Hello folks!Have I got your attention? This spouting Poseidon is pretty cool, huh?
I just figured, unless you're my grandmother or my aunt (who are always enthusiastically interested in my every move which is normal since that's what grandmothers and aunts are for, after all!), I just figured the rest of you might be getting a tad bored with picnics and with hundreds and hundreds of pictures of MOI - Henry that is - swinging or climbing or jumping or... So, in case you're worried this post will be more of the same, here's an avant-goût (a foretaste) of some of the cool things we saw while on our way to the party...
...which, unfortunately, we never did seem to find.After hacking our way out of the virgin forest surrounding the book sculptures, we did finally come across a proper French garden, with whispy flowers and prim lawns and sculpted flora and well-scrubbed sculptures...
Malcolm and Mom loved the triangular bushes(so prepare yourselves for more than just the one photo)...
...and even if the garden also had perfectly round bushes, Mom didn't think to take her camera out as we passed them - how strange!
(This last photo was meant to be a final tribute to the cone-shaped shrubs but turned out to be proof that French women do get fat - unless this is an American tourist out for a late-summer stroll in Sceaux or something... But seeing as most American tourists don't know about the Parc de Sceaux - some Parisians don't either, by the way - Mom rather doubts it!)In the category of geometric shrubbery, I, for one, liked the rectangular trees best...
The following are young, rectangular trees;they're still too skinny to be given a proper shave!
As we were tracking trees, with a few statues thrown in for good measure, we came upon something that did look like a festive, outdoor gathering and turned out to be Art in the Park : an exhibit called "Sculpture and Photography". We much enjoyed the photos and Mom had fun taking pictures of the pictures...
ZOOM...
But man can't live on love and art alone...
...once in a while man needs ice cream!(I'm guessing not one of our followers will argue with that statement!)
Once the ice cream and slurpees had been eaten - fast, oh so fast - we headed back the way we'd come...or so we thought...
A WALL!
It all started out pretty reasonably; the wall was mostly well behaved and quite civilized at first but then...
...it started getting wildly overgrown, there were holes in it and we were way, way up there!
And eventually, we had to find somewhere to get down again...
...I was first (c'est normal!)...
...Malcolm second...
...and then Spiderman! Oh no! Sorry, that's Clédo!
Oh, SURE! We'll pose for this photo!So there we were, posing for the photo, when suddenly, we heard running water! And, pushing through the leaves following the sound, we found this :
Poseidon and friends!
...Some of the friends are more terrible than others...
Soon after that we came across a few more modern statues :
A human Eiffle tower!
A male Lady Liberty!
Lafayette freeing the land of the free flanked by two, white native Americans!
What does it all mean? Modern art is so subtle! Sometimes one isn't quite sure one really got it!
We followed the cascade down...
...to the reflecting pool...
...where I was very pleased with myself for having pretended to push Clédo in but Mom was not! (See the great deer statue over there across the pool?)
We had lots of fun clambering around on that!(I got highest first - c'est normal!)
But the others soon caught up.
And with Malcolm negligently at the helm...
...Alas, I be cruelly trodden upon!
By then it was well beyond the time we'd originally thought we'd be leaving so we said good-bye to the deer...
...and the fountains...
...and the lanterns...
...and took the RER back to Paris.
(Clédo was slap-happy by this time!)
Yet we managed to get to the subway (still paying attention to the sights as you can see, that's the Sacré Coeur back there!) without Mom having to carry anyone or anything besides her Leica!
Because I even carried the picnic basket for her...
...all the way to Clédo's door...
...and all the way...
...home!
Love those sculptures, the deer ones and Poseidon and his hideous friends...
ReplyDeleteHenry though, really does seem to be in danger of death by trampling. But thanks to Malcolm's apparent intervention up on top of the elder deer, no real harm done this time.
Cledo seems to enjoy himself greatly. He doesn't look too weary in the Metro picture. His house's beautiful wrought iron door (or is it cast iron?) is another example of the French architectural style, I admire.
Too bad you never did get to the Consule General's Party, but you had much fun and ice cream anyway, it seems to me. Well, and I had fun again following you around on your adventures. Thanks.
What a lovely park. We bow our heads. So that's what happens when the proli masses rise and overthrow the aristocracy... About time we engaged in something like that over here too...
ReplyDeleteBefore the masses got to picnic on the duchess' lawn and enjoy free democratic cultural events, a lot of aristocratic heads had to end up like Poseidon's only they weren't spitting water but blood! That's why to this day French politicians are nervous when the "peuple" descends in the street. But worry not, Sarkosy is teaching them that they have nothing to fear but fear itself. these days the peuple gets nothing but blisters when it marches on the Elysée - or perhaps bumps and bruises if the rows and rows of armored riot police are feeling a little too threateden by those wild, hooded highschool students...
ReplyDeleteI know, I know, we would really have liked Madoff's head, not to mention Roselyne Bachelot's, but even if we are the "peuple", we are NOT animals!
Wow, that was a most remarkable day. What lovely pictures. I could go on and on listing my favorites. And, yes, we aunts are always nothing but thrilled with all your posts!
ReplyDeleteI looked up this Parc de Sceaux to see more about it and was amazed to see that it's only 6 miles from the center of Paris. Ah, what a city, parks, grand boulevards, little shops all over, and wonderful common areas amidst the densely populated residential areas.
Here in Detroit, what used to be called the Paris of the midwest, we are seeing what happens when a community totally forgets that we all benefit from common goods--schools, parks, infrastructure, art centers, libraries, etc.--and falls back on self preservation and tribalism. Sigh.
And yet, even here the creative human spirit clings on where it can, showing up unexpectedly like those little shoots of green coming up through the broken sidewalk.
Nice comment! But I say "Come live in France! All of you!" I wish, huh?
ReplyDelete