Confinement

I have been quite lazy when it comes to posting lately… I have had of course a real excuse for a couple of weeks. I have been very careful about following the confinement rules, have hardly left my flat (my little garden has been of great help…). Even the River seems to follow the confinement rules, totally at rest!

Yesterday evening I decided to make a little walk, within the rules - not more than 1 km, not exceeding an hour…This is what this part of Paris looks like at the moment. Hardly anybody around…

… even around the Tower and Chaillot.

I like this view of the Flame with Sacré Cœur in the far background, but looking slightly to the right… I don’t too much like to see all these boats lying idle!

Here is a graph (published by Financial Times daily). Some of the curves are going down, including the French one. If nothing special happens, we will be slightly freer again May 11, but… all of us have to behave very well - and also the virus has to behave very well - if we in a reasonable future may expect to be back to a more “normal life”… e.g. to sit down at a bar terrace with a nice glass of red wine, going to a concert, to the cinema... and hoping to see the 50 million annual Paris visitors back!  

Capitals

I visited the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church again (see previous posts here and here). The restoration works are almost finished. 

For some reason, this time I was especially struck by the capitals of the pillars. The carved capitals are all different and many of them have very medieval types of decorations. I understand that most of these are not the original ones, but were later copied. Some of the original ones can be found at the Cluny Museum (see posts here and here). Now, almost all of the ones in the church have again been restored and have very bright colours.

I think it’s interesting to see how these sometimes grotesque and not always very respectful illustrations were allowed, even encouraged, during the medieval times - see also some of the above ones. One can compare also with what I showed from the walls of the northern transept of the Saint Denis Basilica (see here).

Finally, some sun and light reflecting on the walls and pillars.  

Azulejos...

There is a new entrance to the Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau metro station. I have used the station for years… never thought about how the walls are decorated, but using the corridor leading to the new entrance (or exit), I was struck by the wall decoration (see top picture)…

… and when looking around I realised that the walls of the whole station are decorated by a large number of similar ceramics.  

I then learnt that they are all created by a Portuguese artist, Manuel Cargaleirio. The previous ones have been there for more than 20 years… and I have overlooked them. I also learnt that there has been an exchange between the Lisbon and the Paris metros. The Paris metro has got these “azulejos”, and the Lisbon metro has got one of the typical Guimard metro entrances.

The additional decoration was officially inaugurated a couple of weeks ago in the presence of the artist (now 92 years old), the Portuguese Prime Minister, the Mayor of Paris…  (pictures "stolen" on the net).

A hidden church.

This church, so well hidden, dates from 1855 and is in a perfect Neo-Gothic style. Some modern buildings have later separated the entrance from the street. We are just in front of the “Le Bon Marché” department store (see previous post here).

The church is called Saint Ignace. It’s a Jesuit church dedicated to Saint Ignace, Ignatius de Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit movement. I already talked about the fact that Ignatius together with some friends decided about the creation of the “Society of Jesus” in 1534 in a little chapel on the slopes of Montmartre (see previous post here). Maybe we should remember that the present Pope is a Jesuit.

The church has a number of very nicely decorated chapels dedicated to different saints, one of course to Ignatius himself, see top picture.

The immediate neighbour to the church is a Jesuit university-level faculty, opened in 1974, today open to men and women, lay and religious.  

Gloomy sky, but...

Yes, we have had some grey days…, but Paris is still there.

I realised that, on this photo, you can see not only the Sacré Cœur, but also the top of the Opera Garnier, Napoleon on Place Vendôme… and, in the very front, the statue of Thomas Jefferson.

I take the opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year !