Another walk along the Seine…

A walk along the Seine, between the “Pont d’Austerlitz” (see previous post here) and the “Pont de la Tournelle” (see previous post here)… reminds me about the tango dancing I posted about almost ten years ago (see here), but in the daytime you can just enjoy the general nice feeling of walking along the River…

… see some “nature”…

… some river traffic…

… watch the opposite bank and see the exit (or entry) to the Canal Saint Martin (see some posts here) and a nice three-story-flat….  

… and something particular here – the number of sculptures. Most of these are from the 1950’s or 1960’s. One good thing, I feel, is that they are just there, solid, not depending on a rotating mechanism etc… (see my recent posts about rotating hearts and showers). The only danger of deterioration is maybe a little tagging.

One special word about this sculpture representing Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), which I already described when it was to be found in another arrondissement (see my post here). I’m still impressed by how the artist, Jean-Robert Ipoustéguy (1920-), managed the simplified portrait of the young poet.

Once you arrive at the “Pont de la Tournelle”, you can admire the statue of “Sainte Geneviève” by Paul Landowski (1875-1961), perhaps most known for “The Christ the Redeemer” in Rio de Janeiro… and also have a look at the Notre-Dame - after the fire. 

Well, of course there are also flowers...

… some equipment for sports and amusement…

… a few animals…

… and a number of bikes which have been saved from the bottom of the River.

Famous faces around the Pantheon

A couple of months ago, a street artist, “C215” (his real name is Christian Guémy), portrayed a number of illustrious people, all to be found around the Pantheon (see previous posts). There has been some mapping of where to find his paintings, but, as some more portraits have been added later, I made my own map, which you can find at the bottom of the post.

I think it should also be mentioned that “C215” was the artist who had portrayed Simone Veil - survivor from concentration camps, lawyer, minister, member of the French Academy… especially known for having pushed forward the law legalising abortion in France – on some yellow mailboxes. The portraits were then covered by swastikas. Fortunately the swastikas have been wiped off … and “C215” has repainted the boxes.  

Coming back to the "illustrious people": I will just make a list with the names and give you the links to Wikipedia. Probably like you all, I know something about most of the names, but not of all and not everything, so here is a good opportunity to learn something.

So, we start with Pierre Brossolette, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) and André Malraux…

… and continue with Jean Moulin, Marie Curie (who covers a wall of the Curie Institute – see previous post), Jean Jaurès and Emile Zola…

… Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti de Mirabeau (see also top picture), Jean Zay, Germaine Tillion…

… Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Painlevé (I believe that the portrait must have been here ?), Aimé Césaire…

… Louis Braille, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, René Cassin.

I had some difficulties to find the next one, who should be René Descartes. It should normally be found on the Rue Descartes, but… Then I found a bistro, called “La Méthode”, which makes you think of Descartes’ “Discourse on the Method” with the famous “I think, therefore I am”. I had a glass of red wine and asked… and then I was showed how they had had his portrait hidden behind plywood, after that someone had tried to steal it. 

So, now I can show…

… René Descartes, Paul Langevin, Alexandre Dumas Père…

… Gaspard Monge, Toussaint Louverture, Jean Lannes, Henri Bergson…

… Berty Albrecht, Victor Hugo, Marcellin Berthelot, Victor Schoelcher and, at last, Denis Diderot.  

Roman Baths

I mentioned in a previous post that the water consumption per capita during the Roman times (1st to 4th centuries) in Paris, then referred to as Lutetia, was higher than today, maybe then some 250 litres against hardly 200 litres today. One reason to the high water consumption was of course to a great part due to the baths. There were several of them. The one, which to a large part still can be seen, is referred to as the “northern one”, today as the “Cluny Baths” (“Thermes de Cluny”). The medieval Cluny building took over part of the space occupied by the Baths and the remains of the Baths are now integrated into the Cluny Medieval Museum, on which I wrote in a previous post.

Here is a comparison between Lutetia during the Roman times and of Paris today. We can see how important in size the Baths were with their palaestra, (several) caldariums, frigidarium… Interesting to know is that the Baths were open to "everybody" - however what about women? 

The best preserved room is the frigidarium - see also top picture. Consider that this room is some 1800 years old. I found (stole) on the net a picture of what it may have looked like during the Roman times, all in bright colours. There are still some decorative “details” left and also some other elements like the Roman pillars which once stood somewhere in front of the much later built Notre Dame.

Walking from one room to the other you can see how the space later has been occupied and has been  influenced by the medieval times.

The Museum uses parts of the rooms for exposing their treasures, like these tombstones, the upper smaller one coming from the Saint-Pierre de Montmartre Abbey (see previous post).

Because of what just happened to Notre Dame, the Museum has exceptionally and for a few weeks opened one of the rooms, normally under restoration, where a number of heads of Kings of Judah, and some Apostles, are exhibited. They all once decorated the front side of the Notre Dame, which suffered a lot during the French Revolution years. There is also a statue of “Adam” from 1260, also once decorating Notre Dame. On some of these you can find some (very small) paint fragments.

Part of the Baths are of course in ruins, but can be seen from the street. The tight fences make it difficult to take photos…

… but I climbed a bit.

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!