Marmottan Monet Museum

Thursday, July 29, 2010 Day 29
Breakfast this morning was cereal and – you guessed it – mango. Delicious! Today we did a little marketing – we went for meat, but the food vendors were sparse again today, so we skipped meat until tomorrow, when we will hit up a local butcher shop around the corner for some sausage, chicken or beef. Instead we bought cherries, tomatoes, a cantaloupe, 2 cucumbers, some oranges. Mostly for me, but the oranges are for Roger.

Roger had a ham sandwich for lunch, and he discovered that the ham, which had been in the refrigerator, was frozen. Later, when I got out a lemon for supper, I realized that it was partially frozen as well. We turned the refrigerator up! Frost is building up on the inside of the refrigerator. I really don't want to have to defrost it until right before we leave. I want to leave the apartment clean, and that will be one of the last jobs.

After lunch we took a bus to the Marmottan Monet Museum on the western edge of Paris. We saw a large number of Monet paintings, many of them juxtaposed against later painters who allegedly took their cue from Monet’s impressionistic style, but went even further into plays of light and shadow with very little substance. Some of these include Jackson Pollack, Kandinsky, Rothko, Gottliebe. There was a wonderful piece by Maria Elena Vieira da Silva called “Hanging Gardens, and another by André Masson entitled “Le Printimps s’avance (Spring Advances), and another fantastic one by Zao Wou-Ki, an untitled piece with brilliant color execution. And, of course, many Monet paintings. There were a large number of paintings by Berthe Morisot, a French impressionist whose style was very much like that of Monet. Overall a delightful afternoon! It fills me with anticipation of our trip to Giverny in the next couple of weeks.

On the way into the museum in the Jardin du Ranelagh we passed a structure which, albeit closed, appeared similar to one of those pony rides where they hitch a pony to guide beam of some sort and the pony walks round and round in a circular path. It was mostly just a pointed, movable roof structure and a large box nearby. When we came out, we found that a gentleman had attached wooden horses from the roof structure with straps and, voila! he made a carousel. Further, it was a crank-powered carousel – he turned a large crank and made the thing go around. Nifty! No music, but it was still neat to see.

Here’s a shout-out to Caryn. Welcome to my blog! You and Jon should bring Lillian and come visit us here or in Montpellier. We will be in the latter for 10 months starting in September.

Tonight was leftover-fish-night. This along with a baguette, butter, leftover potatoes and salad. The best thing about dinner this evening was the salad. I used tomatoes, cucumbers, Greek sheep cheese, a red bell pepper, and a vinegar-and-oil dressing with a secret ingredient which my mother-in-law taught me to make years ago. Delicious!