Patti Lynn Clark Barnett

The Orsay and Orangerie Museums are the homes of my favorite group of artists, the Impressionists: Renoir, Monet, Manet, Cezanne and others. The impressionists', seemingly, carelessly, splattered and splashed canvases made it easy to understand why the established artists of the 19th century were outraged, shocked and insulted. They wanted to ride these, "No talent, messy, lazy dabblers" out of town on a rail. Such departure from the laboriously detailed realism to which they had devoted their lives was a disgrace to the name of art. You can’t get any more wrong than that. This is a picture taken through the back of one of the two large clocks in The Orasy Museum. The view is north across the Seine.

Of course these museums house art of other styles and periods. It is difficult to take your eyes away from the beauty of "The Birth of Venus" painted by Alexander Cabanel in 1863. The same can be said for numerous other works, for sure.

The panels of Monet's water lilies, at the Orangerie, I must admit, were disappointing. They, like the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre were much easier to appreciate in reproductions. The “Mona Lisa” is quite small, behind glass and roped off so that you can only get within about 10 feet. And then there was a huge crowd. This is far from an ideal environment for experiencing great art!

I

f your levels of creativity are waning, these visits will get you going again…or nothing will.

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, "Le Dance"

The Rodin Museum is a few blocks from where we stayed in the Rue Cler neighborhood. The museum is housed in the mansion home of Rodin and contains a huge number of his indescribably magnificent works. This was the last museum we visited and after seeing the others, I thought the awe factor would have leveled out. The Louvre overwhelmed me but Rodin's works left me silent.

The only two works I was familiar with enough to name were, "The Kiss" and "The Thinker". Both are here. In my estimation, neither comes close in beauty and emotion to some of his lesser known works.

My husband was especially impressed with “La Cathedral”. This sculpture is of two right hands entwined in a right-handed helix. He thought it was the perfect artistic representation of the double-stranded short interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) molecules which he and his colleagues are trying to develop as therapeutics.

There is a section devoted to Camille Claudel, his young student /muse, inspiration who became his mistress. After Rodin left her, she wound up in a mental institution where she died. Her works were good but there is no question who was the master and who was the student.

If you visit this museum, don’t miss the gardens. They are very well designed and serve as a wonderful backdrop for some of Rodin’s largest pieces like “The Thinker”, “The Burghers of Calais” and “The Gates of Hell”. The garden is a great mix of large trees, formal grassy areas, a formal round pond and winding paths. There is an outdoor café where you can sit and reflect on what you have just seen.

Today's two news stories about the defacing of the Monet painting at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris and the investigation into the death of Princess Diana were like deja vou. I saw that Monet painting, the Ritz Hotel and that deadly tunnel just last week. How coincidental is that? The Ritz is in a high end shopping district where the fashion is Paris personified. I could imagine Princess Diana  shopping here and I wanted to see inside the Ritz. For security reasons, you aren't allowed beyond a certain point.  I met a guy named, Pascal, who works there as I was  leaving.  And he was very pleased to be recieving a copy of my tribute song to the princess,"Diana"

This is a picture of the d’Orsay main hall taken from the top level balcony at the east end. If you are into Impressionists this is a must see. Many of the Monet paintings are in rooms 32-34 including the paintings of his garden at Giverny.

The Ritz in Paris is on the Place Vendome north of the Tuileries Gardens.

There is a memorial to Diana at Place de l’Alma at the north end of the bridge de l’Alma directly above the tunnel where the fatal accident occurred. This picture is taken facing west with the Seine on the left and the Eiffel Tower in the background. Bouquets of flowers and other objects are still layed there in Princess Diana's memory.

I spent the week of June 13-21 in Johnson City, Tennessee with family and friends. And for you Else Whereians who wonder if the southern hospitality you've heard about really exists, well, I assure you it is alive and very well!  It was good to see and reconnect with several I had not seen in years. Everyone was so very cordial and I was the recipient of a generous dose of Southern Hospitality.

I'm really not getting paid for this plug, but this North East corner of Tennessee is undergoing a development boom and if you're looking for a dynamic place to relocate, I highly recommend this fast growing area. I hardly recognized much of the locale in and around my home town of Jonesborough and Johnson City. There's a building boom of businesses, fantastic homes and new highway systems everywhere. The health care industry is in the process of a major expansion and I was told there will be a St. Jude's Children's Hospital built soon. This expansion seems to have started with the opening (1974) of the Quillen College of Medicine at E.T.S.U. and continues to accelerate.

The remaining land marks are getting fewer and farther between. But that is the price required for the march of progress, I suppose. Again, if you're starting a career or business you may want to give East Tennessee a shot.

Thanks, again, to everyone that made my visit so memorable with their sweet, generous spirits and by showering me with a load of good manners and that good old southern hospitality.