Back to posting tomorrow

I'm back from my mise-en-abyme, my trip-within-a trip. Figuring I would become nonchalant to Paris' beauty, I booked a two day train getaway to Amsterdam, where, once you get beyond the sleaze factor, you find a higher concentration of first class museums and architectural treasures anywhere in Europe, outside of Paris. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures and maybe a video, although I'm going to be back to prowling the metro stops.

I hate snow

Louis Braille's birthday

Sunday, January 4 was the bicentennial of Louis Braille's birth. To celebrate, Notre Dame hosted an organ recital last night. The organist was Jean-Pierre Leguay, who is the blind organist at the cathedral, and he presented work from himself and four other blind organists who had served as organists in Paris. The event was well attended, and there must have been at least a hundred blind people (many with their dogs) in the audience. Here are two short video--one to give you a flavor of the recital, and the other of Leguay's curtain call at the end. 

Some from the other day

Here are a couple of quick pictures from the other day. The alley is a famous alley in Montparnasse where Picasso, Chagall, Zadkine and others worked at one point or the other. The snow picture is from the lovely little square behind the church at St. Germain, and the cemetery photos are all from Montparnasse.

January 04

Ok, I've been lax the last few days. Yesterday, for the first time, I made it through every single stop (except for ones I'd seen other lines) of a Metro line, and was just too damned tired to write anything afterwards. Today, being the first Sunday of the month, was free entrance day to many of the areas museums and attractions. I went to the Louvre, the Guimet Museum of Asian Art, The Museum of Patrimonie and Architecture, Passy Cemetery, and the new Africa Art Museum, the Branley. sorry to just spill so many images out like this, but here's a quick look at some of today's pictures.