In between the art exhibits, I've been visiting with friends, wandering the streets, poking into shops, and eating wonderful food.
Last week, I went on a tour of Paris auction houses with the American Women's Group. We had a great visit at Christie's where I found out that the doors are open to the public and it is possible to attend an auction preview or an auction itself even if you aren't bidding. It was fascinating to hear a description of the auction process and how the staff works with collectors, both those who attend an auction and those who cannot. We briefly stopped by Sotheby's but didn't stay long. The star of the visit from my point of view was Tajan. Drouot is, of course, the original French auction house and until the 20th century, Christie's and Sotheby's were not permitted to auction items in France. Tajan started his own auction business after a career at Drouot and it was bought several years ago by Rodica Seward, an American whom we had the pleasure of meeting. She is the only female owner of an auction house in Europe.
Mme. Seward is a Rumanian refugee who migrated to the US at the age of 14, got herself an education and wound up working for Morgan Stanley. If her business was deals (and making money), her passion became collecting art from very young, emerging artists. When she 'retired' from Wall Street, she bought Tajan. It is located in a gorgeous Art Deco building on rue des Mathurins and continues to do the usual business of auctioning collections of various kinds -- jewelry, porcelain, furniture, books, paintings. But she has begun seeking out young artists, particularly in formerly Eastern Bloc countries, and giving them a presence in Paris. She rotates her personal collection of these works through the offices on the rue des Mathurins and invited us to see it. She and her collection are formidable, as the French would say. Her eye for 21st century artists is uncanny.Something many Americans don't know about St. Germain, the area of Paris that now seems to be my de facto home-away-from-home, is that it is a hotbed of enthusiasm for American films of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Theses movies are shown in little theaters scattered throughout the area, most down tiny side streets. (The multi-plexes are all on the grand boulevards.) Brigitte, one of my conversation partners, is a film buff and we have often used our Sunday afternoons for an outing to one of these theaters. Lucky for me, last Sunday afternoon the Filmothèque du Quartier Latin was showing the original version (with French subtitles) of Billy Wilder's 1957 film Love in the Afternoon (called Ariane here). It stars Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier and Gary Cooper and is utterly charming (the French would say mignon). Brigitte and I repaired to a cafe afterwards for something to drink and had a great conversation (in French as the English half of our conversation had been spent at the movie) about it and other things.
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| Napoleon III reception room, Louvre Palac |
On Monday, I took a tour of the Napoleon III rooms of the Louvre with the American Women's Group. This is not a period of French history or interior decoration of which I'm very fond. But I learned quite a lot. First of all, I discovered that Napoleon III built almost all of the Louvre along the rue de Rivoli in the mid-19th century. Louis XIV style, to be sure, but very Haussmanian nonetheless. He also brought sewer and running water to the homes of Paris as well as gas for lighting. All the while, blundering around the world, competing with the British in China and elsewhere. Unhappily for Napoleon III, declaring war on Germany in 1870 was a very bad idea and the end of his public works.
As to the interior decor of the period, one might call it gaudy, but I'd go further and say it is the personification of wretched excess -- red plush and as much gilt as the traffic will bear. But even here, I was surprised by the simplicity (that's a relative term) and elegance of the decoration of the private apartments, witness the silk wall covering to the right and the ceiling decoration of the same room to the left.I even have good things to say about Empress Eugenie's choice of jewelry. Her crown and one of her earrings (shown right) are really quite lovely.
On Monday evening, I met Jane for one last dinner (at Semilla down the block from my former apartment) and said good-bye to two other conversation partners, Christiane and Alain, on Tuesday. Christiane and I are met at the Musée d'Orsay to see their latest exhibition on Dégas. Alain and I met at the same café across from the Luxembourg Gardens where we've been getting together ever since our first encounter, with the addition that today I met his wife Valerie for the first time as well.
Now it is time to pack up and get ready for my 6 am trip to the airport on Wednesday. This has been a wonderful visit. Pretty good weather... plenty to keep me amused... wonderful connections with old friends. As grandson Isaac once wrote to me in a lovely post card sent during his first visit to Paris as an adult, "Now I understand why you keep coming back!"
