Paris Photos, Part Four

[rachelmanija]

This set covers some more Paris street scenes and the Musee Rodin.



An ordinary street scene, taken during a random morning stroll about town.





Same stroll, later on.



A set of sports posters, very well-done. I especially liked how the women were straightforwardly depicted as athletes, not as sex symbols.



I'm not the only one who senses a touch of the sex symbol in this one, though, am I?



Padlocks inscribed with couples' names, locked along the river Seine.



At the Musee Rodin, the approach to The Thinker.



For the first time on the trip, the sun shone bright, and the roses glowed in tight clusters, two or three to a stem.



Photos don't convey the presence of this statue. It's stunning in person. There's a small replica in the museum, which gives you a sense of how much the size and elevation of the larger statue adds to its impact. People kept leaving, then coming back to look some more.

The museum too was wonderful. I especially loved the naked Balzac, so confident and genial. There was a small Camille Claudel exhibit, with a terrifying nude Clotho, the Fate, skeletal and hungry.



At the cafe in the garden, I was accosted by a small, well-fed bird.



This photo was taken in the garden, seconds before the storm began.



The unusually cold weather had made the trees in Paris begin to turn.



Swiss chard used decoratively in the Luxemburg Gardens. I sat here a few times to eat lunch and pastries, and read on my Kindle.

When I came home, I immediately got kicked out so my apartment could get fumigated for termites. I drove to my parents' place in Santa Barbara, and took the photo below at dusk. When I was downloading photos, I briefly wondered in what lovely Parisian garden this picture had been taken:

Comments

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

We have a Thinker replica at the Legion of Honor. How much bigger is the actual thing than the replicas tend to be, assuming the replica you saw inside was similarly sized?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Those are gorgeous!

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

The replica of the Thinker at the art museum where I grew up was bombed by 'a radical group' in the 70's and then left like that with a little explanatory plaque. Only researching it for a post later did I realize the 'radical group' was actually the Weathermen - I think the art museum didn't want to give them any specific publicity (it might have said something about protesting the war in Vietnam).

I really liked the pic of the glowing dome and clouds, great contrast. Also the pic at your parents'.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Wim had heard of the adorable padlock tradition when I told him about it, but I never had. Lots of stories hanging there.

Those horse-chestnut leaves look like they're dying from lack of water to me, and a quick search says there has been a terrible drought in France this year. If it's cold, too, I feel really sorry for the French farmers.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a book I read recently you might like, if you are in the market for short essays: Periodic Tales. Because the essays are short, one sometimes wishes for greater depth, and the author does go on about masculine and feminine symbolism a bit more than I think is warranted (which it is sometimes, when he's discussing historical attitudes to various elements). But it's a decent library book.

(The section on lead mentions the Thinker, since his butt is filled with it to balance the sculpture.)

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Awesome!