Paris holiday II
We’re calling it an early evening tonight. It’s been very hot the last couple of days and this just seemed like a good day for salads on the balcony. Before going there, though, I’ve got something of a rant. On Monday when we went to the Bois de Boulougne, we intended to go first to the Fondation de Louis Vuitton. Neither of us had a good idea of what the Fondation did or what was inside the building for visitors. What we did know is that the exterior was supposed to have been extraordinary. In that, we weren’t disappointed. My photos just can’t do the building justice, but I tried. 
But we didn’t go inside because the line was so long. The exhibits opened at noon but by 11:45 there was a queue that was nearly 50m long, protected from the burning sun by white umbrellas thoughtfully provided by the staff. Frankly, I didn’t get it. One hundred or so people are willing to queue up in 90 degree heat to visit an exhibition for which I couldn’t find any advance information because it was associated with Louis Vuitton. We passed and had a delightful walk through the Jardin Acclimation and the children’s amusement park.
From the Bois de Boulougne we headed to the Musee d’Orsay, the fabulous collection of modern art on the left bank of the Seine. We went there about ten years ago and thought it might be time to revisit. It is generally known to be the primary museum of French painting from the mid-19th to early 20th century. We decided to give this a pass, too. I can’t say how long this line was because it snaked around itself several times. I estimated at least an hour, maybe more. With so many things to do in Paris, spending an hour or more in line just didn’t seem to make any sense, so we moved on to the Louvre’s Museum of Decorative Arts.
It’s a museum that lives on special exhibits and the current exhibit is about Christian Dior. It’s probably a wonderful exhibit about the transformative role of Dior’s designs in the 1950s but I’ll never be able to confirm that because we passed on that one too. The line went from the entrance all the way to the Tuileries and if you don’t know what that means, let me assure you that this a really, really long line.
Simply put, we decided to stop for lunch and work out a plan B. Lunch at Taverne Henry IV was delightful as I mentioned yesterday. Plan B was to give up on museums and to wander past Notre Dame towards Ile St Louis where we would have some ice cream before heading home. As we passed Notre Dame, we saw that the line waiting to enter the world’s most famous cathedral contained more people than some of the smaller Balkan countries (just kidding, but only a little).
Once we decided to not worry about the famous stuff and just wandered around the Ile Ste Louis and Boul’ St Michel, we had a great time.
On Tuesday, we avoided the big tourist places altogether and headed to the Musee des Arts et Metiers, a wonderful tribute to (French) technology. The exhibit style is a little old fashioned, but the objects and interpretation are first rate. Where else can you see an early copy of the first sound reproduction device, scale models of steel production, a demonstration of Foucault’s pendulum, Cray Supercomputer 2s from the
1980s, and various machines involved in the production of textiles? Probably nowhere. I’m fascinated by this stuff. I could stare at an early copy of Edisons transcription machine or Pathe’s early turntable for hours but I recognize that this is less normal than waiting in line for Christian Dior.
So here’s where the rant comes in. Huge lines queued up for famous museums like the Musee d’Orsay or the Louvre, or for exhibits associated with big names like Christian Dior or Louis Vuitton. Crowds like this actually created an unpleasant environment for me and my true love.
And all of these people waiting in line are not eating the burrata and heirloom tomatoes at Henri IV and they are not visiting museums like Arts et Metiers and they are not absorbing the unique neighborhood vibes of the Marais or Belleville or Porte de Vanves or rue d’Hauteville or any of the parts of Paris that makes Paris Paris.
I think that Ste Chapelle is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. My photo is a picture of the lower level where the colors and shapes are perfectly balanced, but the upper chapel is equally glorious. When we visited on Monday, it was crowded although not oppressively so. What we did notice was that there were many more people who were working at getting their selfie just right than there were appreciating the beauty and complexity of the religious narratives in the stained glass.
OK, so I’m a curmudgeon. I get that. But what I don’t get is how spending time waiting in lines for hours to see exhibits associated with famous consumer brands or “world famous museums” is better than looking for architectural oddities in the Marais or exploring the mystery of lesser known historical sites like Ste Chapelle or Cluny or experiencing a magnificent cassoulet at a neighborhood restaurant like Auberge Pyrenees Cevennes (I’ll write about this in a day or so).
Paris is my favorite city in the entire world (except sometimes for Philadelphia where I live) but that’s not because of the Louvre or Christian Dior. I haven’t entirely figured out why yet, but it has something to do with the way the Parisians honor the weird (a sewer museum?), the ordinary (weekly produce markets throughout the city), their own history and traditions (catacombs, cemetiere Montparnasse, and bus routes), and a sense of grace and elegance.
End of rant.
Au revoir.