Flight of imagination

People tend to think that Montparnasse is in the 14th arrondissement, but much of that hill -- and the former haunts of artists who lived on it -- is in the 15th arrondissement.  You can feel it in your legs as you walk uphill, into the southeastern part of the 15th.

Moonbird, by Joan Miró

You can see it before your eyes, even when you are as far north and west as the former Square Blomet, now called the Square de l'Oiseau Lunaire -- the Moonbird Square.  I call it the crazy lunar bird place, because the sculpture it is named for is, well, weird.  I mean weird in a good way.  The sculpture is a good example of the Surrealist movement.

Sign on the base of the statue says "out of respect for this work and for your
security, we ask you not to climb on it.

The crazy piece was created by Joan Miró, one of those famous artists who used to hang out in Montparnasse.

Moonbird in its Square.

Here's a translation of the words engraved on a plaque in this little park on the Rue Blomet:

This square is situated on the site of the former workshops where numerous artists succeeded at the end of the 19th Century:

The sculptor Alfred Boucher met Auguste Rodin there.  Beginning in 1921, the Spanish sculptor Pablo Emilio Gargallo shared his workshop with his compatriot Joan Miró while their neighbor, André Masson, painter and engraver, received his writer and artist friends such as Elie Lascaux, Jean Dubuffet, Roland Tual, Georges Limbour, Michel Leiris, Antonin Artaud, and Evan Shipman, as well as the poet Robert Desnos who lived here from 1926 to 1930.  This cosmopolitan and convivial milieu was a part of the birth of the Surrealist movement.

Joan Miró gave to the City of Paris the bronze sculpture Moonbird which was placed here in 1974 in remembrance of 45 rue Blomet and the fervor that give birth to new ideas and in homage to Robert Desnos.

Decorative tiles on a building
on Rue Mademoiselle.

The home and studio of Carlo Sarrabezolles which I presented to you on August 13, is not far from this Lunar Bird Square.

The square is a pleasant and quiet little neighborhood park.  After we visited it, we continued our walk down deeper into the southeasternmost reaches of the 15th, into a neighborhood that is slightly run down and marred with graffiti.

But when we were seated at a table in Place Falguiere Le Bistrot we felt comfortable and welcomed.  Our holiday feast consisted of a shared green salad with goat cheese, beef carpaccio and fries for Tom, sea bass and spinach for me, and ice cream for Tom.  Even with wine and water, the dinner only cost us 57 euros -- because of a 40% discount from Lafourchette.  The food was delicious, and the music in the background was jazz.

Here are some more photos from the day:

The Lycée Professional Brassai is a high school that specializes
in photography, on the Rue Quinault.

5th floor apartment for sale on the quiet Rue Quinault.

Sea bass, spinach, and lemon butter sauce at Bistrot Falguiere.

Beef carpaccio at Bistrot Falguiere.