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.  

Along the canal

The top picture - and these two - may be representative of a canal where fewer barges now seem to berth along the quays.

I took a rather long walk the other day, maybe some 20 km (12 miles), starting at the end of the Canal Saint Martin (see previous posts e.g. here and here)…

… with the Bassin de la Villette (see previous posts e.g. here, here and here) and then walking along the Canal de l’Ourcq…

… first as it is running along the Parc de la Villette...

... and then I left Paris and continued to Pantin…

… and all the way to Bondy.

I’m not going to tell a long story about the Canal de l’Ourcq here (you can find it here if you wish), but just remind you that the canal was initiated during the Napoleonic years to – then – offer potable water to the Parisians. Today it provides about half of Paris' requirements of non-potable water – for sewer systems, gutters, parks… , but although non-potable, the water is considered as clean enough for swimming (see again here).

The canal is of course also to some extent used for cargo traffic, today mainly for building material (I have not been able to find any statistics) with a wish to increase this kind of more ecological transport. There is also some limited leisure boating, maybe not so attractive for longer trips - the canal ends (or rather starts) in a cul-de-sac.

Today quite a lot of housing projects take place along the canal, offering a nice, peaceful environment.  But, there are of course a lot of traces of what “has been”.  

What perhaps is really striking along the canal is the ever present street art. Well, I don’t know if street art is the correct term here, but I don’t think there is anything named canal art.

There has even been some sponsored art, covering complete walls.

Some of the artists were actually in full activity during my walk.

Addendum :
The Saint-Denis Tourism office obviously found this post and made some positive comments. They asked me to make some links to a special event, some kind of street art festival, and also to a more general article about the Ourcq Canal, which I do with pleasure, just click!  

A colourful street

I have already taken some odd pictures from this street, Rue de Retrait, in the 20^th arrondissement, but since then, the street has become even more colourful. We can find a lot of street art. Street art is of course often quite short-lived, but in this street I have a feeling that it’s becoming more and more permanent and also much richer. 

You reach the street from half the way up Rue Ménilmontant… and even without reaching the top, you have already a wonderful view of Paris. Immediately on the corner of Rue de Retrait, you are met by some nice illustrations (and you may recognize Magritte and Kahlo).

The all over Paris present street artists Mosko and Mesnager are richly represented.

More and more of the buildings have got important permanent mural decorations.

This goes also for these two buildings, the one to the left is a school, the one to the right a theatre, Théâtre Ménilmontant, unfortunately closed since a couple of months, for “security reasons”.

Even the street furniture is unusually colourful here.  You may wish to know that Maurice Chevalier was born here in 1888, approximately where I put his picture - the building is gone.

A little side street, Rue Laurence-Savart, has been immortalized, in 1948, by the famous photographer Willy Ronis… 

... and he also photographed a little girl in the little side alley (behind a closed gate, but with a bit of luck…).

JR and the Louvre Pyramid

30 years ago, March 29, 1989, the Louvre Pyramid, imagined by the Chinese-American architect I.M.Pei (still alive, 101 years old) was inaugurated by François Mitterrand.  The pyramid, has since, especially in the beginning, been criticized by many, loved by others (like me).

So, 30 years later, it was time for a celebration and JR got the job. JR does not only stand for Larry Hagman. It goes also for Jean René, a French photographer and graffiti artist, who works all over the globe. At the bottom of this post I have put together some of his works – ”stolen” on the net, as several other pictures in this post. 

JR already made a Pyramid installation in 2016, when he made it “disappear” – I wrote about it here. He has made several other installations in Paris. I wrote about what he did at the Paris Pantheon in 2014 here.

This time JR wanted the Pyramid to be more than visible, to somehow show what could be underground, under the top that we all normally can see. (In reality, we know that there is a commercial centre, entrances to the museum…)

During two days a some 400 volunteers, working in shifts, helped JR - cutting, spreading out sheets...

Rather late, March 29, 2019, we could see the result – on a large screen – filmed from above.

The following day, we could all walk on the decorations that had been so carefully designed and spread out all over the place. In a few days, nothing will be left - except some photos… You may actually have a doubt: Is this enormous installation, which finally could be seen only by a camera and lasted, untouched, only a few hours, the best 30th anniversary solution? One thing that I really liked though was the nice atmosphere and the smiling volunteering helpers!

JR was a good friend of the film director Agnès Varda – they made a movie together and he joined her when she received an honorary Oscar last autumn. She died at the age of 90, on this very same date – March 29, 2019.  

... and, as promised, here are some other examples of JR installations.