The Marais/Roméo & Juliette

16 mai

I spent most of today in the Marais district of Paris which is near the institute building.  It is probably one of my favorite areas of Paris...it has a lot of individuality and lots of history.  

An old street--those blocks on the side of the road were for the carriages to keep them from hitting or running into the wall.

My favorite French drink: Orangina

A nice square called Place des Vosges. Paris is the best with so many parks and lounging areas around the city.

I visited Victor Hugo's house!  There are his initials on an armoir.  It is interesting that Victor Hugo was in the nobility class of society.  It seems that most successful and infamous writers were of the oppressed class of society.  It is impressive that Victor Hugo was able to write such touching stories about the miserable or the oppressed people in society when he had no personal experience of it.

The museum talked about Hugo's life history but it also talked about the influence that his books have had on the world.  There was a room dedicated to Les Miserables and all of the artwork and musical adaptations that it has influenced.

I also went to the Carnavalet museum which tells the history of Paris.  Here are old iron store hangings.

In 1789, when the Bastille was stormed and the revolution began, the stones of the Bastille were taken and carved into mini Bastille replicas as a kind of proof and bragging trophy of the Revolutionaries.

This picture above and below are pieces of Marie Antoinette's hair. creepin

Lisait means reading...fitting for this book store

I walked around the Jewish district in the Marais.  Jewish people are highly concentrated in this area and have their own restaurants, schools, and places of worship.  This is one of the synagogues.

I ate lunch in the Jewish district and had simply hummus and falafel...it was incredibly delicious and satisfying.

A hotel in the Marais.  Hotel in France often means just a private residence including in this case here.

We stopped by some other mini art museums in the Marais.

The best part of the day is when we went to Park Monceau.  It is a charming English-style garden that is a tourist-free area.  I love that the French are so leisurely.  This park was in a more ritzy area of Paris so in the park there were lots of nannies with rich children such as in this picture below.

There were kids riding horses

So picturesque!

Tonight, Emily and I went to the Romeo and Juliet ballet at the Bastille Opera house.  It was the score by Berlioz and was incredible as I knew it would be.  There was the live orchestra as well as a choir that sang in the pit sometimes and then sometimes participated in the story on the stage as they sang.  There were two featured opera soloists.  But the main part of the show was the ballet.  There was a troupe of dancers and then Romeo and Juliet as the leads.  The dancing style was a contemporary ballet which I have never experienced before.  I expected to hate it as I tend to like the classical style better, but I was pleasantly surprised at the beauty of it through its simplicity.  The set and costumes were extremely simple.  There were no props or special lighting.  This allowed the emotion expressed through the dancing to be basically the main  and only focus.  With the mix of all these elements both classical and contemporary, I was inspired by the smooth meshing of styles.  Great show that I was glad to experience!