Paris, Day 1

On our first day in Paris we luxuriated in being there. We spent a long lazy morning in the Luxembourg gardens, sailing boats in the Grand Basin and just wandering around the park and spying out the beehives.We went home for a nap and then went out for a walk around the 6th Arrondissement, where we were staying for the first couple of days--we ate macarons, and popped into the legendary children's store Bonpoint (where there was a full-size wooden playhouse for Mabel to play in) and the church of Saint Sulpice, and spotted a bookstore called the San Francisco Book Company (and felt flattered), and just generally admired the streets and the buildings and the fact that Holy Crap we were in Paris!

In the Boat

One of Mabel's favorite things to do on the weekend when we do laundry is to play with the laundry basket--most often it's a boat and both clothes hangers and stuffed animals are involved in the elaborate saga of this boat. She climbs in and out of it over and over again--something she's been doing since she was a tiny toddler and her whole body fit inside instead of her giantess legs dangling out for miles the way they do now.

Impressionism at the Musee D'Orsay

We went to three museums when we were in Paris. Today let's talk about the big beautiful Impressionist Gallery at the Musee D'Orsay, shall we? I love seeing Impressionist paintings in person. We've all seen them reproduced so many many times that, when I see reproductions, even good ones, I have a very hard time actually seeing what I'm looking at--all I see are a million coffee mugs and mouse pads and prints hanging on the walls of dentists' offices. But when I see them in person. Bam! I suddenly remember how utterly totally radical these pictures were in their day. How they cracked not only the idea of painting, but indeed the very idea of seeing wide open. Go on with your bad selves, you Impressionists you. I found this group of landscapes, with all their blues, particularly pleasing. Take a look!

Above: Monet

Monet

Sisley

Renoir

Monet

Sisley

Manet

The Ongoing Poem Series About the Summer of 2006 Carries on in the Following Manner

June 19, 2006
This weekend was super busy and involved:

seeing lots of friends
having some rosé and some bubbly water
             the bubbles in the glass rising to the top
             pretty much constantly when its first poured
going to the farmer’s market
and buying a ton of berries and stone-fruit and cauliflower and herbs and flowers
             fresh lavender for the dining table which looks great and smells amazing
             and mixed poppies for the hall that are so cute and cheerful and wrinkly
watching the world cup
getting a zipcar and picking up new bookcases
             the soft almost satiny look and feel of the pale wood
             of the unfinished pine bookshelves
             almost fuzzy like a peach
then rearranging all the books
All of which was really fun
We also cleaned the house
which was not as fun but deeply satisfying

Today I had cinnamon graham crackers
instead of regular ones
for my midmorning snack
they were gratifyingly gritty
And I went book shopping and bought myself a stack of books
to compensate for having to be back at work
after such a nice weekend of real life and great weather
Two of the books were hardcovers
and I realized that I’ve recently abandoned a lifelong policy
of always waiting for the paperback
This is in part due to having a bit more money
but also life is just too short
and my reading desires shift and change too often
to postpone such an elemental pleasure
as reading what I want to read
when I want to read it
So there

I also noticed that the bottom shelf
of all the bookcases in the store
is angled upward
so that a browser can read the spines easily
without having to bend over
One of those thoughtful things that works so well
you don’t even see it
Until you do



image source is here

Out to the Outer Sunset

I did not do one lick of work in Paris, and therefore cannot do a Publishing Wednesday post about my trip. Instead, I will tell you about a field trip that I went on with the Chronicle Books Art Editors right before I left town. We headed to the Outer Sunset (for those not in San Francisco this is a remote, beach-y, fog-bound neighborhood way out by the ocean, which has recently started to become a hotbed of art activity, cool stores, great coffee, and the infamous $4 toast).

Here is what we saw:

Above, an amazing art deco school building I passed by on my way to meet my pals.

Flowers in the bathroom of the delightful Andytown coffee (we also went to Trouble Coffee for the aforementioned toast, but I forgot to snap a pic). 

This image, and the four below, are from artist Leah Rosenberg's Every Day A Color installation at Irving Street Projects which was AMAZING. Leah met us there and told us all about the project--for which she painted the walls of the studio a different color each new day, leaving just a little stripe of the previous day's color behind. As a lover of color, of course I adore this.

 

Next we went to Three Fish Studios and chatted with, and admired the work of, the delightful husband-and-wife team Annie Galvin (above) and Eric Rewitzer (below).

We then popped into a few retail shops including Mollusk surf shop, where I spotted the cool print above (and where they were clearly a bit perplexed by us five publishing girls who really obviously do not surf),

General Store,

and Case for Making, where I bought far too many pencils and erasers.

It was a good day.