Artwork in Paris! - Musée!

In coincidence!

I gave up the idea of getting into Musée Louvre because of the size and in our time schedule.

So he chose Musée D'Orsay and I chose Musée National Picasso.
There were many impressionist artworks in Musée D'Orsay. Renoir, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Serrate, Gorgon, and my love, Van Gogh and Lautrec.

It was lucky for us that the Musée D'Orsay was open until 9:30 pm on Thursday.
We had planned that day for this museum.

We could use all day to visit two or three places.
I planned as follows: Morning to Lunch - Montmartre,
Afternoon - Musée National Picasso.
Evening - Musée D'Orsay.
It didn't work. I wanted to stay in Montmartre as much I could!
I gave up going to Musée Picasso in that day. I hoped I would be able to go there before our flight on the next day! We made it!

Please check my last Christmas blog. There is a picture of the Picasso goat and I.
Here I am with another Picasso goat in Paris. He took the pictures again.
It was old Hotel turned into the museum. I felt I was in someones house.
It was another cozy museum! I could stay there all day but I was rushing to see everything in the museum. "I can't miss my Airplane!"
One of my favorites of Picasso's artwork are his posters.
I can tell there is a always a lot of mischief in his artwork ideas. I love his wittiness.
He was a genius and lived in his wonderland his entire long life.

I enjoyed all the artwork and appreciated my time in Paris.It was Cinderella time in Paris. I had to go home!
"Sortie" to where?To the next door!

A view from reception desk at our Hotel Le Sainte-Beuve "6"
Au revoir!

Artwork in Paris! - Amelie and I!

Where do I want to go in Paris for our last day?

Museums and Montmartre!
Montmartre! It should be at the hill.
"Amelie", one of my favorite movies was made at this location.
Unfortunately, I forgot a lot of the details in the story since I saw it 5 to 6 years ago.
"Hoodie, just go and find it out yourself!" I heard Amelie's voice.

We took the Metro and RER wherever we go. A hotel man told me to get off at the station, "ABBESSES". We took Metro #12 from our station Notre-Dame des-Champs.
We followed the sign "Sortie" which means Exit. A man got off with us. He walked to left, it showed an elevator sign. I thought he was too lazy to use the stairs.
We walked straight and took stairs. Don't take the stairs at ABBESSES!
I never have taken such looooooong spiral stairs. It was at least 5 rounds of spirals!

Where should we go now? We followed the cloud of people. There was the Church!

I took this picture in a strange way. This is the Merry-Go-Round.
(Picture below)"This music is in the movie, Amelie. They used the same music."

I decided to walk up the right side of the stairs on the church hill. I saw a pantomime guy at the middle terrace. (Picture below)

I felt I was in the movie "Amelie" somehow.

We got in the church. Sisters were singing at the service. It was a really calm and clear sound.
After our rest at the church, we walked using my instinct. We found Musée de Montmartre. It was a really cute house that became a cozy museum. We could see Paris from the museum windows.
I could see Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's artwork.
I didn't expect his artwork in this cute house.
"CHAT"--- It is one of my art's concept.
There was the guest book on the old wooden table.
I put my black cat in it.

We had a little problem after our lunch.
This is view from our lunch restaurant.

We were lost!
I was repeating, I want to go back to "ABBESSES" where we came from. I didn't know where we were, besides I wasn't feeling well. I was in a really bad mood!
Get un double café!! Hoodie! I heard Amelie's voice again.

We wandered local streets, at least we saw many interesting things unexpectedly.I felt, if I could come back to the station"ABBESSES", I could find the market where Amelie put her fingers into food bucket!

What did I expect at the top of the stairs?

Artwork?Yes, artwork!

Here is Amelie's market! Now I'm Happy!
This dress is by an artist whose store was across the street
from Amelie's market.I came back home and I watched "Amelie" again.

Unconsciously, we walked Amelie's blue arrows on the church hill.
I saw a pantomime guy. But he was in white. A pantomime guy was in black in the movie.
I enjoyed this movie more than my first time. What a great movie!

If I understand French, I could it enjoy more and more. It is my next step and challenge.

Thanks "Amelie", your mischief mind is now into my future ideas.

Artwork in Paris! - Food!

I found many things in common between Japan and France.

One is food, food, food!

Many of my friends said me, "You should go to Paris. You will love it there."

I didn't have the chance to go there for a long, long, long time.
Finally, I was in Paris. Now I know why.

I was thinking about food since I woke up and all day long.
I went to the bakery at the corner of the street. I ordered un double café and un croissant.
I was in heaven to drink strong, delicious café in the morning!
Très Bien!

One of our lunches was at Gérard Depardieu's restaurant.
La Fontaine Gaillon.
"L'E CAILLE DE LA FONTAINE"
near OPERA GARNIER.

A waiter didn't mention to us that they had a lunch menu and he recommended to us all the fried foods in their menu.
The reason why he did this?
Because we spoke English? We are American? It wasn't a nice attitude. I needed to say something to him! Otherwise it was nice place to have a lunch.
The lunch menu was around 40 Euro.
At least we had "Foie gras" for our starter.
(Expensive? Yes!) (Good? Yes!) - Sorry, no picture!
Here is my main dish. (Picture below)

This is view from my chair. (Picture below) There were hotels across the street.
I could see MIRO's artwork in our room. I recognized it was his artwork at once.
I couldn't take a picture of it but it is in my memory.

We ended up in the restaurant called "CHEZ PAPA" our first night in Paris.
We wandered our area (MONTPARNASSE/6E ) without looking at the map for two hours. We didn't know North or South, East or West.
We saw TOUR EIFFEL from a distance.It was very, very beautiful even if we didn't know where we were.
Finally, we got back to one of bars that was in a familiar area. I insisted to get one beer at the bar. I was very thirsty!

A man (He was around late 20's) was working over the counter. He spilled one of the glasses toward me. It seemed that he asked me
"Are you OK?" in French.
I had a chance to ask him. "How do I say OK in French?"
"OK is OK in French!"
"We are hungry, where should we go to eat?"
He asked, "What do you want to eat? French?" "Why not?"
He gave us directions and the name of the restaurant. Just as we were about leave, I whispered to him, "Don't tell anyone, I'm a tourist." He smiled at me.
We walked around the cemetery yard that was surrounded by a wall. The place was very big.
We didn't see any one walking on that street. When the cemetery wall finally ended, there was "CHEZ PAPA"
Thank God!!!!

A lady was sitting at the end of the table. When we were seated, she looked at us and said, "Bonsoir"
I believed she was French.
We asked a waitress. "Do you have an English menu?"
The lady seated said something in English to us, it was perfect English.
She was an American. She was born in NY, where we come from. Wow!
The light was above us! She helped us order and gave us much information about Paris.
Gérard Depardieu's restaurant was one of them.
She is a flight attendant of American Airlines. She travels to Paris often, of course!
She was surprised that we were in a local restaurant. It was south French food and Très Bien!
I guess I'm a master of traveling. I know how to get local info. from local people.
We had a lot of fun conversations with our wine. It was a nice start in Paris.
Thank you, Joni!

I will post our other dinner places sometime. All of them were very good and we enjoyed drinking wine wherever and whenever we ate!

Artwork in Japan!

It was one of my lunches!

My friend took me to a special lunch.
It was located on the way to a big water fall in my city. I used to walk or ride a bicycle on this road in the dark every new years day (Jan 1st).
I would see the sunrise with my friends (most of them were boys) when I was in middle school to high school.
Well, since I grew up, I always drive to see the big water fall.
I have not walked this road for 30 years at least. I had a new discovery.

It was a surprise. There was a really neat restaurant. Café Gallery Yuzuriha.
They displayed some artwork around the entrance area as an Art Gallery.

Here is my lunch. It was just like another artwork.
"Delicious!" "Excellent!" -- after all, "Gochisosama deshita!"