Porte ouvertes (a.k.a. open house) @ the art school this morning. Above is one of the prints from the adult printmaking courses. I really like the arrangement nude female figures in the two frames. There were so many beautiful pieces on display…I even had a piece framed in the main entrance!
After visiting the school, a friend picked us up for lunch (at her house with her 87 year old grandma (both amazing women)). On our way home, (outside Gare du Nord) we came across a man begging (he’s in the photo to the right, but hard to see) and his legs were backwards and his arms were deformed as well. I’ve seen quite a few disfigured beggars in Paris, but this was the most gruesome. It made me sad that someone wasn’t being taken care of properly….
For dinner, we headed out to a SUPER cheap (think Luby’s Cafeteria) and fashionably French dining establishment called Le Bouillon Chartier. The waiters are very polite….even after I sent back a bottle of wine for being “corky” (not Corky from Life Goes On, but the not so delicious, mushroomy taste that a bad cork makes). We timed our dessert arrival after ordering…it took 2″30. (Our main course arrived literally 5 minutes after we ordered!) That’s speedy service! I recommend this place to any tourist with a small budget and a big appetite.
Our after dinner stroll through the city took us to the Place de la Bourse (the old Paris stock exchange). I am sure some of the evils of the world were financed following exchanges here.
Which makes the below photo so appropriate! Place des indignés or Place of the Outraged has been pasted over the actual Place de la Bourse street sign. Indignez vous ! is an essay written by a 93 year old French diplomat upset by global politics and inaction. Last year it sold over a million copies in France and has influenced a political dialogue. So popular, in fact, that a response/criticism has already been published and sold, too. It’s a bit of French publishing history. Read it.
We continued on our evening stroll (aiming for a walk along the Seine, but making it only as far as Rue Rivoli just next to the Palais-Royal where an exhibition put on by Good Planet. The film on the Good Planet website has stunning aerial views of forests across the world…and at 7 minutes long is worth seeing.
The perfect evening ended with a cup of tea…PG Tips, of course.
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