Fontaine de Leda~ Missing Paris Day

On my writer's walking tour recently, 

I came across an older woman reading in one of these chairs

at the Fontaine de Leda in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

She got up to leave just as I snapped the photo 

so instead of  'Portrait d' une Femme Lisant'

we are left with 'L'Invitation dans le Jardin'. 

Originally located at the corner of Vaugirard and Rue du Regard,

the fountain was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806

and moved during Louis Napoleon's reconstruction 

of the center of Paris in 1856.

This beautiful bas-relief sculpture on raised pedestal

 is of 'Leda and the Swan', 

created by a young sculptor named Achille Valois (1785-1862).

It was preserved and moved to its present location 

behind (and attached to) the Medici Fountain.

The subject of Leda,

having been seduced or raped (we'll never know which) by the Greek god Zeus,

was perpetuated by Ovid throughout the Middle Ages

and became even more popular during the Italian Renaissance.

Painted, drawn or sculpted by the likes of 

Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Correggio,

their works were used 

as studies for future artist's pieces. 

Both Leonardo and Michelangelo's works of this subject 

were recorded as being in the French royal collection at Fontainebleau

but both were lost or destroyed. 

Correggio's was also damaged while in the collection

of the Regent of France, the figure of Leda said to have been 

stabbed with a knife by Louis XVI . 

A provocative subject eliciting many responses over the centuries

 including one critic's voice regarding the placement 

of the above bas-relief in the park,

"before the eyes of the public". 

Maybe that's why it sits behind the Fontaine du Medici

in a corner.

~Photos copyright: Kirsten Steen~
Info from Wikipedia

Buddhist Quote~ Two Mistakes Along the Road to Truth...

"There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth,

not going all the way, and not starting."

~Buddha

There's an obvious theme running here in my Buddhist quotes these days,

Truth.

I find that I cannot do without it in my relationships. 

Not truth as weapon but as healing, creative energy; 

to be allowed to birth one's truth,

to hear and feel the refreshing ripples in waves of honesty,

not the dead, dank air of a storage locker where tired, used old phrases 

and unspoken rules lay covered, waiting in mossy darkness. 

But a sharing as exquisitely rich and lush as the blessed song of any mountain stream 

or the tiny, flapping wings of a sun-drenched, blossoming meadow. 

Truth can be difficult, painful, heartbreaking,

but like the stretching of birth,

it can bring joy, creation, forward motion.

Magic. 

Last Part of American Writers Tour in Paris~

And here we are again on the last segment of our

American Writers in Paris Tour.

I had to include this door just because I loved it

(even though the shot is a bit wonky) 

and doors are my thing!

Heading south on Rue Bonaparte

at #36 is the Hotel St. Germain des Pres

where Janet Flanner (pen name 'Genet') lived for 50 years.

Writing from here, Flanner served as

 The New Yorker Magazine's Parisian correspondent, 

sending in her 'Letter from Paris' from 1925-1975. 

When in New York, she ran with the members of the 

Algonquin Round Table

(a varied group of New York wits who met for lunch daily

for nearly ten years at the Algonquin Hotel).

When in Paris,

she was a member of the Lost Generation

becoming good friends with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.  

Though briefly married, 

Flanner met and fell in love with Solita Solano in 1918

and while they lived together for over 50 years,

they were not monogamous. 

Henry Miller also lived in this building,

on the top floor,

in 1930.

The attendant was kind enough to let me

step inside and snap a few photos.

While I'm sure it's a shade different

from its former days,

still fun to see what it looks like now. 

Continuing along Rue Bonaparte to St. Germain-des-Pres,

a few blocks down turn right onto Rue de Seine.

On the corner, which has become, Rue du Tournon, sits #20

where Booth Tarkington lived from 1905-1908,

the Pulitzer Prize winning author of 

The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams 

and one of the very few to have won the Pulitzer for fiction more than once. 

While there is so much more to see, our tour ends here.
But I highly recommend clicking on the website here for more.

It was thoroughly enjoyable to walk it 

and delightful to share with you. 

Thanks for joining me.

(Photographs copyright: Kirsten Steen)

American Writers in Paris Tour continued...

As you remember, we left off on our writer's tour last time

on a gorgeous late spring (summer-like) day.

I loved the look of this Salon de The 

along the way with its 

flower boxes and

trailing ivy. 

And this unique way of serving ice cream

to warm tourists. 

Leaving Gertrude Stein and Rue Christine

and heading west on small streets to Rue Bonaparte,

I then turned right onto L'Hotel des Beaux Arts.

Here, at 13, L'Hotel des Beaux Arts

the tour states that Thomas Wolfe lived here for a year in 1925

(though another chronology of his life would put him here at another time). 

On either side of the front door are plaques,

one dedicated to Jorge Luis Borges

(according to the plaque, the Argentine writer 

who lived here during frequent visits to Paris

from 1977 to 1985). 

The other a plaque announcing that 

Oscar Wilde died in this building on

November 30, 1900. 

Sources say he died destitute in Paris

of cerebral meningitis,

the cause disputed by family and doctors. 

He was buried at Cimetiere de Bagneux but was 

moved to Pere Lachaise in 1909.

His epitaph a verse from his poem,

The Ballad of Reading Gaol:

"And alien tears will fill for him

Pity's long-broken urn,

For his mourners will be outcast men,

And outcasts always mourn."

We'll continue our tour next time

and until then, you can see more of it yourself

here:

American Writers in Paris Tour

(Photographs copyright: Kirsten Steen)

Teaser Tuesday~ Sarah's Key

Hosted by MizB at shouldbereading.

Here's how to play:

*Grab your current read,

*Open to a random page,

*Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page,

*Please no spoilers!

*Share the title and author.

Today's selection is Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay (p.39)~

"Last summer, or was it two summers ago, she couldn't remember, Papa had taken them to spend a couple of days in the countryside by a river. She couldn't remember the name of the river. But the water had felt so smooth and wonderful to her skin. Her father had tried to teach her to swim. After a few days, she managed an inelegant dog paddle that made everybody laugh. By the river, her brother had gone mad with joy and excitement. He was tiny then, a mere toddler. She had spent the day running after him as he slipped and shrieked along the muddy shore. And Maman and Papa had looked so peaceful, young, and in love, her mother's head against her father's shoulder. She remembered the little hotel by the water, where they had eaten simple, succulent meals beneath the cool, leafy bower, and when the patronne had asked her to help behind the counter, and there she was handing out coffee and feeling very grown up and proud, until she dropped coffee on someone's foot, but the patronne had been very nice about it." 


A  difficult to read but hard to put down, fictionalized account of one little girl's experience in Occupied France during the Velodrome d'Hiver roundup on July 16th, 1942. Thousands of Jewish families were rounded up by French police (on order of the Germans) on that summer day in 1942. They were held for several days in horrendous conditions in a stadium in the 15th arrondissement before being moved to a concentration camp in the suburbs of Paris (Drancy). Parents and children were separated before finally being moved to Auschwitz.

The street where the Velodrome used to sit is just a few blocks from us and we've walked past Rue Nelaton many times with absolutely no knowledge of what went on there. While I've not seen a plaque in the neighborhood, the author describes one found on Blvd. de Grenelle which I will now have to look for.

Writer's Tour near Pont Neuf~ Walks in Paris

Recently I took a Writer's Tour/Walk in Paris

following online directions to several late writer's home addresses. 

But before I began, taking full advantage of late spring's perfect weather,

I took my little baguette sandwich from a nearby stand

and (joined the crowds) for my own little 

Picnic Partay for One! 

I parked myself on a bench in the shade 

in this sweet little park just adjacent to the Pont Neuf

(which, of course, I don't ever recall seeing before). 

It was the perfect place to begin an afternoon

to myself in Paris. The Chef had business to attend to 

so it was just me and a few dead writers. 

After I finished my sandwich,

I followed the directions to the last home of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

At Rue Dauphine at the end of the Pont Neuf,

go just two blocks up to Rue Christine and make a left. 

According to this online source,

it was here at 5, rue Christine that Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas lived

(after they left the more famous rue de Fleurus address and with a few absences)

 until Stein's death in a Neuilly sur Seine hospital (a suburb of Paris) in 1946.

Toklas stayed on until 1964.

(Unfortunately the only car on the entire block

had to be a huge white van parked directly in front of their door,

limiting my photo capabilities of their address.)

In the mesmerizing glow of warm sunshine and Gertrude Stein's ghost,

it took me awhile to make myself leave the block

so I took a few more photos as I haunted the street's treasures. 

 I found an interesting shadow pattern inside one entry...

...and the lovely courtyard of a hotel at the other end of the block.

Just a few doors down from 5, rue Christine, this restaurant 

left me wondering if it had also been a food establishment during their years here.

Maybe they popped in on warm afternoons like this one for an aperitif before dinner. 

And maybe they stayed on for a plat de poisson or a souris d'agneau 

before walking the few steps back to their own door, their books and their art. 

I finally made it off the block

to continue on the tour to a few more artist's addresses.

Next week we'll continue our Walk in Paris with a few more pictures
of my one day of the 8-day 'American Writers in Paris' Tour.

And if you wish to see the full tour, 

Click Here. 

(Photographs copyright: Kirsten Steen)

Happy Summer Solstice!

Happy first day of summer all! 

Thought you might enjoy this photo taken recently at our 

Saint Charles Market just a few minutes walk down from the Eiffel Tower.

It definitely makes me think of summer.

The Solstice begins today at exactly 10:16am in the Pacific Northwest.
And I've been reading about how the cultural theme of this year's solstice chart is about
enormous shifts and changes around the globe between 2010 and 2015.
We feel it, we've seen it and hardly anyone is left untouched by it,
whether it's within our own family, on the news
or in your neighboring town.
Change is usually uncomfortable
but with it always comes opportunity!

So while I'm wishing us all a relaxing, enjoyable summer filled with warmth, love, bounty
and the many traditional things we enjoy about the summer months,
let's find a way to help those around us (or even those far away)
who are not enjoying the same creature comforts of summer.

Do some tithing, take food to a shelter, offer someone a helping hand.
It could be you next month (or next year) who needs a hand.
And the immediate gratification (something we all enjoy) is worth those few dollars
and the healing within our own hearts.

What better opportunity?!

Cremerie de Grenelle~ Walks in Paris

On a recent walk in our neighborhood in Paris, 

I looked up to see something I don't remember seeing before. 

An old cremerie sign from time gone by. 

                                                   

Clearly the shop below is no longer a cremerie.

By the looks of it, 

it's been there a very long while 

so I just missed it on my many walks down this street. 

I stopped in my tracks and my heart nearly skipped a beat 

when I looked up and saw these magnificent pieces of historical art.

The colorful scenes are a bit hard to make out...

But I'm just happy to have seen them! 

One of the things I love about Paris,

even when you think you've fully seen a particular area,

there is always something new to see. 

You just can't see it all. 

And FYI (re: the last post),

a magical little puzzle piece actually did float down from the sky

and land right into my hands this weekend.

Something I've been pondering for the last year or more

regarding writing about my ancestors 

suddenly took a new shape and perspective 

and gave me the idea I've been looking for. 

It came in the form of an interview I was listening to over the weekend, 

from a decade past and from one man now deceased. 

In fact, the interview and the information has changed my perception on a lot of things,

about myself, the people around me and about history. 

 I know I'll be sharing more about it in a later post. 

It's too big not to share. 

But for now, it's the last day of spring. 

And I'm wishing you magical puzzle pieces 

in your life and the coming season. 

And, like my puzzle piece and the cremerie,
I'm wishing you that joy of finding something new

in what you thought was explored territory! 

Total Eclipse of the Moon~Buddhist Thought for the Day

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth."

~ Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta

I chose this quote today not only because it spoke to me personally

but also in honor of the lunar eclipse happening this week. 

According to Susan Miller (via AstrologyZone.com),
Eclipses "shine the bright light of truth",
"act as brilliant illuminators",
"are especially effective at revealing someone's character or true motivations".

They "have a way of changing perspective...
as though a puzzle piece suddenly fell from the sky, right into your hands",
"bring unexpected changes of direction",
"play with our sense of time by compressing it and speeding things up".

With three eclipses in a row (each two weeks apart~ one on June 1st ~solar~,
another on the 15th ~lunar~ and another coming on July 1st ~solar again~,
it could be a BIG month of changes and/or illumination.
That's a lot of alignment among our 'time planets' too.

If you're experiencing a lot of change or emotional upheaval right now, don't worry.
The eclipses just rattle our foundations a little (or a lot, as the case may be)
and force us to make changes we might not have otherwise made,
get us out of that rut, nudge us on to the next level.
They call it evolving and we all get to do it.
Just take care of your health, and
hold on to your hats just in case
 the floodgates may
be opening.

Ok, now that we've been forewarned,
I'm ready (especially for that puzzle piece).
Are you?


~For more information on eclipses,
read Susan Miller's entire article on
How To Deal with Eclipses~

Paris in Jaune~ Missing Paris Day

Jaune was everywhere in Paris this spring! 

Look at this luscious beauty.

A friend recently showed us his fancy old car and I was so excited, 

eyes lit up, I jumped in the front seat asking all kinds of questions, begging for a ride.

Friend turned to The Chef and said,

"I had no idea you had a Car Chick!"

I have to admit it. I've been known to peruse old car shows soaking up the past,

ogling shiny paint jobs and decadent or old, rustic interiors.

Sadly, I'm not the same when it comes to fashion.   

When I got off the plane this last time in Paris,

I was all dressed in black. 

My sister took one look at me and said,

"What? Are you going through your Goth phase?"

So I asked, "Ok, what is the latest in Paris since last I was here?"

She looked at my attire again and said,

"BRIGHT, BRIGHT SPRING colors."

 

And guess what else? 

Sandals resembling the exact make and model

of a pair left back in my Pacific Northwest closet.  

And with the weather being so tres magnifique,

EVERYBODY was wearing them! 

Zuts encore!

Oh well, here are a few lovely Paris yellows

to brighten your day. 

This last one, taken in the French countryside, was snapped on a breathtaking walk! 

In some directions, almost as far as the eye could see,

 fields of Rapeseed (what the French call Colza and make into oil) were so bright 

you nearly had to shield your eyes. 

French relatives most often toss their green salads with a colza oil vinaigrette

and somehow they always taste better to us than ours. 

Europeans are even cultivating it for biodiesel fuels. 

One of these days, I'm going to cultivate it myself

(ie: sneak it home)

and serve it on my guest's salad

so I can hear them ask the same question:

"Excusez-moi, but how exactly did you make this amazing vinaigrette?!"

(Photographs copyright: Kirsten Steen)

Paris in Full Bloom~ Missing Paris Day

 Paris was in full spring this visit,

flowers blooming like ripe cherries everywhere. 

Hard to resist the urge to pluck a few colorful, velvet blossoms

to smile and shine on the dining room table. 

In fact, as I took this photo,

 a small someone who 

simply couldn't resist

wandered into the frame.

I took a few 'photo walks' on my own this trip.

'The Chef' tries to be patient, having to stop and wait for me on every street corner,

but I can see it sometimes wearing thin. 

However, when we pass any Immobilier window,

it is I waiting on the corner while he scopes out Paris Real Estate deals

just to see what's out there and the current price per square meter. 

My camera and I have learned to make the most of these moments,

looking for anything photo-worthy from the corner. 

Hardly difficult in Paris.

Just look for the luscious colors in just about any patisserie.

I've found snapping they pretty little faces

is nearly as much fun as tasting,

but without the guilt.

And can be enjoyed 

over and over again.  

The Acacia trees (in full purple or white bloom)

can even be enjoyed more than once. 

It's been far too long since we've been in Paris in the summer

(winter being our travel season of late)

and while it was officially spring this visit,

our first week felt just like early July.

The parks were filled with the laughing, young, international set

picnicking and frolicking in the grass. 

I might have been right out there with them

but I was too busy~

capturing their likeness.

My apologies for being away from the blog so long this week.
Technology issues have plagued.
But happy to be back.
A wonderful week to you!


(Photos copyright: Kirsten Steen)