Working in a group successfully requires listening to each other & mutual consensus on deriving the solutions. It seems not that bad after all, to spend my first weekend alone, getting my errands done & visiting the museums.
On Sat, I went shopping in the LVMH mall -Le Bon Marche in the lively district of Sevres. As a student, my needs are very basic. All I bought was a bottle of red from the region Le Loire (2005 Bourgeuil) & a yummy choc bread.
Le magasin was having a Japan fair which was widely publicised with posters in the Metro etc. It was a very small-scaled event, product assortment was nothing impressive compared to what we have in Takashimaya. However I applaud the effort made to launch the event tastefully.
There were 6 (10mx6m) gigantic show cases on the ground floor facing the main street on the event. Each window displayed a collection of a red item with symbolises Japan. For eg. one window had at least 60 red umbrellas hanging from the top, another had 60 red chinese straw hats, and another had red lanterns. All hanged in an uniformed manner to create a "in your face" impact. The theme was very well thought of & indeed artistic.
Even though a Japanese may not agree that it reflects the actual Japan culture in their eyes, it was an unique & tasteful reflection of how the French perceives Japan.
I draw good parallels of how the French culture is similar to the Japans. Both are equally proud nations of their cultures and hence tons of care has always been taken to show off themselves. Their people are also the most tasteful in the world. The Japanese are known to be crazy over luxury products & have more than 10 good publications each mth on detailed study of them. They simply love to enjoy the finest things in life.
I've not expected the French to be that artistic commercially, athough we all know LV is the epitom of luxury & the real portray of the Art on luggages. Le Bon Marche has indeed done a good job in portraying another culture as aesthetically as they could. A newfound respect for this nation.
The visits to the Musee de Louvre
& Pompidou
on Sunday (visits on the first sundays of the month are free!) put me in more awe of the arts & culture of France (or Europe). I was not as impressed with the Michaelangelo/ Van Gogh's paintings as I was with the numerous other Italian artists who made up the collection of oil paintings in Denon. Paintings of the Virgin & the baby were overbearing,
I preferred the ones with scandalous stories eg.the Massacres de Scio where the king ordered all his favourite horses & women to be killed in front of him, as he wont get to enjoy them when he lose his war.
Pompidou was amazing, I love massive art work which are bigger than my "cabin".
Besides being breath taking, I feel touched by the support of the city for the Arts. The fact that the museum gives up such spaces to exhibit the works is a great respect for the artist. I have to visit it again.. The Philippe Stark's designer items
, Chagall's myth like paintings,
Julio Gonzale's metallic structures.
In a week's time, Ive found 2 main focus in my activities in Paris to last me for 1 year here:
Wine, Arts & Culture
2 comments:
Getting arty farty!!! :) Reading the book "French women don't get fat"...I think with all the walking in museums and eating bread and wine, you will be getting as trim as a french woman soon!!
Registration for the Paris Marathon is on!! Only 35,000 places available and already 1612 people have signed up. TH and I will be signing up these 2 days. It's on 6 April. How's that on your study schedule?
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