Another little extra post

This is again a little extra post to follow the local events of the moment. The “real post” is just below this one.

I wasn’t with the crowd to watch the arrival yesterday of the “Tour de France” on the Champs Elysées (but of course saw it on television). The participants arrive along the Seine and then make a number of tours up and down the Champs Elysées and around the Tuileries Gardens. A few hours later, the dismantling and the cleaning were well under way. In the meantime, it was possible to make a walk in the middle of the avenue.

Leaving, I took a few photos of the rather recently refurbished gate of the back entrance to the Elysée Palace, just behind where the bikers arrive.

Napoleon's "Berlin"

I went to the Museum of the “Légion d’Honneur” (Legion of Honuor) basically to see Napoleon’s “Berlin”, a carriage which was temporarily exposed there (exposition finished July 8). Unfortunately, I had only the time to take the above photo, before I was advised that photos were not allowed. Well I could at least see it and also a lot of items which once belonged to or were linked to Napoleon, including a redingote, frock, the hat and the sword he wore and carried at Waterloo... the “silver” used for the meals, his dental equipment…

... and I could of course take some photos from the outside. The building, which is immediate neighbour to the the Orsay Museum (see previous post), was originally built for the Prince of Salm-Kyrburg, just before the French Revolution (during which the Prince was beheaded), sold to the “Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honour” in 1804. It more or less burnt down during the “Commune” in 1871, was reconstructed…  In 1922 the Museum was added. 

If you are interested in different orders of chivalry and different national , religious, military decorations, the Museum has hundreds (thousands?) of them from all countries in the world… and also some remarkable paintings, portraits… 

The concentration is of course on the French Legion of Honour, which was created by Napoleon in 1802. The first distribution took place at the Invalides (see previous posts) in 1804.

Reverting to the major reason for my visit: The “Berlin” is a lighter type of carriage which around 1670 was designed for the Elector of Brandenburg - Berlin was then the capital of Brandenburg. The one we could see at the museum was originally built for Napoleon’s Russian campaign (1812). He had a larger more comfortable carriage, “La Dormeuse” (the sleeping car). Both were confiscated after the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Napoleon left the battlefield on a horseback, still wearing his hat and his sword. “La Dormeuse”, after several owner changes, ended up at Madame Tussaud’s in London, where it was destroyed by fire in 1925. The smaller “Berlin” was brought to Prussia and the Kaiser Wilhelm I by the Field Marshal von Blücher, but remained in the Blücher family until it was given back to France in 1971.

As I could not take the pictures of the “Berlin”, here are at least some illustrations, showing that it really was present during the battles.

Napoleon’s hat, which was the one he actually wore at Waterloo, is normally to be found at the Museum of Sens in Burgundy. The “Berlin” should hopefully soon be back and visible at the Malmaison castle, just outside Paris.

July 14th... again.

After some problems with my PC (change of hard disc…), I’m “back”. I was a bit disappointed not being able to show some more pictures from the 14^th July fireworks (see previous post). So, here are a few more. Please, consider this as an extra post, the "real one" for the moment is the one below. 

  

New fences

The fences around “my” park, Square des Batignolles are being restored. The park was designed by Jean-Charles Alphand, who has his name linked to some twenty other squares and parks in Paris, including the most well-known.  The park was officially opened in 1876, but the fences are there since 1862, so 150 years later the need for restoration was there.

The works are planned to be finished late this year. The first restored pieces are now there, however the ornaments, which had disappeared in the meantime and now are promised to come back, are still missing.  

The poster giving information about the works is illustrated by a painting by Eduard Manet, “The Railway”, from 1873. The lady on the painting is the same as we can find on the maybe most famous paintings by Manet, “The Luncheon on the Grass” (1862-63) where she shared the role (the face) with Manet’s wife (the body) and “Olympia” (1863). “The Luncheon on the Grass” was exhibited in 1863 and created uproar, but “Olympia”, exhibited in 1865, even more. Her name was Victorine Meurent (1844-1927). She played the guitar, the violin – even gave lessons – sang in cafés and also modeled for Degas. She became a good painter herself. “Palm Sunday” is by her.

The rail tracks are still there, but the steam engines have been replaced. Even if it seems that “The Railway” may have been created closer to Gare Saint Lazare (Pont de l'Europe), it has anyhow been painted along the same railway tracks that lengthen the park…

… and Manet’s name is clearly linked to the Batignolles area and to the members of the “Batignolles Group”, who later became better known as impressionists (Degas, Monet, Renoir, Sisley,  Bazille, Cézanne, Sisley, Pisarro, Fantin-Latour… ). I already posted about all this e.g. here.

... and the work goes on, for a couple of months more.

July 14th

Yesterday was July 14th, the French National Holiday. There were fireworks at the Eiffel Tower... and disco music. I was among the thousands (hundreds of thousands?) people watching. I took a few tens of photos. The relatively good ones are vertical, but Blogger doesn’t seem to accept vertical photos, at least not mine. My PC is not working properly, so I cannot make my usual collages… I managed to upload the only two horizontal photos I took; one from before the fireworks, one from when they just started. At least, they prove that I was there. I may revert with a new post about these fireworks if I get my PC to work again within a couple of days. (My PC problem is also an excuse why I will be even less than usual visiting your blogs. Sorry! )