Musee de l'Armee in Paris: A Vast Museum of French Military History

On this trip to Paris, I visited the Musee de l'Armee or the Army Museum. With more than 500,000 artifacts in 12,000 square meters (3 acres) of space, I walked a couple of miles seeing nearly a millennium of French military history.  The museum is located in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on the south bank of the Seine River in the Invalides area of Paris.  
 

The featured exhibit currently is about the the French Resistance and about the Deportation of Jews to death camps. More than 250,000 Jews were sent east, mostly to die under Nazi occupation.  

The collection also includes suits of armor from Medieval France. 

Weapons and uniforms from the Napoleonic era up through World War II

Paris Training Race and Recovery

 

After riding in the Alps on the weekend, I was able to ride in Paris twice.  On Tuesday, I went to the Hippodrome in the southwest corner of the city and rode in the daily training race.  The two-mile circular road around the horse racing track is closed to car traffic every day at 10am and open to bicyclists.  I have been riding at L'Hippodrome since 1999. This link has a map.

Groups of bicycles form peletons of every speed and ride the circle.  I joined a group of twenty and did seven laps at 22-23mph before dropping off. The circle is roughly one km flat, one km slightly uphill and one km slightly downhill. On my sixth lap I dropped off the group on the uphill, then caught up on the downhill. On the seventh lap, I was done. 

 I rode to a local village, ate lunch. Rode back and joined a slower group before returning the bicycle.  

On Thursday, I rode back circle. I  rode four laps with a group riding a little slower than the Tuesday group. The group dissolved after four laps so I rode to Chatou, a lovely village on the Seine about five miles west of Paris.  Between Paris and Chatou is short, steep Mont Valerien. I could barely climb the 3km hill. 

Before that ride I was thinking I might ride on the weekend. As I rode at walking speed up Mont Valerien, it was clear that the ride in the Alps and the Tuesday speed workout  had left me deeply tired.  One of the difficulties riding, or any kind of training, as we get older is that we need more rest.  And it was clear that the huge effort of the weekend before was not a great idea as far as my body was concerned.

I decided to listen to my body and visit museums in Normandy rather than ride.  I am sure it was the best plan. It seems strange to be sensible. 

Voraigh Sisters--A Paris Boutique of Traditional Clothing

On a very busy boulevard near Bastille on the east side of Paris is the small boutique:

VORAIGH Sisters from Ancient Lands.  They describe the store:

Founded in 2008 by sisters and violinists Olivia & Vivien and their mother Bruna, who taught them a passion for historical and traditional arts. Our workshop is based in a small village not far from Paris, on the edge of the magical forest of Fontainebleau.

I learned about the store from Sarah Gingrich. She found it on line.  Sarah's family accuses her of dressing like a Hobbit (when she is not dressing like a Viking) so this is her kind of shop.

They Voraigh web site describes their business:

Voriagh (synonym of Varangian, in Old Norse: Væringjar; Greek: Βάραγγοι, Βαριάγοι) is the name used by the Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Slavs for the Vikings, (víkingar, from Old Norse) traded from their Northern European homelands across central, eastern and western Europe.

We create in deep connection with nature and ancient lands across Europe, influenced by folklore and ancient crafts. 

Following strict guidelines in terms of sustainability for material and craft, our small structure relies on two skilled families: one in France and one in India, mastering an infinite panel of techniques, completing each other by offering high expertise and traditional embroideries for several generations. In addition to this close relation, we provide transparency and certifications by Oekotex and the BSCI for both structures. 

They make clothes in France:  Our wool and linen items are made in a family workshop in Paris. The atelier is located rue Oberkampf and collaborates exclusively with small designer and/or ethical brands.

And in India:  Our cotton clothes are made in New Delhi by a high end workshop certified by the BSCI, a label based on the most important international Conventions protecting the workers’ rights such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions and other important Declarations of the United Nations, the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises and the UN Global Compact. The BSCI Code includes the ten following key elements to improve the worker´s situation:

The shop is in a lovely neighborhood just north of the Seine on the east side of Paris.

 

A Visit to the Orangerie in Paris

Almost a year ago, I was in Paris and visited the Orangerie Musee on the north bank of Seine  in the Tuilleries Garden. The featured exhibit was the work of David Hockney in his pandemic year in Normandy.

Vogue  magazine wrote about the exhibition:

Normandy through David Hockney's eyes at the Musée de l’Orangerie

Four years after the exhibition devoted to him at the Centre Pompidou, David Hockney is coming to the Musée de l'Orangerie from October 13, 2021 to February 14, 2022. From the window of his house in Normandy, the painter tells of the tireless cycle of nature and the long-awaited arrival of spring.

The successive lockdowns of the past few months have had many facets, whether they be boring, solitary or creative. For David Hockney, this period brought the opportunity to create a titanic work, conceived over an entire year spent in France. Since 2019, the British artist has been living in Normandy, in a quiet house with a garden that he can observe from his window. He then had the idea of using this peaceful view to create his next work. No sooner had the cycle begun than the first lockdown in March 2020 was announced. Gone were the Californian swimming pools, with the painter choosing to devote himself to an atmosphere rooted in the French landscape. Armed with his iPad, David Hockney sets about representing the changes in nature, and its colours and textures. His inspiration? The seventy-meter long Queen Matilda Tapestry, which he observed during his visit to the Bayeux Museum. This frieze relates the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy, and makes the 83-year-old painter want to tell the story of the arrival of spring.

Spring will always come back

The ban on going out, gathering in groups, or crossing borders will never change one thing: the world continues to turn and the seasons continue to pass. Confined to his house in Normandy, David Hockney created a frieze painted on an iPad, measuring eighty meters in length and depicting the unchanging renewal of nature. While our modern world stands still, digital painting allows Hockney to quickly and accurately create more than a hundred images. From the nuanced shades of green in the trees to the flow of the river in its bed to the pop of flowers that spring with the arrival of the warm weather, the exhibition A Year in Normandy reminds us that after humanity, the world shall remain. Displayed in the main gallery of the Musée de l'Orangerie, the frieze is reminiscent of Claude Monet's water lilies, which are housed in the same building. While the museum continues to keep the details of the event secret, we can expect a visit to the Pays d'Auge through Hockney's eyes, as seen in the intimate tour My Normandy, organised by the Lelong Gallery a few months ago. This artistic return is already considered to be the most anticipated exhibition of the year. 

While there, I also saw some of the water lilies paintings of Claude Monet done at the gardens in Giverny. 

Paintings by Claude Monet

The street just outside Musee Orangerie