Here's to hope

Fifteen years ago, we had to leave France early because a Category 4+ hurricane named Charley had hit our island hard.  This week, we watch a Category 4 hurricane named Dorian prepare to hit Florida.  The 5AM update (Paris time) had our island just barely inside Dorian's cone of uncertainty (that's bad).  The 11AM and 2PM updates puts our island just barely outside that cone.  That's a little better, so I can relax now and share thoughts and photos with you.

Sculpture gallery of the Petit Palais, the City of Paris Fine Arts museum.

We've been doing lunch lately (instead of dinner).  Two days ago, we had to go back to the American Library again, so we stopped for lunch just around the corner at Le Relais de la Tour.  Tom had typical late morning brasserie fare: a big omelette with ham and cheese, with a side of fries; I had a small filet of sea bass on a bed of heavenly ratatouille (stewed veggies).  Then yesterday, we stopped in Le Bistrot du Parc on Rue Balard for a fine lunch of beef carpaccio, a burger, fries and salad.  We haven't had beef in quite a while -- or at least, I haven't.

Esperance (Hope), by Carlo Sarrabezolles

The reason we were near the Bistrot du Parc was that we'd explored the Square Carlo Sarrabezolles for the first time.  It was not that easy to find the entrance to this little gem of a park, but it was worth the effort.  The park features much natural vegetation and one of Sarrabezolles' "Esperance" statues in bronze. 

At the other end of the park is a monument to Maryse Bastie (photo below), the French "heroine of the air" like America's Amelia Earhart, except Bastie lived a longer life (1898-1952) than Earhart did (1897-1937).

Bastie came from an impoverished background, and was a single mom due to an early failed marriage.  Then her child died at a young age.  A second marriage to Louis Bastie, a World War I pilot, was good, and it caused her to become interested in aviation.  But Louis died in a plane crash in 1926.  To support herself, Bastie did aerobatics.  She set plenty of records for women in aviation in the 1930s, and for her accomplishments she was inducted in the French Legion of Honor.  She started her own flying school, and she served in the French Air Force, achieving the rank of captain.  She died when her plane crashed in 1952, and she is one of the notables buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery.

On our way home after lunch we paused briefly in the Grenelle Cemetery.  It is much smaller than the Montparnasse Cemetery, but still retains the small town charm that it has always had.

Grenelle Cemetery

This afternoon will be very warm/almost hot, so I walked this morning up to the Petit Palais.  I went in, walked around in the air conditioned galleries, and took in some of my favorite sights in the Permanent Collections on the main level.  By noon I was home, having already walked five and a half miles.

Here are some more photos from the past couple days:

Monument to Lafayette on Cours de la Reine, on the way to the Petit Palais this morning.

A few of my favorite paintings in the Petit Palais permanent collection.  The fabulous, enormous painting above, of a scene in Les Halles in Paris in the 19th Century, is by Leon L'hermitte.

The flour carriers, by Louis Carrier-Belleuse

The lower painting, Grimaces et Misere -- Les Saltimbanques, by Pelez,
is one of my husband's favorite paintings in the Petit Palais.

Flowers in the Grenelle Cemetery

Flower shop on Avenue Félix Faure.

A fabulous Haussannian building on Avenue Félix Faure.

Fountain behind the church of St. John the Baptist of Grenelle.

Let there be swans

Looking toward the Pont Alexandre III from the Pont des Invalides.

With joy, I showed Tom the Jardin de la Nouvelle France -- the lush and fanciful park tucked behind the Grand Palais.

Walking from the Petit Palais, the first part of the park that we saw was the verdant grassy stretch lined by mature trees and furnished with a few inviting park benches.  We entered there, and then walked into the edge of what appears to be a woods.

There the path becomes a series of stone steps leading down into a lushly vegetated grotto, complete with a babbling brook and carp.

Le Jardin de la Nouvelle France (above and below).

Of course we'd seen this place years ago, but it had been so many years that we'd forgotten it.  I rediscovered it on one of my early morning walks, and wanted to share it with Tom as we walked together yesterday evening.

Here's a translation of the sign at the garden's entrance:

The Garden of New France forms one of the squares of the Champs Elysées. Its history dates back to 1616, when Marie de Medicis decided to create a landscaped alley on a marshland. In 1670, André Le Notre designed the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Until the beginning of the 19th century, only six houses were built there. The layout of the trees and small bridges of this space summarizes the spirit of the Haussmannian garden, a mixed interpretation of both French and English gardens.

While we were over there, I also showed Tom the monument to Lafayette that was given to France by the schoolchildren of the U.S.  This is an excellent equestrian statue by the sculptor Paul W. Bartlett (1865-1925).  He was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut (like my father was).  When he was 15, he went to Paris to study, modelling on animals in the zoo at the Jardin des Plantes.  At age 22, he was awarded a medal at the Paris Salon (1887), the fine arts academy exhibition.  This was just the first of many honors and awards bestowed on him during his successful career.

His equestrian statue of Lafayette was originally installed at the Louvre, where the glass pyramid is now.  When the statue was moved to its location on the Cours de la Reine, people discovered that Bartlett included a small turtle near the left hind hoof of the horse.  He did this to make fun of himself for taking so long to create this work.

The goal on this walk was the Petit Palais, where we thought we might try the latest version of the museum's restaurant/café and if we felt like it, we might check out the exhibitions of paintings from the Romantic period.

But even though the museum is open until 9PM on Friday nights (when there is a special exhibition), the café was only serving coffee and pastries, and the museum was more crowded than we thought it would be.

We admired the newly renovated and re-organized sculpture gallery after checking out the café.  Then we walked downstairs to the gift shop and exit.  Near the exit, we were stopped by a young woman who was surveying English speakers about their visit to the museum.

You can just barely see the two swans swimming in the middle of the river in this photo,
looking toward the right bank and the Pont des Invalides.

We had to explain that we had only stopped for a brief visit, and that we'd return soon to see the Romantic movement show.  We added that this is our favorite museum, and that we visit it a couple times every summer.  She liked hearing this proclamation.

When we crossed the Seine on the Pont des Invalides, we were surprised to see two swans swimming in the water between that bridge and the Pont Alexandre III.  In the past, we have only seen swans by the aptly named Île aux Cygnes, and even there, we only see them once in a long while.

But yesterday evening, two beautiful white swans were swimming and nibbling on aquatic plants rooted in crevices along the sloping concrete edge of the river.  We paused on the bridge to watch them for a little while.

After four miles of walking, we dined simply at La Terrasse, entertaining ourselves by watching the people pass through that busy corner.  Then we ambled slowly, at the speed of a turtle, back home again.

Here are some scenes from the walk:

Monument in memory of the Russian expeditionary force
(1916 to 1918) at the western end of the Cours de la Reine.