to reclaim the public space for expression of art, some are works to put out a message – political or not – to the public, some are works to provide food for thoughts, some are works to beautify the living space.

This mural which covers the entire side of a building can be found near Gare du Nord (I forgot to mark down the name of the street, but I believe it’s at the fork of rue La Fayette and rue de l’Aqueduc) is striking to me for a couple of reasons. First, the representation of Paris. Just try to see how many monuments you could identify. From the obvious (Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Obelisk of Luxor) to the nestled and ambiguous (Assemblée Nationale, the pyramid of the Louvre, Panthéon). Secondly, the depiction of Parisian life and history, all in man’s memory, and you’re just there, at the tiny corner, looking up to all that has come together in this city.

Painted in 1992 (clearly marked) this mural of nearly two decade old still holds true today. Paris is dynamic and ever changing, but the core value within, they are contained and unforgettable.


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