PARIS TRIP: DAY 4: Paris
Paris, Saturday, 17 June 06
(written on 20 June)
This day was quite a waste and rather full of miscalculations. I woke up at 9 am, but Guillaume didn’t get up until 11, and I didn’t want to wake him up, although he had said that in such cases I should. I finally got out at 11:30, went to a nearby supermarket to buy shaving gel, which I have strangely forgotten to include in my bag of toiletries, and a drink.
I walked to the Rodin Museum, and that wasn’t a good idea considering that I was so late, and that it was hot and very sunny; and I kept losing my way. The museum was a strong recommendation from Sunanda, and indeed it was fantastic.
In general, I prefer sculptures as compared to paintings, although I probably find high degrees of abstraction easier to appreciate in paintings than sculpture. I was already familiar with some of Rodin’s work (who hasn’t seen a photo or a copy of his The Thinker?) but his work was quite overwhelming. The museum is a former hotel that used to be let to artists and poets. 
Rilke, the German poet, and friend and former secretary of Rodin, stayed there and insisted that the later check it out. Rodin liked it so much that he rented a few rooms to exhibit his work to the public and clients. I think he also stayed there for a while. The pieces are exhibited in the two floors of the museum and its gardens. 
What I found interesting, among other things, was that he had experimented with using same figures in different sculptures in different positions. On his mega-project on the Gates of Hell, one of the famous pieces is the one with the three male figures at the top, just below The Thinker. All these three figures are identical but are placed in different positions with respect to each other and that gives a very interesting effect. 
One of the most impressive exhibits was The Kiss, where the guy and the girl hesitatingly kiss. The hesitation is beautifully apparent in the clay model, though not very much in the marble one (unfortunately this could not be photographed properly to bring out the effect). I would have liked to buy a copy of The Thinker, but the museum shop only had the ones from the original cast, and hence too big (and of course too heavy and too expensive). Let’s see if I can get one from souvenir shops.
After the Rodin Museum, I went to the Les Invalides, which is an army hospital but its church houses Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb.
The church and the complex are quite magnificent, but I didn’t want spend too much time there and instead move on. I took the Metro to the Pantheon.
This is another grand church, and houses the tombs of a number of important French figures including Pierre and Marie Curie, Rousseau, Voltaire, Hugo, Dumas and others. The batteries in my camera were over, and strangely enough, the other set weren’t recharged (I thought I had), so I couldn’t take many photos. The church has a replica of Foucault’s Pendulum that had been used to prove that the earth spins on its axis.
After this I went to the internet place and then got back to Guillaume’s place at around 6 pm. He was still there, and was going out soon with his friends. I lazed around a bit, had a shower, and thought I’d check out the architecture of the Centre Pompidou, that is a museum of modern art. I am not too keen about the art, although there is a lot of modern art that I find appealing, however, I do want to check out its unique architecture with exposed pipes and all. I thought the museum would be open until 9:45 pm, with the last entry at 8:45 pm. But when I reached, I realized that it is open only until 9 pm, and it was too late to get in. I sat in its pleasant courtyard for a while, and then strolled through the Marais to the Notre Dame. There was some kind of religious show going on inside. I strolled around, and sat for a while, and then went back home. Later, I had a sandwich and called Prashanth. He was at Jean-Philippe’s place and said that they had got back the previous night after 6 am, and so he was dead tired and wanted to relax. He suggested that I could join them at Jean-Philippe’s place if I liked. But I wanted to check out Marais on Saturday evening, and he suggested a couple of places.
I strolled along the Marais and went into one of the suggested places (I forget the name). It wasn’t very crowded, techno music was playing and some people were dancing. One of the barmen also gathered two stools and started dancing on it. After a while I went to Open Café, the place where Prashanth and I had been on Thursday night. I had two drinks at the bar and went back.
(written on 20 June)
This day was quite a waste and rather full of miscalculations. I woke up at 9 am, but Guillaume didn’t get up until 11, and I didn’t want to wake him up, although he had said that in such cases I should. I finally got out at 11:30, went to a nearby supermarket to buy shaving gel, which I have strangely forgotten to include in my bag of toiletries, and a drink.
I walked to the Rodin Museum, and that wasn’t a good idea considering that I was so late, and that it was hot and very sunny; and I kept losing my way. The museum was a strong recommendation from Sunanda, and indeed it was fantastic.
In general, I prefer sculptures as compared to paintings, although I probably find high degrees of abstraction easier to appreciate in paintings than sculpture. I was already familiar with some of Rodin’s work (who hasn’t seen a photo or a copy of his The Thinker?) but his work was quite overwhelming. The museum is a former hotel that used to be let to artists and poets. 
Rilke, the German poet, and friend and former secretary of Rodin, stayed there and insisted that the later check it out. Rodin liked it so much that he rented a few rooms to exhibit his work to the public and clients. I think he also stayed there for a while. The pieces are exhibited in the two floors of the museum and its gardens. 
What I found interesting, among other things, was that he had experimented with using same figures in different sculptures in different positions. On his mega-project on the Gates of Hell, one of the famous pieces is the one with the three male figures at the top, just below The Thinker. All these three figures are identical but are placed in different positions with respect to each other and that gives a very interesting effect. 
One of the most impressive exhibits was The Kiss, where the guy and the girl hesitatingly kiss. The hesitation is beautifully apparent in the clay model, though not very much in the marble one (unfortunately this could not be photographed properly to bring out the effect). I would have liked to buy a copy of The Thinker, but the museum shop only had the ones from the original cast, and hence too big (and of course too heavy and too expensive). Let’s see if I can get one from souvenir shops.
After the Rodin Museum, I went to the Les Invalides, which is an army hospital but its church houses Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb.
The church and the complex are quite magnificent, but I didn’t want spend too much time there and instead move on. I took the Metro to the Pantheon. 
This is another grand church, and houses the tombs of a number of important French figures including Pierre and Marie Curie, Rousseau, Voltaire, Hugo, Dumas and others. The batteries in my camera were over, and strangely enough, the other set weren’t recharged (I thought I had), so I couldn’t take many photos. The church has a replica of Foucault’s Pendulum that had been used to prove that the earth spins on its axis. After this I went to the internet place and then got back to Guillaume’s place at around 6 pm. He was still there, and was going out soon with his friends. I lazed around a bit, had a shower, and thought I’d check out the architecture of the Centre Pompidou, that is a museum of modern art. I am not too keen about the art, although there is a lot of modern art that I find appealing, however, I do want to check out its unique architecture with exposed pipes and all. I thought the museum would be open until 9:45 pm, with the last entry at 8:45 pm. But when I reached, I realized that it is open only until 9 pm, and it was too late to get in. I sat in its pleasant courtyard for a while, and then strolled through the Marais to the Notre Dame. There was some kind of religious show going on inside. I strolled around, and sat for a while, and then went back home. Later, I had a sandwich and called Prashanth. He was at Jean-Philippe’s place and said that they had got back the previous night after 6 am, and so he was dead tired and wanted to relax. He suggested that I could join them at Jean-Philippe’s place if I liked. But I wanted to check out Marais on Saturday evening, and he suggested a couple of places.
I strolled along the Marais and went into one of the suggested places (I forget the name). It wasn’t very crowded, techno music was playing and some people were dancing. One of the barmen also gathered two stools and started dancing on it. After a while I went to Open Café, the place where Prashanth and I had been on Thursday night. I had two drinks at the bar and went back.
posted by A.S. at 3:42 PM
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