probably her passport photo being taken ?
2 Likes
She’s bored, she’d rather go out and party with her friends 
What is interesting about this painting is the interplay of colours, shadows and light with the background and the foliage.
I was a Southern Vectis bus conductor (KK66770) on the Isle of Wight out of Shanklin garage during the '74 summer holidays. It significantly improved my mental arithmetic and grockle tolerance level.
1 Like
It’s interesting to compare and contrast it with the Mona Lisa. But not simply to illustrate how greatly Leonardo’s painting developed over the intervening forty years, it also demonstrates some of the stylistic differences between what used to be termed the Early and High periods of the Florentine Renaissance.
I went to Berlin in 1969 via Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and GDR on a camping holiday with my family in a buttercup yellow Vauxhall Viva. Lots of memories like taking an unauthorised transit road from Warnemünde, getting stopped, and made to return 100km to take the approved transit road to Berlin.
I spent the balance of the compulsory East German marks on tomatoes. Coming back through Checkpoint Charley the American soldiers roared with laughter at the reason for the amount of tomatoes we had. My Sinclair led calculator was confiscated on entry to GDR and returned on leaving.
1 Like
Sometimes I regret not having studied art history 
…missing a few screws?
only the battery 
1 Like
We saw the David Hockney exhibition in the art gallery and Museum in Rouen à few years ago. It was on a Sunday and luckily for us the free Sunday. Excellent exhibition.
There are quite a few pieces of the Impressonists in the permanent exhibition in MuMa in Le Havre. They also have interesting visiting exhibitions there. Plus their cafe is worth eating in and some great views from it too. If you wish to eat there it’s necessary to prebook à table as it can get really busy.
I go up to see my sister in law and thoroughly enjoy myself. Walk up to the Rookery, curries in Norbury.
1 Like
I came across this painting by Ingres - Madame Devaucey - and thought it had something of the Mona Lisa about it.
3 Likes
First Sunday of each month , but really crowded!
Would be worthwhile to share what that ‘something’ is. There’s an interesting chain of influence / association from Raphael to Picasso via Ingres.
One big difference between Ingres and Leonardo is that whereas the latter was a great master of anatomy, Ingres became a master at ignoring it - his women were often boneless, and this one’s right arm has been typically filleted in order to ‘flow’ more smoothly.
1 Like
When I moved to France (from Nottingham suburbs) in 1990, I moved straight to Paris, I was 20 & in luuurrve ! I lived there for 15 years, it was great, the museums both known & weird, family coming to visit as it was easy to put them up in a cheap hotel just to sleep, the cheap concerts. But that was then.
I moved to Avon (near Fontainebleau to a little house & tiny garden. I realized that I missed the greenery, being able to grub around in the garden, basically getting nearer to nature again.
At 40, we upped sticks & moved to a little village in North Gironde, when I go back to Paris now there are just tourists everywhere, you had to queue for goodness know how long just to get into Sacré Coeur, I used to pop in with no waiting at all.
I would never go back to live, I would have to start wearing proper clothes again & not just teeshirt dresses at home, wearing shoes in the street & not espadrilles.
I don’t mind big cities, in fact I love exploring them for a few days & go to Paris at least 3 times a year for work, but I’m always glad to get back home
5 Likes
On a whim, I decided to go last Friday when it was going to be what passes for cool now- about 28c for the max. The city seemed pretty deserted. I walked past the Louvre and the lines were very short and I had the notion to just go in. I looked at my phone and now for July and August you need a reservation to get in. The next one was for 13.30 so I decided to have lunch first and then go. I was looking for a Thai restaurant and spent over an hour trying to find one that was open. I finally got pizza. Checked the phone again and the rest of the day at the Louvre was ‘sold out’ (though I think the website may have had issues). By then the city was too hot for me to enjoy, so I just parked myself in a park and hung around and had an early dinner with my daughter (who lives in the 7th) and then boarded the Transilien for the short trip to Chars. Kind of a bust, but I knew better than to attempt it.
There aren’t tourists everywhere in August, but enough to clog the Louvre, it would seem. And a lot of the other things you might like to do in Paris might well be closed.
2 Likes
…And then some git tourist with a camera, quite possibly Asian, lets off a flashgun from the densely packed 12-rows deep crowd in front of it to get a picture of the Mona Lisa, and of course when that hapoens tbe automatic sensors make the glass box around the painting go dark for a while. So nobody can see anything…
Hopefully taking pictures with phones has changed all that.
In early 2000 i had back trouble which necessitated using 2 crutches to hobble around.
At home in Colchester I was roundly abused for not crossing the road quickly enough or taking up too much space on the pavement or just for being there.
My wife and I then spent 10 days or so in Paris. What a difference. A charming young woman insisted that I take her seat on theMetro. When crossing the Champs Élysée all the traffic allowed me to shuffle across at my own speed. In cafes etc we were shown to a table that sheltered me from thr throng.
where were the Parisians that hated all non Parisians especially thr English?
4 Likes
Not Paris ..but I have been very pleasantly surprised at the ordinary courtesies in travelling in traffic .. cars stop at pedestrian crossings if the person ..(me for example ) is anywhere close to it . It’s not a case of having to have a foot on the tarmac.
2 Likes
“I don’t like Paris” is a rather sweeping statement and possibly just a little exaggerated. 
I suppose it depends on one’s mindset.
One thing I do hate/dislike/fear is if our “Paris friends” are leading us (in convoy) through/round/over/under Paris roads… seemingly driving at the speed of light and somehow remaining unscathed. aaargh 
If I’m a passenger in a friend’s car, I hang onto my seatbelt and close my eyes and almost hold my breath 
Metro is great for getting around the heart of Paris… especially useful for us when sight-seeing. 
Incidentally, “us foreigners” have never been treated with anything but politeness by complete strangers in Paris (and its surroundings) and always with great affection and kindness by our “Paris friends”.
1 Like