Saturday, April 16th

Breakfast!

After a not very Petit Dejeuner this morning (This lasted me most of the day!) I walked to the Picasso Museum.  I had ordered tickets online, but there were no great lines first thing in the morning, so It was unnecessary--I had thought that a Saturday morning during vacation days (here in France) might be crowded.  Maybe all the Parisians left town for Nice!

Along the way I found some rebellious folks who were letting their dogs off the leash in a small park behind the museum.  The dogs were running around joyously, so I wasn't able to capture much in the way of photos.

Then to the museum.  

 There were two floors of Picasso's sculpture, sometimes paired with paintings.

Pregnant women

Women Bathing (Picsso owned Matisse's painting of the same name and it's displayed on third floor)

These small figures of seated women are the first known sculptures of Picasso; done in 1902:

Here is an early sculpture (1906) of a woman combing her hair.  Similar, no?

Among my favorites:  Verre d'absinthe, a series of six cast glasses (of absinth we assume) were made and painted individually by Picasso.  Five went to a collector and one was kept by the artist.

A view of the interior of the museum.

Picasso also experimented with found objects on his daily walk from his villa to the nearby town.  Look closely at the baboon's head--it's made of two toy cars.

Baboon with Infant

This girl is constructed of as basket (her torso) and a cake tin (her head), all objects discarded and found by the artist.

Girl Skipping Rope

 Unexpectedly, there was an exhibit of the work of modern Spanish Artist Miquel Barceló.  He works in many mediums and the exhibit was extraordinary.

Fragment of a wall from a cathedral in Majorca.  In terra cotta.

Bull fighter (in oil)

Artist's studio

Wall made of found objects

Then, because I was in the neighborhood, I decided to visit the secret Marais rose garden, in hopes of seeing some early buds, but alas there was lots of green but no roses.

A tiny jonquil gives hope!  Perhaps there will be rosebuds before I leave.

But Paris' small parks are awash with flowers.

This was as fragrant as it was blue!

Are these some kind of miniature lilac?

Then I walked the long way home through the Place de Republique,

and came upon the next big fashion statement in pants!  I'm not sure, but they may be mylar.

Until tomorrow, adieu!