Freres Lumiere

Saturday we returned to the Grand Palais for the expo of the freres Lumiere, the brothers who invented the movies.  It was a very interesting show. 

This is a model of the factory which made the movie machines.  The small square in the middle is showing the first movie ever made, in the place it was made. 

 Lots of camera types were shown, including this very early model. 

 A horse running in another pre-movie approach.

A 360 degree version. 

 A replica of the first cinema, 

The machine itself. 

 A sampling of the earliest movies.  And mostly made by their secretary, who had a talent for narrative, setting and style. 

 The brothers left the making of movies to others, while licensing the use of their cameras by trained technicians.  The concentrated on inventing color photography techniques.  These are made by covering the glass plate with colored flour that controlled the colors of the light reaching the chemicals on the glass.  They were lovely. 

And then home to pack for our return to the Bay Area. 

Storm clouds in Montmartre

Storm Clouds over Paris

 The red glow is from the Moulin Rouge at Place Pigalle below us. 

La Defense in the distance. 

Place Goudot, just below our windows.  The Bateau Lavoir, Picasso's atelier is just to the right of the lighted hotel. 

Musee Marmottan and lunch at La Gare

 We walked through the park to the Musee Marmottan to see the exhibit on L'intime, which was an unexpectedly interesting show of paintings and sculpture on bathing and grooming from the renaissance to the present.  Naturally, no photos allowed, so the only art for the day was the statue of Fontaine in the park. 

  But then, lunch at La Gare! 

Musee Rodin

 On Wednesday we were delighted to meet Francoise at Musee Rodin.  Our plan had been to see a temporary exhibit photographs by Doisneau. 

But when we arrived, the helpful museum greeter explained that the large museum building was closed for work, and despite the fact that the Doisneau exhibit had been promoted in the publicity, it was actually at a branch of the museum outside Paris.  BUT two euros for the gardens!

 So we visited some old friends...the Burgers of Calais above and the famous doors of Dante's hell below. 

 After we finished browsing through the gardens and enjoying tea and coffee (and chocolate cake) in the cafe, we walked down the street, where I found the door knockers fascinating. 

Francoise showed us the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal on rue de Bac. 

We walked to the Bon Marche, visited the Palais de Thes, and then headed to the metro and home.