Our visit to the Museums of Paris

During our trip to Paris in December, we got all cultured. We did this (primarily) through buying the Museum Pass and going museum crazy.

We are museum lovers and prefer to visit a museum over & over, slowly absorbing the incomprehensible displays of grace and beauty BUT a week long trip to Paris only affords a precious hour or two in each place. Even then we missed some must-sees. We're sorry. This action packed museum itinerary was exhaustively carried out over 2 days and was so incredibly worth it.

Foucault pendulum

A glimpse at some greatness.

First stop:

Panthéon

This was the major landmark by our airbnb apartment. Located in the Latin Quarter in Paris, it is a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens such as Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc. Modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, the building is known for Foucault's pendulum a simple device conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. While it had long been known that the Earth rotated, the introduction of the Foucault pendulum in 1851 was the first simple proof of the rotation in an easy-to-see experiment.

Quilt of Love

As the weather turns cooler, I snuggle under our new quilt. An instant heirloom, my mum gave it to me on their recent trip to visit us in Berlin. Lovingly crafted with my aunt, it is composed of the ribbons I won showing horses. It's amazing.

If you are unfortunate enough not to have a million ribbons from your childhood, a basic ribbon looks like this:

To be a kid again....

This guy makes the magic happen with his camera & some ladders.

"By photographing from above and using the ground as a two-dimensional backdrop, Von Holleben creates a whimsical world where children fly through the air and perform unearthly feats. "Ladders are my second home!" he writes in an email, "Things just look so different from up there!"

Story from NPR

Misinterpreted

So we like art- but what is up with the interpretive music?

Last night we went to a modern art opening in an old squat house. Berlin apparently has tons of these where artists would squat in a vacant building and create a colony which the German government would then protect (pretty cool eh?) This one was particularly gorgeous with a 2 story entry way and mosaic arches. Good start.

Our friend Krysia had invited us to the opening after she had gotten a tip from another hipster friend so we really did not know exactly what to expect. What we found upon entering said archway was a white cloth laid out that with a block of ice melting under a spotlight. Can't say I understand the total narrative of this piece, but I'm no critic, power to the people wooohoo!

Climbing the stairs we see 5 paintings of women laid out in a cross with a piece of wood and an apple in the heart. As we discuss what it could all mean BAM BAM BAM, the drum it gets started. The artists themselves put on quite a show playing a variety of instruments from the drums to banging on a piece of metal to a harmonica to a chain. One guy is also toting a projector around shooting the beam of light around while tossing toilet paper around the stage and a women in a Kimono is opening her mouth awkwardly to emit loud groans. The main artist whose work we are looking at has wild gray hair radiating from his head and takes turns doing everything including shouting lines from a book. The artwork themselves were pretty interesting, with a fish bone motif making a frequent appearance and a variety of mediums used like the backs of cupboards, shopping bags, and blinds. I loved the idea of recycling all of this useless scraps and making them entirely different. However, Krysia was right when she said later the crazy music lessened their appeal. Maybe it's best not to see the artist?




Other rooms offered other artists perspectives including my favorite room from Charlotte Schleiffert's full length women with animal parts. One women's torso transformed to look at first if she was sitting on a chair, but her body actually morphed into 4 goat legs. Another horizontal piece has a person be rescued while pink and orange smoke waifed upwards past sketched chandeliers. A variety of other art was shown, which maybe Ian will get into, but probably not!

Afterwords we got a drink at a bar we had passed on the way in, the Milchbar (Milkbar). We were attracted by the fish & underwater scenes painted all over the walls including a scene where a polar bear is eating a seal, but Ian was first struck by something else. Remembering the name of the bar, all he saw were women and a it slowly dawned on him that he might have unwittingly entered a lesbian bar! Unfortunatly (becasue that would have been a much better story), it wasn't and we had to entertain ourselves. So all in all, all is well and a lot of randomness is going on.