Guerilla knitting

Last night, Chuck pointed out the knitted things that were on posts and trees by Metro St. Paul. This morning, after coffee with friends from Nice, we headed out to photograph the knitting. It was so fun to see them in person, having seen them previously only on the internet. I think Mica or Noah had connect me to guerilla knitting. There was a tag on one, a meet up at a gallery on Saturday. Darn. We'll be in Dublin.






We walked around a bit while waiting for our laundry to finish drying, and passed by the model making studio we'd seen last year. It's sidewalk level, and has a window wall open to view. Today, model makers actually were at work. In the next doorway, the big doors were open to a short hallway leading to the architectural studio of Renzo Piano. If you go to the link, it opens with an image of the workshop we saw. He's the man who designed the Pompidou Centre. We peeked in and saw people working on two different levels. What a nice surprise.

We also walked by another open door, leading back to a gallery showing vintage furniture designed by someone famous, but I didn't write the name down. I can't remember it, so there you have it. Cool looking space.

Here's my big news, I won't be posting again until we return from Dublin on Monday. Yes, tomorrow, we're flying to Dublin early in the morning to visit our friends P. & C. Rain is predicted, but hopefully, I'll take lots of pictures to share.

When we return, I'll be looking for one of the free wireless zones. So far I've scoped out one in the Mairie of the 4th, one at the Bibliothèque de l'Histoire de Ville de Paris, and one at Espace Blanc Manteaux. I think I'm set. BUT if you don't see any posting going on, you'll know, I've been stymied by technology. Let's hope not. A bientôt!

Place Igor Stravinsky

Yesterday, we walked over to the Pompidou Centre,
to see the Giacometti show. What a treat we got to see more of those photos on a building by the fountain. The ones on the Mairie are already down, so we were happy we hadn't missed seeing these. Writing about seeing, notice the mirror on the wall in the tiny restaurant? See me in it?

Bercy Park and stadium

The weather was nice on Tuesday, so we decided to walk from Bercy Village, through the park to the next closer Metro stop, Bercy, which is right by the stadium. The park was wild, natural looking, a lovely walk. There was a vineyard, a formal garden, some sports area, people running, the Cinemathèque Français, and at the end of the walk: Voilà, this very modern, futuristic structure.

Bercy Village

Chuck was reading the Rick Steves' book someone left here and found that there was a little shopping area east of our neighborhood. It had been warehouses and such. We took two metros to get there, including line 14, which is very fast, driveless, and has some unique stations. The metro exits directly in front of the "village." It turned out to be across the Seine from the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
We enjoyed walking, looking in little shops, having lunch at a very French cafe, among only French people. No English speaking people seemed to be there. We treated ourselves to cookies, nougats & caramels from a cute little shop.

Paris Skies

Salon des Vins

Lucky us, we got to attend the Salon des Vins, where independent wineries show their wines. K. & R. gave us a ticket, which entitled us to entry and 2 wine glasses for tasting. We had to take 3 metros to get there, as it was at the Porte de Versailles, which is the location for many large expos halls and sports arenas. Just getting there after leaving the metro, on moving sidewalks, through long corridors, up escalators, down escalators was kind of overwhelming, then we entered the hall. WOW! All those people, all those wineries. all those wines. Chuck and I looked at each other, what do we do now. After walking a bit, I went up to a stand, an Alsacian winery, with no one at it, and asked the man to taste a Riesling. We ended up tasting two, and that "broke the ice" as it were, for us. What a fun experience. All the wine tasted pretty good to us! We left happy and with two wine glasses as souvenirs.

Beautiful animals at the Menagerie

Look at these beautiful animals! The ostrich pushed a leaf out the fence to Chuck. It's neck was so graceful. It was picking big, dried leaves out of that little water trough and eating them. The snow leopard is one of 4000 left in the whole world. The other leopard (I think it said panther on the sign) moved very gracefully up to that ledge. We were so in awe of the beauty. Our friend, T. commented that she couldn't understand how anyone would want to kill these animals and use their fur for coats. It made me think about my two feelings about a zoo. Not liking them, because the animals are in small spaces, not free, and liking them because the animals are safe, protected. So it goes.

Menagerie, Orangatan

This really interesting thing happened while we were at the menagerie. A young orangatan was pushing a big piece of fabric out of his/her enclosure. An older orangatan watched, unconcerned. It pushed with it's fingers through the holes of the fence. It had one part out and tried to push another part through another hole, finally figuring out what to do, pushing and pushing, it got the entire piece out and it landed on the ground at our feet practically. A crowd had gathered. Some of us were cheering him, some saying "No, don't do it!" When he was successful, we all clapped. Then he/she went and got two rope toys and tried to push them out, too. There were no staff people around. When we left, the oran' was till working on cleaning house.

Jardin des Plantes & Menagerie

On Sunday, we went to the Jardin des Plantes & Menagerie. Chuck took these terrific photos of animals for me, as well as the glass winter garden and the little wooden "house." The horses are Mongolian and from stock that came to the menagerie in 1902. They're rare and are supposedly like the ones seen in cave paintings.

Turkey day!

Our friends, K. & R., invited us to celebrate American Thanksgiving day with them. What a celebration! Great food, wine, cheese and conversation. I used French as much as possible. What a good work out for my brain! Bravo to K. & R. for a wonderful evening.

Walk along the Seine

Sunday, we walked along the Seine with friends, stopping at the Jardin des Plantes for some waffles.

Brocante

Saturday, a stroll to Village St. Paul (some little courtyard of shops nearby) to look at antiques. The weather was lovely, how lucky we've been.