Musee de la Vie RomantiqueThe city of Paris maintains a slew of museums, which are free for visitors, a fact that I learned only this afternoon when I went to visit the Musee de la Vie Romantique
This was the house of the Dutch born painter Ary Scheffer. It was built in 1830, and remained in the Scheffer-Renan-Psichari-Ciohan family, till itwa s turned into a museum of the city of Paris in 1983.
The ground floow houses, furnitute, portraits and memorabilia which used to belong to the famous writer George Sand. They were in Nohant, her country manor in Berry. Sand's grand daughter, Aurore Lauth-Sand bequeathed in 1923 to the City of Paris. The upper floor is dedicated to Ary Scheffer's paintings and artefacts of this period.
Walking towards Sacre coeur had only one purpose: to pray for the well being of my sister Jackie who is struggling against Cancer in Miami. On the way it was nice to recollect a dinner with her daughter Monique at a busy local and french restaurant; to think of the pleasant times with my brother Ricardo and his wife Catherine and their son Shmulik, he rented a place nearby and stayed for nearly a month...
Sacre Coeur built at the end of the 19th century as prayer stronghold for victory against the Germans, and later on became a staunch conservative voice against the Republique which wanted to suppress all religious education in France. ( I am told the voice of the church was : to save France from the Devil!). now one of the more visited tourist destinations in Paris, I could spot a group from Savannahkhet, chinese, japanese, french indians from the provinces, oodles of europeans.. in fact what was missing were the french and or the people who were praying.. Spaniards gave themselves away with their crossings of themselves, Filipinos closed their eyes and mesdames from antilles prayed with a swing. and I, a Jew, respectful of others faiths, lit a candle in front of Santa Rita, and when i looked up, coincidentally, it was written , Heal the Sick.. also as i was leaving after praying to the Spirits to look after my sister, a very caribbean looking lady came to pray, so I took it as a sign that the Spirits had listened to our prayers..
The food over the weekend consisted of: a moroccan take away place near home, couscous and its accompaniments; a chinese camouflage of a japanese restaurant.. how can the children of cathay who have no sympathy for the children of the rising sun, by pushing sushi and tempura and pretending it is cuisine japonaise.. it is an insult to the 100 million japanese and their good food..we went to meet friends there.. and despite being hungry i took a few sushi from a plate and left as soon as I could. a masala dosai at Quartier Tamoul at the usual Krishna Bhavan with a milk tea to finish the meal off...
