Paris has some of the Most Beautiful Places!! Fall 2018

Gentle Friends, my title today is a bit grandiose, but this particular Post is about a place I've visited every time I come to Paris... and a new place to me, a lovely smallish Mansion/House Museum full of sumptuousness!! The first place is a gem of medieval and spiritual art on a scale that's hard to imagine from my snaps, but I'll try...
it's called the Sainte-Chapelle...

... once the chapel of Palais de la Cite, home of the French monarchs from the 6th to the 14th century, the Sainte Chapel and the Conciergerie are the only vestiges of this Palace left on the Ile de la Cite... the rest of the buildings surrounding the chapel are from the 19th century and house the French Palais de Justice and are closed to the public... but, we can visit the Chapel and the Concerergire... I've been to the Conciergerie before, and there's no need to go back, but for the Chapel, it's a space I love and would visit anytime and make time for every time...

Construction on the chapel began around 1238 and was consecrated on April 26, 1248.  It is considered among the highest achievements of the "rayonnant" period of Gothic architecture.  Commisioned by King Louis IX to house his collection of "Passion Relics" including, Christ's Crown of Thorns.  The Crown of Thorns was one of the most important relics of medieval Christendom now housed in Notre Dame Cathedral. 

Tres Riches Heures de Duc de Berry "June"

Although there are only two medieval buildings left from the City Palace, you can get an idea of what the complex looked like from an image in the Tres Riches Heures de Duc de Berry... it's from the page for June and you can see the Chapel on the far right of the picture...

... this snaperoo shows the narrow buttresses and the wonderful windows to come... it's these windows that one comes to see as this collection is the most extensive and cohesive collection of 13th century stained glass in the world.  There are 15 huge windows filling the nave and apse, while a large rose window with flamboyant tracery (added to the upper chapel c.1490) dominates the western wall.

... it was a bright sunny day, perfect for visiting the Chapel, but bad for getting good shots...

... the windows display a clear iconographical programme.  In the eastern apse, the windows illustrated the New Testament and the windows in the nave illustrate scenes from the Old Testament...

... this is the restored area that once held the "Grand Chasse" or silver chest that held the Relics...  the chest was melted down in the revolution and the relics dispersed...

... under the western Rose Window and along all the walls are frescoed with images of Kings and Queens from the Bible...

... and the ceiling is a dark blue with golden stars... emulating the sky...

... after I left and was walking across Pont Notre-Dame I took this snap of the Concerigerie...

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The next place on my list was a museum... so I headed over to the Musee Nissim de Camondo... located at the edge of the Parc Monceau at 63 rue de Monceau...

... you walk in through this gateway from the street into the courtyard...

... and this is the front of the mansion...  built in 1911 by the Comte Moise de Camondo, a very wealthy banker, to set off his extensive collection of 18th-century French furniture and art objects.  The house was patterned after the Petit Trianon at Versailles, though with modern conveniences.  Both the house and collections were bequeathed to Les Arts Decoratives in honor of his son, Nissim de Camondo, who had been killed in WWI.  It opened as a museum in 1936.   In 1943, during the occupation of Paris by the German Army in WWII, Moise' only surviving child a daughter named Fanny, who had converted to Catholicism, her ex-husband Leon Reinach, and their children Fanny and Bertrand, were arrested n Paris, with the full cooperation of the Vichy government, working in step with the Nazis.  The family was detained and sent to Auschwitz to perish in the death camp, thus ending the Moise Camondo family lineage.

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The Mansion is maintained as if it were still a private home preserved in its original condition.  Three floors are open to visitors... and so worth a visit.  You walk through the rooms at your own pace and can read the didactic information given.  I found the place lovely and quiet, with very few other visitors...  there is a restaurant on the grounds and that was packed with locals, but the house was quiet and I had really wonderful visit!!

... the Grand Bureau on the ground floor...

... this lovely painting by Elisabeth Vigee -Lebrun in the Grand Bureau... 

is of Genevieve-Sophie le Coulteux du Molay, 1788.  It was painted at Chateaux Malmaison, the Coulteux family owned the Chateau prior to the Revolution and sold the house to Josephine Bonaparte in 1799.

... the living room...

... on the floor is this super rug, notice the center circle repairs where there was three Royal Fleur de Lis... they were removed during the revolution...

... the dining room... just off this room is a small breakfast room that has walls full of the most beautiful china...

... a coffee/tea service...

... part of a dessert service...

... the library...

... an alcove bed in one of the bedchambers...

... this is the back stair that leads up to the bedroom level...I would highly recommend visiting this museum.  It's a super house and just chock a bloc full of the most spectacular 18th-century decorative arts!!!

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After the museum, I headed across town to make a visit to a small shop called Sajou...

... I actually had a mission as I wanted a pair of scissors to match my thread winders...I spent some time there talking to the shop owner, so nice, and just shopping around this fun, packed shop...

... I also picked up a chart...

... one of the many completed pieces that are all over the shop, I thought it was really pretty!!

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There you go sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,
edgar