Brrrr - snow, old stuff and mail art

 Last night, we noticed that the water wasn't getting hot, hmmm, and then noticed the room was somewhat colder. We felt the radiators and they were COLD! With the temperature going down to -9C, we were thinking we'd need that second blanket. I called the reception, and barely got out "Bonsoir, Monsieur Le Guardien" when he rattled off in French that they knew about the heat and the repair people were on their way. I guess he'd been getting a lot of calls! In any case, before too long we had heat. When I awoke at 7, I looked out the window and saw this. More snow!

 Here's the scene at 9 a.m. You can see that lots of people have walked past our place. And now at 11 a.m. the snow sweeping machine has been by and swept the top sidewalk clear of snow, the streets having been cleared earlier. It's 21F/-6C. brrrr. But we will go out this afternoon. We're thinking maybe the Gobelins factory, which has a display of contemporary tapestries.

 Here's what we bought at the brocante on Saturday. 2 old almanacs and an old diary. They are very interesting.

 Here's a page from one of the almanacs. The best birds to have as pets.

 This is a page in the little diary. Notice the date - yes, that's right, 1896!! Old penmanship is hard to read; I can make out a bit of what this says. It's about buying plants!

 And here's a close up of the lovely yellow lilies that Zoya brought us the other night when she came for dinner. It's like a bit of sunshine!

 Here's the series of photopostcard alterations that I've done. Anne thinks that I shouldn't mail them out; that I should keep them and do an exhibit. I'm a bit squeamish about that because of using another artist's work as the base.

 Altered with three pieces.

Altered with three pieces.  You can see that I've given myself limitations of only three items to be added. I like setting parameters.

If you missed seeing the work I did for an entire year, during my 365MailArt project, you can go to the set on Flickr, here.

update Paris!

 Here's another photo from Sunday, when the snow fell lightly for 2 hours, then was gone within another 2. Brief but pretty from the window. I stayed in all of Sunday and felt very good about that.

 Yesterday, was so gray, but the temperature was higher, all of 28F. We decided that we'd take a long walk. And we did.

 We went to the post office (of course) and then off to see if the Brancusi Studio was open. Turned out we were way too early so we looked around the area and spotted this DIY store. Two floors full of hardware, lighting, plumbing, house goods, so amazing to see so much well designed stuff and to think that Parisians do so much themselves in the way of fixing up.

 This shows a small portion of the wall paper section. Yes, folks, that is WALL PAPER! They have it printed in all sorts of patterns, too, like wood and stone and Toile fabric, and more. Amazing. Okay, we're like hardware and DIY store junkies.
I spoke to an employee and he said this was a small one. They have ones with 3 or more stories in other places. They're all over the world but not the U.S.

 We went into the other Mona Lisait, the one on St. Martin. I got more Mona postcards for my project and some magazines to cut apart. They have excellent sales on books, oh so tempting.

 C suggested that we stop at Au Trappiste for my moule frites and we did. Excellent. The special is the moule in the basic liquid, frites and a small glass of Stella Artois. C had roast chicken and frites, of course. After lunch, we crossed to Ile de la Cite and saw a very good exhibit at the Conciergerie. I'll post some photos of it soon.  Off to French class!

Here's some mail art I did yesterday. It's an altered photo. I hope the photographer won't be too upset with me. Thanks, Juli, for the cards.

Out and about in the cold.

 Yesterday, we went off in the chilly weather to see the Musée de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris! What a mouthful, right?  It was free as it's being renovated and only part of the permanent collection is visible. That said, we saw work that we hadn't seen there before, so it was a treat.

 Some young people were taking advantage of an empty area in the courtyard to practice skateboard moves.

 Today, we went to a brocante, antiques fair. It's in a large commercial space across the Seine from the Bercy sports park. The interesting thing that my honey noted from his many visits to these things in the states is that the food is very different. Not hot dogs and fries and Coca Cola; oh mais no, Wine, and cassoulet, and crèpes.

 I held my camera at my side and snapped photos as we walked along.

 One dealer had pens, inkwells, all things related to writing. Drool.

 Here's one of the crèpe makers at work.

There were many dealers in paper goods, magazines, labels, receipts, magazines, and books, really old books.

Mostly things were too expensive for us but we found a small notebook that was old but only 4 euro. And we got two almanacs from the 1920s for 5 euro each. I got some old stamps for 1 euro. It was fun.

Today's mail art (#828) used a card that Andrea sent me from the U.K. She already had the reverse prepared for me to add address and my rubber stamps. Thanks!

The biggest Pain aux raisins ever!

Look what I got for 1,20 euro yesterday! WOW! Was it ever delicious, too.

Some Vues & some mail art

 The sky is very clear today, not a cloud in sight. It's now 18F/-8C so it's quite crisp out there. I'm layering up to go out to La Poste.

Here's a my view as we walked to the movie theatre the other night. That's the Pantheon in the near distance. The green plus sign is a pharmacie.

 Yesterday, we went to have a meeting with a special person. She lives near Parc Royal and this is a vue of the corner of the park. See the yellow mail box? They're everywhere. Yay!

 This is the view of Madame Bs courtyard looking outward to the street. The building is a 19th century one that has had some modernization, like an elevator, though the original staircase is still there as is the mural going up the wall.

 After our visit with Mme B, and having delicious Champagne, the real thing, we went to the Swedish Cultural Institute for a bite to eat. This woman was sitting by herself reading. The place looks quite empty but it wasn't. I like it when I can get an image that isn't quite what was in reality.

 Here's today's mail art - I didn't like anything on the substrate, an exhibit card, except the face, so I finally figured out what to do about that. I made a hole for it in the pink paper.

Since I liked the results of the hold, I decided to do the same thing with this card, though show a bit more of the substrate. This is card #827.

A future event - Slow Art Day

The time has come to make my announcement and I thought I'd start here. I'm hosting Slow Art Day in Richmond, VA! I signed on to be a volunteer for this in my city. It happens 28 April 2012 and I'll be hosting it at my wonderful Virginia Museum of Fine Art. To sign up for the event, should you be in the area, go here.  I listed it for 3 hours but am thinking that maybe 2 will be better. I've written to find out about changing it up. In any case, I'll post information closer to the date and will be in touch with all of those planning to attend. This is exciting. These events will be held all around the world on that day. How cool is that?

Some images of Paris & Mail Art

 I've been making mail art pretty regularly, though not sending it out on the day that I make it because I carry it in my pocket and forget to drop it in the mail box. So it goes. This is number 819.

 Using exhibition show cards as my base, scavenging images from the old Sotheby's auction house catalogue, and some bits of text, is quite satisfying.

 Yesterday, we went in search of La Maison du Chocolate to buy a gift for someone who's invited us for lunch. This is the view of the escalators in the grand department store, Le Bon Marché. I love this view and have taken it over and over. We introduced it to our friend Anne.

 This is the array of dried fruits and nuts that we purchased today at the store two streets up from us, called Izraël. We were told that it has the best selection and it does. I did get a bit claustrophobic as it's a tiny shop. I was afraid I'd knock into something or someone. The almonds coated in toasted sesame seeds are quite delicious.

 We stopped in the MEP to see the current expositions. Wonderful photographs by a number of different artists, plus a group of photos from the collection of a large bank in Brazil. The courtyard is a zen garden.

 

 This is at Le Bon Marché. There was a set up of perfumes that one could try out, spray on papers, there was no attendent, just the perfumes and paper. So here was this group of three older women, huddled around trying out the scents. It became a bit overwhelming so we had to hurry past and I turned to snap this image.

Returning from the theatre on Monday night, we got off the train at the Notre-Dame exit (RER) and walked the rest of the way, even though it was chilly. This is the view looking up at the towers from right out front. There was hardly anyone around, it was so quiet, and silvery.