A midsummer’s daydream, Paris

Winter’s coming. We haven’t been to Paris in a while. Take my arm, and let’s hit the streets.

Shall we buy a flat in Paris? Real estate agency, Rue de l’Université.

Let’s take the metro at Louvre-Rivoli. There is a secret passage that takes us to the Louvre:

The scribe has been taking notes for 4,600 years.

Shall we walk to the Pont des Arts with Willy Ronis in 1957 and listen to the musician?

Or today, in a perpetual summer?

We can see Paul Klee’s “Zwillinge” at Beaubourg. (1930). I had a friend called Zwilling. He was Alsatian. His name means “Twins”. And, curiously he had a twin. Die Zwilling zwillinge. During the war, he was playing pranks with his brother when a German soldier caught them and laughed, saying “Zwilling”. He was worried as Hell that the soldier “knew” their name whilst he’d only noticed they were twins. Wonder what’s become of him?

Beaubourg, the stranded spaceship.

We can buy a “Romanian Blouse”? Matisse, 1930.

Sawadee krap. This charming Thai lady on Rue de Poissy is always smiling.

Back to school. Ménilmontant. 2018.

Here lived Georges Wolinski, a cartoonist, assassinated at Charlie Hebdo, on January 2015. Last November 13th, a commemoration was held in memory of of the fallen at the Bataclan and other places in Paris in 2015. The judges say they have concluded their investigations. Three years? About time! The trial is set for 2020. Seriously?

Let’s go shopping at La Samaritaine, on Rue de Rivoli.

Or visit Renoir at Rodin’s house. The museum has been refurbished. As in Giverny, I am always… touched, that such magnificent artists all bought works from one another. There seemed to be no artistic rivalry or jealously. I like the “dialogue” of Renoir’s and Rodin’s work.

Let’s hop at the Louvre. Hardly any tourists…

Or we can have a perfectly balanced lunch. Wait! Wait! Where’s the wine?!

We’ll have coffee at the Coffee Pack. When it opens…

We can walk by Gainsbourg and Birkin’s house on Rue de Verneuil, in the 6th Arrondissement, between Saint-Germain and the River.

Jane Birkin. Gare de Lyon. Around the time of Antonioni’s “Blow-up” I gather.

I know. I know! Let’s fly red balloons…

Thank you for walking along this midsummer Paris daydream…

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends…