We head out around 11ish. It's a dull and rather gloomy day outside. We stroll down rue de Four and I get a coffee, noisette for €1. It's kind of like a piccolo, seems to be the best way to get a nice coffee here I'm finding. We stroll up along Boulevard Saint Germain and then down Rue de Bac.
This end of Saint Germain has lots of furniture and interior shops. We pop in and out of a few as well as a few clothes shops and florists for sim. We head over the Seine and through the Tulleries gardens. We stop and sit for a bit, watching on as lots of dogs are playing on the lawned gardens out the front of the louvre. It's quite funny watching them wrestle and chase each other. Sim was in heaven.
We head up rue de Rivoli which is full of souvenir shops before turning up onto rue Saint Honore. Sim was keen to visit the Colette store. It's an interesting shop with lots of fun and quirky designer things. A very eclectic mix of things too. Gadgets, electronics, fashion, cosmetics, jewellery and a food hall downstairs. I get very confused by the section devoted to Eric Cantona however. The King Eric fan club it's called. It's bizarre! I ask one of the staff what it's all about and he tells me it's a temporary exhibit. He asks if I know Eric Cantona. I reply yes, however he then proceeds to still explain who is to me, telling me he's a former French footballer who played for Manchester Utd. He's very big in Japan and Asia he says.
Bizarre I know. He then asks where I'm from. I reply Australia.
"Ahhh, Eric's Cantona not so big in Australia" he replies. I tell him no, but that we know of him. He asks what sports we have in Australia. I tell him we have football, rugby, Australian football, cricket..."
"And pole dancing" he replies.
"Pardon" I reply
"Pole dancing" he repeats excitedly. " You have the world champion in pole dancing"
"Ahhh...yes. I think we do" I reply.
I thank him for his help and make my way down to sim at the perfume section to ask if Australia has the world champion in pole dancing. "Yeah we do, why?" she replies.
It's a long story.
What a bizarre lost in translationesque moment.
We head out and up along rue Saint Honore and pass a few more interesting shops, notably some Paris based perfumeries, before wandering back over to the louvre.
We sit down on the edge of the fountains surrounding IM PEIs glass pyramid and people watch for a bit. So many people posing for photos, bizarrely on top of bollards pretending to pinch the top of the pyramid.
We wander over to the mini Arche de Triomphe commissioned by napolean just in front of the louvre. Standing at this point you can't help but feel an amazing sense of scale and grandeur at the lengthy axis of symmetry that is created here in Paris, which links the louvre central portico, the centreline of the pyramid, the centre of the mini Arche de Triomphe, the centre of the obelisk in the Plaça la Concorde and the Centre of the Arche de Triomphe at the end of the champs élysées. The large Ferris wheel which is rather recent also plays a part in this axial wonder. And that's only what you can see from this point. It doesn't include the Grand Arche on the other side of the Arche de Triomphe in La Defense. Quite incredible.
We head back over the Ponte des Arts and into rue Severin for a cheap lunch. €3 panini of your choice with Coke. For €4 you can also get all that plus a crepe with sugar. Incredible value. We each get one as well as share a crepe. Tasty! But more importantly cheap.
After lunch we wander back up boulevard Saint Germain and do a bit more window shopping before visiting the 1920-30s modernist house by Pierre chareau, Maison de Verre. We arrive at a large timber door to the street, huddling under the reveal as it's now raining. The door opens and were let in. The house is very interesting as it's an insertion under and into an old Parisian apartment block. The original clients were quite wealthy, the wife was the daughter of a rich family and the husband was a successful gynaecologist. They bought the 4 storey small apartment building with the intention of demolishing it but the old lady tenant upstairs wouldn't move so they kept the upper floors and built within the lower two after demolishing them. Quite an ingenious solution.
We're greeted by a very proper gentlemen who looks and sounds a bit like Ralph Fiennes. We can't figure out if he's English or French as his English is so proper yet his French is so, well, French.
We start in the front courtyard and hear all about the famous glass brick facade. The glass bricks were used as a natural light source due to the orientation of the building and the surrounding context, it doesn't receive a great deal of sun. With that the diffused glass bricks act a screen also, creating privacy from the onlooking neighbours. Large movie set lights and tall steel ladders on a thin frame hang off the building. Interestingly the facade was illuminated at night to allow privacy at night when lights internally would create silhouettes. Lighting the facade reduced this effect.
Another interesting thing I learn is that the icon black frame to the glass bricks was originally a grey render, and it's still evident in the rear garden facade of the building. We head through to the rear garden, which is a beautifully planted somewhat Japanese meets French formal garden. A beautiful space.
The tour of the building then commences, starting in the entry hall where the different ways of entering the building are explained. Whilst it was a family home it was also a gynaecology surgery and practice, and in addition to the family they had two live in service people, a maid and a driver. The separation of these functions in the layout and design is interesting. We learn about Pierre chareau and how he wasn't an architect with formal training, but rather a cabinet and furniture designer and seemingly jack of all trades. I find that interesting, as thee house for me is like a jewellery box of so many interesting cabinetry and joinery details that make up the whole. I'm really impressed by this building, more so than what I was expecting to be. The level of consideration in every space and detail is astounding. Chareau thought of everything, not just the clients family and how they would use the spaces, but the ergonomics of every piece of furniture, door handle, light switch etc. The non hierarchical nature of the service quarters in relationship to the house, as the client was a communist party member. As such the house was made more mechanised and more labour intensive things were made easier wherever possible.
The design also takes into consideration the feelings and experience of patients visiting the gynaecologist and how they would be received, how they'd wait and how they'd be treated. It's a very clever and cutting edge building.
The amazing part of this functionalist design is that it creates an industrial chic aesthetic that is so modern, before its time in many ways. Sim and I are both in love with the feeling of this building.
Was a great privilege to be able to visit it, particularly as it's still a private residence. New owners purchased it in the mid 00s after it had remained in the original family for so long. So great that they allow people the opportunity to visit it. What's more visit it with furniture and a sense of it being lived in, albeit on and off.
At the end of the tour one of the other people visiting, seemed like a student, was asking why the new owners changed a few things. Our Ralph Fiennes look a like your guide was quite taken a back by this and jumped down the guys throat, "well what don't you like about it" he replied. " The other guy didn't hold back either, but to be honest he was a bit of a twat and I didn't agree with him at all. I've visited a few famous old houses now and the best ones to experience for me are the ones that are still lived in and not turned into a museum. Sure that means the owners will make small changes here and there, like new taps, fittings, shower screens and lighting, but these are just modern contemporary standard things that lets face it weren't great 90 odd years ago. Honestly some people are just whingers!
After a good 2 hours exploring this great house, we head back to the hotel collect our bags and get the metro to Montparnasse.
It's a tick of 3hours on the train to get to Granville on the western coastline of Normandy, as we stop at 7or 8 other places along the way. We get into Granville at 11 and wait a short few minutes for a taxi. Things are pretty quiet though. It's a quiet sleepy seaside town and it's 11pm on a Thursday. We decide to walk the 1.3km with our bags to our Airbnb up in the old fort area of town. We're slightly worried and anxious by the lack of any signs of civilisation in the town, as our Airbnb host has advised us that they've left the keys at the bar 50m up the road from where we're supposed to be staying. Please still be open!!!
We get to the apartment and i head up and into the bar which thank god is still open, with a few locals out the front. After a lengthy process of going back and forth between English and French he finally figures out what I'm on about and I get the keys. Phew.!!!
That was lucky, it's freezing out and the prospect of roughing it outside for the night was not attractive at all.
mat + sim
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