Paris - June 19 to 27
Long ago I saw the light- thereafter Summer Solstice has been my annual celebration of warmth, light and joy. That is not to say I go gonzo pagan - it is only to state that no more positive or symbolic day exists in my pantheon. So I mark the Solstice.
Furthermore, I want to see the world. So what better time to go to a city that has so far escaped me, Paris. Between Summer Solstice and my upcoming birthday I had sufficient scope or excuse to indulge this fantasy.
First I dove into d'Orsay - a museum in many ways a complement (if not perfect lead-in to New York's Museum of Modern Art -MoMA). There I met new-old friends, Paul and Vincent. And so many others!
I spent two mind-numbed, culture-bent days in that massive maze, the time machine that is the Louvre. Sumeria and Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, Middle East of antiquity, Persia, Renaissance, Classical - it was all there in overwheming amounts. Continuing my museum theme I visited other museums, ending up with the more modern art found in a day coursing the George Pompidou Museum.
It was there that a Picasso painting spoke to me - 'lighten up Dude! Paris is also for the living!'
So I wandered the city.
Amongst others, Montparnasse, Montmartre, the Pigalle, home of the Moulin Rouge - beckoned me on to explore.Some sections were rather worldly, perhaps even seedy by my monkish standards. In Pigalle, Parisian working girls cruised the streets, propositioning all.
Always the Canadian, I thanked them for their interest but, in clumsy French, courteously declined their services.
Being a boulevardiere is more my style; the cafes were great, the wine fine and the passing people always fascinating. Wonderful way to celebrate. I must do it again. And the Museums!!
