Page 3 of 3
Paris, France
We’re living in an age where limitations are forgotten, the outer edges move and dazzle us but the core is something rotten
So at least this makes some sense. If I went from Versailles to London, it would seem only right and logical to spend some time in Paris. And on a beautiful early October night, it would only seem right to spend some of that time walking among familiar monuments and seeing all those lights that the City of Lights is famous for.
There are lots of great things to do in Paris, but I definitely have a favorite. I'll take the Metro to Cite (M4) and then start walking west. First you go by Ste Chappell and the old Samartaine department store (where Kylie Minogue jumped to her death in the trippy/fun movie "Holy Motors"), then across the Pont de Arts (where Mark Ruffalo over explained the twist ending in the awful movie "Now You See Me"), then through the courtyard of the Louvre and by the pyramid (where the Virgin Mary is buried according to Tom Hanks in "The Da Vinci Code"), then past the Orangerie (no movie reference, sorry), then to here at Concorde, where no questionable movie of note was filmed but where Marie Antoinette herself became separated from her head back when everyone was still all about the revolution.
The walk continues west past the alles of trees, onto the Champs Elysee (where they are opening a Five Guys which will destroy France as we know it) and up to the Arc d'Triomphe, where another Metro (M1, M2, M6, RER A) waits to take me onwards to wherever the hell else I want to go next. If I have been to Paris nine times now, I have done this walk at least twelve times, probably more. Definitely more. And if I was in Paris right now (chances are that I'm not), I would do it all over again.
You could spend a lifetime in Paris and not see everything, so every time I am there I find myself prioritizing my time. And while I am always up to do the same damn walk I always do, I also always make sure to do something new. For this trip the new part was easy, since this is the first time I have been in France since the new Louis Vuitton Foundation was actually open.
The building is a public museum designed by Frank Gehry, with glass sail on top of glass sail because, um- well maybe the best way to think of it is not why there are glass sails in a landlocked park in Paris but just accept the fact that it is what it is and move on from there. It's also way out in the middle of nowhere in the Jardin d'Acclimation, closer to La Defense than anything you came to Paris to see.
When I was there, the museum was between exhibitions but the building was open, which is honestly all that I wanted to see anyway. From certain angles it is as spectacular as it can be, although it most definitely has its share of clunky moments as you move through the lobby and up to the open roof terraces. You could make a shockingly strong argument that there is no real difference (or growth) between this building and most any other Frank Gehry building since Bilbao, it's sort of the same basic move over and over and over again. Sure it's an interesting move, but how many sails in glass or titanium do you really need to see?
If your favorite part of the museum is all of those color checkered panels on the glass sails, then I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that (in many ways) they are the best part of the building and something totally unexpected in a Gehry design. They define the sails and spaces in unexpected ways and provide surprises at every turn. The bad news is that they're temporary. Gehry's design was for all white glass panels, and the colors are all part of a temporary exhibit by Daniel Buren called "Observatory of Light." And if you want to see the building all wrapped up in all its colorful glory you’re out of time. It closed in April 2017.
I am not stalking Olafur Eliasson. I’m really not. Really.
While I may have braved the senseless crowds of Versailles to see a waterfall that looked like something ripped open the sky and water rushed through, I just happened to come across the Olafur Eliasson installation on the lower level of the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Called “Contact,” it consists of mirrors and light and all the things you might have come to expect after stalking, er, I mean mistakenly coming across so many Olafur Eliasson installations all these years.
Even though I have been to Paris before (eight previous times, as best I remember), for whatever reason I don't think I've been inside Notre-Dame Cathedral on any of the last seven trips. It was a must see that first time as I climbed the towers, stared at the rose window and took pictures with my old Canon APS film camera. All these years later I returned inside after so, so long out in the cold. There the inside was somehow different than I remembered- cleaner, warmer, nicer. I stood there in newfound admiration, not knowing what tragedy might befall such a place in April 2019. So here are a few of my pictures from that perfect day in France, the last time I was in Notre Dame.
