Mon 5th May- The Louvre and bust.
A nice hard mattress in our bijou apartment meant that we had a good night’s sleep, although my throat is a bit sore – perhaps made oversensitive to the tobacco aroma in the room as no longer immune to its perfidious entry-ism to everything. The breakfast bar in the hotel is small, with tables crammed together with museum posters and coffee and tea motifs on the walls here and there. Petit dejuner is a disappointing cup of coffee a burnt croissant, actually quite nice, and a role, with butter jam and some very orange ‘orange juice’ which tastes almost like the real thing. Refreshed we go to the Louvre, where I have to put my bag in the cloakroom, but have to keep my camera. But cameras are allowed in the Louvre but not flash photography. To attempt the entire Louvre in a day, or even a week would be madness (!) so we concentrated on the antiquities to begin with. Neither of us had been for a very long time. For me it was 1991, after I ran away from my computer MSc, and had not found my true ceramic calling. I don’t think Ulla had been since the pyramid was built. Some time ago... I still don’t have much of a thing for statues, but it is nice to pick up changing hair and clothing styles, and indeed representational styles. Will need to get the big book of the languages of sculpture to get more into it I suppose. Was of course taken by the nice wooden representation of the Parthenon with nice wooded Corinthian style faceted imbrices and antefixes. I do wonder if the use of antefixes and other complex roof furniture by the Greeks was in some way a reflection of the ceramic masks faces and fetishes that also abound in the surviving material culture.
Of further interest were the Christian sarcophagi, which had deeply symbolised decoration – no mere representation of stylised roofs for these chaps! Did manage to spot some Tunisian Byzantine wall plates – including the ‘Isaac’ one, always a bit suspicious of that one, but am not familiar with the style sin use at the time. We had time for a quick sprint round the medieval foundations and display on the immense excavations that preceded the pyramid. A very large urban excavation indeed.
Afterwards we emerged into the sunlight blinking, via an interesting Japanese style shop. If I ever get round to redesigning the garden. Mind you since I now have a lawn mower (finally) perhaps it’s a bit late to replace the lawn with pebbles. Anyway we stop of at the cafe at petit Pont, drinking Kir to the sound of jazz piano and watching Notre dames. The inside of the cathedral seems to have been given over to tourists. Even though there was a service going on in did not stop the gawping and talking. Sigh no real feel of the sacred there.
The evening meal was in the Latin Quarter. The restaurant streets were reminiscent of the situation further east – lots of people trying to entice you into their establishments whilst we were trying to read the menus. Finally ate at the l’etrace . Starters Me: oysters. Very nice. Ulla: snails -a couple missing apparently. Main course - Me: Rabbit and potatoes. I forgot how bony rabbit is, is there a polite way of eating it, or are you supposed to resort to using your hands? Desert was three cheeses for me (tasteless emmental, v good camembert and some tasty goat’s cheese. Ulla had blow torched crème Brule, suffering from that syndrome that had too hot on top and frozen at the base. So I had a nice meal and Ulla a rather disappointing one.
Then cocktails at the Georges cafe. Waitresses in cat masques did not add to the glamour of the black room with black tables where we ordered the happy hour cocktails – apparently a global phenomenon. Like the macara. Sparklers in the cocktails reminded me of the past... (For the record I continued with my study of long Island Iced Teas of the world. Ulla had a Gin Fizz. The LIIT was very coke based.
And the final stop of the day was a bar just around the corner from the hotel where we had some Amstel in faded tiles - perhaps predating the 50s which were elegant in a faded and patched way.