Jazz in the Garden

Big day today - marketing, research at Arts Decoratif then Jazz in Luxembourg Gardens.
Just some cheese and fruit as we intend to try the Bastille market on Sunday so its a quick trip up and back on the number 96 bus then off to the museum.
The Museum Arts Decoratif (MAD) have and interesting way of controlling how much one can do in a day. Firstly they limit requests to 5 items then they only allow you one request between 10-12, one between 12-2 and the last request between 2-4 so one has to develop a strategy to ensure that the time there is not wasted. In our case this means working out which items we are going to request before arriving by searching the catalogue online. Hopefully there will be something of interest in the things we select but often it turns out that there is little or no relevant content e.g. loads of images from the International Exhibition of 1900 but only of buildings, layout etc and nothing specific about artists/manufacturers (even though the title indicates that there could be). So we have a backup list of albums from the Maciet - the 844 volume collection that lines the bibliotheque - which we can select freely and examine while we await our turn to submit the next list (and of course there is always a quick trip to the Tuilleries gardens for a lunchtime snack to fill in some of the time).
Anyway we are off before two today so that we can get home for a quick coffee and jump on the metro for the Luxembourg Gardens where the Ensemble de Jazz de la Sorbonne are presenting a concert as Part of the Saint Germain des Pres Jazz Festival which has been on all week.
It is a bright sunny day (our first 30 degree day) and, unlike the New Yorkers who spread themselves out all over the grass, the French tend to just sit and look. Even though it is an hour and a half before the concert there are no spare seats under the trees where the rotunda is as people have taken most them off to sit in the sun however we find half of a bench seat and make ourselves comfortable - these appear to be the same back to back design that are scattered all over Paris and were designed, I read, by Hector Guimard of Metro entrance fame. It is a beautiful spot with dappled light filtering through the trees and we are happy watching the locals and tourists make their way past as the ensemble is setting up. By 4pm the area is filling up and people bringing chairs up from down by the lake. Suddenly an irate waiter appears in our midst waving his tray around and remonstrating with some of the people. He uproots them from their chairs and starts stacking them right in front of us - it appear that people have been moving chairs from the nearby restaurant and he has a long queue of people with nowhere to seat them. As he goes off to harass more chair takers other people arrive and try to take the chairs he has already stacked but we say - non non non ici pour le restaurant. Out of nowhere a gendarme appears and takes charge, guarding the stacked chairs until they can all be returned to their rightful place. It is an entertaining interlude (for us at least) and at last the ensemble is ready to play.
The concert runs for an hour and includes some old and new numbers as well as a number of singers and is most enjoyable (again I have a video but you must settle for a still image).
Wandering out of the gardens we find ourselves heading toward the Pantheon where most of the really famous people are buried. Opposite is the old Sorbonne building so we wander through as though we are students - appears to have been renovated inside and there is the usual classrooms, cafeteria, etc but at least we can say that we have been to the Sorbonne.
Around the corner is the Eglise st Ettienne du Mont an attractive gothic church which I remember from my last visit as I was staying just down the hill from here. We hang about to hear the bells ring out a carillon but it must have been later in the day when I was here before because there are only a few chimes and then they stop. We are stunned by the beauty of this church when we go inside. It is very light and feminine with beautiful spiral marble staircases winding up either side of a central arch. In a way this reflects the delicate round staircase tower that leads up to the bell chamber on the outside.
Although it is after 6.30 it is still daylight and very mild so we retrace my steps down the hill across boulevarde St Germaine, through to the river and across Ile St Louis (where there is a model pouting her way through a fashion shoot - much more stylish than New York) to home. Another perfect day.