Pictures at an Exhibition

Friday was my favorite day in Paris. We had arrived the evening before (Feb 12) and strolled along the Champs Elysee before dining in a Lebanese restaurant. Saturday morning was grey with snow flurries. We lay in bed and discussed our options for the day. We made an excellent decision to have breakfast brought to our room. We lounged and ate croissants, pain au chocolat, baguette with butter, cheese and yogurt. We drank cafe au lait, which tastes way better than just coffee with hot milk. Our hotel was lovely. The room was barely as wide as the wingspan of a Gunter, but was impeccably clean and comfortable. Location was great, a few blocks from the Arc de Triomphe.

Our first destination was the Musée de l'Orangerie. The Orangerie building began life in 1852 as a hot house for oranges. After a few changes of personality (military, sporty), the Orangerie was selected as the location for a gift from Monet to France, his series of painting inspired by his home in Giverny, Normandy--Nymphéas (The Waterlilies). The Waterlilies is comprised of eight compositions divided into twenty-two panels. Two oval rooms with skylights were built in the Orangerie to house Monet's vision. In the 1950s a second floor was added to the Orangerie to house an additional collection, but renovations completed in 2006 have returned natural light to these garden scenes.

Monet's well-known pastels are gorgeous in these two rotundas. I particularly like the portions with weeping willows and the fiery colors of sunset. I wouldn't mind having a serene Monet salon in my next house.

The rest of the Orangerie is dedicated to the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collection, assembled in the first half of the 20th century. I prefer small art museums where you can view the entire exhibit without getting overwhelmed or exhausted. And I particularly loved this collection filled with Renoir, Cezanne, Modigliani, Picasso and Matisse, along with some painters unfamiliar to me: Utrillo, Derain, Rousseau and Laurencin. I bought a museum catalog and looking through it just now I'm seeing pages and pages of paintings I loved viewing.












After the Orangerie we moved to the Musée D'Orsay. We ate lunch in a cafe right in front of one of the huge clocks that reveal the building's origins as a train station. The D'Orsay is larger that the Orangerie, but we didn't try to see everything. We focused on the French Impressionists and the Van Gogh room--it was thrilling to see a room of his works. You can really see how his strong brush strokes bring movement to the paintings. I saw the Renoir that was on the cover of my high school French textbook! We also enjoyed an exhibit of Art Nouveau furnishings. I think I'll buy an art nouveau mansion in which to place my Monet salon.

After a wonderful day of gazing at some of the most amazing paintings in the world, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for an amazing dinner.

Wintry Mix

We're experiencing the coldest winter in Dublin in 18 years, which compared to Minnesota is still not very cold. But for Dubliners and Austinites, it's very wintry. [Some perspective: I grew up in Houston and thought water frozen in a ditch was amazing.] We've had a couple hard freezes reaching 27°F, and several days of wintry precip. Unfortunately, the periods of lovely snow have been followed by ugly sleet/hail/rain. My commute home Tuesday night was particularly unpleasant in cold slush. Bill had left work early in heavy snowfall, but it turned to rain by the time he reached Raheny. He did see a rainbow though.


Thursday saw some accumulation in Raheny, which has been sticking around in the shady spots. Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny Saturday, and we took a walk in St. Anne's.










Today we woke up to another pretty snowfall. We snapped some photos off the balcony and on the way to church. Of course, it had turned to rain by the time we left church.












19th Century St. Assam's church in Raheny centre. The church has been used only sporadically in the last decade. Plans were announced last year for credit union offices to occupy the building.

No more snow is forecast.

Follow-through in Ireland down, study shows

Homicides down 38% but murder threats up - The Irish Times - Fri, Feb 06, 2009

Actual killings are down, but threats and attempts are up. This could mean several things: people are patching things up, fewer would-be killers have the bollocks, or fewer people are actually any good at killing. Any of these would be a good thing, I suppose.

Happy New Year

Our last week of December was pretty quiet. Bill was laid low by the flu and was just starting to feel human again on Jan 1. Needless to say 2008 went out with a whimper. Bill took a nap and woke up at 11:30 to ring in the New Year with a cup of tea. We watched a countdown of favorite comedians as voted by UK viewers. Number one favorite: Billy Connolly.

Thankfully Bill was back to cooking strength on New Year's Day to make us a tasty, traditional meal of Bacon and Cabbage. The bacon in this meal is a cured, un-smoked pork. More like what my people call ham. He also mashed potatoes with scallions, aka champ. All this was topped with an Irish classic--parsley sauce.

We hibernated for the first couple weekends of the new year. Last weekend we started venturing out again, attending a fun, 60th birthday party on Friday night, dinner in Malahide and a movie (Slumdog Millionaire) with friends on Saturday, and meeting another friend on Grafton Street for lunch on Sunday. We were back on the social scene!

We also realized we felt a little lost with no travel plans on the calendar, so we booked a long weekend in Paris for Februrary. Ahhh, that's better.

Last week we saw a play on Monday evening--Playboy of the Western World. This 1907 play by J.M. Synge has been updated by Bisi Adigun and the bard of Dublin, Roddy Doyle. This tale of the allure of a mysterious stranger is sad, but hilarious. Friday night we attended an RTE Orchestra concert of Haydn, Rachmaninov, and Mussorgsky. We used part of the Mussorgsky for my bridal processional. Pictures at an Exhibition is an exciting piece and hearing it live better reveals all the instruments and melodies working together. The guest conductor was extremely, um, lively. At one point I thought he was going to crowd surf into the orchestra.

Last night we hung out in the wine cellar at Fallon and Byrne with a couple who is planning an Italian honeymoon. The bride is from Georgia, and is learning that while much of Irish culture is familiar to Americans, wedding traditions can be quite different. We ganged up on the groom-to-be a bit, trying to convince him that a rehearsal dinner is not really that bizarre.

Today after church we tried the new breakfast menu at our local pub. Fried egg sandwiches and chips hit the spot. And for dinner Bill made a spicy and bright pasta puttanesca with some surprising fruity salted capers.

And now, ladies and gentleman, this blog is now current with real time! Enjoy it while it lasts.

Also, at present, the Gunter B&B is completly open for 2009, so dig out your passport and call the airlines. We'd love to see you.

Today at Work

Me: I'm going to go run an errand.
Coworker: Oh, you're going to get the messages.*
Me: Yeah.
Coworker: You have funny little words for things.
Me: Errand?
Coworker: Yes.
Me: You think errand is funnier than messages.
Coworker: Yeah.
We both laugh.
Me: Well, we'll leave it at that then.

*According to Wikipedia: Messages means groceries or errands. She's gone to the shop to get the messages. I had a few messages to do in town.

Christmas in Dublin

On Saturday, December 20, we did nothing.

December 20th was the first weekend day that we were in Dublin with no house guests since October 18th. Not that our travels and visitors weren't fabulous, but it was nice to have a day of nothing.

On December 21, we went to a Christmas Market at the Docklands in Dublin. We attended this market last year on a gorgeous, sunny day. This year was soggier, but still a nice time with lots of crafts and a brass band playing carols. We ate bratwurst and drank Erdinger Weissbier.

On Christmas we attended a service in the 19th Century building our church is renovating in downtown Dublin. That afternoon we opened presents and I took a Christmas nap. We had a delicious Christmas dinner with some friends, Graham and Margaret and their family. Bill provided the starter--tamales! Not traditional for Irish Christmas, but they were well received (for the most part). For dinner we had ham, turkey and goose! Veggie accompaniment included Brussels sprouts with rashers and cranberries, roasted root veg, and stuffing. Our friends were house sitting and Margaret was a bit stressed over cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen, but she created a wonderful meal. Her daughter made our dessert, mince pies and gingerbread sandwich cookies with lemon cream. After dinner and Christmas crackers we watched the Dr. Who Christmas special and the new Wallace and Grommet.

On St. Stephen's day we ate tamales and huevos rancheros for breakfast. For dinner we had Cork Beef and Stout stew, made with mushrooms and Beamish stout. A tasty day.

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

I've been fascinated by this map all day.

It was the accompanying image for a short news article about new travel regulations for Irish passport holders traveling to the US. I immediately notice the Alabama label. Alabama is not frequently one of the top five state labels, unless the map labels all start with A. Is Alabama a primary location for Irish travelers? Great, I say. I love Alabama, and the Irish would love pork BBQ.

But then I notice that the other labels are in fact, not states, but cities. Although you could argue the New York label represents the state, and no way I'm wandering into that District of Columbia morass. For this discussion: 4 cities, one state. What gives?

I decide RTE must have grabbed this graphic from a previous story. But what story? What news item linked DC, LA, NYC, Berkeley and the State of Alabama? Then I notice the icons. Clearly New York and Los Angeles belong to the same solid-centered circle category, and DC is as always isolated by its square dot taxonomy. But Berkeley and Alabama? How do each of these geographic areas rate a concentric circle icon?

Berkeley and Alabama. Politics? No. Climate? No. Number of letters? No. Proximity to the Mississippi? No.

My analysis breaks down because I don't know much about Berkeley. I wiki it. Maybe Berkeley has a statue of Vulcan? No. The stadium at UC Berkeley is for soccer. The city has public transportation. I don't get it!

I can only imagine a news feature for the 3% of Ireland's inhabitants who have never visited the United States that explains that in addition to the political center of Washington, DC, the entertainment mecca of LA and the locus of everything else, NYC, the United States has many more places that you will likely never go--cities like Berkeley, California, that is loved for its own merits, and other larger areas, called states, that have been part of the US since 1819. Alabama, for example.

My neural network continues to sizzle, and the map remains a mystery. Maybe I've been in Ireland long enough to be disoriented (but not disorientated) by a map of the US that does not contain Boston.