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Marine
helicopter at the Louvre.
Old-fashioned
helicopter at the Louvre.
Military
men explaining the helicopter to tourists at the
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Saturday, September 8 We never did hear from Janice and her friends
yesterday, even though I left a message at their hotel, so we just enjoyed a
quiet dinner at home. I made lamb
chops, oven sautéed potatoes, and a sautée of julienned carrots, mushrooms,
shallots and garlic. Then we went on a late evening stroll down the rue du
Cherche Midi, all the way to the boulevard Montparnasse, to the rue de Sevres
and back to our quarter. Today’s been a great day. The weather is absolutely perfect, and our
friends from One shop in particular, Michel-Guy Chadelaud, occupies
many spaces in this mall. Because
Mareen is looking for a case in which to display her collection of Meissen
porcelain, we ended up looking at many pieces in this shop by an ébéniste named François Linke
(1855-1946, formerly Franze Linke of Bohemia, although he is referred to as
the greatest Parisian cabinet-maker
of his time). I guess in We did not buy anything except lunch. One of the Linke cases we looked at was
priced at 5 million euros! A more
reasonable one, which would actually fit in Earlier, Tom snagged my arm to take me back to show me
an Impressionist painting that he liked in another shop. It was only 11,000 euros (if shipped out of
the country), and 15,000 euros if kept in In all cases, the shopkeepers spent some time educating
us about the artists. Quite a bit of
time, actually. Mareen and I both felt
that this was better than a museum. We
were really being educated, and it wasn’t crowded. The things we were seeing were definitely
of museum quality, and some of them are so expensive that only a large museum
or a rare collector could afford them. One of the Michel-Guy Chadelaud salespeople even gave
us one of their catalogs. This is
hardly a catalog. It is really a
hard-bound coffee-table book of gorgeous photographs of gorgeous things, with
lots of information about the art and artists. We walked with Arnold and Mareen to the taxi stand, and
then walked home. We’ll meet them for
dinner later this evening. On the way home, the same old dreary way home, we had
to walk through the magnificent courtyards of the Louvre. It couldn’t be avoided. The Louvre is huge, and it stood between us
and home. In the second courtyard, we saw the helicopter. I knew it would be there. I saw it being delivered the other
day. How often do you see a huge
military style helicopter hovering over the Louvre! It is on display through the weekend,
celebrating 100 years of the helicopter – a French invention. What next? |
