Paris Journal 2007

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The Salon du Collectioneur received us as very welcome guests, at the Grand Palais. The grand entrance to the Petit Palais, across the street from the Grand Palais. Sainte Barbe, at the Petit Palais. She became a Christian against her father’s wishes. At the moment when he cut off her head as punishment, he was struck dead by lightning. And so Sainte Barbe is the protector against lightning. A good thing for a person named Barbara who lives in Florida, the lightning capital of the world. Sainte Barbe is also the patron saint of companies involved in making explosives and fireworks, and of miners. So, don’t mess with Barb; you’d be playing with fire.

Tuesday, September 18 When we arrived at the Salon du Collectionneur, we realized how fortunate we were. We’d been given two invitations to the event by a young man who works in a gallery on the rue de Seine. We had stopped in his gallery because the place had an original Calder on display in the front window. It is very similar to a limited edition, signed Calder print that we have. So we were curious about the price for an original. He told us it was 75. We did not flinch, and in fact asked for a business card for the gallery. When he gave the card to Tom, Tom asked him to write the price. The young man wrote “75,000 euros.” As we were thanking him for his help, he said that if we were interested in things like the Calder, perhaps we would like to see this exhibition at the Salon du Collectionneur. He gave us the two invitations. At first, I thought they were worthless because the two pages of publicity about the Salon in the newspaper said nothing about an admission fee. My common sense, however, told me that no, there is no way the organization of professional antique dealers would want to have all the “riff-raff” off the streets browsing through the booths filled with precious things. So I kept the invitations, and we took them with us yesterday to the Salon at the Grand Palais. That saved us a total of €30. When the people at the door saw that we had the invitations, we were waved on through as if we were VIPs. We had a great time looking at all the beautiful things, and especially examining closely things that resemble some of our things. And I won’t go into any detail about any of that. When it was finally time to start heading for home, we decided to stop mid-way at the Bourbon, on the Place du Bourbon, for drinks and a cheese plate. The cheese plate was really nice. We sat near a table of six male members of the National Assembly. Many passers-by who recognized them stopped to say hello and to shake hands with these gregarious politicians. We rested at home and then went out for dinner. It was cold and drizzly, so we didn’t go far. We stopped at an old favorite, Le Seraphin, on rue Mabillon. I had a poached swordfish that was cut into pieces and served with delicate mushrooms called pleurotes (the pleurotus mushroom). All that was served atop a broccoli flan. It was quite yummy. Tom had lamb chops with penne pasta; it was very good, but not enough in quantity for him. So he ordered dessert: a very unusual and delicious coconut tarte with pineapple on top, served with a caramel sauce. Today, we waited for a FedEx package that didn’t come, then went out to see the lower level of the Petit Palais museum. We saw many Christian icons from ancient times through medieval times (German, Flemish, and French), as well as ancient Greek and Roman items. We then took in a gallery of Renaissance art, mostly porcelain, from Italy and France. A couple galleries were closed off, we think because of short staffing. We stopped in the comfortable café at the museum for drinks, and then made our way out through the main galleries that we’d seen last time we were there. We were so happy we’d gone there earlier, because some of the major works were GONE! They are probably in a travelling exhibit. But this has left huge spaces of blank white wall that shocked and dismayed us. The gallery on the main floor that hosts the most interesting Monet was also cordoned off, due to short staffing. After we walked back to our neighborhood, we stopped in the Marché St. Germain to buy things to eat tonight and tomorrow morning. Lasagne from the Italian deli is on the menu, plus I will make a salad and garlic bread. We’ve already had an appetizer/hors d’oeuvres course of bread with a choice of foie gras, roquefort, or country paté. I love having the Marché St. Germain so close by. ←Previous Next→

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