Today was another laid-back kind of day. I love the Metro! It gets me where I'm going quickly so I have time to roam to my heart's content once I'm there. Today I visited another church, St. Germain l'Auxerrois, and a bookstore, Librairie Galignani. Before I came here, one of the things I wanted to experience was to stand in a bookstore surrounded by many, many books in a language I do not speak very well, and that's what I had on this bookstore visit. The store does contain some books in English, but most of them are French. It made me feel that the world is a very rich place, full of untapped possibilities and doors that are just barely ajar and ready to open.
The exchange rate being what it is, I did not buy nearly as many books as I wanted to; it will be cheaper to find some of them on Amazon back home. In fact, I bought just one: Hemingway's memoir of his life as a young writer in Paris, A Moveable Feast. I wanted to have one book that, when I read it at home, on my couch or in my back yard or in Bryan Park or in Auer Hall waiting for a concert to start, I will remember buying it on a June morning in Paris, and be able to carry a tangible reminder of this trip. In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway speaks of how lucky it is to have lived in Paris as a young man, because "wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." I hope this is also true of middle-aged women who are lucky enough to visit Paris.
After lunch by the Octagonal Pool in the Tuileries Gardens, I visited the Musée Rodin again and went inside this time to look at Rodin's work and that of Camille Claudel, a fellow sculptor who was Rodin's model and lover for a time. Her story is quite sad, as she spent 30 years in an institution for the mentally ill. (Several years ago I saw the 1988 movie about Claudel and Rodin, Camille Claudel, and I recommend it if you're at all interested in art, love, or the intersection between the two.) Her work is beautiful, and I'm glad I got the chance to see it, as well as many more pieces by Rodin in addition to the ones in the garden that I saw this weekend.
After some quiet time sitting in the sunshine writing, I fixed dinner and then went to hear the Orchestre de Paris play in the Salle Pleyel. The music was great, and when I left the concert hall at around 10:30, the sky was still full of twilight. The Metro was packed, and I enjoyed the buzz of late-evening energy. Tomorrow: the Latin Quarter.
No comments:
Post a Comment