Friday, July 18, 2025
Paris is always right, even in summer. After a wonderful two weeks in northern Italy, divided between Milan, cycling in the Dolomites and Verona, we were ready for a French change of pace, at home in the Marais. This was our second stay in the apartment, our first “floating” week stint. Our stay was devoted to our three favorite “M”s: museums, movies and of course, meals.
The flight from Milan was mercifully short, as we both found ourselves in middle seats. The Away bags were rolled the length of the airport to the intersection with Line 14 of the Metro, which was mostly empty at first, but filled up as we approached central Paris and our destination station, Chatelet. Not having exercised much that day, we decided to walk to the apartment rather than manage the correspondance to Line 1 and Saint Paul station. This was more of a challenge than earlier, thanks to the intermittent cobblestones trying to derail the bag’s smooth rolling, but we managed it.
Golden summer light of late afternoon, Hotel de Ville, Paris.
Steve barely fit into the elevator with all of the luggage, so I took the stairs. The snacks from the train came in handy, as neither of us had the energy to head out once installed in the apartment. Strangely, I was looking forward to doing laundry!
Saturday, July 19, 2025
We seem to have won the weather lottery this summer. Paris appeared to be broiling before our arrival, but today was mostly cloudy and quite comfortable. I went in search of milk for my latte down the street at Franprix while Steve installed himself on the petite patio with a coffee. We shared a raspberry financier I foraged while out at Yves Courveur patisserie one street over.
We kicked off this stay with lunch at Breizh Cafe (sharing two savory buckwheat galettes, the Savoyarde (reblochon, potato and green salad with poitrine grillée, which I thought would be chicken since poitrine means breast, but turned out to be bacon-like) and the Vendangeur (forme d’Ambert blue cheese, grapes, honey and green salad). We were too full for dessert crepes but we did enjoy a pitcher of a dry cider with the galettes.
We met Patricia a few blocks away at Fondation Henry Cartier-Bresson, where the entire In The American West show by Richard Avedon was on display. This was originally commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, where we had seen it years back. This exhibition marked the 40th anniversary of the publication of the landmark book which resulted.
In addition to the prints themselves, there was fascinating accompanying ephemera, including examples of Avedon’s darkroom instructions and correspondence between Avedon and some of his subjects and/or their families.
Afterwards, strolling towards the apartment (Patricia had brought a treasure trove of art exhibition-related catalogs with her, adding up to a heavy backpack’s worth), we found ourselves walking past the Archives Nationales.
Ceiling splendor, Salon de la Princesse, Hotel de Soubise, Archives Nationales, Paris.
The large garden inside the courtyard beckoned, and the secret interior garden off to the right offered us a shaded bench on which to chat. We caught a little of a concert or rehearsal in the courtyard, as this month is the 25th Festival Européen Jeunes Talents.
Steve and I had stopped by a neighborhood restaurant earlier in the day to make a reservation, which evidently was never recorded, but we were waved into Tavline anyway. The owners preceding us in the apartment had mentioned enjoying their Isreali cuisine. On the weekends, one has to order at least two courses. We shared our entrees (starters) of charred cauliflower and eggplant, which were plentiful and delicious and so filling that we ended up asking to have our plats principals boxed to go.
In the evening, we relaxed watching The Gilded Age, catching Steve up, so we can watch the last season together.
Sunday, July 20, 2025
It was raining hard and chilly as we walked toward Richard Lenoir Blvd and the Bastille Sunday market, steady enough to redirect us to the permanent vendors of produce and cheese near the Saint Paul station.
Afterward, we walked over to the Left Bank to Club Christine to catch a Barbara Stanwyck film, Boule de Feu (Ball of Fire), a 1941 film in which the lives of a group of academics working on an encyclopedia are shaken up by their encounter with a showgirl evading the police. The premise is silly but fun, a classic screw-ball comedy, for which Stanwyck received her second acting Oscar nomination.
We met Patricia and an American ex-pat friend of hers, Jennifer, in front of the Musee Luxembourg just ahead of our 4 pm entry time for the last day of Tous Leger, a show of Fernand Léger and his artistic milieu, both his touchstones and compatriots (Niki de Saint Phalle) and those influenced by him (Keith Haring).
The rain of earlier in the day was a distant memory when we emerged into glorious sunshine of late afternoon and the abundant flowers and lush landscape of the gardens.
Jardin Luxembourg, backed by the French Senate Building.
Patricia showed us several features of the gardens that we were unaware of, including beehives and apple orchards. We also ducked into nearby Saint Sulpice church to view a chapel decorated with three monumental paintings by Eugene Delacroix (first chapel to the right, la chapelle des Saints-Anges).
Au plafond, on the ceiling of the chapel Delacroix decorated in Saint Sulpice Church on the Left Bank of Paris, over years toward the end of his life, 1855-1861. Saint Michael Defeats the Devil depicts the angel driving the devil (clutching pitchfork) from heaven.
Saint Sulpice’s interior is beautiful! Inside the Lady Chapel behind the altar is this gorgeous 1734 white marble Virgin and Child sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle.
Monday, July 21, 2025
It was good we left early for Fondation Louis Vuitton (FLV), even though the phone suggested it was but a 31-minute trip by subway and walking. We ultimately had to appeal to the Metro’s customer service agent to intervene, as the reader would not acknowledge the tickets on my Apple watch. Steve was able to get his Iphone to be recognized after a few attempts and switching lanes.
We were right on time for the 11 am opening, but we were at the back of a long rain-soaked line to have our bags screened, which took until 11:30 to actually make it into the building. The occasion is the David Hockney 25 retrospective, concentrating on the past 25 years of his storied career. Some early work from his art school and early career in the 1960s was included, but the focus was on the multiple bodies of work he generated in moves from Los Angeles, back to his native England and more recently, to Normandy.
This early work of David Hockney’s , from 1961, draws its title from a Walt Whitman poem referencing homosexual love.
I love this huge, multi-part David Hockney Grand Canyon work!
A large gallery at Fondation Louis Vuitton enveloped the audience in Hockney’s inventive designs for the opera.
As I am finally putting this post together, a year after these events, Hockney died last month, at the age of 88. This was a fantastic exhibition of an expansive vision, a well executed tribute to a stellar and beloved artist. Over the years, we’ve enjoyed several exhibitions of Hockney’s work in Paris. I recall fondly artwork created and displayed on Ipads at the Musee Yves Saint Laurent in 2011 in a show entitled Fresh Flowers: Drawings on iPhone and iPad. More recently, during our pandemic Paris trip in 2021, we admired at Musee l’Orangerie a continuous ribbon of imagery formed from 100 Ipad sketches made over 4 seasons from Hockney’s year-long pandemic stay in Normandie.
Back in the Marais, we split a pita sandwich with schwarma and falafel from the Falafel King, down the street from L’as de Falafel, based on the Les Frenchies preferring it. Steve was won over. I thought it a reasonable alternative. The rain was over, so we enjoyed it in the hidden Rosier-Joseph Migneret park behind rue de Rosier.
A lush retreat from the crowds thronging rue de Rosier, Rosier-Joseph Migneret park.
Rosier-Joseph Migneret park, a tranquil refuge behind busy rue de Rosier.
The park is named for the former director of a nearby boy’s school, the École élémentaire des Hospitalières-Saint-Gervais, who provided false papers to help fleeing Jewish students and sheltered others.
Another pleasant day was capped off with an excellent dinner at Le MaZeney, a recommendation from Rick.
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Line 1 whisked us to the Grand Palais for a trio of exhibitions, plus a large and fun installation by Ernesto Neto.
Huge installation inside the Petit Palais by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto entitled Nosso Barco Tambor Terra (Our Boat Land Drum).
The Art Brut show highlighted a selection of the much larger Bruno Decharme collection of outsider art, which he donated to the Centre Pompidou in 2021.
A piece I loved from the Art Brut show, by autistic Japanese ceramicist Shinichi Sawada, from 2000.
A more kinetic experience was offered by a show of Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely and their friend, sometime collaborator and promoter, Pontus Hulten. A third gallery showed contemporary Danish tapestries made by French craftspeople chez Les Gobelins.
Detail from a tapestry by Tal R, on the theme of Ruin and commissioned for Koldinghus and the Royal Danish Collection.
Detail from a tapestry designed by Alexander Tovborg, Grand Palais, Paris (theme Royal Castle).
Stella Dallas, a 1937 film, at Christine was another Barbara Stanwyck vehicle. She plays a social-climbing but hopelessly tacky mother whose adored daughter’s chances of succeeding in society are threatened by her continuing presence in her life. Both Stanwyck and Anne Shirley as her daughter Laurel were nominated for acting Academy Awards.
On the way home, we picked up a rotisserie chicken, potatoes and salad ingredients for dinner in the apartment. I continued rewatching The Gilded Age.
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Line 1 deposited us a short walk from the Dior Gallery. We could see it before we reached it, thanks to the long line already waiting in front, well ahead of the 11 am opening. The line was notable for budding fashionistas, many mother-daughter groups, with a few men scattered in the mix.
Les fashionistas attendent l’ouverture de La Galerie Dior.
L’escalier spectaculaire, la Galerie Dior, Paris.
The Worth exhibit at the Petit Palais provided an interesting counterpart to the Dior Museum. Just as I was thinking these styles were so The Gilded Age, there in the last gallery was a video clip of Mrs. Russell descending the staircase in a voluminous fantasia of a ballgown from the end of the first season, a sequence I was actually to see again later that evening at home.
Afterwards, we considered lovely tote bags and handbags at Michino (only by appointment). They were pricy enough, I held off (1250-1350 E).
For a light dinner, we sampled nearby Chez Hanna. The falafel-meh. Steve’s chicken curry pita was good, not great.
We learned about the 25th festival européen Jeunes Talents concert series when we ambled into the Archives Nationales garden a few days before. Cynthia and Patricia had already arrived when I made it for Les Plus Grands Air d’Opera et Autres Melodies, featuring soprano Chelsea Marilyn Zurflűh and baritone Jungrae Noah Kim, accompanied by pianist Fernando Loura. I had dressed, as had Cynthia, for the concert to be outdoors. It proved to be inside, with seating in two beautiful adjacent rooms, with soaring ceilings, exuberant boiserie and monumental wall and ceiling paintings.
Concert with young talents in a beautiful setting, Hotel de Soubise, Archives Nationales, Paris.
When I arrived, I produced the electronic ticket. Patricia had emailed me all three tickets, so I showed the last and mentioned I didn’t know if my friends were already there or not. The official said something about the justification for the reduced price. Since Patricia had bought the tickets, I had no idea what he was talking about, but guessed (hopefully) that maybe there was a senior discount for those over 65? He waved me through and indicated he’d follow up with Patricia, which never happened. It turns about, being an Amis du Louvre, she was entitled to the reduced rate (16 E down to 13 E).
The program opened with a familiar duet from Mozart’s The Magic Flute (La Flûte Enchantée), Papageno and Papagena singing Papapa. This was reprised as the second encore, after which the audience erupted in a sustained, coordinated bout of clapping. This was also the piece with which I was most familiar, especially having recently seen a hilarious version of it, with Meryl Streep warbling badly through it as Francis Foster Jenkins in the 2016 movie of the same name. Between the two renditions were other arias by Mozart from Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte, with additional pieces by Robert Schumann, Beethoven, Gabriel Fauré, Tchaïkovski and Donizetti.
Thursday, July 24, 2025
We walked over to the Left Bank to Le Champo, short for Le Champollian, a venerable art house theater we’d never been to, on rue des Escoles and rue Champollian. The attraction for us was an English language film by Otto Preminger considered a film noir classic, Laura, from 1944. Gene Tierney stars as Laura, a successful advertising executive whose murder is investigated by police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews). Suspects in Laura’s murder include her mentor and close platonic friend, columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) and her insipid fiance (Vincent Price).
Afterwards, we went to the Pantheon, which I hadn’t visited since I was 22, on my first trip to Europe between college and medical school. About all I remembered was it was large and contained a famous pendulum and was analogous to Westminster Abbey in London, being the repository of the remains of the great men and women of France.
Pantheon, Paris.
We tried to visit it on a trip in November 2021, when we were staying around the corner, but preparations were being made then for Josephine Baker’s interment. More recently, in 2024, the remains of Armenian poet and WW II Resistance fighter Missak Manouchian and his wife Mélinée entered the Pantheon. A 2009 film The Army of Crime (L’Armée du crime), directed by Robert Guédiguian, is a well-regarded film depiction of Manouchian’s activism during WW II.
Pantheon: yes, I do love a beautiful ceiling.
Pendulum de Léon Foucault, Pantheon, Paris. “You are invited to come and see the Earth turn”, declared the invitation at which the device was demonstrated in 1851, offering simple, direct evidence of the Earth’s rotation.
This visit was further enhanced by the addition of 6 glass vitrines of the art of German artist Anselm Kiefer, a longtime resident of France. The imposing structure dates to 1790 and served as a church intermittently, until 1885, when Victor Hugo was interned.
Usually, it’s the carytid women doing the heavy architectural lifting. But in this sculpture inside the Pantheon by Paul Landowski (1912-14), two Atlas-type figures strain under a frieze depicting artists whose names have been lost to time (Title: A La Memoire des Artists Dont le Nom s’est Perdu).
We relaxed in the apartment in the late afternoon, tiding ourselves over with tea and fruit tarts picked up the day before from a small bakery down the street, Jojo’s.
I had a chance to check out a high-end resale store on rue de Turenne on the way to dinner in the 11th. I had searched for two such establishments unsuccessfully the day before, misreading rue de Turenne as rue de Temple, on the other side of the Marais. I was unimpressed with the selection. The few items I tried on (YSL wool check pants at 550E) and Agnes B double-breasted leather jacket (650 E) were a little off on sizing for me and I thought still quite expensive for resale.
Our 4-course meal (48 E) at JJ Beaumarchais was mostly excellent, especially the starter salad and the 2-part dessert. The main of hake with corn puree was competent, but neither of us is crazy about hake. The salad of tomatoes, nectarines and a feta-like cheese was delightful. The dessert had a chocolate, nut and cake component (great) but the vanilla ice cream and fruit accompaniment was outstanding. The second course of zucchini flowers and tuna was quite tasty as well. The Saint Veran bottle of Domaine des Correaux white burgundy they suggested was reasonably priced at 43 E and paired well. (139 E total)
Friday, July 25, 2025
We made our own lunch today, with professional instruction, at a branch of L’atelier des Chefs, north of the Grand Palais. The menu of chirashi de saumon was the attraction to this particular branch (there is a branch near Hotel de Ville, just a few blocks away) for La Pause Dej(uener), a 30-minute quick prep for a lunch prepared and consumed on site. Patricia met us there and we were joined by a Parisian couple who arrived by motorcycle (judging by the helmets they stashed). It was Steve’s and the French couple’s first time at the cooking school.
Cubes of salmon which we liberated from the skin were steeped in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and rice vinegar. This was brought to a boil before taking the mixture off the heat and letting the salmon sit for 5 minutes. This was enough to lightly cook the fish, effectively poaching the salmon. We chopped leeks, ginger (my task, peeling it with a spoon, then mincing into tiny pieces) and lemongrass, which were sauteed together with sesame oil and previously prepared jasmine rice. Additional soy sauce was added to the sauteed mixture, which formed the base for our dish, topped with the salmon cubes and chopped mint, coriander and furikaki.
Dessert, a glass of wine and coffee or tea are available for reasonable additional upcharges beyond the 19 E base fee for La Pause Dej. I shouldn’t have gone for the dessert, 3 miniature chocolate cakes with strawberry coulis, as I think it put me over the top, making staying awake at our next stop a bit of a post-prandial struggle.
Patricia walked us to our next destination, the Jacquemart-Andre Museum, a luxurious former private home (hotel particulier) with an amazing art collection.
Another incredibly opulent ceiling, Musee Jacquemart-Andre.
She is a member of virtually all of the museums in town and her insider cards allow us to bypass lines.
I was here years ago (I think with Clarissa) and Steve had never been to this museum.
Stunning staircase, Musee Jacquemart-Andre.
Railing detail, Musee Jacquemart-Andre.
The current attraction is a show of the work of Artemisia Ghentileschi (1593-1653), an Italian painter of renown during a time when women painters were few.
I thought this portrait by Artemisia Ghentileschi of the Virgin (Vierge de l’Annonciation, 1609-10) particularly lovely.
The first-ever couture show at the Louvre lured me out in the evening, but Steve could not be budged. I walked to the Richilieu entrance on Patricia’s advice. I had tried to buy tickets to this exhibition several months ago, unsuccessfully, so it was only thanks to Patricia’s status as an Amis de Louvre that I was able to see this show at all. It proved to be visually splendid, an art museum sniper hunt, as the dresses, outfits, handbags and other objects were interspersed over multiple rooms in the Richilieu wing, including the Napoleon period rooms and rooms filled with beautiful and rare objets d’art.
Yohji Yamamoto 2006 wedding dress dress, scaffolding crossed with crinolines.(Louvre Couture exhibition 2025)
Another crinoline referencing dress, by Jean Paul Gaultier, with the underpinings front and center, from 2008. (Louvre Couture exhibition 2025)
Interesting juxtaposition: Medieval tapestry with Iris Van Herpen 3-D printed Cathedral dress (polyamide with copper electroplating) from 2012. (Louvre Couture exhibition 2025)
Not so comfortable either: I did not lust after these chassures by Alexander McQueen, from 2010. (Louvre Couture exhibition 2025)
I did admire this vitrail (stained glass window) by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye from 2012. (Louvre Couture exhibition 2025)
Saturday, July 26, 2025
We walked across the Seine to Le Champo to see another black and white classic film, 1957’s Sweet Smell of Success (Le Grand Chantage), with Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster. Lancaster plays a powerful and manipulative newspaper columnist who wrangles publicist Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) into submarining the romance between his younger sister (Susan Harrison) and the jazz musician she is in love with, Steve Dallas (another character named Dallas! This one was portrayed by Martin Milner). The black and white cinematography, filmed on location in NYC, is another star in the film and the work of a Chinese-American cinematographer, James Wong Howe, who over decades of working in Hollywood, received 10 Academy Awards nominations and won two. The inky blacks and sparkling night lights seemed a Weegee police encounter come to life.
Random Paris street scenes: A Parisienne who loves red as much as I do!
Paris street scene, towards evening when work places let out and Parisians head to bars and restaurants to meet their friends.
Random Paris street scene, enlivened by Zeko’s murals.
We discovered several lovely gardens while wandering our way back to the Marais, dodging the weekend crowds while foraging for coffee at Nespresso, bread and chausson aux pommes at Poilane and picking up our alterations at Officine General. A small resale store called Raw Archives on rue Debelleyme drew us in long enough for me to find a vintage Celine jacket in lightweight denim. With Steve’s encouragement and reasoning that we weren’t quite maxed out yet luggage-wise (we’ve said that a few times), I brought it home.
We stumbled on this tribute to Elie Wiesel by French sculptor Denis Chetboun in Square du Temple on rue de Bretagne in the 3rd. I started listening to his account of surviving the Holocaust, Night, while working on this post.
Our dinner at Le Tagine was their last night to be open before closing for 5 weeks vacation starting the following day. Sadly, there was no pastilla. We shared two piping hot tagines, one with salmon and vegetables and the other with lamb with olives and preserved lemons. (119 E including a 52 E bottle of wine (Poil de Lievre)).
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Another classic old American black and white film found us again at Le Champo. This time we bought a 35 E card, good for 5 entries. The Killing (L’Ultime Razzia) proved to be a great early Stanley Kubrick film set at a racetrack. An ex-con puts together a team to steal 2 million dollars from the track.
From the theater, we happened on a boutique studio on rue Racine (Bourgine) where the young designer was present. The studio is on top of the boutique. I walked out with a cute red and white striped jacket.
We met Patricia at Musee Maillol for a show of French photographer Robert Doisneau. Afterwards, we wandered towards the Tuileries to catch the last stage of the Tour de France. Steve headed home. It was chilly and lightly raining while I waited with Patricia at Pont Royale. A tall Danish family was in front of us. The mother’s large head of curly hair and her Danish flag waving were potential photographic obstacles, but I managed to maneuver my long lens in between their shoulders.
The police had the very best views of the Tour de France!
Near the Tuileries on the final stage: the intensity and concentration of the Tour de France cyclists, so close to the end!
A huge surprise was when the French fighter jets roared overhead, streaming red, white and blue plumes.
Wow! French jets in formation roared overhead during the final stage of the Tour de France.
Back at the apartment, we dined on pastillas and couscous from the Moroccan purveyor at Marche des Enfants Rouge.
Monday, July 28, 2025
Our good fortune with the mildness of this summer’s weather continued. We didn’t even venture today out with umbrellas. Today’s destination was the Bourse de Commerce, home of the Pineault contemporary art collection. The building is an attraction in its own right, with a circular concrete insert by Tadao Ando inside the historic former stock exchange, creating a large central gallery and surrounding alcoves. Many museums are closed on Mondays, so we had plenty of company but didn’t have to wait, thanks to another of Patricia’s magical membership cards.
I feel the same way about the Bourse de Commerce: awe! I love the building and the Tadao Ando conversion and the collection and installations are consistently worthwhile.
The circular Rotunda gallery had been transformed into a shallow blue pool, with ceramic bowls floating in the pool, gently bumping into each other and emitting musical tones.
A mesmerizing installation by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at the Bourse de Commerce, called clinamen, a term from physics describing the random motion of atoms.
It was quite mesmerizing, the work of French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. It is called clinamen, a term from physics describing the random motion of atoms.
Clinamen at the Bourse de Commerce: A gentle current sends the porceline bowls into each other, with musical tones emitted in a very contemplative setting.
Arrayed around the Rotunda were 24 glass vitrines, exhibiting works by sculptor Ali Cherry. Many utilized antiquities, combined with modern interventions, many having to do with sight.
A huge video film, AGHDRA, from 2021 of Los Angeles-based Arthur Jafa was also quite mesmerizing, although not in the peaceful and contemplative way of clinamen. A roiling black and white scene of what appears to be a semi-solid ocean was quite ambiguous but arresting.
This was part of a larger exhibition Corps et âmes (Body and Soul) which explored representations of the body. An especially compelling component of this show was a collection of eight huge upside-down depictions of his aging body by George Baselitz.
We left in time to stroll across the Seine for a late afternoon showing of David Lynch’s surrealist neo-noir 2001 film, Mulholland Drive. We had thought we had seen it back in the day but nothing seemed familiar. It has a hallucinatory quality and ambiguous plot structure.
One of the four elaborate pillars bookending the lavish Pont Alexandre III, with La Tour Eiffel in the distance. The most spectacular bridge in Paris? Je suis d’accord!
On the way home, we picked up dinner (boeuf bourginon, haricots vert and roasted whole cauliflower) from nearby MIznon.
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
We started our day as usual by walking to Le Champo, now using our Champo card for admission, bringing the price down to 7 E per person! 1958’s La Soif du Mal (Touch of Evil) was the draw, with Orson Wells writing, directing and starring in a dark and sinister US-Mexico border story of corruption. Wells is a corpulent figure (made even more imposing by frequent use of very low camera angles) who rules the US side of the border with an iron fist. Charlton Heston plays his Mexican counterpart, Miguel Vargas, newly wed to an American (Janet Leigh). A car bombing during their honeymoon draws the couple into a maelstrom of intrigue.
We got our steps in, walking parallel to the Seine and back across, to land at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. The main attraction was an exhibition of Henri Matisse called Matisse et Marguerite (Le regard d’un père). This show brought together decades of painted and drawn portraits Matisse made of one of his favorite and most constant models, his daughter Marguerite. Her life story is interesting. Stricken with diptheria at a young age, she had to undergo a tracheotomy and numerous follow-up surgeries. Portraits of her in her youth show her with high collars and /or a black velvet ribbon worn round her neck, to hide the scar.
Loved this portrait of Marguerite from 1916, entitled Marguerite au ruban de velours noir (Marguerire with Black Velvet Ribbon), painted during a time when Marguerite was undergoing multiple interventions to heal her throat.
A very different depiction of Marguerite, entitled Tete Blanche et Rose (White and Pink Head), from 1914-15. This Cubist influenced portrait proved difficult for Matisse’s dealers to sell. It was returned to him and remained in his personal collection until his death.
In later life, she lived in Paris and managed her father’s affairs there. In her 50s, she became involved with the French Resistance during WW II. For this, she was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, but en route to Germany, she was freed before reaching the border.
I also enjoyed an exhibit of the work of Gabriel Münter, a German artist and founding member of the expressionist movement Der Blaue Reiter. I learned much about the extent of her decade-plus long personal and professional association with Wassily Kandinsky. I also found very interesting learning how she preserved the legacy of their artistic partnership, hiding her work and that of Kandinsky and other members of Der Blaue Reiter in her house in Germany during WW II, when Modernist styles of painting were denounced by the Nazis.
A favorite from the Gabriel Munter exhibition in summer 2025 at Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris, entitled Rue principale de Murnau avec attelage (1933).
Yet another reason to visit the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris! I love this giant 1936-7 fresco painting of Raoul Dufy, entitled The Spirit of Electricity. He was commissioned by the Compagnie Parisienne de Distribution Electrique to highlight the role of electricity in society. The painting depicts scientists who contributed to the body of knowledge around electricity, as well as contemporary artists.
We had a most enjoyable dinner catching up with Chris and Michelle at Tekés, sharing Isreali wine and plates of eggplant and other delicious vegetable-based family dishes.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
We became acquainted with the photographic and film work of Agnes Varda at a special exhibition at Musée Carnavalet, entitled de-ci, de-là (From Here to There). We left in time to head across the Seine to the other branch of Christine Cinema Club, Ecoles, at 23 rue des Ecoles (even closer). The attraction was a mid-afternoon showing of a modern classic I had never seen, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, from 1976. A young, swelte and handsome Robert De Niro stars as a disturbed Vietnam vet named Travis Bickle who takes a job driving yellow cabs at night in NYC since he can’t sleep anyway. He sees a sordid side of the city, including a 12-year-old prostitute (Jodie Foster), but idolizes a political consultant (Cybill Shephard).
We had an excellent dinner at the creative Lebanese restaurant Kubri, sharing a watermelon fattoush salad (with feta, cucumber, and pomegranate), Lala roasted chicken with a green toum sauce (Lebanese garlic sauce), and lentils and fried rice (with radishes and pomegranates). 97 E
Thursday, July 31, 2025
We used up our first Le Champo admission card, seeing En Quatrieme Vitesse (Kiss me Deadly). The 1955 film is based on a 1952 crime novel Kiss Me, Deadly by Mickey Spillane. The French title translates to “full throttle” or “full speed”. Ralph Meeker portrays hard-boiled detective Mickey Spillane, whose normal practice focuses on divorces. He is drawn into intrigue when a trench-coat clad woman (Cloris Leachman in her first role). runs out in front of his sports car, forcing him to pick her up.
In the late afternoon, Patricia and Sara came over chez nous for an apero. Sara is a medical school classmate of mine who has moved to France, who somehow recognized me on a Zoom screen during an online French course I took in the fall of 2024, 38 years after our graduation! (Presumably, an odd last name helped!) To supplement the cheeses, nuts and other nibbles we were motivated to eat up due to our imminent departure the following day, we had ventured to Picard, to try their gougeres. Patricia had walked us through this emporium of frozen food earlier during this stay.
Friday, August 1, 2025
Our return to New York was uneventful, via a JetBlue flight from CDG, all negotiated with public transit! We had bought our RER tickets on our new Navigo cards the prior day and were wheeling ourselves and our luggage to Chatelet at 9 am. our timing was good, escalator down to RER platform, train at the platform, to CDG by 10 am, a record! There was the DeTaxe to take care of before checking in our medium-sized Away bags (amazingly, with Steve’s backpack stuffed with dirty laundry and my tote bag filled with three jackets, we were able to expand the Away bags to pack and then minimized their footprint once packed).
The flight itself was fine. We were able to board early with the A group so no problem finding space for our carry-ons and we had adjacent aisle seats. I lucked out with an empty middle seat, but Steve wasn’t so fortunate, with a chubby middle seat occupant.
I passed the time with movie catch-up, starting with a choice that made the New York Times Top 100 films of the 21th century list, Aftersun, the debut feature of Scottish director Charlotte Wells, from 2022. Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal star as 11-year-old Sophie, on vacation on the coast of Turkey with her 31-year-old father Calum. It is a lyrical recollection of a long-ago father-daughter vacation.
I loved my second film choice, a French film called En Fanfare (in French) and The Marching Band (in English). An actor I love, Benjamin Lavernhe, stars as a world-famous conductor stricken with leukemia. While being tested for a bone marrow transplant, he learns he was adopted and has a younger brother, played by Pierre Lottin. Pierre lives in a hard-scrabble village threatened by the loss of its major factory employer and plays trombone in the local orchestra. As they learn more about each other, it becomes clear their lives and opportunities were widely divergent. A piece of music repeatedly heard during the film, as the marching band rehearses for a competition, is now familiar, thanks to our recent Verona sojourn, the Triumphal March from Aida (which the conductor knows from having conducted it previously in, of course, Verona). This appealing film went on to win Director’s Choice for Best International Feature and winner for Audience Choice Best of Fest Narrative at the 2026 Sedona International Film Festival.
I had to watch another French film from 2024, since its title in English is Miss Violet (French title Louise Violet). Alexandra Lamy portrays a schoolteacher sent in the late 1800s to a rural area (filmed in an area that looks beautiful, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region). It is rough going, as the life of the local people revolves around crop cycles and depends on the labor of their children, but eventually she makes headway with educating the youth of the region.
My final selection was motivated both by a love of penguins and an interest in Argentinian history. The Penguin Lessons (2024) is based on a true story of the same name by Tom Michell, an English teacher, of his time teaching at an upper-crust boy’s boarding school in Argentina. which coincided with the military coup of 1976. On vacation in Uruguay, he encounters an oil spill on a beach in which multiple penguins have died, save one, which he cleans up. It becomes attached to him, leading him to take it back with him to the school, where it becomes a beloved mascot.
Saturday, August 2, 2025
Lunch was at home with prepared foods procured from Milano Market the evening before (pasta with sausage and broccolini, green beans with almonds). We seemed to have won the weather lottery this summer. Last week’s heatwave broke just before our arrival, and it was a pleasant walk to the Sondheim theater in time for the afternoon matinee. The audience seemed to be predominantly young girls, which was our first clue we probably weren’t the target demographic for & Juliet, which imagines that Juliet decides to live on after Romeo’s death, a clever riff on a classic.
We had good seats for & Juliet on Broadway.
Shakespeare (Drew Gehling) and his wife Anne Hathaway (Alison Luff) engage in a tug-of-war over which direction the evolving play should go.
Gianna Harris was a beautiful and energetic Juliet. The music by Max Martin and collaborators is a panoply of pop music hits. The dancing was non-stop, almost frenetic. I did admire the steampunk crossed with hiphop Renaissance costumes and the expressiveness and comic timing of Juliet’s nurse (Jeannette Bay Ardelle deserved her Tony nomination for this supporting role).
Afterward, we made our way to Beekman Place, a quiet enclave on the east side, to the apartment of Mary Ann Cloyd, who we had met through Patricia last October in Paris. She hosted us in her beautifully appointed apartment for an apero, along with her downstairs neighbor friends, Scott and Karen Manville. All three were coincidentally in Paris at the same time last fall and came over to our place with Patricia for an apero.
Sunday, August 3, 2025
I recently learned yet another pair of San Diego friends are also our neighbors on the UES in NYC: Annasue from my bookclub and her art historian husband John. In May, when we were shocked by the news of the cardiac sudden death of a former bookclub member, Julia Marciari-Alexander, Annasue mentioned she and John saw Julia regularly, her office at the Kress Foundation being across the street from their NY apartment. Today, they came over midday to see the apartment (one of their daughters was occupying their NY apartment but they have recently reclaimed it) and we walked over to brunch at Cafe d’Alsace. Seated inside in a booth, we were pleasantly surprised Steve could hear over the din. Both of us were disappointed by our sandwich selections (mediterranean for me and croque madame for Steve) but it was fun catching up with Annasue and getting to know them better as a couple.
Afterwards, we headed for the subway and Hudson Yards, to walk south on the Highline to the Whitney. Michelle Hoffman had mentioned she had really enjoyed seeing the portrait show of Amy Sherald at the Whitney.
At the Whitney, Amy Sherald’s subjects are ordinary and extraordinary Black Americans, most notably Michelle Obama.
Amy Sherald at the Whitney: Hangman, 2007.
Amy Sherald at the Whitney: For Love and For Country, 2022. I don’t like the giant sculptural version of this which looms over San Diego’s waterfront but I do like Amy Sherald’s interpretation of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous photo V-J Day in TImes Square.
I also enjoyed a small exhibit of Louise Nevelson’s black sculptures.
Practically next door to the Whitney is Genesis House, a Korean restaurant, library and lounge within a glossy Genesis showroom, a quiet retreat for a nice dinner. Our final stop for the day was a performance at Little Island, of playwright Suzan-Lori Park’s (Topdog/Underdog, Sally & Tom, The Harder They Come) band, SLP & The Joyful Noise. It is exhilarating to watch the colors change on the Hudson as the 8:30 start time approaches. The temperature was delightfully cool. Clarissa was supposed to have seen The Tune-Up before our arrival, but 3 of 5 of her scheduled Little Island summer events were cancelled due to weather.
Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Today was a day for getting things done, starting with a 40-minute walk south for me to have Tamas cut and color my hair. Meanwhile, Steve did some laundry. Unfortunately, he never saw the warning posted on WhatsApp of the upper left dryer’s propensity to destroy, particularly underwear. At least the pieces chewed up weren’t brand new! The laundry room will be redone with new appliances over the next year.
After lunching on Vanessa’s Peking duck sesame pancake sandwiches, the afternoon was spent at T-Mobile, changing our mobile service, after decades with AT&T. Steve from our Dolomites bicycle trip had mentioned there were no extra surcharges for international use with T-Mobile and my Steve noted we didn’t have coverage in San Diego and Sedona. We’ve had to use Wifi to make calls for years.
We just made our 7 pm performance of Hell’s Kitchen ($60 TDF tickets), which attracted a completely different crowd from the youngsters dominating the audience at & Juliet. This audience included many people of color-I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many varieties of African braids at one time. Hell’s Kitchen is a semi-autobiographical story set to Alicia Keys’ music, based on her experiences growing up in NYC in a rent-subsidized building for artists. Amanda Reid has taken over the lead role of Ali, the 17-year-old at odds with her strict single mother (Jessica Vosk). Trying to rein in Ali, her mother calls for help from Ali’s pianist father, now played by Christopher Jackson, who we saw as George Washington in the original Hamilton cast 10 years ago. Kecia Lewis from the original cast stood out as Miss Liza Jane, a pianist who lives in the building and teaches Ali how to play, while serving as a surrogate mother to her. She was outstanding, well deserving of the panoply of acting awards she received for this role, including a Tony. We both enjoyed the show. The set is incredible, simulating a multi-story building, complete with an elevator stopping multiple times on its way up to the apartment Ali shares with her mother.
The following day, we were headed back to San Diego, having been away a near-record 6 weeks! It had been a wonderful extended stay in Europe, bookended by stays in New York, discovering the delights of northern Italy and relaxing in the comfortable familiarity of homes away from home, Paris and New York.
-Marie