Annabel and Dave's Awesome Adventures: Paris

Les Invalides from the garden at the Musee Rodin

We caught the Eurostar to Paris a few weekends ago. It was Dave's first Eurostar adventure, I think he was impressed, and the thing is I think the Eurostar is actually the tattiest of all the fast trains in France, I blame the private interests involved in Britain. It was a little strange to be back there after so long. I think I did a lot more walking than when I lived there, I had an annual pass last time I was there, which covered all zones, so I basically never walked anywhere. This time we didn't even buy a 10-ticket pass. But then Paris is so completely tiny. We were staying in the 10th arrondissement, up North near the Gare du Nord and we walked multiple times from there to the Louvre. It turned out that the weekend we visited a lot of the museums and art galleries were free on the Sunday. We were contemplating the Louvre, but after seeing the line stretching from the entrance, through the forecourt, out through the next courtyard we thought we'd try to find a less popular free gallery. We ended up at the Musee Rodin, which I think is one of my

A man just wanting to work as a servant

favourite art galleries, as you have the wonderful gardens and then when you get a bit cold there is another whole exhibition inside the old house, I think it's probably more of a chateau. And being so close to Les Invalides seems to add something to the photos too.

I like the statue in the photo to the left, also inside the Musee Rodin, this man apparently turned up at Rodin's house looking for a position as a servant. Rodin took one look at him and demanded he take off all his clothes and starting sculpting him straight away. Must have been a bit of a shock to the man who only wanted to be a servant. There was another statue in this same room which caused a bit of controversy for Rodin. Because he was so good at capturing the musculature he was accused of taking casts of his models, rather than just sculpting them. I think from that point on he no longer sculpted life size as he didn't want to be falsely accused again.

Dante and the gates of hell

The classic is of course the Thinker. I didn't appreciate that he actually made the Thinker much smaller originally, that it was just part of a much larger door sculpture, and that he is meant to be Dante looking down on the inferno. It seemed though that Rodin liked what he had done on the door so much that he had to make an entirely separate version.

Whilst we were in Paris I noticed that there was a photography exhibition by Diane Arbus on at the photography museum, I love how Paris has a museum for everything. Diane Arbus focused a lot on people on the fringes of society, the outsiders, which made for some really freaky photos. I didn't realise that she killed herself when she was quite young. Her photos certainly stick with you. Unfortunately photos of the photos aren't allowed.

Paris is made for sepia tones, taken on the walking tour

We also went on a walking tour whilst we were there, though it was more of a history lesson then a big walk. This one started off at the Palais-Royal and ended up at the Place de la Concorde, so not a massive distance covered. But there was a lot of history covered, it was focusing on the Revolution period, which is a period which I am ashamed to admit I don't know heaps about. I mean I guess I know the basics, but the way the tour guide was talking about it, that it was like a century of history was compressed into a decade, really made me keen to find a good book on this period. I reckon there's got to be a few around, I mean the French Revolution is a pretty popular subject. But the history he did cover was interesting, it was probably more little facts and tidbits about the buildings around us than an over-arching lesson on the revolution.

In the gardens of the Palais-Royal

Relaxing in the chairs in the Tuilleries

The rest of the weekend was spent wandering the streets, though it was much colder than London seemed to be. Whilst ducking into boulangeries for croissants and coffees. I'd forgotten how nice French coffee is, after a couple of months of the weak swill they generally serve here. It has a very particular flavour, I'm not sure whether it's the beans they use or their roasting or what, but I haven't tasted that anywhere else. I was also impressed that I could still order in French, it makes it easier when you are in a crowded shop and the attendant just wants to be done with you as soon as possible to sell the next person their morning baguette. But definitely inspired me to take up French again, I think it's going to be a new Year's resolution for me.