Paris, France

Had a bit of a setback when I didn't set an alarm yesterday and ended up sleeping until 3 PM, thereby completely messing up my sleep schedule. No worries, all is back on track. It just meant that I hit the town at 5 o'clock this morning, hours before anything opens on Lundi. I was able to do some early morning sketching at the Louvre, then worked on locating the new Nouvel museum along the Siene. I was able to make it to one of the early Modern candidates, Maisons Jaoul in the rather attractive Neuilly-sur-Siene area.

When it started to rain and I realized I had been up 6 hours and it wasn't even lunchtime, I headed back to base and worked out a schedule for myself.

Basically I want to have a bit of Historic analysis first so I have something to compare it to. Then I'll get into the contemporary works, which I've slated myself as having locked in by the end of the week. There are alot of unaccounted for factors, lots of gaps and holes that will need to be filled in, but at least this gives me some kind of goal to shoot for. Personally I'm kinda excited for "Reverse Engineer Paris"

While I was at the Place du Carousel this morning, I got to musing about the difference between Paris and Venice, which I also visited earlier this year. Aside from being wed to the sea (literally, in a ceremony held each year) Venice is a city very much about its meandering pathways, its tight and narrow spots, and its campi, which serve as the only way to orient yourself in the city without your nose in a map. In Paris it is not the Place, or rather the nodal intersections of pathways, but the pathways themselves. Paris is rife with long, broad streets and boulevards that stretch into the infinite beyond (these came prior to Haussmann, as I've learned, and could be traced to Vicennes). It is in the act of crossing one of the boulevards and catching a glimpse to a landmark out on the horizon that one places themselves in the context. This is a world apart from the Venetian experience, and I'm curious as to whether one is intrinsically simpler to understand than another.