Museum of Decorative Arts

The Museum of Decorative Arts (Musee des Arts Decoratifs) is a fantastic museum that I had never been to until just a few weeks ago. Amy and I decided to stop in and have a look. She was especially interested in the items from a few centuries ago.

My interest in those things dried up pretty quickly, but once I got to the section of the museum with the more modern design displays (i.e., from 1900 forward), I couldn't get enough.

There was a great display of chairs in all different designs and styles covering decades of design. I think there were 100 chairs in all.

I inevitably found the minimal embellishment and great lines and structure of the mid-century modern pieces to be wonderful.

I know not everyone would feel the same way, but to me this chair looks like I could just sink right in and read for hours (as long as I had an ottoman). See the next picture for a full view of the "lamp" wall-piece you can see, um..., sprouting out of the chair.

This picture is ugly. But I wanted to include it to show that lamp. Amazing. I love it--function, cool design, and a big piece of wall art at the same time.

I love everything about this "room." I love that the furniture is a little bit lower (since my legs are so short, furniture that is closer to the ground is helpful--otherwise, it's all about the ottomans.). I think the lines of the chaise are just awesome. And those floating shelves are going to get a DIY attempt one of these days (once I'm home, of course).

Can I have this set of consoles, please? (You can barely see it, but just behind the informational sign in front of the console, there is a black circle on top of the console. I'm guessing it was a record player or something similar, but I couldn't tell for sure).

If you want to spend thousands of dollars on me one day, try to buy this sideboard or one like it. Isn't it beautiful? I love the simplicity of the design and the lines, but the warmth of the wood and the pattern of the grain.

And I don't even know how to begin describing the perfection of this desk and chair. (The desk chair, not the leather one in front.)

And this was just a delightful surprise. It's an awesome old armchair with embellished woodwork that has been painted with acrylics paints! I think I now have to do this. Even if I just send it to the dump afterwards.

So, that's a taste of the Museum of Decorative Arts. Obviously this is only a sampling that is very biased toward my own preferences.

I wouldn't suggest this to families with younger children (or even adolescents, really), and unless you're really interested in design or interior decoration, I would keep this as a reserve activity should you find yourself with an hour or two to spare. I absolutely loved it, but I've also already seen the "big" sites in Paris.

Thursday Night...

...I'll be sleeping just 10 minutes away from Disneyland Paris.

But I'm not going to Disneyland*. Oh, no. I'm going somewhere WAY better.


The Frankfurt temple!! I can't wait.
A) I love Germany
B) I love the Temple!
C) Bonus: A distribution center is right nearby... (so, you can bet I'll be stocking up)


All of the YSA's that are going on the temple trip are meeting at the church in Torcy at 8:30 Friday morning, then putting in a long day of driving before going to the temple Friday night, having a fireside, going to the temple Saturday morning, and heading back to France.

I decided that instead of pushing my luck and trying to make the train ride that morning (I have had multiple problems with the trains this very week), I would take the train Thursday after Institute and camp out overnight in a Mister Bed right by the train station and the church. I'll probably end up staying there Saturday night, too, since we'll be getting back into Torcy at 11:00. If the trains are still running from that station at that point, I might try to just get back into the city. But... we'll see.


I haven't been to the temple since January and I am really looking forward to it. Access to a (ha, A... how about EIGHT) temple within easy driving distance is definitely a bonus of the good ol' hometown, whatever it's limitations may be.

*not this weekend, at least. I'm thinking it's a day trip I'll have to make before coming home, though.

Louvre Visit

Part of one evening was spent at the Louvre, looking mostly at the large format pictures, like:

Liberty Leading the People

and

The Raft of the Medusa

We also paid a visit to Nike... or Winged Victory.

Then we went outside to see the lighting of the Pyramid for the 20th anniversary of it's creation. It was depressing. I'm not going to bother posting a video.

Pompi-douuuuu

Amy and I also made a quick stop by the Pompidou Center. HALF of it was closed to prepare for an exhibit of works by female artists. Lame. (Not the new exhibit, but that they closed down HALF of the museum.)

I took a couple of pics, then found a bench to rest on while Ames took a look around the remaining half of the museum.


I'm going to be heading back there sometime in the next couple of weeks, because there is a Kandinsky exhibit that just opened!! Can't wait to see that. As some of you may remember, I love Kandinsky. His most colorful and graphic works really inspire me. It will be really interesting to see some of his other works in person (there are two very small works on permanent display in the Pompidou, but nothing that I was a huge fan of). Hopefully it won't disappoint.

The Eiffel Tower

Ames and I stopped by the Eiffel once during the day...






and once at night...

I love when the tower sparkles. It just feels magical. It's actually really pretty.

We ran into two girls from Colombia who were there for their last night, and ALL of the batteries in every device they had that could take pictures had died. So we took their pictures and promised to email them.

Only, I can't find the pics. Ames? Were they on your camera?

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

My parents have been married for 31 years TODAY. Love you both!

Congratulations!

Mom and Dad at a castle near Dresden, Germany. April 20, 2009.

Couldn't Sleep In Like I Planned, So...

I changed my sheets, because I've "had it up to HERE" with turning over in bed while I'm reading and coming face to face with this:

Friday, Yesterday and Today

Friday:
-I followed through with the hang-out that was arranged on Thursday at Institute. If you were going to guess what happened and you hypothesized, "He probably pressured you into dating him, wondered why you weren't interested, tried his very best to manipulate the situation (even though you're an expert at blocking such attempts) and then said things like, 'Well, I don't want to pressure you.' and 'Maybe tomorrow you'll text me and say you changed your mind.'" you'd be right.
If you thought that maybe after that I would make a promise to myself to ignore all of his texts and calls, you'd also be right.

Yesterday I:
-went to the market and bought lovely produce, but forgot to get meat so I could make stuffed tomatoes and round zucchini today. Heirloom tomatoes, just so you know, cost 2.50 each here. ouch.
-bought some cardigans
-went on a date with the Egyptio-Italian and saw a funny movie called "Le Missionaire" about an ex-con who pretends to be a priest to get away from some "old buddies" that are out to get their share of whatever money he is supposed to have (and no, it's nothing like Sister Act). Also got crepes and saw the market at Port de Clignancourt for the first time. Wow. That place is crazy.
-got home late

Today:
-I got to church on time! Early, actually.
-Told the Sister missionaries about my random boy conversations of the week. They love hearing the stories as we walk to teaching appointments and wait for church to start.
-An investigator that I've been helping the sisters teach came to church with her two daughters today (and on time! No small feat for a single mom with two kids under the age of three that has to rely on public transit)! Huge forward progress for an investigator who wasn't progressing. And while she was getting her daughters ready to go at the end of church, she was talking to them about "next week at church" like it was the most natual thing in the world. Yessssss.
-Entertained said daughters during sacrament meeting
-Also manned the nursery today during RS and Sunday School. Bilingual nursery is kind of crazy, but awesome.
-I might have downed a whole (and not tiny) tart with zucchini, tomatoes, creme fraiche and mozzarella like it was a personal pizza
-I discovered that I lost 6 pounds over the last month. Go figure. (Factoring in that tart, well... maybe 5 pounds.)

So, tomorrow it's back to school and work for 4 days and then... I'm off to Frankfurt, Germany with the YSA's for a long-weekend temple trip. Suh-weet! I haven't been to the temple since January. Can't. Wait.

Vaux-le-Vicomte

Ames and I ended up taking two day-trips out of Paris. The first was to Vaux-le-Vicomte, a gorgeous chateau about 45 minutes from Paris by train.

We took the train, grabbed a quick taxi ride from the station, and were dropped off here:

Nice, huh?

Here's some info. from Wikipedia. I'm too lazy to paraphrase it for you.

The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French chateau located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. It was built from 1658 to 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle-Isle (Belle-Ile-en-Mer), Viscount of Melun and Vaux, the superintendent of finances of Louis XIV.
Vaux-le-Vicomte was in many ways the most influential work built in Europe in the mid-17th century, the most elaborate and grand house built in France after the Château de Maisons. Here, the architect Louis Le Vau, the landscape architect André le Nôtre, and the painter-decorator Charles Le Brun worked together on a large-scale project for the first time. Their collaboration marked the beginning of a new order: the magnificent manner that is associated with the "Louis XIV style" involving a system of collective work, which could be applied to the structure, its interiors and works of art and the creation of an entire landscape. The garden's use of a baroque axis that extends to infinity is an example of this style.

Well, we enjoyed a leisurely picnic in the gardens (leisurely, even though I wore Amy's Pink bag like a backpack in the Catacombs and ended up spilling carrot salad vinaigrette all over everything...), with a lovely view of the castle (and the scaffoldng that covered the 1/4 of it whwere they were re-roofing and gilding the roof decorations) and the outbuildings.

After our lunch, we decided to tour the inside first. Maybe my pictures don't do it justice, but it is beautiful. And served as a model for the at-the-moment-still-a-hunting-lodge Versailles. If you've ever been to Versailles, you will definitely see the resemblance.

Fête and Arrest
The château was lavish, refined, and dazzling to behold, but these characteristics proved tragic to its owner. Indeed, the King had Fouquet arrested shortly after a famous fête that took place on 17 August 1661, with Molière's play 'Les Fâcheux'.[5] The celebration had been too impressive and the superintendent's home too luxurious. Jean-Baptiste Colbert had led the king to believe that his minister's magnificence was funded by the misappropriation of public funds. Colbert, who then replaced Fouquet as superintendent of finances, arrested him. [6] Later, Voltaire was to sum up the famous fête thus: "On 17 August, at six in the evening Fouquet was the King of France: at two in the morning he was nobody." La Fontaine wrote describing the fête, and shortly afterwards penned his Elégie aux nymphes de Vaux.

After Fouquet
After Nicolas Fouquet was arrested and imprisoned for life, and his wife exiled, Vaux-le-Vicomte was placed under sequestration (sequestration (law)). The King seized, confiscated, and occasionally purchased 120 tapestries, the statues, and all the orange trees from Vaux Le Vicomte. He then sent the team of artists (Le Vau, Le Nôtre and Le Brun) to design what would be a much larger project than Vaux Le Vicomte, the palace and gardens of Versailles.
Madame Fouquet recovered her property ten years later and retired there with her eldest son. In 1705, after the death of her husband and son, she decided to put Vaux Le Vicomte up for sale.[7]

And last but not least (be still my beating heart)...

Oh, and lest I forget...

The room next to the library was specifically decorated in a more elegant and elaborate fashion so the king could stay there if he dropped in to say hello. (Or, "You're arrested, because your house is cooler than mine." Whichever.)

What makes this room extra special, though, is the creepy life-size manneqins. One of them "talks," as well, which is creepy in and of itself, but it's (his?) mouth actually moves correctly so the shape of his lips reflects what it would look like if an actual person was talking. And frankly, that just creeped me right out.

So, here's a little video to give you a feel for the ambience of the room...

And here's a video to show you how creepy his face is when he talks. Maybe it's because none of the rest of his face moves--his cheeks, his eyes, even his eyebrows... Nope, he's got a Botox face with moveable lips.

After touring the main floor, we went up past the second floor, up this teensy staircase,

walked around the bell tower,

and enjoyed a great view of the grounds.

Can you see the influence on Versailles?

No?

Let me help you...

We decided to hang out in the gardens for a while. I read, Ames took a nap. It was so nice to bask in the sunlight for a while.

Then we had a taxi called, I grabbed some cookbooks from the chateau gift shop, and we made our way back to Paris.

If you are in Paris for the first time, this might not be the thing for you because there are so many other wonderful things right in town. But for returning visitors, I would definitely recommend Vaux-le-Vicomte. Bit pricey to get there, get in, and get back, but to me it was totally worth it.

I Finally

figured out how to light my oven. It involves matches. Go figure.

The result? Quiche for lunch. Mmmmmmmm.