Musée de la Vie Romantique (Paris, 17-5-2008)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Saturday May the 17th was museum-night for the Paris-city museums so we went to another museum after dinner ;-)

This museum about the Romantic period is small but beautiful. There is a magnificent garden with roses and a tea-pavilion (see picture). It's all very very Romantic so the setting is perfect.
Because it was free this night it was rather busy but you could still see everything quite well.

Read more about the museum and it's exhibits: here

Louvre (Paris, 17-5-2008)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Well, it is my third visit to Paris so I guess it's about time to visit the Louvre.
And one of the main reasons to go to Paris was the fact that Jan Fabre was exhibiting in the Louvre so it really is time for my first visit ;-)

As most of you will know the Louvre is very big and has a vast collection of paintings, sculptures and antiquities. It's easy to get lost here so it's nice there are free plans in all languages. These plans are also handy to pick out what you want to see because, frankly, I do not care much for Greek and Roman sculpture.

The Fabre exhibit was in the part with the paintings from the Netherlands and Belgium (it has ended a few days ago btw). We both love his works and it was great to see the interaction with the rooms and the old paintings!
After seeing this exhibit and the rest of the wing with paintings from France it was time for a drink. Luckily you can get food and drinks in this museum!

There was another temporary exhibit here that we wanted to see called "Babylon" (it has ended too a few days ago). It was a nice exhibit about the real Babylon and the more imaginary, biblical Babylon as seen in art and literature. There were some beautiful works of art there, a lot of which you can still see in the permanent collection.

So what else did we see?
- the Napoleon III rooms: Wow! Ornaments and colours everywhere!
- Medieval art objects: lovely stuff, great to see some things I know from books
- loads of Italian and French paintings on our way to see the Mona Lisa
- arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas
And several other paintings, sculptures etc just walking around searching for a way in or out of exhibits ;-)

Next time I want to see the Egyptian part!
All info here

Centre Pompidou (Paris, 16-5-2008)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

The modern art temple of Paris with a cool collection of 20/21th century art and many even cooler exhibits!
The building itself is very special and rather chaotic on the inside. Temporary exhibits and restaurant are at the top floor where there is a great view of the city.
We had an especially great view as there were some thunderstorms hanging over parts of Paris ;-)

The permanent collection and the temporary exhibits are open late every day so it's perfect to visit the Centre after all the other museums have closed. There is also a library and a movie-theatre here so fun for every-one!
See their site: http://www.centrepompidou.fr/

We visited the Louise Bourgeois exhibit (it ended june the 2nd), the "Traces du Sacré"-exhibit (still running un till august 11th!) and the permanent collection.

I am a great fan of Louise Bourgeois because I really love her images. And the fact that she is still making art a the age of 97 makes her a role model for all of us!

"Traces du Sacré" is a brilliant exhibit about the "spiritual" in art. In the exhibit there is art about the divine, the apocalypse, paganism, sexualism, futurism, nostalgia, the absolute and much much more.
I can guarantee that you will leave this exhibit a changed person (especially if you've gone through "the Doors of Perception")!

The permanent collection is always interesting to watch as the are some great works in it by all the well-known 20th century artists. They've recently re-arranged all the rooms so it was even new for us now even-though we've already seen the permanent collection several times.

Petit Palais (Paris, 16-5-2008)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

The city of Paris owns several interesting museums. One of the most eye-catching and exuberant ones is the Petit Palais.
This museum has a fine arts collection of 19th and 20th century art but there are also temporary exhibits. The building itself is well worth a visit too!
The palais was built for the 1900 World Fair and re-opened in 2005 after large-scale renovations. The inside ànd outside are full of ornaments, paintings, gold, exotic plants, etc. etc.

We were here for a Goya exhibit (which was terrific by the way) and we didn't see the permanent collection. The Goya exhibit has ended by now but I'm sure there will be new exhibits!

Rouen (9-5-2008)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

As we are on our way back to Belgium Rouen is a perfect place to stop for a while.

Rouen is the capital of Normandy (nowadays just upper-Normandy). It has a very medieval centre with loads of Gothic buildings and picturesque half-timbered houses. Read more about Rouen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouen

The most impressive Gothic building is the Notre Dame Cathedral. It's a really large structure with many towers (see pic). In the middle of the cathedral is the "lantern-tower" which is 151 metres high and really does have a lantern on top!
The cathedral itself is already 137metres long and the nave reaches heights of 28 metres. The inside is very beautiful and Gothic.

You can also visit several Joan of Arc sites in Rouen (she was burnt here in 1431) including a wax-museum but we just felt like going home. We'll be back for that another time ;-)

Paris!

Our trip to Paris (16-5-2008 un till 19-5-2008)

Day 1: train, metro, lunch at Montmartre, check into hotel, metro, Concorde, Petit Palais (Goya-exhibit), crêpes, metro, Centre Pompidou (Louise Bourgeois, Traces du Sacré), metro, Vietnamese restaurant, hotel

Day 2: breakfast, metro, Louvre (Fabre, collections, Babylon + lunch), metro, hotel, metro, Indian restaurant, Musée de la Vie Romantique, metro, hotel

Day 3: breakfast, metro, Cimetiere Mont-Martre, metro, Musee National du Moyen-Age, lunch, metro, Cinématheque Française (George Méliès-exhibit), crêpes in a park, metro, Thai Restaurant, metro, hotel

Day 4: breakfast, check out, metro, l'Eglise de la Madeleine, Pinacothèque de Paris (China+Man Ray), crêpes, relaxing in the park, metro, Chinese lunch, walking, relaxing at the foot of the Sacre Coeur, to the station, train back home

Other things to check out when you are in Normandie (near Bayeux)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

La Pointe du Hoc: a place of historical importance and natural beauty.
They have hardly changed anything here since June the 8th 1944 and nature is kindly taking over this battlefield. Read more.

"Produits cidricoles": not just calvados and cider here but any imagine-able liquor made with apples!

Abbaye de Mondaye: 17th century abbey which is still inhabited by monks! It has lovely surroundings too by the way. Check their site: http://www.mondaye.com/

Le Pommier: a delicious restaurant in Bayeux. Great "fruits des mer" so I'm told ;-)
Check out their site: http://www.restaurantlepommier.com/ (don't read the menus when you are hungry!)