Saturday morning, very quiet

The sun is out which is lovely and the cloudy grey sky has patches of a delicate azure. The sun is catching the top of the cathedral's square towers sending all the detail into lovely contrast.
It gets light here very fast, at 8:00am still dark then by 8:20am light!
(Well now at 11am the sun has been gone awhile, looks like I am having a morning in today!)
Yesterday was a misty drizzly day, you sort of get wet but you can't really tell if the misty wet will be a drizzle but certainly less than a sprinkle.

I walked to the Pompidou, very close, just off the island and up past the Hotel de Ville.

 This is am amazing town hall - the history of this building like most things in Paris is amazing.

 It's so huge that I had to have three shots!

 Next door to it on the north side is a gorgeous looking department store.

 Now the Pompidou. When I was here in 1982 with Lizzie this was pretty brand spanking new and shiny like a huge toy box. Now 31 years later it is very much part of the landscape and the contrast to the rest of the soft warm tones of Paris looks good if a bit less shiny now. Its cooler tones of the glass and steel link in with the darker stone buildings yet uncleaned.
It's such a contrast to the rest of the neighbourhood that it's created its own world. It's tough chic, no curlicues or balustrades or marble in sight! No whiff of any imperial history here...but a whiff of nostalgia for a bit of 1970's. It's functional, spacious and of course grungy groovy. You sort of need to swagger around here and be forthright - no apologetic woozes please!
I noticed that many of the visitors are French rather than foreign. In fact there was a long line of visitors outside waiting for the museum to open.  It opens at 11am whereas everywhere else opens at 10.
Also I came across at least 3 groups of tiny school kids being wowed by excellent introductions to particular pieces. There were also groups of more jaded, ho-hum looking high school students.
So I did my best to be part of the furniture ( not much by the way and very lean and mean).
Having negotiated the cloakroom I made it up to the wonderful glass external escalator.

The views are terrific.

You can go up and up and end up at Level 6.

 From the roof level it seems closer to Montmartre which I guess is north west.

 Then more west is the site of Les Halles - the huge cranes are doing the face lift of the top of the Forum Les Halles and just behind is Eglise St Eustache and further away is the shape of the Opera House. (There is a terrific model of Garnier's Opera House sliced down the middle at the Musee d'Orsay.)

This is the view down into the Place Stravinsky - the pool is full of lovely playful sculptures by Dubuffet and others.

This view is to the south west and it was so foggy that the Eiffel tower was obscured - well I think it is out there on the horizon.

Again inside you can take photos with out using the flash. I remember taking heaps in 2010. But this time I just tried to soak as much in as possible. But I thought this was just a fabulous painting in a circle. I'll get the artist next visit.

Also on the 4th level I came across this work by Nicci de St Phalle which was so gritty compared to alot of other stuff.

I came away full of thoughts - there was a lot of art there that I thought could do with a big dose of Fiona Hall and Tracy Moffat. I was disappointed in the contemporary painting but hey isn't painting so yesterday? Seeing the huge Joan Mitchell was wonderful but I looked in vein for any Yayoi Kusama.

More on this thought provoking collection another time. It's really got me thinking, so it's working!

I spent most time on the 5th level which has the redesigned modernist collection. The 4th level has contemporary work . The 6th level has an exhibition of Surrealist Objects which I'll visit with Richard in January. 

The layout of this place is challenging for me - hey my swagger slipped! I'll get back there next week.

Musee d'Orsay on an overcast Thursday

The wow factor of this refurbished huge art museum cannot be pooh poohed away. It really is terrific. When I was here in 1982 of course it was still being developed and in 2010 with only a day here we opted for the Pompidou - a great choice. On this visit I have time to explore these incredible art houses.
The walk down to the museum along the river was brisk and lovely - who am I kidding, it was fantastic. On the south side I had terrific views of the Palais Justice then the Pont Neuf beyond the little tip of garden which is the western end of the Ille de Cite. Then you see the extensive, huge Louvre and  the Tuileries. On my side of the river there are very handsome buildings including....

Yes the Palais des Beaux Arts. These edifices are so imposing it's a wonder anyone has the chutzpah to enter! The Institut de France is along here as well.

 I'll have the one with the little blue door

This is the Cafe Campana, the eating space on the 5th level - so groovy, it's just been redesigned. The huge clock faces the Seine, the lights are riveted brass, the room dividers are bright red plastic coated wire - Susie's class would love these..

The huge clock faces the Seine across the road.

On the left side is the kitchen behind a groovy wall of blue glass. My photo is pathetic apologies.

Across the river to the Louvre

 Looking west and up or down? the river

 The amazingly huge stone statues on the top of the museum

 Straight across to Montmartre

 Walking home along Rue Lille. This street is full of the most amazing interior shops one could ever imagine. This larger facade is wonderful, it's a bank today, its date is 1858.

I realise I haven't mentioned the ART. There is a new rule in the museum that prohibits photography. Hmmmn this little obedient Aussie watched as everyone else took photos so next time I go I will try and out do the few images taken above.
But this is such an extensive collection that it takes time to think about it. All I can say is that having taught Cultural Productions I for years and years it's like visiting old friends. Some exquisite surprises include Corot's Woman in a Pink Dress, all the Daumiers - especially the ceramic painted busts of the politicians, everything by Manet, the sumptuous paintwork from some of the Salon stars, the early Monets, all the Bonnards and the Vuillards, the other Nabis, Gustave Moreau - the wildest paintings there, the Odilon Redon pastels, such incredible colour, the Toulouse Lautrec's fresher than fresh paintings, and the early angry Cezannes. Boy oh boy he was an angry young man but his portraits of his wife are very lovingly done. I'll go back. I saw the torso of the old woman by Camille Claudel - this brought tears to my eyes.

Around Notre Dame on Wednesday November 27.

 Always people around here and on such a lovely day too.

 This is on the river side, a little park called after Pope John 23rd.

 The conical cyprus trees are gorgeous as are the late beautiful dark yellow leaves.

 Yes square trees!!!! I love them.

This is a view across the park in a north direction and my place is at the top on the second building from the corner.The first window without a balcony.

 I just love these square trees, can you imagine the painting!

There are copper patinated figures crawling up the spire, along the roof, everywhere.

It was lovely sitting in the sun after I went to the Deportees' Memorial. This commemorates over 160,000 people sent to their deaths from Paris in the war. This concrete sculptural memorial was opened in 1962. It is on the eastern tip of the Ille De Cite.

To Paris

 St Pancras in London, the Eurostar station. Those c19th iron and glass cathedrals.

Not sure where the tunnel starts or comes up but this is such wonderful farming land and in the north I guess it's the WW1 battleground area. I'll have to research it.

You literally fly over the countryside, we went near to Amiens. The train is amazingly smooth and quiet. You can stand and have a coffee or whatever in the food carriage. It's so clean and sophisticated it really puts our XPT to shame and V-Line too. Bring on the very fast train to eastern Australia!

The Gare du Nord is huge and crowded. My first encounter with Parisian truculence - the little lady in what seemed to be an information booth when asked if there was an information centre said 'non' - of course I should have asked for the Visitors' Centre. C'est la vie...I tackled the Metro and followed the pink line and found myself at Cite - so far so good mais ou est la Notre Dame? Find the dear river and turn left, follow the nose et voila Notre Dame. Walked right past my street but back tracked avec la valise rouge, remembered the magic combination for the front door and in. Then find the key for another door, then another, across the 'courtyard' (this tiny 'alley' nothing like an Italian courtyard that was in my imagination) then up up up avec the bloody valise rouge. Very happy and breathless to be at the top. another magic combination of numbers et voila - home!

My little place,

 The view upon arrival

 The climb to bed

 View out the other window

 Little kitchen

The view at night

So the stairs - a spiralling wooden very narrow and very old staircase up to the sixth floor.

From the top down taken on day 2 

Looking back up to the little door to the hallway to the studio.

So this is my little eyrie for a while. The steps are steep and many but am hoping with all the walking I will balance out the eating!

Hallo hallo hallo - before Paris was Tate Britain

Although I have been called a public broadcaster now I feel hesitant about sharing too much information about getting to the other side of the world.
But either I am so impressionable or just a tragic but I find the airports, the flights, the Tube, the Metro and all those little things that make walking down a street in London different to walking down a street in Sydney or Albury or Paris so very fantastic!!!
So maybe life is too short for apologies - this is a no cynicism zone - I am over feeling cynical...too negative.
Air travel, when you are on a big aeroplane strapped in securely and fed every few hours it's just like being a baby again. No responsibility - the trust has to be there. I felt even better on the huge 380 plane from Dubai to London - it's so big and so quiet and so fast - one just doesn't need to know how it all works to feel fine about being on it.
I had two nights with my nephew and his lovely family in London.
On the first day in London I used my borrowed oyster card and got myself to Pimlico and Tate Britain. What blew me away was the adjacent University of the Arts!!!!! A whole institution for the Arts while at home the economic rationalist suits are squeezing the Arts out of Higher Education - no vocational prospects and of course Fine Arts at TAFE was expelled from NSW government funding over 12 months ago. However they must be under threat here as well as there was a protest work near the entrance.

I will find out the history of this beautiful campus.

What other attacks on art?

Fantastic painting studio

You just cannot imagine a greater contrast between these tortured but amazing trees in Pimlico and the bush at home!

 Side view of the Tate Britain. This is at about midday

The wonderful rotunda inside the portico - no photography inside the gallery!

 This is outside the gallery on Millbank at about 4:15pm

Looking across to the Thames

 Upon leaving at 4;15pm

 A shot of the university in the afternoon - all lights blazing

A glowing red telephone box, I wish we still had them at home. This is a great pice of industrial design ca 1930s London?

People have told me how it gets dark early in London coming up to winter well now I believe it - amazing. 

Highlights included the Samuel Palmer tempera works, the tiny Constable oils on black ground, the Hogarth self portrait, the late Turners, the William Dadd Faerie Painting and Walter Sickert.

I'll be returning to see the other rooms, only made it to ca 1910.