I walked over the Seine ( as brown and unpleasant looking as the other day) to the northern part of the 9th arrondissment and saw a fire station which is noted for the grape vines that they have cultivated over the years growing all over the fence between the trucks and building s and the street. According to my book they harvest over 150 kg of grapes.
The next stop was the Musee Gustave Moreau. He was an artist born in 1826. The gallery was his house. In some rooms there were just paintings ( his and others) squashed into every available space which I found quite off-putting. Some rooms ( all quite small) like dining room and bedroom had fewer paintings , then on 2 upper floors there were more of his huge paintings, but again all packed in. They were mostly dark colours or naked ish women or tormented men or angry weather or some combination of the above. Mainly biblical or mythological. There was one that was a bit different and it or the style were vaguely familiar. Turned out it was a copy of a Canaletto, a Venetian painter whose light airy paintings i quite like. Apparent copying someone else's work is OK. Then I found one of his that was light, but apparently wasn't finished. But it had the lady and 2 unicorns from the tapestry.
Nearby was a square with an interesting statue. Apparently there used to be a Paris Carnival which stopped in the 1950s. The sculptor is know for his witty illustrations and caricatures of everyday life. So this fountain has a thief, a courtesan, a harlequin and a debardeuse - a pants wearing woman. In the 19th century it was illegal for a woman to wear pants unless she had a permit from the police, a letter from her doctor to saynshe had to wear pants (???) or was in costume for the carnival. The law was not overturned officially until 2013.
Then I saw a wall with a lovely art nuveau stained glass pattern. Then i had lunch which took a while because , just as I was finishing , a local came in and sat near me. She loudly asked the waiter ( not rudely, he was just a bit away from her) for a glass of white wine but cheaper than the previous days. I sort of snickered and she spoke to me. We established that her English was better than my French but I still tried. Except she noticed that i had accidentally used a few italian words which she knew. Fairly on, I got the usual question in French, Are you English. my response is always in French, I speak english but i am not from england i am from Australia, which every french person i have met on the streets seems pleased about. We talked for quite a while .
Next stop was the Eglise of st eugene and st cecile. This church is lovely and colourful inside. The columns are colourful and there is lots of stained glass. There were only a few other people there. It was lovely just to sit quietly in. The other thing that is intersting about this church is that after vatican 2, in the mid 1960s , half the congregation said they wanted to stay with the old ways - priest with his back to the people speaking in latin. So for ages they had 2 congregations and 2 priests, but now i think they only have 1 priest but they still have services in latin as well as english.
Next stop was a coffee and cake. There are coffee shops often called ' coffee shop ' springing up all over Paris . From my sample of about 5 , the coffee is not always great. The coffee from a bar is probably better than I remember from 2019. Todays was good.
My next job tonight is to plan tomorrow. I might include a bus ride. I waked over 18km today.
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