Fondation Louis Vuitton - another amazing Gehry building

Thursday October 1 was another beautiful day - blue sky, a bit of wind, with a high of 18C.  Alain went for his first run in Paris.  He did 7 km, mainly through Jardin des Plantes, which is about ten minutes from our apartment. We started our day with some food shopping on Rue Muffetard, just  five minutes away.  We have our favourite fish, meat, fruit, wine and bakery that we frequent.

Androuet- wonderful cheese shop

Local wine shop

Our fish store-- all on Rue Mouffetard

After a quick lunch at the apartment, we took the Metro to the new Louis Vuitton museum in the Bois de Boulogne, designed by Frank Gehry.  We feel very lucky to have visited the Guggenheim museum designed by Gehry in Bilbao earlier this year, and now being able to visit what is we would call a companion piece in Paris.  It is an enormous glass sailing ship.  It was commissioned by Bernard Arnault, the head of the luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH, largely to showcase his and the company's art collections.

View walking towards museum

Side of the building

The temporary exhibit from the collection was entitled: La Collection Pop et Musique.

Poster from show

Model of Museum

Gehry's fish circling over the Museum Cafe

Looking up through the galleries

We enjoyed a lot of the contemporary art-- pieces by Warhol, Basquiat,  Richard Prince, Gilbert & Gilbert and many others.  The music/videos rooms were very eclectic.  We enjoyed a wonderful piece by Douglas Gordon.  There were also a number of commissioned pieces done for the opening of the Museum in 2014.

                                                                     Gilbert & Gilbert- Class Warfare 1986

There was a large piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat entitled "Grillo" from 1984

The auditorium featured a number of commissioned pieces by Ellsworth Kelly (b. 1923), including a painted stage curtain and a series of coloured panels done in 2014.

Ellsworth Kelly- Stage Curtain 2014

There was a room which included a number of Deck Chairs and Metronomes done by Marina Abramovic (b.1949) entitled: Rejuvenator of the Astral Balance (2000).  The idea was to sit in one of the deck chairs in front of a metronome for 45 minutes.  We didn't manage to sit for that long-- but it was mesmerizing.

Alain in one of the chairs in front of metronome

There was also a short film about the making of the building, which included an interview with Frank Gehry who is now 86.   Toronto boy from John Street whose mother kept carp in the bathtub made good!  The museum has soaring ceilings and the galleries can accommodate very large pieces of art.

Frank Gehry on film

There was also a commissioned piece by Olafur Eliasson (b.1967) entitled Inside the Horizon-- which featured 43 coloured columns and mirrors which also reflected the water features from the museum.  It was like a hall of mirrors- we had a lot of fun taking photos.

Multiple Alains and Tobys

The water feature was also very beautiful.

Gehry often incorporates water into his buildings

We wandered up to the top level, where one could go outside and take pictures of the views of Paris and surrounding suburbs.

View from the top of the Museum

After our visit, we took a shuttle bus back to Charles de Gaulle-Etoile and went on a bit of a historical adventure.  Alain is presently reading a book called Avenue of Spies, by Alex Kershaw which focuses on Dr. Sumner Jackson, the Director of the American Hospital in Paris during WWII, and his Swiss wife, who lived at 11 Avenue Foch.  Avenue Foch was also the site of Gestapo and SS occupied buildings and many homes on the street were occupied by the Nazis.  The Jacksons were approached by the Resistance because of their proximity to Nazi activities.  They both became active in the Resistance.  Just before Paris was liberated they were arrested with their son and transported separately to labour camps in Germany.

Alain wanted to check out some of the addresses that he has been reading about.  Avenue Foch is very close to where we were dropped off.  We wandered down the street.  Alain got a picture of 11 Avenue Foch.  The building at 31 Avenue Foch, which housed the German military headquarters had been replaced by a modern apartment building.

Sign for Avenue Foch--- very opulent buildings now home to some embassies 

11 Avenue Foch

Paris history is always fascinating.  Alain hasn't finished the book yet, so couldn't tell me the outcome for the Jacksons.  He recommends reading the book.

We walked all the way back to the apartment, admiring the shop windows, stopping for a coffee on the Seine. We then walked back to Champs Elysees, passing La Concorde and the Louvre pyramid just after sunset before crossing the river.  We stopped for a leisurely pichet of red wine at Le Comptoir des Saints Peres before our final sprint back to the apartment.

Black and white graphics at Valentino window

As it is Fashion Week, there was a display on the Champs Elysees commemorating Elle's 70th anniversary.

Happy 70th Birthday Elle

Posters were reproductions of various magazine covers- this one was the first issue of November 21, 1945

La Concorde et Tour Eiffel

Pyramid at Louvre at dusk

We got back to the apartment for a very late dinner.  We both had over 25,000 steps for the day.