Breakfast this morning was brought to us by a morning market run by Raymond featuring one of the yummiest baguette we’ve had so far (baguette cereales or a grain-filled baguette) with cheese and cucumber – yum! But we had to eat quick in order to make it to our scheduled entry time at the Dali Museum …
… or so we thought. We’d accidentally purchased tickets for tomorrow (darn those calendars that start on Mondays instead of Sundays!). Fortunately, the ticket taker let us in anyway. The museum was very interesting, especially since it featured primarily sculptures by Salvador Dali as opposed to the paintings I’m more used to seeing. In addition, the museum did a nice job of laying out some of the meanings behind some of the symbols and motifs you find in his work. They also had QR codes that animated some of the objects which were sometimes neat, sometimes silly.
(Right Image:) Appropriate for the new year, the didactic for this sculpture says “The elephant, Dali’s iconoclastic symbol of the future and one of his favourite images, is often depicted atop mosquito-like legs, emphasizing the contrast between robustness and fragility, much like the contrast between the past and modernity. The animal’s jeweled saddle symbolizes wealth, and the dawn of a new era is announced by a flying angel trumpeting success and prosperity. Dali’s elephant exemplifies every individual’s hope for abundance and good fortune in the future.”
Following the Dali museum, we made our way to Le Musée de Montmartre à Paris (the Montmartre Museum). The first part of this museum was what I’ve heard in guidebooks referred to as a “house museum” – the space where the artist actually lived and worked with their work on display. This space belonged to Suzanne Valadon, her son Maurice Utrillo, and her husband Andre Utter.
Right: A painting of the studio by Rene Zimmermann.
The second part of the museum took place across the garden (known as The Renoir Gardens because he lived in this complex between 1875 and 1877, painting some familiar pieces including the Bal du moulin de la Galette which takes place in one of the windmill/restaurants we saw on our tour). This building is the oldest surviving house in the neighborhood and housed a visual history of the area.
Middle: Painting of this house by Suzanne Valadon (the artist who lived in the studio across the garden)
Right: Painting of this same house by her husband Andre Utter.
Following these museums and a stroll around the neighborhood on a chilly afternoon (including a quick peek at the square where I had my portrait painted in high school), we decided to head back to the apartment for a bit to warm up, fill our tummies and rest before going out for dinner.
This is a tactic we haven’t tried yet (typically heading home means we’re in for the night) but I was a big fan! It’s much less busy in the neighborhood today than it was over the weekend and it was a lovely night for a stroll. Unfortunately, most of the places we’d bookmarked to check out for dinner were either too wet, too busy, or too full of cigar smoking patrons for our taste. Since it was such a lovely evening for a walk, we decided to head back to the area our tour guide the other day had recommended and stopped to eat outdoors at Un Zebre a Montmartre and, boy, were we glad we did! I will be dreaming about the sauce the duck came with for ages!
Oh! And the lights were off in the stairwell of our apartment which wasn’t great for seeing, but WAS great for noticing that we can see Sacre Coeur from the stairway window!
