The Hail, the Salon and the Oysters

Thursday morning Pierre and I thought we'd set off to Le Salon du Livres et Papiers Ancien....at Espace  Champerret.  Nothing like 'the hunt'....you just never know what you'll find.

11am....gorgeous and sunny....a perfect day to make our way to Espace Champerret in the burbs......But Pierre, always the careful one, thought we should take our brollies, "just in case". 

Walking out the door, all was sunny and glorious. But by the time we had walked to the end of Rue de la Rochfoucauld (about 3 minutes) it was starting to get very dark....and then BOOM....an incredible clap of thunder....followed by strong winds, rain and hail!  Our brollies were definitely the worse for wear after that climatic event!

Oh, but le Salon was wonderful....it was worth battling the elements to get there....lots of fabulous ancien papers and books that you'd just never see in Australia....we're just not old enough to have that sort of treasure.

Beautiful French manuscripts, unique books of all shapes and sizes, engravings, posters, carte postale, calendars from 18th century to early 20th century, catalogues from the 1900s, vintage menu cards and recipe books, ancien newspapers....it was all so incredible (I just didn't know where to look first).  Oh....and there was a little bit of naughty stuff too....porn and bondage (mostly of the recent kind, not ancien!)

And then there was the food....that was good too.  However, I disgraced myself by asking the waiter if the fish soup was good!  He answered loudly in a strong French accent, "MADAME!!!!!" Well, it was very, very good....so were the oysters that followed the soup!  In fact....they were fantastique!

We trundled out at 7pm totally exhausted...but what a great day!

Les huîtres.....fantastique!

And this was my treasure....vintage postcards, a lovely old
Parisian book entitled "Confidences", and an adorable little porcelain puppet.  J'adore!

You may also like my post on:

http://parisallons-y.blogspot.fr/2012/10/les-garcons-de-saint-germain.html

Parisian Sculpture...Elegant and Monumental

The sculpture in Paris is extraordinary.

The variety of sculpture is limitless....there's Rodin, Bråncussi, Maillol, Picasso etc etc.  Then there's the sculptures on the facades of many Parisian buildings (like the Opera Garnier) and in Paris' parks and gardens.

There all smaller musées, too, specialising in sculpture.

Our charming French neighbours recently told us about a sculpture garden in one of Paris' smaller musées that they thought we may like...Musée Bourdelle.

When we visited, it was a "MON DIEU" moment every time we turned a corner!

Bourdelle was greatly admired by Rodin...and became an assistant to the great sculptor.  Many of his sculptures are, in a word, monumental!  Merci beaucoup to our lovely neighbours for recommending this interesting musée.  J'adore Musée Bourdelle!

And we recently visited another small sculpture garden just down la rue from Musée Bourdelle....this was Musée Zadkine.  Zadkine's sculptures, some elegant and curvacious, others wild and striking, are elegantly exhibited in this beautiful little musée.

I think these smaller musées do a fantastic job.   They give us an opportunity to get up 'close and personal' to such beauty and incredible art....what would we do without them!

Musée Zadkine: Elegance Personified

Musée Bourdelle:  Wow Factor in the Extreme

You may also like my post on:

http://parisallons-y.blogspot.fr/2012/09/parisan-artistic-cornucopia.html