26.4.94
Public architecture begins in the Charles de Gaulle Airport – a triumph of form over function (ish), with its weird subterranean links to the satellites and the interlocking glass tubes to luggage retrieval. Back in the RER. Depressingly, the same ads as a year ago. Building works in the station.
Back in the Hotel Ares – refurbished, and with rather nicer staff. The elevated metro here has been repainted. Nice that feeling of returning, of recognising, and of spotting differences. Obviously architecture has much to do with this.
To “Le Suffren”, of course, and even here, there’ve been changes – new chairs, new interior – same wonderful dédaigneux waiters, though. Prices seem higher – perhaps we’re poorer. Our annual visite here provides a useful index to how things are going. But what a lovely city nonetheless – the lights, the bloody Gauloises-smoking people in their outrageous shirts and jackets…
27.4.94 The Louvre
Nice inverted pyramid – volumes – stunning use of old foundations – the scale and breadth. To one of the main sculpture galleries – so light, so successful. The white marble. Pretty impressive. Interesting that the older part of the Louvre is looking distinctly ropey.
To Galeries Lafayette for fine, filling lunch (72 Francs), then to Galerie de la Musique (Rue Réaumur) where I find an expensive book on French music and musicians. Then café, then to Printemps, back to hotel – Paris, as ever, is exhausting, but pleasantly so.
28.4.94 Grand Palais
Last night re-found the fine restaurant near Liceo Italiano – La Fontaine de Mars. Lovely weather now – pale blue sky, cool breeze. Grass growing greenly before us.
Rather a failed morning: both Petit Palais and Grand Palais are extra to our tourist tickets, and expensive. To FNAC – nice and cool, but without the mad excitement of London. Then try to see Brassaï – also extra. Metro to hotel – to find a bottle of champagne from the wise hotel manager (he recognised us). Back in the Grand Palais (yo! Press card). Origine de l’Impressionisme. Curious pic by Bazille: atelier with pianist in the corner – new twist on pianist in a brothel. The massive pix of Monet and Manet – new to me, particularly attractive. One – “Marine: orange” has precisely the colours and contrast of sea we saw at the beach near Merida.
29.4.94
Back in the serene, majestic Louvre. The other sculpture court. Bosio: amazing effect of weather on bronze in his Hercules fighting Acheloos. Lovely serpent. Fine Mesopotamian collection – that sense of how much was achieved 4000 years ago. To the restaurant – surprisingly good, and well executed. Cool here, even though there is ravishing sun outside.
To Denfert-Rochereau – for “Prospero’s Books” (ha!). After lunch at the Louvre (a really happening place) to Île de la Cité for nice sit in the sun (very warm today), then to here. The open air cafés – or rather the tables on the street – a part of the French love of la vie en publique. Small arts cinema (30 Francs/seat), playing “Nozze di Figaro” – too low/slowly – of a kind almost extinct in UK. A nation of cinephiles.
To the Café du Rendez-vous Denfert-Rochereau, typical French roadside café . Good caffe (I’ve been spoilt by Italy for most) and crepes. Classic facade opposite, six storeys, white wall of sun, trees breaking into leaf. Impressionism eat your heart out.
30.4.94 Tour Eiffel
Sunny but cool. Slightly hazy. Waiting for the third étage lift. Of course, the Eiffel Tower is pure architecture – without form or function, pure third dimension – which is the defining characteristic of architecture. From the top: again, striking how tall French buildings are – not skyscrapers, but blocks of flats – the characteristic grey roofs. Looking towards Bois de Boulogne. More than any other city I know, Paris is a city of lines – Haussmann, Mitterrand et al.
Also very noticeable is that the flats – the great blocks everywhere – have very strong horizontal and vertical lines: everything is like a grid. Due in part to the absence of detached houses or low maisonettes that might change the rhythm. The overall effect is very like a synthetic cubist pic: an image full of clashing lines that hover and blur. Also: there are very few office blocks here – mostly towards the periphery. This is a city for living. Down on the first étage – feels very low and open. Descending, very noticeable the diagonals of struts – a huge Piranesian nightmare.
To the Institut du Monde Arabe. Rather fine building. To the café on the top – view from the roof over the Seine. Nice artichoke. Fascinated by the regulation system for the lighting: photoelectric cells control hydraulic pumps that move rotating plates, opening and closing apertures. I’ve yet to see it in action: lots of Arabic gutturals around.
To the Syrian exhibition (last day today). Generally disappointing, but a nice feel of tens of empires – Hittites, Hattites, Akkadians etc hurtling together, contesting this parcel of fertile land, inventing the city, writing…
Now drinking thé à la menthe on the terrace. Very hot, very nice. Next to us, three ladies of a certain age discuss computers remarkably sensibly.
On the Bateau-Mouches – an eternal cadence in six languages.
The smell in the Metro, pinned down: burnt wood…
1.5.94
Everything closed, of course. Blue sky, but slight chill in the air. Outside Saint-Roch, away form the bloody marchers. To Le Marché aux Puces, Porte de Clignancourt. A huge modern-day souk. Wonderful.
2.5.94
La Samaritaine. Fine view, good coffee. A walk from the waxworks museum through some wonderful galleries, Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, to here. So much to see in Paris, I feel. Ashamed for London – whether justifiably or not is hard to say.
Lunch in Galeries Lafayette. Walk down to La Madeleine – first time I’ve seen it: large, classical, covered in scaffolding. Towards Boullée’s only surviving construction in Paris. To 16, rue de la Ville l'Évêque – very strange, a bank now, with a glass portico, through which we can see Boullée’s sad remains. Now crushed between two dull concrete slabs. Seems to be the dining room of the bank now. Nice swags in the Corinthian columns’ eyes. Corinthian passing to Doric. Sad. Fine freizes in the portico, two sphinxes on the six steps.
Inside the Madeleine – much grander than I expected. So many columns and arches and domes. Light falls from the ceiling as if liquid. A sea of open-backed raffia-seat chairs, surprisingly delicate, giving a refined ripple through the space. Outrageous chandeliers like golden vines and creepers.
Outside the Madeleine, to a café behind it (or the restauration). Ridiculously noisy, but hell, it’s the principle that counts.
3.5.94 Carrefour Buci
Very characteristic quarter. Sitting in the warm sun. Clear blue sky. Nice that though we leave at 5.30pm this evening we can enjoy Paris in this relaxed way. Very noticeable how pleasant just walking in Paris is (from Le Bon Marché to here). Cf. Köln or Stuttgart – dead boring, depressing even. Here just being – L’être – basta.
To Loubnane, Rue Galande, for mezedes. The parking here: if there is two metres of road a junction, this is enough for a BMW. Rich Turkish coffee – reminds me of Egypt.
Returning to UK, the contrast with France is clear: fluffy explosions of trees everywhere below us. And on the tube bringing us in, greenery everywhere. London is organic, Paris is planned and man-made. Also noticeable how the Underground sprawls out into the suburbs – weed-like, and asymmetrically. Le Métro is more dense and orderly, as strictly within the Périphérique – a name that says it all.
