For the past few days, I have been listening to documentaries on the historic renovation of the cathedral. In so doing, I am struck by similarities that exist between the plight of Notre-Dame de Paris and our own Pike Place Market. To learn more, I will explain. when you read the blog. In this tale, it is the two Victors: Victor Hugo and Notre-Dame de Paris and Victor Steinbrueck and the Pike Place Market who made a positive difference with similarities of purpose.
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Le Bateau Lavoir, Montmartre. Le Bateau Lavoir is where Pablo Picasso painted his historic painting “Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon,” in 1907 which is now housed at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in NYC. October 2022.
Montmartre
Once its own little village, on January 1, 1860, Montmartre was annexed to the city of Paris with other communities under the modernization and remaking of Paris, Paris the City of Light, Paris the world knows today, under the influence and guidance of Baron Haussmann. Montmartre continues to be a bustling neighborhood that sits high above the city of Paris on a butte where its history of vibrant cafes, theatre, and restaurants still delight.
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Sacré Cœur de Montmartre.
Watercolor on postcard, 4x6.” 2022.
Happenstance-Sunday Mass at Sacré Coeur de Montmartre
Making art gives me a passport, if you will, to travel and to experience, to document my impressions, and to connect with others and foster friendships. During my recent trip to Paris, I had many happenstance opportunities to make meaningful, if only brief, connections that added to the flavor, the texture, the moments of my travel experience. One such happenstance opportunity was when I wandered into Sacré Cœur de Montmartre one Sunday evening.
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Tour de France
The first Tour de France was in 1903. It was an exciting event even at its inception. The first tour had 60 cyclists, was 17 days long, 1500 miles, and set up into six stages: from Paris to Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes before returning to the French capital.
The Tour de France is also live theatre portraying human potential in the thrill of victory and in some cases truly sad loss of life of that potential along its strenuous course; and of human pathos of the agony of defeat and disqualification.
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View of Notre-Dame Cathedral from the front entrance. Oil on Canvas, 5x7.” Work in progress. Image from my visit in June 2019.
Notre-Dame de Paris
It is hard to know where to begin with describing Notre Dame de Paris. For me, she is a monument that sings of Paris. When I first learned of the fire as the news was breaking, I immediately thought of the artwork that filled the church. Paintings, statuary, stained glass. These works, produced from the hands and minds of artisans hundreds of years ago, are simply irreplaceable.
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