Heading into the straight

Where have those days gone? Here we are with only five days to go and too much still to do. Nancy was brilliant but was almost a disaster - we arrived at the Gare de l'Est (a 14 minute metro ride) with  40 minutes to spare when I realised that I had left my bumbag with tickets, money, etc in the studio - a mad dash, leaping on and off trains and we arrived back with seven minutes to spare (thank goodness the studio is next door to the metro station or we would not have made it). The Musee des Beaux Arts in Nancy had a whole bunch of material for me to go through including copies of newspapers from 1894 with articles about various members of the Ecole de Nancy.
We discovered some Art Nouveau buildings that we had not seen before (and collected a brochure on one of them - now a bank - that had recently celebrated it's 100th anniversary). To top it all off, there was an amazing light show in Stanislas Square each night which told the story of the city - it was projected across the facades of five buildings on three sides of the square and ran for 20 minutes. Anyway, with all that, we managed to get everything done a day early and changed our booking to return to Paris on Thursday (the cost to change our ticket was covered by savings on the hotel and food so ended up costing us nothing - plus, for one extra Euro we could travel in first class - what a bonus). We had a last coffee in the Excelsior Art Nouveau brasserie just near the station which seemed a fitting way to end our visit to the art nouveau capital of France.

Friday was spent chasing up references from the Nancy material at the Bibliotheque Forney (to no avail) and frantically making new work (not a lot of progress on the research but new work is coming along nicely with lots of new ideas). In the afternoon we paid a visit to the Cultural Attache at the Australian Embassy (where we were married 25 years ago) and dropped off a set of prints as a thank you for their assistance both then and in recent years.

Then, a stroll down memory lane as we wandered along Rue Saint Dominique (7er - a short walk from the Champs du Mars and Eiffel Tower).  We stopped for a Millefuille and coffee at a fabulous pattisserie next door to the Hotel Saint Dominique where we used to stay in days of yore (absolutely the best pastries in Paris - we even took a Tarte Citron with us for later).
 Saturday was the Montparnasse market to stock up on fruit, veg and cheese (we are surprised how the markets change from week to week - some stall holders being there one week but not the next - maybe they are off on August holidays "en famille" like many of the shopkeepers) some work, then off to an outdoor cafe in the Marais for coffee with Milan . It was a very hot day (32) so we were happy to find a cafe that was shaded by trees (a rare find in Paris).
The next day also promised extreme heat so we went out early to visit the famous Shakespeare and Company (bookstore) just across the road from the Notre Dame - an amazing oasis of English writing in the middle of Paris with an extraordinary past (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_and_Company_(bookstore).

Worked on some new images for four hours (the only time I've sat at the computer with sweat dripping off my face - but when the muse calls...). As this was the last day of the Plage we thought we would set off late (when it had cooled a little) and take a last stroll along the 'seaside by the Seine'  but alas, we were met at the gate by a security man who told it was ferme. We could only look down on it from above as we worked our way back along the quai de l'hotel de ville to Pont Neuf where we crossed onto the end of the Ile de la Cite and had a lacklustre look around for the bistro where Simenon (and his character Maigret) used to sit with his calvados (a few pleasant eateries but nothing that grabbed our attention).

Across the river to Boulevarde st Michel for a look at the night lights of one of the two famous Haussmann boulevardes on the left bank (the other being B. St Germain). Some interesting art nouveau buildings and the famous Saint Michael fountain in the place st Michel (which is crowded with tourists and students day and night). Just off the square is the most nauseating conglomeration of eating places that I have seen anywhere in the world - every square inch of space in every lane and back alley has been set up as some type of eatery - and it was filled to overflowing with people (it's what Andrew Harper would call food porn). We were happy to escape and made our weary way back to the Cite via Notre Dame which was painted by the sun's dying embers.
In 2009 we visited Guimard's famous Castel Beranger, an exquisite art nouveau apartment block near radio city in the 16th but I had since read about a number of others in that area that he designed so we set off next day, map in hand, to see them. It was a pleasant day and it is a very up market area so we had an interesting walk around but most of the buildings were a disappointment as they had none of the flair of Castel Beranger.

Mostly they were apartment blocks but there was a very nice house along rue la Fontaine which was very impressive (sublte use of Art Nouveau motifs). I think that Castel Beranger, being Guimard's first builing in the new style, was a bit of a showpiece and later commissions probably couldn't afford the extravagance of it and settled for something more reasonable (perhaps they are more extravagant inside, I don't know as we could only see them from the street). Guimard was the man who designed the famousd Metro entrances (although there are only two originals left in Paris). Six days to go and counting.