One Step Over the Line
One Step Over the Line
Today we had a delightful day visiting the Marmottan museum which holds the largest collection of Monet’s works. I could see several attributes of his work that I’d failed to see before. Near the end of his life, Monet lost his wife and son, who lived with him in Giverny, which was only 7 miles from WWI front lines. Also during this time he was considered legally blind due to cataracts. I could see these events unfold with the use of huge canvases, larger than life subjects, and vibrant colors. You never see a straight line in his work and seldom do you see a fully loaded, fully drawn out, brush stroke. Instead there is a “tire skid” of paint. Darker colors hold the basic subject, lighter colors the draw out flow and add intensity. One water lily painting illuminated the water as a series of “Mona Lisa” smiles. Step back and you could feel the wind on the water.
Later we made another attempt to find the Bagatelles which is a portion of the Parc de Bologna. We tried this a month ago and kept walking in endless circles that were only broken when it started raining.
This time, eureka, we found it. This park was given to the city by the Sir Richard Wallace who made a reputation in Paris by donating over 100 drinking fountains due to his frustration at finding an accessible watering hole. I really wish he suffered from a weak bladder and went after some free toilets! He also built the spired Bagatelle house in 60 days on a wager.
“Pelouse au repos”, “Pelouse au repos”, signs were posted everywhere in this garden of tranquility. These signs tell the visitor that the lawn is resting. Shhh, don’t talk loudly, and certainly don’t walk on the grass. The French for the most part silently follow these rules. It’s the tourist and the legal/illegal immigrants that constantly step over the line. The counter balance to these outrages is a gaggle of armed and unarmed guards that patrol the park. One resident told me “if you get robbed they do nothing, step on the grass, you go to jail!” Four people broke away from the nearby strollers, walking on the grass towards a tree that had a peacock on a lower branch. Suddenly whistles started blowing from several directions and men in blue converging. I was having a Les Miserables flashback. Run Jean Valjean! The people returned to the sidewalk, front to back, equally spaced, ready for the chain gang.
Picture Set
posted by Bob and Gayle @ 5:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home