Weekend in Normandy

Norman half-timered house, Cabourg, France

Every year toward the end of our stay in Paris, we visit friends who have a horse farm in Normandy.  After an hour or so of driving, the highway gives way to narrow roads that wind their way through a verdant rolling countryside.  We are headed for a minuscule village that you are unlikely to find on anyone's must-visit tourist list. Over the years, however, we have come to love this little corner of Normandy and look forward to each visit. In past years, we've hiked, biked, rode horses, seen the famous 11th-century tapestry of Bayeaux, and visited the perfectly preserved medieval chateau of Crèvecoeur.

Located in the Calvados region of Normandy, the town has a beautiful XVI-century chateau that is designated a national monument, and a XV-century church that is relatively large for a small rural town.  The chateau is privately owned, however, and can't be visited.  The church can be viewed only from the exterior and recently the mechanism of its church bell stopped working.  Town funds are scarce, but most of the 250 villagers agree that a town church without a bell is unacceptable, so it is hoped that before too long, the bells will once again peal. 

This year on a stroll through the town, we were lucky enough to find the church open in preparation for a service the following day.  We were invited in and found a spare, but lovely interior with an interesting barrel-shaped wooden roof and pews with simple wooden doors.

Although lacking in big tourist attractions, the immediate area is full of beautiful half-timbered Norman houses and world-famous horse stables.  Its apple orchards produce the region's distinct Calvados apple brandy, and its rich fields nourish the Norman cows, whose milk gives the bold earthy flavor to its indomitable Camembert cheese.  The sea, less than an hour away, provides a plethora of fresh fish and shellfish.

Cave paintings and megaliths attest to prehistoric settlements that were subsequently peopled by Celtic, Roman, and Germanic tribes. Present-day Normandy, whose name means "country of the Northmen," dates back to the Viking invasion in the middle of the ninth century.  

Horse breeding has been part of Normandy's heritage since the Middle Ages.  In 1714, Louis XIV ordered the building of France's first royal stud farm, the Haras Royal de Pin, near the town of Argentan.  Its initial residents were 200 prized horses, housed in luxurious quarters that earned the stables the moniker  the "Versailles for horses."  Over the years, the fortunes of the royal stud farm waxed and waned with the events of the Revolution, the Franco-Prussian war, and the whims of the Emperor Napoleon.  Now known as the Haras national du Pin, it is the oldest and best known of France's stud farms.  It is open to visitors and most of its buildings, including a sumptuous chateau, are classified as national monuments.  If you like horses, history and beautiful countryside, it's definitely worth a visit.  Artistic views of Normandy horses can be found in the art work of the impressionist Edgar Degas, whose many equine sculptures and paintings were based on scenes in and around Argentan.

Edgar Degas, Avant le départ, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

For a more active sport, you can go to Deauville and take in a polo match.  Invented about 2,500 years ago on the Persian steppes, polo is thought to be the world's oldest team sport. Polo's predecessor,  known as buskashi, is still played today in places such as Uzbekistan. It is not a spectator sport for the faint of heart since it involves dozens of contestants furiously battling each other in an attempt to drag a dead, headless goat across a goal line.

 Indoor polo match, Saint-Arnoult, France

Being in Deauville and not Uzbekistan, we opted to watch a game of Arena Polo.  Also known as Extreme Polo, the match takes place in an indoor arena, (91 by 46 meters or 100 by 50 yards) that is small when compared to the nearly 10-acre outdoor field. As a result, the game is faster and more aggressive than the outdoor game. Both types of polo require strength and expert horsemanship, and, of course, a trained polo pony. If you want to give polo a try, you can take the Deauville Polo Club's course, "Polo for Beginners." 

For non-horse people, Deauville also has miles of wide sandy beaches, a 1920s boardwalk,  casinos, restaurants, and belle epoch villas. 

Our visit this year was to Cabourg, which has many of the same seaside attractions as Deauville. The one notable exception is that Cabourg is the town where the great French writer Marcel Proust vacationed every summer. Even if you have never heard of Proust, you will know a lot about him after a visit to Cabourg.  There are statues and informational plaques all over the town. 

Every summer, the writer left Paris for an extended stay at Cabourg's Grand Hotel - always in the same room, number 414.  Proust became so taken with Cabourg that he used it as a model for the town of Balbec in his masterwork,  "A la recherche de temps perdu" (In Search of Lost Time). Here is a synopsis. The seven volumes have more than a million words and require a serious commitment, which you can consider over a plate of Proustian madeleines at Dupont, a bakery and tea shop in Cabourg. If you want to spend the night soaking in the atmosphere of a lost time, you can book Proust's Room 414, which the Grand Hotel has recreated with period furniture and decor. 

Dunes of Cap Cabourg, France

We ended our stay in Cabourg with a long, brisk walk along the Promenade Proust and into the Dunes of Cap Cabourg, where, like Proust, we were "on all sides surrounded by images of the sea." 

To see more photos, click here.

À bientôt,

Geraldine

  In medieval dress at chateau of Crèvecoeur.

Note:  Many towns in Normandy can be reached in two hours or less on frequent trains from Paris.  

Photos unless otherwise noted by Geraldine Calisti Kaylor

Covered Passages of Paris

As my good friend Adrian Leeds always says:  "You don't come to Paris for the weather."  And, I would add, certainly not in February.  The weather site Meteoart had this advice for February 2024:  "if you want to stay dry, get out your rubber boots and your umbrella."  They went on to predict eight to fifteen days of rain in February, but they were way off.  We have been here for 29 days and have had just one sunny day.  To be fair, there have been intermittent minutes of sunshine and even a fabulous double rainbow one day, but mostly it's been grey, windy and rainy.  

One of the things I most enjoy doing in Paris is setting out on an unplanned walk to people watch and to take in the sites and sounds of the city.  I wrote about it in this post, A Flâneur in Paris. 

Wandering aimlessly about is an activity that loses some of its appeal when the rain pours down and the wind blows your umbrella inside out. Fortunately for me, I'm living this year in an area of Paris that is full of covered shopping arcades known as Passages Couverts.  With their glass ceilings, ornate decorations, interesting boutiques, book stores and cafes, they are a perfect rainy-day respite.  There are seven of these marvels within a few minutes of my apartment and if I plan my route wisely, I can almost avoid the rain. 

For Parisians of the 18th century, rain was the least of their worries.  There was no sewage system, no sidewalks and most of the narrow, dark streets were unpaved. Passages or galleries, as they are also known, became a place where people could stroll, shop, see and be seen. At night, under the glow of newly-introduced gas lamps, patrons could visit theaters, bars and dance halls. Above the shops, there were private apartments and in some passages, houses of prostitution.

The passages owe their existence indirectly to historical events in 1789. In that year, France outlawed feudalism and nationalized and sold the holdings of the Catholic church, which, in turn, led to a period of financial speculation and a construction boom.  Between the end of the 18th century and the middle of the 19th century, 150 covered passages were built in Paris - each with its own style and each a world unto itself. Architectural styles included everything from Neo-Classical to Renaissance to Pompeian to Art-Deco. 

Of those 150 passages, today only 30 remain  Most of the others were torn down during the renovation of Paris by Georges-Eugène Haussmann between 1853 and 1870.  The passages are privately owned, but the owners receive financial aid from the city. The aim is to preserve these national treasures and to ensure that they remain a place where people live, and where specialized commerce can thrive - or where one can wander aimlessly on a grey, rainy day in Paris. The Palais Royal is where the first Galeries de Bois or wooden galleries were built in the 1770s. Balzac in his novel Les Illusions Perdues (Lost Illusions) called them "one of the most renowned Parisian curiosities." By day, they were the gathering place for the aristocrats, intellectuals and financial leaders of France. But as Balzac went on to write: "The poetry of this amazing bazaar shatters at night" when the galleries became a place of gambling, prostitution and chaotic debauchery.

Reading Balzac, one can vividly imagine the scene. On this day, however, chance and the magic of cinema left nothing to the imagination. As I entered the Palais Royal, there were crowds of people in 18th-century dress, strolling among market stalls. Suddenly, in the square, a sword fight broke out, and the crowd surged forward, cheering on the two young, dueling aristocrats. "Coupez" came a loud voice, and the action stopped.  I had not stepped back in time, but rather had come upon  the filming of an episode of "Marie Antionette" for the TV station Canal Plus. 

After watching for awhile, I crossed the square and walked along the elegant shops under the opposite arcade, with the sounds of the 18th century fading quietly away.  I left the Palais Royal, crossed the street and climbed the steps to pass through the smallest passage in Paris, the Passage des Deux Pavillons. Then it was on to the Galerie Colbert and the Galerie Vivienne. Just steps away from one another, they are the two of the most beautiful passages in Paris.

Formal and elegant, the Galerie Colbert is the property of the Bibliothèque national, France's national library. It's home to the National Institute of the History of Art and the National Heritage Institute.  There are no shops, but visitors are allowed in to view the magnificent rotunda with its glass cupola and lovely sculpture.

An historic monument that opened in 1826, the Galerie Vivienne is a garden of sensory delights. Elegant and refined, its Pompeian, Neo-classical decor is adorned with Corinthian columns and frescoes. Overhead, a glass ceiling and a spectacular cupola bathes the gallery in diffused light, even on a rainy day. Underfoot, the marble and mosaic tile floors are a work of art, beautifully intact along the entire length of the 180-meter gallery. The mosaicist, Giandomenico Facchina, inscribed his name in tile at the entrance to the gallery. Walk slowly and look around.  There is so much to see and the shops are so varied - a wonderful toy store, a book vendor, a tailor, a boot maker, a fine fabrics store, a stamp merchant, a wine shop, and several cafes and restaurants. 

My first stop was Le Valentin Vivienne, a traditionally beautiful restaurant with delicious home-made pastries. It's packed at lunch, but it's a delightful place to wile away the morning. Next stop was the  Librairie Jousseaume, one of the oldest and most charming book stores in Paris.  Operated by the Jousseaume family since l870, it has been a fixture in the Gallery since its opening in 1826 when it was known as the Petit-Siroux, a name that is still embossed on the shop window. Customers have included  such famous French authors as Collette and Jean Cocteau.

If you linger long enough to enjoy all the treasures of the gallery, by the time you reach the other end, you can stop for a glass of wine  or a cup of tea at the Bistrot Viviennne.  Or you can walk 10 minutes north, where you'll find the Passage des Panoramas and the Passage Jouffroy, home to the Musée Grévin, Paris's famous wax museum. 

I, instead, turned my steps toward home. My last stop was the Galerie Véro-Dodat, one of my favorites.  The gallery takes its name from the two investors who opened it in 1826. At the time, it was famous for its modern gas lighting and for the refinement of its decor. It was supplanted by more modern galleries and in the 20th century, was threatened with demolition.  In the late 1970s, it was purchased by a group of antique dealers, who completely restored it in 1997.  Vero-Dodat is now home to antique stores, art galleries, jewelry shops, and high-end furniture and clothing boutiques, all attracted by the nostalgic charm of the gallery.  

I hope the sun shines on you when you come to Paris,  but if it doesn't, the covered passages await you.

For more photos, click here.

A bientôt, 

Geraldine

Photos by GK unless otherwise noted

PARIS - OUT OUR WINDOW

 

       

We are back in Paris.  This year, we are living right in the heart of the bustling city, but our fifth-floor view is wide open and spectacular.  From our south-facing windows, we look out on to the Bourse de Commerce and its adjacent gardens and walkways. The gardens are home to house sparrows whose songs outside our windows add a touch of brightness to these cloudy Paris mornings.

From our balcony, we see the undulating, translucent glass canopy of the Les Halles  shopping center.  Looming up behind it is the multi-colored glass and metal structure of the modern art museum of the Centre Pompidou. We have to go outside to see the flying buttresses of the imposing Saint Eustache church, whose bell tower announces its presence with the melodious chiming of the hours. 

On 13th-century Paris maps, our street is visible just inside the now non-existent walls of Paris. The main market of Paris was located in the surrounding area, where Les Halles now stands. Built on marshland that had been drained and converted to fields, the market would occupy the same area for almost 800 years.  It began as a dry goods and grain market and over time, wholesale food halls were added. 

Different structures were built and demolished over the centuries, but the most famous of the buildings were the beautiful iron and glass pavilions erected in the 1850s.  The buildings, designed by Victor Baltard, were one of the must-see sights of Paris for more than 100 years. They were demolished in 1973, and the market was moved outside of Paris. For years the site was a huge hole in the ground as various ideas for the new construction were debated and rejected.  

When the new shopping center was finally built, it was in the opinion of many, an eyesore in the heart of Paris. The remodel, with its two and a half hectare canopy composed of 18,000 glass panes was completed in 2018.  Like the pyramid of the Louvre before it, it is loved by some, hated by others.

 

In 1582, near the emplacement of the market, Catherine de Medici, the queen consort of France, built L'hôtel de la Reine.  She adorned her sumptuous residence, known afterward as L'hôtel de Soissons, and its large formal gardens with paintings and sculptures from her extensive art collection.  Catherine enjoyed her palatial residence for just seven years. She died in 1589 and for almost two hundred years afterward, the estate passed to various counts, dukes, princesses and princes. The last owner, the Prince of Carignan, died in financial ruin in 1741. His creditors clamored for compensation and in 1749, the building was razed and its material sold to pay his debts.  

The only vestige of Catherine's fabulous home is a 31-meter stone column.  It is thought that she had it built for her Italian astrologer Cosimo Ruggieri, a supposed master of the occult, but its actual purpose has never been confirmed.  

As in the days of Catherine de Medici, the building is once again filled with art. Originally a grain market, then a stock exchange, it is now Paris's newest museum, The Pinault - Bourse de Commerce Collection.  Renovated at a cost of more than 200 million dollars by the French billionaire François Pinault, the museum hosts temporary exhibits showcasing Pinault's vast modern art collection. The Medici column remains and is now topped by Philippe Parreno's "Mont Analogue." The museum describes the art piecee thusly:  "a lighthouse signaling the Bourse de Commerce from the top of the Medici column, Mont Analogue throbs with lights of different hues and sends its utopian message out in the Paris sky" - and right into our living room.

The museum also houses a restaurant, La Halle aux grains,  located in the rotunda of the dome. Its big windows give  us a birds eye view of the restaurant. In one window are the chefs in their toques, surrounded by the sous-chefs and their helpers, all of them hard at work.  Waitpeople rush into the brightly-lit kitchen and then glide smoothly into the elegant, softly-lit dining room.  Candles flicker, wine glasses are raised, delicious food is enjoyed while behind the scenes the chefs work non-stop late into the night. It's like a private viewing of the English television series, "Upstairs, Downstairs." 

Down below, there is drama as well. People pass through the park day and night in an ever-changing scene: rushing or lingering, talking, laughing, crying, embracing.  There are, however, some constants - the five or six dogs, who arrive every morning with their owners in tow. While the owners exchange polite greetings,  the dogs, without any pretext of French decorum run toward each other with a wild canine joie de vivre - happy to be in the park, happy to see their friends, just happy to be alive.  

We know exactly how they feel.  

A bientôt,

Geraldine

For more photos, click here