Au revoir

A last little post for this year with some, today, perhaps rather symbolic views!

To "close" the year, I made a little collection of some of my 2018 photos, maybe the ones I preferred myself.

Yes, hope to see you again in 2019!

Mascarons... Macron

The other day, last Monday, I walked along part of the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, from rue Royale to the Elysée Palace. This part of the street is where you find a number of 18^th century palaces, some of them now embassy residences (Japan, U.S.A, United Kingdom…), and also some other mostly rather ancient buildings.

It was obviously in fashion to decorate older buildings by “mascarons”, often grotesque faces. Paris is full of them, so we should take the ones I will show just as examples. They are “everywhere” in Paris.

However, when there are female faces, they are hardly grotesque, rather nice and friendly looking. Why? :-)

The top picture shows what you can find on top of the official entrance gate to the Elysée Palace. There is a female face… I haven’t been able to find out when this was made. Is it supposed to represent “Marianne” or is it older…? It can hardly be the “Madame de Pompadour”, who resided here during the reign of Louis XV? The RF stands of course for the French Republic which “Madame de Pompadour” never experienced.

There are tens of "mascarons" on the Elysée Palace facade, but they all seem to be the same, alternatively one grotesque man and a smiling lady.

The Palace is as we know now occupied by the French President, today Emmanuel Macron. The day I passed by Mr. Macron was preparing his speech to try to calm down the present rebellious movements and a number of journalists watched…  

Saturday morning, but no market...

Normally, a Saturday morning, there should be a market here…

... and no bars open for a « café-croissant »…

… metro closed…

… no traffic …

… shops and theatres closed… (with one exception).

We were all well protected. (I had no intention to talk about all this, but I had nothing else "in stock".)

 ... and, remember, this happens only on Saturdays. You can visit Paris in a normal way Sunday, Monday, Tuesday... and, with a bit of chance, also next Saturday.

Saint-Augustin Church

A post about another church… Well, there are some 250 churches / religious buildings in Paris – with a domination of the Roman Catholic ones – some 140 … and so far this blog has only posts about some 50 (and my previous blog less than 10), so there is more to do.

The Saint-Augustin Church was built during the 1860’s in an area, then completely newly shaped by Haussmannian boulevards … One considered that there was a need for another prestigious church building. During the construction, it was thought that the Emperor Napoleon III should find his place of rest in this church. (Finally after the capitulation in 1870 and his death in 1873, he found his grave in England.)  

The architect, Victor Ballard (1805-74) – more famous for “Les Halles” – had a tough job: A triangular space between existing avenues and streets and a wish to have a cupola which should be visible from afar. We can see how the church actually has some unusual proportions. The official entrance side, behind the Joan-of-Arc statue, looks quite narrow. It’s when you turn around to the opposite side that you see how big the church actually is. (Part of the exterior has just been cleaned… on the Google Earth picture, the restoration is ongoing.)

The church architecture was actually quite criticized, perhaps also because Ballard was a protestant and that this is a catholic church. Many found the cupola to be out of proportion. (Please note the little red lantern on top of the cupola, some kind of a Ballard signature.)

Some details from the front side.

Looking at the interior, what is very distinctive is the use of iron, especially visible in the ceiling, something quite new for the period – of course a Ballard speciality with the experience from Les Halles.

The church is quite dark and some cleaning also of the inside would be welcome.

There are two organs, the main one was one of the very first church organs to employ electricity.

Chinese colours.

The winter at the Jardin des Plantes may be a bit dull. Of course, the “ménagerie” - the little zoo - and the different museums are there, but the gardens are not very colourful. (I guess this is my 8^th post about the Jardin des Plantes – check them all here.)

So... this year, there was obviously a decision to make the gardens more colourful also during the grey season. Some installations have been made, with the help of Chinese specialists - prehistoric and still existing animals…  If you make the walk during a rainy afternoon, it may not be too spectacular, but…

… when it gets dark…!

Look at the difference – the frog in the afternoon and the same frog in the evening!

This means that the Jardin des Plantes is exceptionally open late in the evenings. This will go on until mid-January. For the "night show”, you need a ticket. There are great crowds, you need to be patient!

You are asked to follow a prepared walk and, as you partly are among some more or less sleeping – real – animals, to try to be relatively silent.

... and it's spectacular!

The top picture shows some flamingos. I found the real ones – they were not sleeping!