Day Four Paris

This morning I woke with a bad case of "want to cut my hair" so following the advice of Mercedes, it was time for une brossshine. Judging from the frowns the gentleman made as he blew dry my hair, my accent is thicker than I thought. After a comical exchange with the fellow who had to make too many trips up the stairs with clean towels, we headed out to the market just behind Les Invalides and within view of the Eiffel Tower. I'm not sure where the produce was coming from but it certainly wasn't Mexico or Chile. An informal pop up market sold beautiful strawberries, asparagus, fresh squid, jonqilles (daffodils) and bread. Buddy wasn't interested in heating up the frites for us and we weren't hungry enough to buy anything else. From there we headed towards the Musee Marmottan Monet which was originally intended to be a hunting lodge but in 1883 was transformed into a sumptuous private home of Paul Marmotten when he inherited it from his father. Paul amassed a large collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures and objets d'art. The home and collection was eventually bequeathed to the Academie des Beaux-Arts during the depression. Michel Monet, son of Claude, bequested his father's personal collection to the museum which now holds the largest collection of Monet's paintings. Since 1966 other collectors have bequeathed their collections making this museum quite a treasure. Luckily we were able to see quite an extensive collection of Mari Laurencin's paintings which I had never seen before. A contemporary of Picasso, she too painted in the cubism style but it is very feminine and soft. Mostly women feature in her paintings but they are neither domestic nor nymphs. Another female painter I was drawn to was Berthe Morisot who was a sister in law of Eduard Monet. Her paintings are beautiful impressions mostly of domestic life: two I really enjoyed were two girls cherry picking, and small children playing in a sink. Seeing this beautiful art creates such a longing to have it around you for your contemplation. I bought quite a few post cards of those I particular liked and will scan them to add here once I am home. We took the train home tonight, cooked our dinner, ate the most delicious macaroons and talked well into the night. I think of the artists, writers, musicians who came to Paris, experienced the vibrant artistic community and the work this inspiration created. I hope that in a vicarious way, our experience will be enriched in such a way that when we return to our homes, we will create our own contributions which will inspire future generations.