Lézarts de la Bièvre

Since ten years, a number of artists are proposing “open doors” to their studios during a weekend. These studios are more or less to be found along the river Bièvre, which also used to be “open” but today is covered on its way through Paris. (There is a campaign ongoing to make parts of it visible again.)

The event goes under the name “Lézarts de la Bièvre”, playing on the word “lézard” (=lizard), maybe referring to the shape of the course of the river (see the red dotted line) and its former shore occupants, and “les arts” (= the arts). Some hundred ateliers could be visited last weekend.

To guide the visitors, each year an urban artist has been invited to – respectfully - decorate the streets to be followed. This year most of the leading urban artists were invited.

Preceding the weekend these urban artists worked together on a covered part of the little park, Square René-Le-Gall (I will revert on this interesting little park in a future post). Here we can see the result of what “mesnager”, “Jeff Aerosol”, “FKDL”, “Mosko et associés”, “Speedy Graphito”, “janaundjs” and “Artistes Ouvriers” produced.

Of course I could not make the total itineraries proposed, but I walked along some of the streets close to the square and here are some examples of what I found. In addition to the artists mentioned above, there were also some illustrations by another famous urban artist, MissTic.

Of course I also visited some artist studios like a few in this little alley.

To finish my walk I went to the bar “Chez Fernando”, rue Arbalète, which is a meeting point for the Paris urban artists. The shutters of the bar are worth the visit, unfortunately - for the bar owner - even more when the bar is closed. On the photo here we can see “FKDL” (Frank Duval), “Jeff Aerosol” (Jean-François Perroy) and “mesnager” (Jérome Mesnager).

I have already made a number of posts on urban art and graffiti which you are welcome to visit if you are interested.

To finish this post, here is what I have as urban art on my own walls ... plus some kind greetings.

Playing in the metro

There is autorised and non authorised music in the Paris metro. Some 300 musicians or groups have got a permit to play in the corridors; not on the quays or in the coaches. In order to get this permit, they have to pass a selection in front of a jury. They are then given six months’ permits to play, which can be renewed. Some artists seem to be around since years, some even since 15 years. It seems that some make a fairly decent living on this.

You often meet musicians also in the cars, but they risk to be caught for illegal playing.

In the Châtelet metro station you often find groups of Russian, South American musicians … and certain days also this little orchestra – “Classique Metroplitain”. The members may vary from one day to the other, but the young musicians always perform extremely well. I took some photos and was particularly impressed by the “first violin”.

Someone also made a short video (from another previous concert).

"Colours of Sound"

Since ten years a way-marked trail is organised during a fortnight in the Saint-Germain-des-Près area, involving a number of local shops, bars, restaurants, hotels, art galleries… like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Sonia Rykel, agnès b., Emperio Armani, Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore, Hôtel Lutetia… .

It’s a manifestation, "Parcours Saint Germain", (June 3 – 17) allowing contemporary artists to expose their recent works, sculptures, paintings, photos… , under the name “Colours of Sound”; what is presented should be related to music. As exposed in shop windows (which led to a lot of reflection photos, where sometimes the photographer and passers-by are better visible than the real motive), inside cafés (where the guests don’t appreciate to be photographed)..., it was difficult to give the desired image of the manifestation. I decided to show you some illustrations anyhow.

First some examples of what can be found around the Place Saint-Germain-des-Près…

… and around the corner, including the famous cafés and the equally well-known library La Hune.

In some galleries, Sonia Rykiel exposes also her own drawings, obviously also for sale (some 300 € and more).

To a large extent, photos are exposed. Here are some examples of what can be found in some agnès b. shops, e.g. photos of a young Bono, Sting, Marianne Faithful, Blondie… (by Pierre René-Worms).

At the Hôtel Lutetia, which is worth the visit for itself, there are paintings exposed (by Fabien Verschaere).

The top picture was taken at a gallery, Anne Fontaine. The artist is called Kimiko Yoshida, specializing in self-portraits in all kinds of forms and shapes.

Well, sometimes there was really too much of window reflections.

Here you can see the approximate points to visit, if you are interested, and the little sign you will find on the pavement in front of each exposing spot.

I wish you a nice weekend! 

Butte Bergeyre

Few people are aware about this corner of Paris. It’s neighbour to the Parc des Buttes Chaumont (see previous post). It’s a “butte” (hillock) which was not incorporated in the park, called Butte Bergeyre.

Just after WWI this area got a stadium; Stade Bergeyre, which could hold some 15 thousand people and which was used for rugby (Bergeyre was a rugby player) and soccer games. It was used for several soccer games during the Summer Olympics in 1924.

The stadium was demolished soon after the Olympic Games; Paris needed space for housing. Today, it’s a very calm area, more or less like a village; only one winding street and some stairs lead to the top. Although, or perhaps because, it’s not a visited area, some well-known people seem to have found their addresses up here.

There is a community garden, with a nice view (better in better weather) over Montmartre. (We can see the Sacré Coeur in the horizon also on the soccer photo.) Such “community gardens” can now be found all over Paris. It allows volunteers to plant and enjoy gardening on ground mostly belonging to the City of Paris, as long as the space is not used for other purposes.

Furthermore, on the slope is a modest vineyard, one of the maybe ten inside Paris. The most famous may be the one at Montmartre, other ones can be found in the Parc de Bercy, Parc Georges Brassens, Parc de Belleville…

Chartres bis

Referring to the preceding post about Chartres and its cathedral here follows something more about the town itself, some other churches…

As we could see in the previous post, the cathedral is situated on the top of a hill and part of the town surrounds the cathedral. Although the town suffered from heavy bombing during WWII (the cathedral was spared), you can still find a number of old buildings, some even from around 1200. You can even find some old traces inside certain shops.

Despite the grey (slightly rainy) weather the Saturday I visited the town, the centre was quite lively.

The cathedral is not the only interesting church in Chartres. Another one is the abbey church of St. Pierre, also dating from the 13th century and with some nice stained glass windows.

A spectacular one is the St. Aignan with origins from the 13th century, but with important alterations during the 16th and 17th centuries. The interior is to a large part painted and the ceiling is especially impressive.

Another very nice part of the town is to be found downhill …

… around the river Eure.