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Holy smokes!
I’m back from a ten day road trip north to France and Austria! It was my studio’s first major tour outside Switzerland, and after the first three and a half weeks of sightseeing close to our home in Riva-acquainting ourselves with the Italian language, the lakeside mountain vistas, and the pastel rainbow of houses and shudders-we got served… Served a hot steamy plate of Auxerre with Paris and Vienna on the side. Tasty? Oui, Ja, and Yes. Get it? Check this out…
I would have named this post “LeDoux it” if we came straight back from Auxerre, where we visited the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, but I couldn’t give him all the credit for the splendor and glory of those other two places. LeDoux designed the complex here to extract and refine salt for food preservation. There is an amazing order to the place and to the projects on display inside the museum above. For a guy operating in the late 1700s, he was a visionary. He’s probably part of the reason the French love open courts and plaza’s. We spent a couple hours sketching, taking pictures, and having archigasms before we had to hit the road. To Paris!
Day 1:
We dropped our bags off at the hotel like they were pissing us off. They were. Two groups headed out into the city towards the Maison de Verre (House of Glass) for a private tour. I could blog my face off about that place alone, but I’ll just keep it short by saying it was the first place to ever use glass block as a facade, where each glass block was hand crafted. Definitely one of my favorite houses. We went to Notre Dame after the tour, and let our minds melt for a bit. Walking in there was reminiscent of my first castle experience from a couple weeks ago, except more holy. The gentle and pure choir wasn’t at all drowned out by the choir of camera beeps and clicks I joined inside. For the people in the era this cathedral was built for, I couldn’t imagine a more appropriate place to seek hope and make sense of the world. It was truly a surreal experience, and very uplifting. We left with an exalted breath, and got back in time for dinner. If you must know, dinner sucked. We assumed we’d get a sweet three course meal with wine and a pleasant wait staff, and maybe some absinthe (we watched the No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain in Paris before we got there). Hippopotamus was the name of the chain restaurant we went to, with a shitty three course meal, so-so service (asking for water refills was like asking a cleaning lady if she wouldn’t mind washing your car after your house), and no wine. I understand the wine part, because of Tech’s strict policies, and absinthe was just not gonna happen. What’s worse is that we had to eat there every night we were there, so we didn’t have much to look forward to for dinner. I sound like a total snob, but when you hear about the French restaurants and the big affair they make out of their meals, and you get the TGI Fridays treatment, it’s disappointing. On with the borophyll…
Day 2:
What a packed day… and it hurt so good. We saw the revered Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, across the street from the Pantheon. It was a unique opportunity for us, because the reading room is normally reserved exclusively for illustrious Parisian scholars, and we got one hour all to ourselves in there. It’s cool because it used what at the time was considered high technology (iron) in a monumental building.
After that we saw Villa La Roche, a house essentially designed as an art gallery for a guy with an extensive collection of art (imagine that). I was kind of disappointed by the restoration job it got, but can appreciate the moves Corbusier made to apply the promenade. They didn’t fill up the restored house with art, so it’s like Christmas at age 6 and you get clothes, not toys (“oh…thanks.”) Just kidding, mom. We were on our own after that, so a small group of us took the train to La Défense, a major business district of Paris on axis with the Arc de Triomphe. Sculptures, fountains, contemporary architecture and open space define the path to the Grand Arche from the station. If you’re into shiny colorful things and funky shapes, you’d be down.
Our knees were aching, but we wanted more Paris. We found our way to the Arc de Triomphe, took some pictures and a nap, then crawled over to the Eiffel Tower. Tourists and gypsies abound in those parts. Reaal pushovers when it comes to bargaining. Ben brought not 1 but 2 watches for 25 euro each down to 10 euro for both. No deal though ‘cause who needs 2 watches? Silly gypsies. They gave us their tears instead (very niiice). I digress. Two blocks from the Tower was the Musée de quai Branly, designed by Jean Nouvel.
I thought it was a pretty cool space inside, but kind of weird that it was open to the public before it was finished. I’d like to see what was going on in that guys head when he was figuring out the plan for this museum. It’s a very mixed bag of “kodak moments”, very conducive to wandering. I love and hate not knowing what it’s all about. We went back to the hotel to meet with the big group for some din, and rested our weary heads.
Day 3:
Early morning rose and we took the Jumpy and two other cars to Villa Savoye 45 minutes from Paris in Poissy. If you drive when you come to Europe, check out the sound barriers around the major cities. Paris had some cool ones; so cool that somebody stopped traffic to check em out and almost killed our entire studio. God blessed our group with defensive drivers. In one piece, we stepped on sweet ground around the sculptural villa. It was an elegant realization of Le Corbusier’s 5 points of architecture, and way more satisfying than Villa La Roche. We sketched up a storm and explored a bit. It was a greaaat morning.
After we drove back to Paris, we split off to do our own thing for the day, and saw some more Corbusier at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, walked through the Parc Montsouris, and took in the city of love. If you thought PDA was obnoxious in middle school, check Paris out. Everybody is making out everywhere and any time. That’s not true, but it is very prevalent. People really do just lay down in fields and gaze into each others eyes and touch faces. It’s so open and not weird at all to them. Anyways I saw a lot of that in the park, and a lot people having fun with their kids. It’s good to see smiles on their faces when they’re not buried in other faces, or glaring at you because you’re american. There’s a general french obsession with fashion that makes everyone look good, but I’ve gotta say they all put their stern faces on around americans. I got one, maybe two smiles and a lot of annoyed, cold shoulders from Parisians during my stay, and because I can only speak three words of french and struggle to order/pay for a sandwich at the patisserie, I guess I deserve it. I’ve got a million ways to get it, on to the next one, riiiiight?
Day 4:
I saw what I think is now my favorite museum of all time at the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, near the Eiffel Tower. It was a last minute decision to go there, but well worth the spontaneity. It’s a collection of huge scaled models of real cathedrals, castles, frescoes, sculptures, and modern buildings from different cities all over france. Basically everything you’d take a picture of at each of those cities, brought into one museum. I could have spent the entire day there, but after about three hours we had to leave for the louvre. What a draggg…
Just jokin’ the Louvre was sweet. The pyramids are a pretty smooth modern touch to an otherwise traditional french space. Karl and I parted ways with Kyle and Ben at the entrance to see the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. It sits on the top of a hill in the northern part of Paris, overlooking the city. There’s a great panorama from the steps that’s almost as beautiful as the interior that I broke rules to get a picture of. It’s a little off center but you’re gonna love it.
We capped off our final day in Paris with a real quick stroll through the Parc de la Villette. Just another interesting example of an open area in the city that people can’t get enough of. There’s some bold red buildings scattered across the park called follies designed by Bernard Tschumi, that make for a peculiar understanding of the space.
I don’t know how to explain it, like most things I’ve seen here, because everything is so sensational. It’s all about the size you can see, the sometimes strange and sometimes familiar smells, the weather and the texture you feel. If you have a cold drink of water and a baguette (weird combo?) when you’re sitting outside whatever you’re sitting outside of, its all part of your experience of that place. Come over to Europe and sense things-you might like it. This is the end of my novel, so I’ll pour some Vienna sugar on you for the sequel.
hahaha…
