Elsien's Traveblogue

Friday, February 19, 2010

Paris, Thursday 18th February 2010
Well, at least I got my 500€ back. Didn't even get to see the flat and spent all day trying to contact the guy who was renting it out. I sat in cafes with WiFi, Internet cafes, sent him one message after another, asked him to send me the exact address to my mobile – we were supposed to be meeting there at 5pm! and nothing happened! Not a sign from the guy! I was ready with the deposit, any other proof of my good character and income, had already told him I really liked the look of the flat from the pictures, went to the street where he'd told me the flat was, liked the area , could have rented it on the spot .....and nothing, not a sign! Fortunately it turned out I could get my money back from the Post Office, so it's just cost me 15€ to organise the deposit, several euros in Internet cafes, a lot of wasted time and a few moments of sick panic. I don't understand! I think I found him on Face Book, he looks like an axe murderer if that's him: Xavier Poignant, look at him and don't do business with him, EVER!
So, clean out my little studio tonight and try and get to Brussels tomorrow. There has been a big train crash near the Gare de Midi in Brussels, where I am going and it doesn't look like my trip tomorrow is going to be seamless. Eurostar travel is disturbed as well, but my ticket is not until Wednesday, so I may be OK there! Will keep you posted!

posted by Elsien Gale # 5:20 AM 0 comments

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Paris, Thursday 18th February 2010
Had a lovely time with J. who went back to Brussels last night. I showed him round Montmartre, chilly but pretty as always, not too many tourists yet at this time of year. On Sunday we discovered the amazing Musee Carnavalet, near the Place des Vosges, which houses a lot of paintings to do with the history of Paris, as well as the reconstructed bedroom of Marcel Proust. J. is working on an artistic project to do with him, so we couldn't miss that! I will have to go back there some time, because it's interesting and highly relevant if I want to do anything in my studies on French Realism and Pre-Impressionism. It was free moreover! On the way we saw bits of the Chinese New Year's procession, not very impressive: Lots of very serious looking Chinese people in some kind of Chinese looking costumes, Chinese boys playing in bands, and manky blow-up yellow tigers.
We went to an organ concert in beautiful St Eustache church, then for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner in Montmartre.
On Monday I wanted to go to the Musee Andre-Jacquemart on Boulevard Hausmann, which has an impressive private art collection in a beautiful house. Bit disappointed not to find the Uccello I thought they had there, but found a painting by Pietro Lorenzetti and a lovely portrait by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun. We stumbled upon readings from Proust in a little theatre nearby, by Michael Lonsdale, a well-known French actor in spite of his name, and two others. J. was very happy and I rather enjoyed it too.
On Tuesday I had to work again, so off to Versailles where the sun was shining for a change. The students are slowly getting used to me and the fact that they have to actually speak English!
Met J. at the Place St Michel for a coffee and we walked home as the weather was lovely.
Yesterday J went home again and I found I had been stung for 500€ which I'd paid as a deposit for a flat in Montparnasse. The man has disappeared with my money and there probably isn't a flat. Will go to the police today, but with little hope of getting the money back. The day had started dramatically anyway, with Paris police banging on our door at eight in the morning, looking for M. Dumourier. I'll have to start flat hunting all over again now, but have decided that for this term I can probably make do with staying in hotels and hostels as I have quite a lot of business in London and Brussels anyway. I'll decide what I'll do for May and June when I know what work I'll have at Versailles.
Today is my last day in Paris, haven't decided what to do yet ...

posted by Elsien Gale # 2:29 AM 0 comments

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Paris, Friday 12th February 2010
At last the turn of the Musee d'Orsay, with all its Impressionist wonders. My studies at the moment tend to centre around Renaissance, no Impressionists involved at all, so this visit was pure pleasure, no duty!
However, I did go and find some of the paintings I'd had to study in previous years. It's always a surprise when you see these works 'for real', rather than in reproductions. The one Berthe Morissot I found was one I'd written about last year and I was amazed how small it was and how much greener than in the picture I'd used. The Courbet paintings were vastly bigger though and quite threatening, especially the Burial at Ornans. The room with the Van Goghs and Gauguins was too crowded but as I have a ticket for a lecture and exhibition of Van Gogh at the Royal Academy for 5th March,I'll wait! The Manet and Renoir women are absolutely luminous: Olympia, Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe and Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette. Also found an astonishing early Degas painting of the most amazingly stiff bourgeois family Belelli, very unlike any of his other paintings.
The sun came out when I left the museum and Paris looked lovely again. Off to pick up my clean washing and do some shopping – I've deserved a beer as well, I think! J. is coming the weekend from Brussels, for Valentine's Day – well-timed! so I'll have better things to do than write a blog! Back on Wednesday!

posted by Elsien Gale # 1:12 AM 0 comments

Paris, Thursday 11th February 2010
Weather still pretty bad, but better than yesterday. Snow flurries, but nothing more than a dusting of snow on the road. Cold, though.
However, sent a load of emails to various studio owners, checked my own and went off to the Louvre again, aiming to catch the lunch hour. I was indeed lucky: lunchtime was quiet. When I left around 2.30, large crowds started to arrive ... I went to the Richelieu Wing, to see some Dutch and Flemish paintings and finished off with a room full of Poussins and Claudes, with little French schoolkids seated on the floor, trying to draw their national heritage. Saw the amazingly impressive and enormous panels that Rubens painted for Maria de Medici, for the Palais de Luxembourg. The colours are especially stunning. Their size is beaten by the gigantic paintings produced by Charles LeBrun, the first President of the Academie Francaise des Beaux Arts. He painted battlescenes with Alexander the Great as subject, a thinly disguised metaphor for the Sun King, Louis XIV.
I also saw a tiny little delicate Vermeer, the Lace Maker and a beautiful Memling, amongst others. Did some shopping and am now back in my little studio. More Vasari, I fear! Little coffee at the Place d'Abbesses later, perhaps, watch the world go by!

posted by Elsien Gale # 1:08 AM 0 comments

Friday, February 12, 2010

Paris, Wednesday 10th February 2010
Indeed, didn't see much art. It was so cold and miserable, that I actually turned on my heels. I'd set out, but it was snowing hard, not nice snow either, but nasty, icy, wet stuff, freezing cold. At 2pm it was so dark, it looked like evening. I decided I wasn't completely mad and driven, so went back to little studio and studied Vasari instead. Hope tomorrow will be better! Still looking for apartment for March – June, have found some Internet sites, need to send a whole lot of emails now to see if any of the flats advertised are indeed available ...

posted by Elsien Gale # 2:03 AM 0 comments

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Paris, Monday 8th February 2010
A very grey, foggy and rather cold day. Caught up with OU study, which has now officially started. Read the rather dense Introduction finally – I'd only skimmed through it before – and answered the question: 'What is Contemporary Art History?'
Did some more reading – there seems to be a lot of it.
Then went to try and find a little studio for 1st March, when I shall be homeless. Saw four agents. Two didn't have anything, one only a studio in Neuilly – too far out. They didn't even bother to take my name! The fourth might have a studio which is still being renovated at the moment and a one-bedroom apartment, which might be above my budget though. At least he took my name and phone number!
Teaching tomorrow, had to write out 24 cards by hand for a role play I am planning as I haven't found a printer yet at the University. Will do some Internet searches for a studio on Wednesday and go to some more agents. May not get to see much art in the next few days ...
Paris, Tuesday 9th February 2010
Spent day teaching. The weather was terrible, it has got very cold and it snowed in Versailles all morning. When I left, the snow was turning to slush, but it was still jolly cold.
Administration and organisation at the University of Versailles are still crap.Have finally found out where and how to do photocopies, but one of the designated machines apparently never works ... If I thought Enfield College was bad .... Will get some pictures of the university and its surroundings next week ...

posted by Elsien Gale # 1:47 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Paris, Sunday 7th February 2010

No peace for the wicked! The first Sunday of the month, the Louvre is free and I decided I'd brave the crowds so I could at least try and find the paintings I want, without the frustrations of queueing for a ticket and then the crowds as well!
I needed Botticelli, who unfortunately is an Italian Renaissance painter, so his work is not far from the wretched Mona Lisa .... So, a lot of crowd to brave and it took me a while to find the three small and one slightly larger painting through the crowds ... However, the two frescoes by him right at the beginning of the corridor, which almost everyone charges past, are perfect illustrations of what I have been reading the last few days ... If anyone stops at all, they just exclaim: “Ah, Botticelli” (usually in an Italian accent, there seem to be a lot of Italians about. Don't they have enough Renaissance art in their own country?) and charge on relentlessly towards Mona Lisa.
Found my old friend Caravaggio as well, but there are just too many other paintings around to do him justice. It really makes me appreciate the National Gallery in London: Not only are there better Botticellis, they are displayed better and, if there are too many people, you just leave and come back some other time – it's free after all. Here, every time you want to look at something, it's 9€, or 6€ if you go late afternoon some days.
Before I went to the Louvre, I went to Mass at St Eustache, at Les Halles, a gorgeous church which expresses some of the Hegelian idea of beauty, a beautiful service with an excellent choir and, my main reason for going, the most fabulous huge church organ (plus a little-ish one to accompany the choir). Back for a beer after all these exertions and a bit more study ...

posted by Elsien Gale # 2:03 AM 0 comments

Monday, February 08, 2010

Paris, Saturday 6th February 2010

I was really tired and had to catch up on emails and bits of OU research, so I didn't get going until late and sat in the Chao Ba, where they have nice coffee, nice waiters, comfortable seats and free WiFi until mid-day, did my food shopping for the weekend in the Monop' (like Tesco Metro, but Monoprix). Dropped the stuff off and went off to the Academie Francaise on the Left Bank, more or less opposite the Louvre, where I'd been told they do tours the first Saturday of the month at 3pm. Not so, they were firmly closed, but they did seem to have the builders in.
So, I walked back to St Michel, watched the rock'n roll there, well, a group of enthusiastic teenagers playing wind and percussion instruments, quite cheerful, catchy and musical. Also, blowing giant bubbles out of soapy buckets seems to be popular this season; I've seen three of them already. Had a coffee and walked around for a bit, but not a lot as it's quite rainy at the moment. Home to catch up on OU reading followed by a beer and a spot of tourist watching this evening at the Place des Abbesses. Normal evening entertainment includes cooking, eating, reading, studying, writing, watching the news on TF1 – other programmes are way too awful to watch, even if it's good for my French! You should see their version of 'I'm a Celebrity': Z-list Celebrities (like the UK ones I've never heard of any of them) on a Farm in Africa. The UK version is vastly superior, but that's not difficult, I think.

posted by Elsien Gale # 12:48 AM 0 comments

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Paris, Friday 5th February 2010

Today was the end – for the moment – of the Valadon trail. I went to the Pompidou Centre in Beaubourg where they have a wonderful modern art collection. I like to give myself these little themes, otherwise I drown in the volumes of paintings to see. Beaubourg was no exception: Picasso, Bracque, Matisse, to name but a few. I'd come in search of more Suzanne Valadon and found them: a Family Portrait, with a very depressed looking Utrillo and a scary wrinkled granny in it as well. The 'father' I think, is Andre Utter who was a painter himself, friend of Utrillo and Suzanne's final lover. In the next painting, 'Adam and Eve', I think he posed as Adam, without the little beard. There's another woman on a bed with a book, clothed this time, and two fairly naked women 'After the Bath' as well as a number of sketches. The strong black lines and the strong vivid colours are evident in all the paintings, the strong black lines in the sketches.
I also had a look at four little photographs by a woman called Claude Cahun, because I know she features in the third module of my course. She was in a room with photographs by Dora Maar, one of Picasso's women and model of a lot of his sad women paintings. I didn't realise what an accomplished artist she was herself.
There was an exhibition on of women painters, but I gave it a miss as at that moment hundreds of groups and school groups arrived to go and see it. I did have a look through the catalogue though, to make sure I wasn't missing something / someone essential, and I was impressed with how many female artists there were. I had heard of maybe 25% of them.
I was lucky to escape the crowds, good idea to go at lunchtime! After 2.30 it got a lot busier. The weather was lovely again, so I walked. It's more or less straight down from Montmartre: Notre Dame de la Lorette, Faubourg Montmartre, Rue Montmartre all the way to Les Halles, then across. I seem to remember the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre as distinctly grotty – it isn't now. The closer you get to Les Halles, the more expensive the shops and cafes, but that I knew from last time I was here.
From tomorrow I will be back with the Classics: hoping to have a look at the Academie tomorrow and the Louvre on Sunday. The art historian I am studying now, Aby Warburg, the founder of the Warburg Institute, did a big thing on Botticelli. I've more or less finished with Hegel for the moment; I think I have a better idea what he is trying to say now and what the criticisms are. No mean feat, if I say so myself, because the study material was pretty dense!

posted by Elsien Gale # 12:54 AM 0 comments

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Paris, Thursday 4th February 2010

I found another painting by Suzanne Valadon in the City of Paris' Museum of Modern Art. It was 'Nude with a Striped Bed Cover', which I knew as an illustration in one of my Art History course books. The colours were completely different, a lot more grey-green in the painting, more orangey in the reproduction, if I remember well – will check when I get home. Suzanne Valadon's work was used in the Feminist bit of the course: in many of her paintings she upsets or countermands 'The Gaze', the way predominently male spectators look at paintings of predominantly women, mainly nude, painted by predominantly male painters, by painting herself or other women nude, gazing boldly back. This painting, however, is of a nude woman sitting on an unmade bed, reading, not looking. Oh well, never mind the feminist theory, I love the bold colours and the bold black lines.
A few of son Utrillo's churches were hanging next to Mum's. I think he paid the psychiatrists for some of his treatment in psychiatric hospitals with paintings.
Another woman, not nude, painted by a woman, Marie Laurencin, Apollinaire's girlfriend, is hanging on the other side of Valadon's.
It's a beautiful museum, beautiful building and not visited by tourists, although it's FREE and at spitting distance from the Eiffel Tower. It has lots of famous artists' paintings in it: Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Matisse, but please don't tell anyone because I like to keep lots of museums I know and like quiet!
It was a very nice day, the sun was out, a bit pale and wintry, but sun even so. I walked all the way from Pigalle down to the museum, nearly at the Eiffel Tower, a good hour's walk. I walked through some streets I have never walked through and I've done a lot of walking in Paris in my life! Even in the expensive areas most Parisian women are dressed very much like women in London – the elegance of the Parisienne seems to have become a myth, although they are not as badly dressed as most women in Harlow or quite a few women in Brussels!
There were not many tourists about. Those that were, were mainly Asian, I think Japanese and Korean rather than Chinese or Taiwanese.
Still struggling through Hegel and his ideas on art – very theoretical, but I think I'm getting the hang of him.

posted by Elsien Gale # 1:37 AM 0 comments

Friday, February 05, 2010

Paris, Wednesday 3rd February 2010

Climbed up Montmartre in the rain. It's always picturesque, even when wet or maybe especially when wet and the added advantage is that all the tourists go to the Louvre. There weren't many, not even at the Place du Tertre, a few Japanese people, mainly. One of them stared fixedly at the very ugly watertower and asked me “Mea Culpa ...” (Is that how they are taught to say 'Excuse me' now?), then pointed on his map of Paris to the Sacre Coeur. “No, Sir, this is the water tower. Look behind it, yes, just there, that's the Sacre Coeur... That way, you can't miss it!”
I went to the Musee de Montmartre, because it's the old house and studio of Utrillo and his mother Suzanne Valadon. There are a lot of pictures and posters of other Montmartre artists, but to me the main attraction was Valadon.
Suzanne Valadon was an illegitimate child, born somewhere in rural France. She became a model for some of the Montmartre painters: Degas, Renoir, Toulouse Lautrec, and had herself an illegitimate child, who later became the painter Utrillo. She was the lover of Eric Satie who, according to the plaque, had a house next to hers. Most amazingly, she became a painter herself, and a really good one too! I love her work, it's very colourful, full of strong women, many nudes. She used herself as a model for some of her best paintings and she put the sexist art world on its head by painting a circle of sexy, naked men in a painting called 'Casting the Net'.
There wasn't much of her in the house. You can see the large windows of her studio, but not go in. There was a 40-minute film about her son, Utrillo, an alcoholic who painted all those rather sweet pictures of places in Montmartre and other locations in Paris and France. The painters at the Place du Tertre seem to have modelled themselves on him. He's not at all my cup of tea, but reproductions of his paintings are immensely popular with tourists.

posted by Elsien Gale # 2:09 AM 0 comments

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Paris, Tuesday 2nd February 2010

It is amazing how much better your classes are when you have not been sitting on a Eurolines coach all night or slept fitfully in a grotty little hostel with five other people snoring away ...
It was inevitable, as the job in Versailles came up at the last moment and I had already booked cheap Eurostar tickets to and from Brussels ... on the wrong days for the teaching in Versailles and, unchangeable, as they were cheapies. So, it was Eurolines and hostels, and galloping between London, where I still had commitments, Brussels, where I have well-paid work and a lovely man I want to see from time to time, and the new job at the University of Versailles.
It sounds more glamorous than it is: Versailles looks like a brandnew university, with brandnew buildings in a brandnew new town: Montigny-something else. I'm sure the original Montigny is lovely! It looks a bit like a French Docklands, but without the charm of the riverside, but with a few shops and restaurants, we are in France here! I'll take my camera next week and post some pictures.
The students are in their first year of a degree in International Relations. They study Law, Economics, Sociology, Politics, History, Social Psychology and, for the international element, English is an option.
They have all 'studied' English at secondary school, most for seven years, but their understanding and communication skills are minimal, their reading and writing on the whole a little better. They know their grammar, but cannot / do not apply it when they speak. Sounds like English students learning French? Exactly!
So, I have been getting them to introduce themselves and their friends, got them to talk about their likes and dislikes, their studies , what they did last weekend and, for good measure, got them to follow the earthquake in Haiti on Internet news and got them to write / talk about it, with a lot of vocabulary help.
The best thing about the job, only one day a week, is that it is the best excuse to move to Paris for a bit. I had already booked myself a little studio in Montmartre for three weeks in February so I could study the Paris art collections at my leisure, especially the Louvre, which you just cannot do in one visit. This is to further my Masters' in Art History, a fairly theoretical course, so I have to add the actual viewing of paintings to it myself! It's my second year and it properly re-starts on Saturday. In the meantime I am living in this tiny little studio, near Place Pigalle, still too tired to get up to much, but tomorrow will be my first day of exploring the area; the Louvre can wait until Thursday. The outskirts of Paris were snowy this morning, but now it's raining, well, drizzling and I still think Pigalle looks romantic, with the lights glistening on the shiny cobblestones. What better way to enjoy yourself than with a coffee or a beer in a cafe, looking out on that!