The black cat... again

Yes… again. I already wrote about the famous cabaret ”Chat Noir” here and about the monthly journal with the same name here… Last weekend, the team behind the journal met and created a bit of publicity at Montmartre. I’m not actually part of the team, but I feel that they need a lot of encouragements! 

The original “Chat Noir” journal appeared for the last time in 1895, but the publication resumed last year. In the previous version of the journal, texts and illustrations were signed Allais, de Maupassant, Hugo, Goncourt, Verlaine, Gounod, Steinlen, Willette, Léandre, Caran d’Ache… Today you find a team of enthusiastic persons behind it (who may not YET have the reputation of their predecessors) led by Romain: Rodolphe (known for the bestseller “Paris secret et insolite” and other books), Champo, Binu, Mathias, Philippe…

They all kindly signed my copy. You can subscribe, but the (very low) cost depends on in which country you live and the postage. I suggest that you send a message to journallechatnoir@gmail.com or look here.  

The sales were preceded by a meal in the famous “La Maison Rose”, painted by many artists (here Utrillo) and for a while managed by the Pichot couple - Germaine (who was the reason for the suicide of Picassos’ friend Carlos Casagenas and who appears on Picasso’s famous “At the Lapin Agile” painting, see here and here) and her husband Ramon, also a painter and friend of Picasso. The last decades “La Maison Rose” has perhaps been a bit of a tourist trap, but it’s now run by this charming lady and you can have a more than decent meal (I have no commission).  

    

"Renoir's Garden"

“Monet’s Garden” in Giverny (see my posts here) is certainly more known than “Renoir’s Garden” in Paris. (... and this garden is definitely less famous for its water lilies … despite the top picture.) What is referred to as “Renoir’s Garden” is actually part of the green space which now surrounds the Montmartre Museum and on which I have posted several times, see e.g. here, here, here and here.

We can learn that Renoir lived and worked here for a short time around 1876 (two years after the first impressionist exhibition, see my post here). This is where he made one of his most famous paintings, “Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette” (see may post here). It was for the first time shown at the 1877 impressionist exhibition, was in 1879 purchased by his (wealthy) painter friend, Gustave Caillebotte (see my posts here and here) and became the property of the French Republic at the death of Caillebotte. Today you will find it in the Orsay Museum (see my posts here).   

When Renoir lived here, the green space was described as an abandoned park. Jeanne Samary, who was painted a dozen of times by Renoir, appears in another famous painting from the garden, “The Swing” (and her sister sits in the front on the “Galette” painting)… and there is actually a reference to Monet as well – he’s supposed to stand together with Renoir in this other Renoir painting from the garden – there are other ones….

Walking around the garden, you are of course overlooked by Suzanne Valadon’s workshop (see post here).

Well, as I was in company with some green space experts, I concentrated on some shots of flowers, I don’t believe they need any particular comments, despite the fact that they were taken during one of the coldest May days Paris has ever experienced. No real spring feeling.

Two more views of the little pond with the water lilies (top picture).

There is now a (very) little vegetable garden.

On the way to and from “Renoir's Garden” I took these flower photos, including, when arriving home, of the white bushes surrounding my own little garden.  

A heart

When you approach "Porte de Clignancourt", where you can find “La Recyclerie” – see my preceding post – you will see a great rotating red heart. It’s actually a rotating sculpture by Joana Vasconcelos, a Portuguese artist, born in Paris... 

... who has won a great reputation for spectacular works – she has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Versailles castle and gardens, the Bilbao Guggenheim… - see some pictures stolen on the net.

This is part of the City of Paris’ commendable wish to decorate along the tram line (see previous posts, here, here and here). Unfortunately, as this heart, when mechanics are involved, artwork seems to be very temporary. Very few of the installations – most of them mechanical – along the first part of the tram line, from 2007, are still working and many have just disappeared.  

Ecological eating ... and drinking

“La Recyclerie” has been there for four or five years, but I visited for the first time last week – shame on me. We are at the “Porte de Clignancourt”, actually quite close to the famous Saint Ouen flea market (see my post here).

Well, actually, the building has been there since 1869, it was one of the stations along the “Petite Ceinture”, the circular railroad on which I have written several times (see here) and which was in operation until 1934. The station building was later used for different commercial activities, but the real event is when “La Recyclerie” opened. It has become a place you must visit … 

“La Recyclerie” is managed by a team, an association, of “recycling friends”, but they have some partners and one of them is actually “Veolia”, a French company with some 320.000 people employed in some 50 countries, busy in water and waste management, energy services…

So, the place has really a very ecological touch and the local motto is linked to four times the letter “R” – “Repenser”, “Réduire”, “Réparer” and “Recycler”  (rethink, reduce, repair, recycle).  

Not only the station building is concerned by the ecological concept…

… but along the rail tracks, you can find a lot of space to sit down, once the spring is really there, but, especially, you can also find hens, fish, bee hives, vegetable gardens, composting installations…

I decided to have my lunch, actually 100% vegetarian and of course prepared according to the latest ecological rules. It was good! See top picture.

(On the opposite side of the rail tracks, locals have occupied the space - with official permissions.)

Tram

The first part of the Paris circular tram line opened in 2007. I wrote about it in my previous blog, see here and here. Since a couple of days, 11 years later, you can now consider that about three quarters of the circle has been achieved. I took a walk along the additional part of the line the day before the opening, last weekend, from “Porte  de la Chapelle” to “Porte d’Asnières”.  (This should mean the end of a couple of years’ traffic jams – until the work with the next extension, probably bringing the line to "Porte Dauphine", will commence.)

A number of empty trams were to be seen, testing was ongoing, the last details were taken care of… We are in the northern part of Paris, perhaps not where too many tourists find their way. The tram line follows the “Boulevards of the Marshals” (here Berthier, Bessières, Ney – all Napoleonic ones).

Most buildings along the line are rather uninteresting, just “normal”… We have the contrast between the old Opera warehouses (with Charles Garnier as architect – I talked about these buildings here) in front of the newly opened Palace of Justice (see my post here) with Renzo Piano as architect. … and I could see at least one “Morris Column” and one “Wallace Fountain”…

The trams are running over nice green grass – I wish I could reach the same result in my little garden.

The tram line has honoured a number of ladies by giving their names to different stops. These already existed: Maryse Bastié, Alexandra David-Néel, Séverine, Adreinne Bolland, Delphine Seyrig, Ella Fitzgerald, Rosa Parks, Colette Besson. Two new names appear on this prolongation: Not much to be found on (Jeanne) Angélique Compoint except that she lived 1826-1907, was a farmer’s daughter… and that her family for some reason has given the names to several Paris streets. Easier to find information about the famous photographer Diane Arbus (1923-71).  

The circular tram line is quite often more or less following the trace of the circular railway abandoned in 1934 – “La Petite Ceinture”, on which I posted a number of times, e.g. here. One could ask, why not use the existing tracks? The answer given is mostly that the connections to different metro and bus lines would be too difficult to ensure.

Green space - Montmartre

I don’t know what finally will become of this little park, in the middle of Montmartre. There is in Paris a “Cité Internationale des Arts” which was created in 1965 and which offers international artists-in-residence programs. Most of their activity takes place in a modern building in the Marais district, but there are also some 35 studios at Montmartre, surrounded by green space, normally not open to public. I visited it some five years ago, when it was exceptionally open to public (see here) for a day or a weekend.

There have been discussions about a need – and a budget - to do something with this area, where today the buildings and the green space would need some “refreshing”. Words like a Paris “Villa Medici” have been mentioned, but….

In the meantime, there have however been some more active openings to the public. There is now an event ongoing (until July 29), referred to as “La Villa Extraordinaire”. You enter via the “Villa Radet”, a 19^th century building, built on the corner of the Rue de l’Abreuvoir (“abreuvoir” means a watering place – which a few centuries ago was situated where this building now stands).

This building used to host a number of artists in residence, but it seems now to be transformed to allow exhibitions, installations... This is what we can see today.

Once you have visited this building (and maybe had a glass in the bar), you can reach...

... and have a walk around the green space, where different activities are offered, especially linked to sitting down, maybe have something to eat or drink and you can of course have a glimpse at some of the old buildings, hosting artists.  

         

Banksy's paint bombs

Banksy – still anonymous - is today probably the most famous of living graffiti artists. Using the stencilling technique his works have often a political, social touch, but mostly with some sense of more or less dark humour. In December 2013, there was a rumour that he had been around in Paris and I wrote about it here – however it was never really confirmed and the few illustrations which were in doubt soon disappeared.

Now it seems that he has really been around in Paris and that he even has confirmed this. He may have illustrated some ten walls. I have so far found six.

The mouse which is riding on the champagne cork is to be found on the northern slopes of Montmartre, Rue Mont Cenis (Paris 18). We can see that someone (who, which organisation?) has protected the champagne bottle by a plastic screen. There is obviously a similar illustration also somewhere in the Marais district.

No protection had been done with this already destroyed design of a young girl hiding a swastika by using a paint bomb. It has been here, Boulevard Ney (Paris 18), only a few days, but is already destroyed by vandals. I stole a picture on the net. This painting is also what you find on the opening page of Banksy’s own site.

A third one refers to J-L David’s painting of Napoleon passing the Alps, but is obviously also touching the subject of wearing or not wearing of niqabs. This one has been protected and you can find it on Avenue de Flandre (Paris 19).

A fourth one was rather impossible to photograph because of the reflecting Plexiglas which is protecting it. Well, I prefer to show a photo I found on the net rather than to see this illustration, a mourning girl, destroyed. It’s to be found on a back door of the Bataclan Theatre, through which a number of people, who were present during the November 2015 attack, managed to escape. (I - of course - blogged about this, e.g. here and here.)

This one, protected, is to be found Rue Maître-Albert (Paris 5) and refers to 1968 and it seems that Banksy, when confirming that he has been present in Paris, also referred to 1968 as the year of the creation, in Paris, of stencil art.   

The last one I have found – so far – has obviously an anti-capitalistic message - a “businessman” in a suit is offering a bone to a dog, obviously after first having used a saw… You can find this one on Rue Victor-Cousin (Paris 5), just round the corner of Place de la Sorbonne.  (It seems to have been protected, but the protection has disappeared.)

The top picture is a little detail of the destroyed painting on Boulevard Ney.