Ah, Paris. We've already posted about visiting Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, Villa La Roche, and his apartment-studio. This post is the catch-all of streetside views of more Corbus, a Theo van Doesburg, a Robert Mallet-Stevens, the home-office for Eileen Gray, a Raymond Fischer, and an Adolf Loos. Sprinkled throughout is lots (and lots) of graffiti and various interesting things we saw (and ate). Enjoy!
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We stayed up in the 19th Arrondissement where we could easily park a car, easily access the subways, and take advantage of points (yes, we stayed for free in a Holiday Inn Express, but a Frenchie Holiday Inn Express). Although this took us away from the downtown hustle and bustle, we got to see a part of Paris away from all the tourists.
Because we arrived quite early, our room wasn't ready, so we strolled, exhausted, the canals.
This was our hotel.
One miracle of France is just how freakishly good the food is no matter where you eat. This is at a little not-terribly-promising-looking cafe across the street from our hotel.
Paris has an old artesian water supply system that pops up in various parts of town.
Our hotel!
Amidst our formal tours of various Corbu's, we stopped to gawk at these three Modern rowhouses all in a row, one by Corbusier, one by Robert Mallet-Stevens, and one by Raymond Fischer.
The Corbu.
We also stopped in to streetgawk at Corbu's Villa Stein De-Monzie (a house he designed for Gertrude Stein).
We also stopped in to street-gawk at Maison van Doesburg by Theo van Doesburg, he of the de Stijl movement. If we had been here a week later, we could have toured the studio. :-(
Made the mistake of trying Parisian "tacos"...
Scene from Parc des Buttes-Chaumont near our hotel.
A restaurant in the park where we enjoyed dinner and a cool breeze.
On this day we sought to see some hydrologic sites (and more architecture!).
A monument to Georges Mulot, who dug the first deep artesian water well in the Western world in the mid-1800s, sparking an artesian-well drilling craze across the world.
This is where his well used to be (underneath the statue to Pasteur).
Off channel reservoir in the middle of town (covered; from the 1800s).
Corbusier's Atelier Ozenfant (1922).
One of the era neigbors...
Corbusier's Pavillon Suisse (1930-31):
Corbusier's Maison du Bresil (1957):
The Louvre:
The Pompidou:
Our hotel! Not bad for a Holiday Inn Express!
We found ourselves at one point amidst the beginnings of a protest march.
A cool thing about walking randomly around Paris is that you just bump into cool stuff not on the agenda, such as the Picasso museum:
An old water-supply fountain.
Back to the 'dou:
Russian Constructivist furniture.
I was horribly excited to see they had a de Stijl room!
Sculpture by Georges Vantongerloo (1927)
Yep.
Theo van Doesburg (1918)
Vantongerloo, Villa, 1926
Rothko...
Place setting at the Whitehouse? ;-)
The bride put some trash in here not realizing it was art (she was not the only one).
A building made of doors...
Just last year Paris unveiled a plaque commemorating the office/home of Eileen Gray:
Gray's apartment?
Musee d'Orsay:
Our last day in Paris...
Corbusier's Maison Planiez (1928):
Shocked to learn that this is an actual Egyptian obelisk!
We walked along the Seine where, by happenchance, there was an exhibit of climate friendly architecture and urban planning.
There was even a display on thermal losses!
Back to the Pompidou for our last dinner in Europe. What a fantastic trip! It was good to get back home to rest!
