Disney Take 2

Thanks to the Disneyland Paris 'Il était deux fois' (once upon two times) campaign this summer when I bought my ticket to go 3 weeks ago it meant I could go again for free any time more than a week later. With my sister in Paris who better to re-revisit my childhood with.

Eiffel Tower Encore

My sister was in Paris this weekend and so she wanted to do what all foreign people in Paris want to do and go and see the Eiffel Tower. So we went, we took photos and we avoided pickpocketing gypsies. 

 I take credit for the 'hugging the eiffel tower' idea. I don't think i've seen anyone else do it before and think it could rival the classic holding up the leaning tower of Pisa. Aaaw, BFFs. 

Musée d'Orsay

Being the artiste that I am I decided it was time to check out some more art galleries/museums so I chose the Musée d'Orsay, just across the river from the Louvre. Housed in an old train station the museum is an impressive building in its own right featuring huge arched ceilings and giant clocks through which the river and the rest of Paris can be seen. It also boasts an impressive collection of art works, in particular it's impressionist floor, featuring famous works by Degas, Renoir, Cezanne and Monet, amongst others. Only complaint was that the air conditioning was very strong and I actually got cold so if you're going take a jumper.

I didn't want to get in trouble for taking photos so I wrote down the names of a few paintings that really caught my eye and have googled them and included pictures below for your convenience. 

 

L'absinthe and Danseuses Bleues by Edgar Degas. Alcohol and Ballet, two of my favourite things.  

Baigneurs by Paul Cezanne. Who doesn't love a group of buff naked men about to take a bath? 

Danse a la Ville and Le Garcon au Chat by Auguste Renoir. Dancing, naked men (ok it's a boy, shhh) and cats. Even better. 

Bal du Moulin de la Galette by August Renoir. 

This painting is set in Montmartre where I am living so it is just parfait. I love the way the light has been captured and I love a party. 

La rue Montorgeuil by Claude Monet.

When I was in New York we went to the MoMA and all I was interested in was the free wifi and not Monet's water lilies. My mum told me I would regret that I hadn't paid any attention (she was right) so seeing some Monet in the Musee d'Orsay lifted a bit of my guilty conscience. I just love how perfectly french and patriotic this painting is. Vive la France! 

Maison du Victor Hugo

Just down the road in Le Marais, set on the beautiful Place des Voges is the Maison du Victor Hugo, or in other words Victor Hugo's house. A house where he penned many of his famous novels and wrote much of Les Mis. The house is free for visitors and you can wander around the upper floors through rooms that are either partly as were, or recreations of rooms in which Hugo lived. 

Since my episode at the Art Decoratifs the other day I have become a little scared of the people who sit in corners keeping watch over the exhibition and I am sure that they only pretend to be asleep in order to catch you taking photos. Therefore I only had the courage for one cheeky snap of a room in Victor Hugo's house, I think it was a dining room (maybe the big table is a give away for that?). The rooms also had paintings of Hugo and his family, pieces of work and letters written by him. It talked a lot about the story of Notre Dame which I didn't actually realise until then was written by him. The disney version was my favourite film when I was little so this was quite exciting. 

There wasn't really much mention of Les Miserables which was a shame, though you could pay to see a temporary exhibition elsewhere within the giant house on Politics and Victor Hugo so I suspect all the Les Mis stuff would have been in there as it is a controversial story bringing to light the plight of the poor in France. I attempted (/am attempting) to read the book in French but volume 1 has over 900 pages and I believe there are 3 or 4 volumes so I'm not getting very far. Cool to be in his house though and 17th century Place des Voges is stunning and one of the few places in Paris where you can sit on the grass.

Louis the something's room

The Musee Carnavalet showcases rooms from various palaces of various King Louis' in all their grandiose splendeur. I love the use of pastel colours on the wall, combined with the white trim, marble fire places and just about everything else smothered in a bit of gold, so very french, so very perfect. 

These shoes belonged to Marie Antoinette who I noted looked like she must have had very tiny feet. They aren't really to my taste but they are beautiful and delicate and of the period, just like Marie herself and I suppose only fitting for the young queen of France. 

I think if the section of the museum about the French revolution was open I would perhaps have had less appreciation for the grand, extravagent and stunning lives of the aristocracy of the times and I would have better understood that while royalty were spending all of France's money guilding everything in gold, the rest of the country were starving. Never the less thanks to Victor Hugo and a brilliant musical remake I am able to appreciate the struggle of the poor in France at the time through a heart-wrenching tale accompanied by memorable music, and also now enjoy what the rich left behind and gaze at it awe and jealousy. 

Musée Carnavalet

The Musée Carnavalet is not only housed in beautiful old buildings in the district of Le Marais but unlike a lot of Parisian museums is free for everyone, so I thought I would pay it a visit. Dedicated to the history of Paris and housed inside two huge central city mansions there is everything from royal rooms to art and historical artefacts. Not gonna lie at this point my feet were really tired and so I couldn't really be bothered to read all the small writing about the history and annoyingly the area I was interested in about the french revolution (thanks Les Mis) was closed. The buildings and gardens were pretty impressive though...

La Mechanique des Dessous

I went to the Musee d'Arts Decoratifs to see the exhibition 'la mechanique des dessous', all about undergarments from around the 16th century to now, how we change the way our bodies look through what we wear. Although it says no photos I thought I could take a sneaky few in order to blog about it but unfortunately I was caught, twice, and made to delete them. So I went out and bought a sketchbook, a 6B pencil and then returned to the exhibition. After all I am an artiste. Below are some drawings of undergarments from the exhibition.

It's quite incredible what women went through, the physical strain on their bodies in trying to get them to look a certain way. Not just women either but men too, though I have to say I found myself more interested in the female undergarments, corsets that comprised of basically metal cages, and huge heavy metal hoop skirts to sit under layers of thick fabric. Whale bone was used in the bodices of dresses to keep women's backs upright and to keep their waists thin, it was even used in garments for children. I'm pretty sure there is some sort of law that wouldn't allow that now, wouldn't allow children to wear corsets in order to sculpt what they believed to be soft and malleable bodies. 

I suppose you can argue that to an extent women still alter the shapes of their bodies through what they wear. You can buy bras with air pads in them to add cup sizes, you can buy pants to pull your tummy in and shape your curves to drop dress sizes, we still wear dress with boning in them. Ok, it's not as extreme as it was back in the 18th century but the principal is the same and I am sure that the phrase "no pain, no gain" still applies. 

Worth a visit as an exhibition I would say and on until November 24th if you're in Paris.