Chantilly

The Château de Chantilly is located north of Paris - about half an hour by train. The oldest parts of the castle date from the 16^th century, but having suffered seriously from the Revolution, the major parts were rebuilt during the 19^th century. Its history is linked to the Montmorency family, later to the Princes of Condé…  and during the latter part of the 19^th century to one of the sons of King Louis-Philippe, the Duke of Aumale. The castle was bequeathed to the French State ((Institut de France) at his death in 1897.

Molière sits in front of the castle on the top picture. This is because his play “Les Précieuses Ridicules” was performed here for the first time in 1659. The man on the horse is Anne, Duke of Montmorency. 

Another name linked to the castle is François Vatel. He was “maître d’hôtel” to the Condé family but had also worked for Nicolas Fouquet and others. He committed suicide because of a delayed delivery of some fish for a royal meal at the castle. The famous Chantilly cream seems however not to be linked to him – created earlier. 

    

The art gallery, referred to as the “Musée Condé”, houses one of the finest collections of paitings in France – Botticelli, Raphael, Mignard, Watteau, Corot, Fra Angelico, Lippi, Veronese, Carracci, Poussin, Holbein, Champaigne, Van Dyck, Greuze, Delacroix, Ingres, Gericault… .

The library contains some 1.500 manuscripts, some 17.500 printed volumes, medieval manuscripts…

Other parts of the castle, the Chapel...

The Garden was laid out by André Le Nôtre (Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte, Fontainebleau, Tuileries…).

The castle is close to the Chantilly Racecourse and the Great Stables (to be visited another time).

The days in November are short… the darkness arrived.  

           

Even birds can be coquettish...

Even birds can be coquettish – this one prepared itself for a minute or so, before taking the pose.

The last couple of days I have had the pleasure to accompany blogger friend Virginia KelserJones during her walks and photographing in Paris, partly joined by our common friend Mary Ruhling Gilbert.  

Here are just some photos I took during our walks. (The ladies took many more.)  

Christmas show windows again and again...

The years go by… For a few years I have been showing you the Christmas show windows of the department stores, "Galeries Lafayette" and "Au Printemps" and now it’s time again. (You can compare this year with 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009… )

The windows of "Au Printemps" could already be seen for a couple of days when "Galeries Lafayette" made their windows visible November 8 in the evening. They made an event of it. The curtains were opened in the presence of an actress - hopefully at least some Francophiles will recognize her. It’s not easy to get a decent photo when all the professional photographers are there in front of you. There was even music by the group “The Shoes”.

Time to have a look…

… first on the "Galeries Lafayette" windows where “paper” this year has been the major material used – see also top picture.

Playing with the lights...

The tree, all in paper, may seem less spectacular this year, but there are some shows and also virtual applications linked to it this year…  

The "Au Printemps" windows may seem more traditional and less brand sponsored than the last  few years.

Well, if you don’t find any better ideas for your Christmas gifts, here is a selection of scent-bottles. 

Courtyards, alleys... again!

After soon 10 years of blogging, I may have the right to repeat myself a little? Yes, I have already posted about the courtyards and alleys in the 11^th arrondissement, around rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, rue de Charonne…  (see for example here and here). This area was where you bought your furniture before the arrival of IKEA. There are already some differences between what I saw a few years ago and now, but the atmosphere can still be felt, even if the furniture manufacturers are now even fewer and if you find more architect offices, hairdressing salons, restaurants, clothing stores …  

Anyhow, the idea was - and is - to check what is behind some more or less closed gates.  Some of the yards and alleys have surprising names. "Passage Lhomme" refers to Monsieur Lhomme who owned the land. "La Main d’Or" (the Golden Hand) refers to the name of an old hostel. "Passage de la Bonne Graine" used to be a place for grain trade. "Cour des Trois Frères" (the Three Brothers) is named after an owner who had three sons. "Cour de la Maison Brûlée", must obviously refer to a building that burnt down. "Cour de l’Etoile d’Or" (the Golden Star) refers to the name of a previous restaurant…. 

… and here are some views from all these places - and some more, unnamed. 

A special mention for this a bit different one, built in the 1860's and referred to as "La Cour des Bourguignons" (the Burgundians). The high chimney was linked to a steam engine, which gave power to the different workshops.

  

Palais de Tokyo

This is obviously the first time I have made a post about the "Palais de Tokyo". It’s a spectacular building from 1937, near the Trocadéro and the Eiffel Tower, but the outside has been in a bad shape, dirty and tagged until rather recently - now finally relatively clean.

The “Palais de Tokyo” was built for the 1937 “International Exhibition of Arts and Technology” (I referred to it in some previous posts (see for example here). It was originally named “Palais des Musées d’Art Moderne”, but derives its present name from the street along the Seine River, which used to be Avenue de Tokyo (but now is Avenue de New-York).

The building has housed a number of establishments, but today one of the wings is occupied by the “Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris” and the other wing by a French State site for temporary exhibitions of contemporary art - referred to as “Palais de Tokyo”. 

Difficult to get a good total view of the “Palais” – distance, trees…

Google Earth is of a big help.

The reliefs on the southern facade are by Alfred Janniot (1889-1969). They represent the "Legend of the Earth” and the “Legend of the Sea”. (My photos are of difficult colours… partly in sun, partly in shadow.)

Four ladies have been cleaned from tagging, hopefully for a while.  

(The stones you see in the pond are supposed to represent traces of the sea that covered Paris some 45 million years ago. It’s a temporary installation by the Brazilian artist Rodrigo Braga.) 

As with all City of Paris museums, there is no entrance fee to the “Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris” – except for temporary exhibitions. Apart from the present Bernard Buffet exposition you can admire art works by Picasso, Braque, de Vlaminck, Dufy, Marie Laurencin, Bourgeois, Bonnard, Lhote, Gris, Zadkine, Duchamp, Picabia, Sonja and Robert Delaunay, Léger, Modigliani, de Chirico, van Dongen, Arp, Utrillo, Valadon, Dérain, Chagall, Soutine, Foujita, Calder, Giacometti, Man Ray, Ernst, Wifredo Lam, Dubuffet, Soulages, de Staël, Yves Klein, Tinguely, Buren, Rauschenberg, Vasarely, Haring and many others – for free. All may not be exhibited at the same time.

Entering the other wing, the state owned one, means paying an entrance fee. At the moment there is a very specific (and peculiar) exhibition, “Carte Blanche to Tino Sehgal”. You will actually go through a number of almost empty white rooms (and one black room) and meet a number of people of different generations who will talk with you about “progress” and other philosophical matters – the central focus is supposed to be on “social interaction”.  

You will of course find libraries and bars in both wings (even outside weather permitting).