Musee des Arts et Metiers…

Coming to the end of my photos of Paris from last September…and none too soon as we leave in a week and a half for our next trip. Need to draw this to a close so first a few shots of the Metro Station, with its copper cladding and gears to introduce you to the theme of the museum.

The entrance to the Musee des Arts et Metiers still has an old church, with a pint size Statue of Liberty…

This museum was founded in 1794 to preserve and highlight recent inventions and tools.

A model of the dome on Les Invalides (a nice piece of construction)…

A model with really neat pint-sized humans building the Statue of Liberty…

I gravitated to the printing presses, cameras, and gramophones, don’t know why. Just loved the shapes…

Animation by zoetrope…

So many strong lines and shapes, I could not resist turning some into black and whites..

If you are a fan of Clara Black’s mystery books that take place in Paris, with Aimee Leduc running through the streets of the arrondissements, this is the setting of “Murder at the Lanterne Rouge”. To die for…

Mother’s Day…

A very lovely Mother’s Day to you from my garden…

Two museums…

Two recent visits to San Francisco museums.
First to SFMOMA for the book signing of Modern Art Deserts by Caitlin Freeman. I tested recipes for this cookbook, so my name is in the “thank you” section. There was a talk about the creative process, book signing, and then Mondrian cake for everybody!

This shot is in the BART station on the way to the Asian Art Museum for the Chinese Warriors exhibit. This guy was getting lots of donations!…

An impressive exhibit…

A digital recreation of how the figures originally looked in their bright colors.

Joy…

Joy riding in the EV…

Joy walking in the garden…

Joy in all the colors of the Douglas Iris…

Joy in the Cooper’s Hawk…

Joy in a new app (Perfect B&W app)…

Sea Ranch

In a few weeks we will be going on a trip where I will not have access to WiFi except when I can find a cafe. I am wondering how many pictures one cup of coffee will allow me to upload. In thinking about how I could still blog I decided to try short video clips and stills in a simple movie form on my iPad. If the movie was made and then I only had to upload one item when I did find the cafe I might be able to blog anyway. We went away to a reunion with college friends last weekend and less than twenty-four hours later I am ready to post two movies. My only glitch was that movie clips from the last day will not load into the iPad. If I try any longer to figure out why, my goal of posting within the time limit will be gone. So you miss the stormy day with baby sea lions, sorry! The movie of our walks includes video clips and stills. We walked in the tree line and on the bluffs. In hedgerow and meadow. The second movie of the Sea Ranch Chapel is all stills. Designed by James Hubbell, it includes wood, copper, iron, stained glass, tile mosaic and embedded organic bits. It is an exquisite celebration of art and craft. Our friends Bill and Jan hosted us in their amazing house and former roommate Jenny came down from Canada and Kathy (Murph) came up from Atascadero. A wonderful time!

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Mars, two…

Leaving the awe-inspiring view of the Eiffel Tower, we walked in the direction of Avenue Rapp. We knew that there were Jules Lavirotte ceramic buildings on the street, although we had not brought with us any street numbers.  We thought we would recognize them when we saw them and, besides, a little walking up and down would not hurt. We found the street and, bam, there was the best building ever. Tile by Bigot, architecture by Lavirotte, 1901…29 Avenue Rapp…

Difficult to get a full view, but have I got details for you…

Walking in the direction of Rue Cler…looking for lunch. Coming to the corner of Avenue Rapp and Square Rapp, my eye caught another glorious building…

We moved closer and the end of the Square caught my eye…the most amazing trompe l’oeil work of black painted lattice on a flat wall…

We went closer to see the wrought iron fence that was open and the entrance to the building on the left. Hard to get pictures of it because of the intense sunlight partially on the facade…

I snapped and snapped until TM said, “That’s a Lavirotte, too!”

Oh, yes it was! Satisfied, at last, I turned around to leave the Square and, bam, it happened again…

The best view ever…I would not mind leaving an apartment every morning, seeing this…sigh…my goal in life now is to see if there is a way to experience the inside of a Lavirotte building…

We were wandering in the direction of Rue Cler and went down Rue St. Dominique. We passed a bistro that was on our list of classic French Bistros to try while in Paris so chose it for lunch. There was Mars, again. An actual likeness of him on the Fountaine de Mars, along with Hygieia the goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation, which has been there since ca. 1806 standing in front of a military hospital. The bistro has been there since 1908.

We sat at the first table inside the arcade on the right so that my view was this…

To my right was looking into the main restaurant including the tile floor (!!) and Bentwood chairs. (I have one of those exact chairs at home that I bought 35 years ago when we moved into our first home in Redlands.)

To my left was the station where all the waiters came…

The red-checked tablecloths and napkins bearing the name of the bistro.

Speaking of waiters…oh, la, la! (Talking to TM in French…music to my ears…)

And, yes, the meal was fabulous…

Oeufs au Madiran (poached eggs in wine sauce) I have made this recipe since I have been home using this recipe from French Food at Home. The recipe calls for bacon but the original had chunks so I went with chunky.

For Him…

Cepe Mushroom Paté with truffle oil

For Me…

Poulet aux morilles (possibly the most succulent and tasteful chicken I ever ate)…

For Him…

Steak with Béarnaise sauce (in a pitcher to the right) and frites…

For both…

Oh, la, la…chocolate mousse…

Only half the day but I did not take any more pictures even though we went into a chocolate shop (unlike anything you have ever seen),  looked for a patisserie rumored to have the best lemon tarte (closed because it was Sunday), and walked the entire length of rue Cler set up with a classic French flea market…Snacked lightly in our apartment for dinner, fell into bed exhausted and got up the next morning to do it all over again…

Mars, one…

We are almost ready for another trip, yet I haven’t processed the photos from one of the best days we had in Paris last September. The day took a radical turn and was not what we originally anticipated. It was a total making lemonade out of lemons type of experience.

On September 11 last year we ventured by train from Paris to Giverny. We were pleased with ourselves and over-confident at having navigated there and back. (We were very accomplished except for the minor fact of not “composting” out ticket. Train tickets are issued for a period of time but when you actually use them they need to be stamped with day and time in the “composte machine.” The conductor was nice about it and really only asked us if we were tourists…had to admit to it.) Confidently we set out on the next Sunday for a trip by train to Auvers-sur-Oise a haunt of Vincent van Gogh and where his grave is. Different train station, this time the Gare du Nord, and we could not find the correct platform…so we missed the train.

The yellow box on the pole in the lower right corner is the composte machine (don’t ignore it!).

I think you can tell by now that I am fascinated by steel and glass construction.

Chagrined at our inability to catch the train, we had to come up with a Plan B on the spot. Seemed like it would be our chance to see the Eiffel Tower up close, at last. We hopped back on the Metro to the École Militaire Station. When we came above ground we could not cross the street to the park around the Tower due to a bicycle race that had just taken off.

We took a detour through security into the École Militaire because we could hear a drum cadence and came across a recreation (or maybe we were on the set of Les Miserables) where we found some very interesting characters with great faces.

When we came out of the facility, we could get across the street and walk through the grounds from the Peace Monument to the Tower. The Peace Monument is made of steel and glass and contains the word “Peace” written in 32 languages and 18 alphabets.

Then we walked the paths in one of the busiest parks in Paris, always focused on “The Tower” through the Champ de Mars, passing the perennial favorite of Paris parks…the merry-go-round…

Before standing directly under the Eiffel Tower, I did not realize the amount of bracing it contains. It almost looks like lace.

The day had just begun but this post is getting long so I will split the pictures into two groups…tomorrow: part two!

Domino effect…

TM, because his Civic Hybrid was upwards of ten years old, was thinking of getting a new car. On the one hand: after our trip to Tuscany there had been a period where he made sound effects when driving and he kept looking at the ads for Fiat Abarths in the paper. On the other hand: he wanted to continue on the road of Hybrids but maybe a step further. All this to commemorate that he had qualified for Social Security.

First, test drives through the Berkeley Hills with the Turbo engined Fiat,  then test drives through San Francisco with the Fit EV. The environmentally conscious part of his brain won out so now we have a totally electric vehicle. And a charging station in the garage…

The Fit EV only comes in blue, cannot be bought at this point (has to be leased), and goes about 100 miles before needing a charge. Since there are two of us we can keep my hybrid if we want to go further without having to stop for a charge.

Of course while reading the owners manual he discovered that there is an iPhone app that you really need, but because he only uses the iPhone 3 that his job gave him it would not work. I had upgraded from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 4s a year ago and the 4 was sitting around doing nothing until he really totally retires and has to give the 3 back to the State. But now, there was total pressure from him to go activate the 4 so he could  use it with his new car.

The long story short, we walked out of the phone store, me with an iPhone 5 and him with my old iPhone 4s. So the 4 is still sitting around, but…he can remotely set his car to charge in the middle of the night when the rates are lower, he can remotely tell the car to get the climate control going before he gets there, and best of all the car sends him emails that it is completely charged! You should see the satisfied smile of a man that can talk to his car! (and get a response.) Of course having a new iPhone5 caused me to get a new app for the iPad. It is called Softbox and its purpose is turn the iPad into a lighting source for photos. It makes a completely blank screen that casts a light to what you want to photograph. Some examples, using Hipstamatic on the iPhone:

This is just to say that on our visit to Portland a few weeks ago our favorite exhibit at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) was an illustration of research that conclusively shows that longevity in rats is correlated to diet, friends, and toys. We are just wanting to do our part for the toys. Who ever thought that we would live long enough to have a car that sends us emails? We’ve had the car for two weeks and are very happy but wouldn’t you know, last week TM found an article that said that in order to stay in the California market Fiat will be introducing an all-electric Fiat this month. Don’t think we would have gone for it though even if we had known…

Shore…

We went out to Fort Cronkhite last weekend. TM needed to do some off-season maintenance jobs for GGRO (Golden Gate Raptor Observatory) and I always jump at the chance to go with if he is going to spend the morning at one of the most beautiful places in the world. Plus, I get a lunch in Sausalito and a dash into the Heath Ceramics Factory Store. An ideal day, IMHO. It was so foggy this particular morning that you could not tell that there was a Golden Gate Bridge when the road passed it and there were raindrops to dodge. It was beautiful anyway. I took a lot of video clips  and included some 8mm app footage, but wasn’t quite sure what my story was until I ran across a poem by Mary Oliver. Here are some still shots, the poem, and the iMovie I made with them all. You can make the movie full screen by clicking in front of the word vimeo.

I Go Down to the Shore  by Mary Oliver

I go down to the shore in the morning

and depending on the hour the waves

are rolling in or moving out,

and I say, oh, I am miserable,

what shall—

what should I do? And the sea says

in its lovely voice:

Excuse me, I have work to do.

https://vimeo.com/63275654 (click to see the movie)

Celebration…

The early morning walk of Easter morning just after a night of rain. The sky and reflections cleaned and glistening. A song from long ago leaping from a recess of my mind and whispering across my lips as I walked. Of course, the version in my head is sung by Cat Stevens…did I skip?  Well, just a little…

Morning Has Broken…by Eleanor Farjeon

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word

Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day

And the release of a rehabbed red-tailed hawk…back to its home after recovery…