The Festival of Music

The Festival of Music all over France on the summer solstice (and reportedly now in more than 130 countries but not Australia) was started by Jack Lang, the Minister for Culture in the Mitterrand Government in 1981.  The idea was to celebrate the solstice in a similar way to ancient cultures and to capture French culture at is roots.  Everywhere, the music societies, groups, individuals and choirs come out to sing or perform. The range is wide and the atmosphere is friendly and inclusive. 

  

We spent the evening in Paris walking around taking in the performances. They ranged from French popular songs of the sixties, a range of international songs performed by individuals and groups, African Drum and dancing performances and traditional French songs performed by choirs or accordion players. 

Some groups even had books of lyrics so that the crowd could join in with the fun. Dominique took up the challenge in the shadow of the Académie française

All under the watchful eye of Henry IV on his white horse. 

By midnight, after ice cream, the grounds started to look a bit tired!

All the pictures here.

Louveciennes, Pissaro and the Aqueduct

Camille Pissarro spend some time in Louveciennes around 1871 and painted some famous scenes many times, as was his habit, seeking the different influences of season, time of day and light variation on his subject.  In 1871 Louveciennes was a rural town on the outskirts of Paris. Today is has been captured as a dormitory suburb. 

 His rural scene of the road to Versailles has been transformed into a high volume traffic by-pass of the town. His painting of the scene today may not be quite so sought after.

His streetscapes closer to the centre of town are, however, a bit more recognisable, if you ignore the electricity cables, street lights and the car. 

Louveciennes is also (mildly) famous for the Aqueduct de Louveciennes, which was built in the 17th century as part of the works designed to supply sufficient water to support the fountains and lakes in the gardens at Versailles.   This aqueduct appeared in the back ground to some of Pissaro's paintings. Today it is out of service, but still looks as good as new.

There are more pictures of the Aqueduct here.

Rodin

Rodin is a little more traditional in the Paris visits, but this visit was to the Grand Palais to see a temporary exhibition which featured many of his works in plaster and bronze and some works which were preparatory for some of his better known sculptures. While his work is well known and widely distributed, I am always impressed at the life that he managed to put into cold white stone such as in this picture.

Interestingly, artists inspired by Rodin, either to imitate him or to do the opposite, were also included. The result was quite varied with some electing to represent deliberately thin figures, some imitating the form but not the shape, and some it was hard to see how they were related at all!

The real interest for us was the Grand Palais itself, but unfortunately the main hall under the glass dome was not used for this exhibition, so we had to look at it through the windows. Looking from the inside out did provide some perspective on the size of the building compared with the human scale.  In addition some of the internal decoration was worth closer inspection.

More pictures here.

Promenade Plantée

The Promenade Plantée is a former rail reserve between the Opéra Bastille with an elevated section known as Viaduc des Arts and the Périphérique roadway around Paris around 4.5km away. On the way it passes by Gare de Lyon and through the 12-ème.  The walk created on the former rail reserve was the first rail walk in the world. It has now been emulated elsewhere, notably in New York. 

It is also known as the Coulée verte, French for Green Course, and it is not hard to see why.

In spite of the Parisiennes being preoccupied with the runoff round in the elections of the Deputies, as earlier reported, there were still plenty of people walking along the Promenade on a sunny Sunday afternoon or taking the opportunity to sun themselves in the parks along the way.

From the Promenade itself, it is possible to view interesting streetscapes of eastern Paris, and building features not normally easily seen from the street.

Worth a look on a sunny Sunday, particularly if you consider the rewards for completion!

There are more photos of the walk here.