A day in strolling around Paris, Right Bank

Friday, July 26th:  Yesterday, we mostly wandered around the Marais area and visited the Pablo Picasso National Museum, in a 17th century building housing 5,000 pieces of artwork by Picasso, his own artwork collection and archives.  Every time he moved, he took his collections with him.  The exhibition highlighted the connections between the visual images and historic ideas he collected in the archives and his artwork.  We toured all four floors and then rested in the garden.  There are lots of photos.

Prior to the museum, we had a great night's sleep, and didn't make it out for coffee and pastries until noon.  Our apartment has two small windows that face onto an inner courtyard so it is dark and quiet.

We had breakfast at the Festival de Pain patisserie, then walked to the Place des Vosges.  In one corner, one can see the Cour and Jardin de l"Hotel de Sully (Court and Garden for the palace).  We then walked a few more blocks to the Picasso Museum.

Front door (only door) to our Luxury Apartment.

The front door of the building complex in which our apartment is located.

The Cour and Jardin de l"Hotel de Sully.

One side of the Place des Vosges -- one very nice cloister.

One of hundred of Invader's tile mosaics scattered throughout Paris.  The artist's name is actually Franck Slams, and he got started depicting space invaders and the like from early computer games.  But he has widened his choice of art now.

A Police horse patrol.

A dog park we went in and watched two dachshunds play with each other - one puppy and one tolerant long-hair.

Another Fika coffee shop, using the same name as the one we have in Sisters, OR.

Another Invader mosaic.

Front entrance to the Pablo Picasso Museum.

The Goat.

An introduction for the museum.

A key to the layout of the first series of rooms - one for each theme.

The Rape (or Abduction, or Kidnapping) of the Sabine Women, painted by Nicolas Poussin and an inspiration for Picasso.

His interpretation or treatment of the Sabine Women.

Related to previous art - machine-like soldiers against vulnerable women and children.

Minataur theme

More Minotaur.

Hero.

7 Musketeers.

Self portrait by Rembrandt, described below.

Explanation of two early "cubist" paintings by Picasso, shown below.

Fully embracing his famous style - a swimming woman with her head where her foot should be.

An interesting building with fancy staircase windows.

The man with a lamb bronze.  Picasso made art in lots of mediums - iron rods, pottery, 3-D paper and other materials, sculptures, and brass etchings.

Timber framing on the top floor of the 17th century building.  The timbers are about 12 inches wide.

The broad view looking north from the museum's top floor.

A telephoto shot of a detail in the previous photo -- Sacre-Coeur Basilica.

A collection of Picasso's models and lovers.

Invader strikes again -- an appropriate mosaic for the street.

The State Archives Museum.  We arrived just as it was closing but visited the garden -- not much.

A very fancy building decoration, maybe support for an Olympic Country.

Dinner was at a Tapas place on the route home.  

Following the Wednesday evening closures, the situation on the Parisian streets and sidewalks is much better - in particular, crossing major barricaded streets is possible at most intersections.  And the bike riders are back on the streets with access to bike lanes.  After my negativity in the last blog, I thought I would detail some of the "good" things about being here.

• The city is quiet - the only noise one hears are emergency vehicles (which have access to the closed streets) and motorcycles.
• There is little worry about being run down by speeding cars -- there aren't many.  Neighborhoods further from the river have more normal traffic. 
• Pedestrian friendly.
• There are cafes on every corner and blockface. 
• Great people watching from the sidewalk tables.
• There is no dog poop on the sidewalks and rather few dogs (the few dogs we have met are friendly and quiet).
• While we have not yet used the Metro System this trip, it appears to go everywhere.
• The food is excellent.
• Our apartment location is very convenient.
• It is easy to pay by credit card by tapping.

There are probably more, but I can't think of them now.

More news tomorrow.