A morning walk, Paris

Little G. helping an old Lady tag the wall. Paris, 2022

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1900-1944. The author of Vol de nuit (Night flight), Terre des hommes (Wind, sand and stars), The Little prince, and others, was born in Lyon in 1900. With his friends Mermoz, Guillaumet et al, he opened the world to air travel. During WWII, he joined the Free French Forces as a pilot, rank of Colonel. He was shot by an enemy plane on the 31st of July 1944. Nearly two months after the Allies had landed in Normandy on June 6, and two weeks before the Allied landing in Provence.

Saint-Exupéry, Saint-Ex for short, lived in this building before the war. The building is on Place Vauban, facing the Invalids and the tomb of Napoleon. The Mercedes was not his. A nice vintage though. I’ve seen it parked in several different places in the area.

Nearby, the little Prince says of the fox: “I’ve made him my friend, now he is unique.”

“Common portrait #4″. Can you identify the six original artists whose combined work turned into this unique portrait? Tip: look closely, each fragment has the artist’s signature…

Pont Alexandre III. The most beautiful bridge in Paris. Above and below (detail) The golden statue above is “La renommée de la guerre”, something like “The fame of war”. (I didn’t know. I swear. Just researched…)

The bridge was built in 1900 for the Universal Expo.

Look who’s here. The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, for another Universal Expo… View from the Champs de Mars. Black & White suits the old lady, doesn’t it?

Crossing the Seine, upriver. The Palais de Tokyo. Built in 1937 (for yet another International Expo!) it is a masterpiece of Art Déco. Probably one of the last buildings of that school. It used to be the modern art museum. Until Beaubourg was built and half its collections were transferred to the Centre Pompidou. Wonderful architecture, statues and bas-reliefs. (see below) (And thank you to all of you who sent me tutorials on how to do a panoramic with the I-phone… I am learning) 🙏🏻

Palais de Tokyo. “The legend of earth”, by Alfred Janniot, bas-relief dedicated to Thalie or Thalia, Greek muse of Comedy. Makes one think of Shakespeare: the legend of Earth is but one big comedy? “A tale told by an idiot… signifying nothing”?

Musée de l’Armée, the Museum of the Army, is located in the Invalides. Close to Napoleon’s tomb. Those are German armours, Palatinat if I recall, early 1500’s. Note the space allocated to fit the mustache of the valiant knight…

Outside the Museum of the Army, an Ouragan (Hurricane), the first French fighter jet ever produced. My brother helped me out, I thought it might be a Mystère. The stork on the nose is a reminder of Guynemer’s “Escadrille des cigognes”, the Stork squadron, one of the most prestigious units of the French Air Force in WWI.

213 “Ouragans” were delivered by Dassault between 1952 and 1954. Two years. That is the time it takes to build one single unit of the current French fighter plane, the Rafale.

The Rafale (and the Eiffel Tower). The French Air Force currently has 96 Rafale. In 1975, the Air Force had 450 fighter planes… Not classified info. It’s public domain. Any further question? The People rest their case your Honor.

The moat of les Invalides has been invaded by rabbits. I swear. Here’s proof. I’d read about it, not believing it. 350 rabbits have been identified in and around the Invalides… (We have more rabbits than fighter planes) A strategy is being designed to capture them all. The rabbits. Alive… (And since I am in a sarcastic mood, we have 3.5 as many rabbits as we have fighter planes…)

Jean Moulin was sent by De Gaulle to occupied France in 1942 to unify the Résistance movements. He was arrested near Lyon in 1943 by the Gestapo. Tortured, he died during a transfer. Some say he was betrayed by a member of his own network. Jean Moulin was made a “Compagnon de la Libération”, an exclusive and limited order created by de Gaulle during the war to honour those who fought for the Liberation of France. The museum of the Order of Liberation is situated inside the Invalides. We stayed nearby, at École Militaire, so many of the mailboxes on the street, bore the portraits of the members of the Order. In this case: Jean Moulin. (1899-1943).

Trocadéro. Facing the Seine and the Eiffel Tower, the Palais de Chaillot was built at the same time as the Palais de Tokyo. Another superb example of Art Nouveau, it houses various museums. This block of statues is called “La jeunesse” (youth) by Pierre Poisson. (There will be more)

sThe Virgin Mary and Saint John. Tuscany, earky 1200’s. Musée Cluny. I’ve known that museum for close to 50 years now when I was a student in the Latin Quarter. A unique collection of Middle Age art, it was closed for restoration for a few years. Just reopened. I was favourably surprised that they did a fairly good job. Not like a few other museums I will not mention. Most of the art is religious (as my dear friend Carol mentioned), but those were the ways of the time. It also tells us how people dressed then… See Carol’s blog here: https://casdinteret.com/

The lady and the unicorn. Cluny holds that series of six tapestries done in the late 1400’s, early 1500’s. The series has led to many interpretations, symbolic, hidden meaning, what have you. This one is supposed to represent Taste, one of the six senses. I don’t think we will ever find the true original meaning of the tapestries. The interest to me lies in the décor, the symbols, the lion, the unicorn. In Gheerbrant’s Dictionary of symbols, the unicorn is a symbol of power and purity. So be it. The rabbits were already very much present as in the Invalides today… Note the dresses. And the servant kneeling to present a beverage to her mistress, portrayed much taller. (To be continued…)

Thank you for flying Equinoxio Airways. Enjoy Paris. We’ll be back.

Meantime, lest we forget:

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