Episode 204 - Mona Lisa part 6 Lisa, Today and Tomorrow

Since August 28, 1911 there has been a line at the Louvre and in the age of mass tourism its reached a breaking point. For  years the staff of the Louvre have held “meetings” which are really mini-strikes due to the conditions of the small rooms filled with people but the biggest culprit is the Mona Lisa herself. 

She has moved around the Denon wing from the Salon Carré to Grande Galerie until she finally moved to the Salle des États in 1966. 

Created under Napoleon III after he named himself Emperor, the  Salle des États had a high ceiling with an upper balcony that members of the government could look down upon the Emperor. The ceiling above was covered with a painting by Charles-Louis Muller representing religion, charity, agriculture, commerce, and the arts with Sainte Geneviève and Clovis on either end. Above each door, Muller added the Triumph of Napoleon & Charlemagne. 

After Napoleon III ousting in 1870 the directors of the Louvre decided they needed more space and began to take over the rooms on the north side of the Denon wing. On October 27, 1886 the Salle des États was opened as a part of the museum where visitors would find the paintings of French artists including David, Ingres and  Gros under a new glass ceiling allowing the natural light in from above. 

Today the same room is devoid of any special decor. The ceilings and the walls no longer have sculptures or allegories and instead of an Emperor, it's the Mona Lisa that rules the room.

As we know the popularity of the Mona Lisa skyrocketed after her theft and return in 1914 and her constant movement tried to reflect the many visitors that flooded the Denon to find her. After her return from WWI, she was tucked into the Tribune of the Grande Galerie and surrounded by paintings of Raphael, Titian, and Caravaggio. 

After WWII she spent a year in the Salle Daru where Napoleon reigns over David’s Coronation. Then back to the Tribune until she was getting her own space in the Salle des États. Which is often incorrectly mentioned as the largest room in the Louvre.  

That all may change in the next few years. 

In the last week a interview with directress of the Louvre Laurence des Cars mentioned that at the start of April 2024 a meeting was held between high ranking members of the museum to once and for all address the problem that is the Mona Lisa. 

However, not so fast there. This story has made it across the world in lighting speed because it is the Mona Lisa and in true form the message changes as it goes like an old game of telephone. 

First things first, this is not a new idea. Since the late 1980s when IM Pei was creating the Pyramid entrance it was discussed and the attendance of 5 million at that time was half of what it is today. A lot was changing and the entire Richelieu wing was remodeled and added to the museum so she was pushed aside. 

In 2016 it was reviewed again when other work below the pyramid was tackled including adding the amphitheater and expanding the exhibition area. They couldn’t find the space, or the money and it was shelved and an overhaul to the Salle des États was planned instead. 

In 2019, the Leonard da Vinci exhibition celebrating the 500th anniversary of his death was planned for the Louvre. (May 2, 1519) For close to ten years Vincent Delieuvin, chief curator of the 16th century Italian paintings worked with museums around the world to bring the greatest examples from the life of da Vinci from his drawings to paintings to the Louvre. The Grande Dame wasn’t going to leave her room but she did get a new upgrade with walls that were painted a beautiful Prussian Blue. 

From July 17 to October 15, 2019, for the first time, she shifted to the northern wing of the Louvre. My beloved quiet and stunning room dedicated to Ruben’s Medicis cycle of 24 paintings in the life of the Queen became the backdrop of chaos. I can tell you that Marie de Medicis would not have been happy being upstaged even by Lisa. 

The Louvre reached some powerful conclusions with this move. While the Richelieu wing has only been a part of the museum for 30 years compared to the other two wings it is state of the art but only has one way to move a lot of people up to the 2nd floor. IM Pei created the escalator well bordered by Burgundian limestone climbing to the roof that would see 20,000 people a day for three months.  

As people arrived and followed the signs to the Richelieu entrance normally only saw a few hundred people each day if you are lucky suddenly became overrun. Visitors would scan their ticket and be asked if they were hoping to see Lisa, when they answered yes, they lined up into the first set of stanchions. Then came the escalators which were turned off so that they could just be crammed with visitors. Once they reached the top floor more stanchions awaited before they finally snaked their way into the Medicis gallery to find more stanchions and were given only a few seconds to see her in her makeship wall.  

After they were pushed down through the Escalier Lefuel and out into the Court Puget the Louvre was able to control and count exactly how many people came to see the most famous woman in the world. 

In 1914, Vincenzo Peruggia’s lawyer argued at the trial that in the end nothing was lost. The Louvre got endless attention from the media around the world and the relationship between France and Italy improved greatly since the days of Napoleon. New members of the Amis du Louvre flooded in and anything with the image of the Mona Lisa was sure to be a bestseller. 

They were able to control and track every person coming into the museum to visit Lisa with endless stanchions on multiple floors. In the end, they revealed that 80% of the people every day come to just see her. Close to ⅓ of those tickets each day are free, so let’s say 20,000 people a day to see the Mona Lisa that pay for a ticket. That is a total of 323,000€ made each day on ticket sales. The Louvre is opened 311 days a year, which is 100,453,000€ made off one painting all because Vincenzo Peruggia decided to steal her, so yes, it was very beneficial. This doesn’t even account for all the items they sell with her image which are the top sellers of the many shops inside the Louvre. 

He wasn’t wrong and the Louvre today, 110 years later can count that 80% of the people that come every day come to see her. Just before the summer of 2023 the director of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars lowered the ticket threshold to 30,000 a day from 40, 000. 

The Mona Lisa may be the original clickbait, long before we even had the internet. For over a hundred years protesters have attacked her to draw attention to their plight and most recently a rather unknown website created a huge buzz that went all the way to the office of the president of the Louvre. 

Coupon Birds.com on February 21, 2024 published its finding from annalysing the reviews on their website of 18,176 people. They found the highest ranked “”disappointment” “over ranked” piece of art in the world is the Mona Lisa at 37.1%. 127 people mentioned it was the crowds that made it unbearable (can’t disagree) and most said that even coming to the museum was a disappointment.  Hold my wine, I need to find each and every one of these jerks! 

It gets worse! The 2nd most overrated? Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. Now those are fighting words. 

Although it is understandable that the room is horrible, that is not because of the Louvre. It is because of the over-saturation of tourism and the behavior of people. I have spent many hours in the room where Lisa lives and it’s not the room or the staff that makes me want to run, it is the often rude, pushy, and ill-mannered visitors who only care about getting a selfie and leaving. I have witnessed pushing matches, yelling, and thousands of people who don’t even look at her. They snap a selfie to say they were there and move on. 

The Mona Lisa issue is a catch-22. While if you really wanted to have a moment to really study her and look at her it is not the setting for that. The double snaking stanchions disappeared in the fall of 2023 and now is an open mosh pit where the staff of six that must be on guard at all times rarely manages. When a 30-second or so limit was given years ago they let people stand as long as they wanted, or however long they could handle an elbow jab. Although it’s not unlimited time to study her, the majority are taking full-fledged fashion shoots to say they were there. 

I have been lucky to be alone with her for long stretches of time and what really changed my mind about what an amazing piece of art she truly is. I wish so many others could have that chance but in this day and age, I doubt it will ever happen.

In 2019 in the New York Times, Jason Farago wrote an article titled “It’s time to take down the Mona Lisa”  in his article he called her the Kim Kardashian of 16th-century portraits which is a name I would never want to see in the same paragraph of the Louvre but he had many valid points. The Louvre is suffocating under the weight of the Mona Lisa and over-tourism and five years later it is finally being taken seriously. 

Laurence des Cars on April 27 was on France Inter radio and said it must be addressed and she has been doing that since she arrived. In September 2022, just a year into her reign as the queen of the Louvre proposed a plan to Emmanuel Macron to create a space to hold Lisa. It was then passed to the mayor Anne Hildalgo and the ministry of culture.

At that same time, she also proposed the idea of re-adding the former entrance into the royal palace on the Eastern edge overlooking the Eglise Saint Germain l’Auxerrois to alleviate the pressure on the Pyramid. That nugget leaked out to the press but the other part was wrapped up tight until today. The plan is to also build a space just for Lisa that people could visit just as they enter the back entrance.  

A separate timed ticked should also be added and I hope an entire education of who she is, more about the process and groundbreaking techniques Leonard used, and why she really is the most famous woman in the world and not just because she was stolen.  

The project is thought to cost 500 million euros, a drop in the bucket for LVMH or another wealthy company dying to have their name listed next to the most famous woman in the world.

Coming up in Part 7 - a scientific look at Lisa and how unless they intervene we will begin to lose her smile a bit every single year. 

Episode 203 - The Painting that Named a Movement

150 years ago this month, the first Impressionists exhibition opened, although it went by a different and much longer name. 

The Limited Company of Artists, Painters, Sculpteurs, Engravers, etc was established on December 27, 1873 by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, and Beliard. On April 15, 1874, in the former photography studio of Nadar, the exhibition opened, to a small crowd. The first 10 days were quiet until Louis Leroy from the Le Charivari attended and wrote an article that was published on April 25, 1874. 

"Impression, I was sure. I also thought to myself, since I am impressed, there must be an impression in it... And what freedom, what ease in the bill! The wallpaper in the embryonic state is even more done than this.” As an artist and engraver himself, he was a bit harsh, but everyone was at the time against this band of rebels. 

At the time the Academic world of art thought these ragtag group of artists that painted outside in the elements were nuts and the name didn’t help. 

We will talk more about this exhibition in the next few weeks,  but this week I want to share the story of the painting that named the movement with some surprising turns I rarely see mentioned. 

Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840, in Paris at no 45 Rue Lafitte a place later famous for its art galleries that supported the Impressionists. In 1845 the Monet family moved to Le Havre and at 11 he began to sketch in the margins of his school books and caricatures of people in the town.  After his mother died in 1857, he turned to focus on art full-time and returned to Paris in 1859. 

For years Monet struggled to make money. He borrowed from many of his friends after his father cut him off because of his relationship with Camille. One of his most famous paintings in the Orsay, Dejeune sur l’Herbe, his response to Manet’s version was used as collateral for a house he rented and was almost destroyed. In 1868 he attempted to kill himself by jumping into the Seine when his financial difficulties became too much. 

Hard to imagine today when just about every museum in the world owns a Claude Monet painting. (in 2019 a Monet haystack painting sold for 110 million dollars)  But today we are going to share the story of one of his most important Impressions.  The Impression, Sunrise. 

On November 13, 1872, at 7:35 am in the harbor of Le Havre out the window of the Hotel de l’Armirauté (Are-Me-Raw-Tee) at no 43 on the Grand Quai, Monet captured the sunrise. A quick passing moment in time on a quiet morning. The exact date and time were deducted by researchers at the Musée Marmottan Monet by consulting tide charts and weather history. The smoke from the smokestacks flowing west nailed the extract moment of the day, which also happens to be before the master of color’s birthday. 

On this early morning as Monet looked out his window, his easel at the ready he saw in the distance through the foggy horizon the Quai au Bois on the left of the canvas, the Transatlantic Lock in the center, and the Courbe dock on the right. Today much of that view has changed sadly and the hotel is no longer there but stand in front of this canvas and let your mind wander. 

Working quickly the paint was layered on in one wet layer after another. The predominantly grey and blue scale painting’s most important element was added later after the painting had dried.  The glowing orange sun rising over the dock is essential to the feeling you get from the painting but it is the reflection on the water that really moves the soul. Can you even imagine this painting without it?  

In 1874, when it was presented for the first exhibition Monet was asked to give a title [to my painting], for the catalog; It could not really pass for a view of Le Havre; I answered, “Put Impression”.

Monet captured the landscape of Le Havre many times and even a few from the same window. Other scenes are found at the J. Paul Getty Museum in LA and the Musee Barberri in Germany. 

The exhibit was held from April 15 to May 15, 1874, in the studio of photographer Nadar on the Boulevard des Capucines. Wealthy Parisian Ernest Hoschedé arrived one day and found a painting that spoke to him and purchased it immediately for 800 francs (3500 euros today) 

Hoschedé was born in Paris on December 18, 1837, in the 9th to a family that made their fortune in the textile industry and department stores. By 1861, Ernest was the head of the family business and bank account. On April 16, 1863, he married Alice who came from a wealthier family and also came with a chateau eleven miles outside of Paris in Montgeron.

 The Chateau de Rottembourg needed an update and Ernest used his large checkbook to invite the artists to his home to decorate the walls.

Hoscehdé met Claude Monet in the Parc Monceau and offered him the same opportunity and since Monet needed the money and Manet told him it was a pretty cushy job he took him up on the offer.  Hanging on the wall upon his arrival was the Impression, Sunrise a painting that in retrospect was such a monumental moment, but barely registered more than a mention for close to 100 years. 

In 1876, two years after the exhibition after spending time in Argenteuil, Claude Monet wanted to find some new subject matter to paint. Wealthy French businessman and avid collector Ernest Hoschedé had already invited Édouard Manet out to his chateau earlier in the year and commissioned him to paint a few pieces. Manet’s pieces would never be hung and kept in his atelier until his death.

Ernest burned through all their money and was forced to hold two anonymous auctions for a few dozen paintings by Sisley, Monet, and Pissarro that didn’t reap the rewards he had hoped. In 1877 his chateau and collection were seized and sold. 138 pieces by Renoir, Sisley, Morisot, Pissarro, Manet, and Monet were sold including Impression. Sunrise. Sold at auction for just 210 francs, Dr. Georges de Bellio was the lucky winner of such a bargain. At the time the market was flooded with Impressionists and few were buying them. It drove down the value of many of them and left many of the artists bitter. 

Georges de Bellio was a Bucharest art collector born February 20, 1828, who moved to Paris and became a naturopathic doctor opening a small shop when he wasn’t amassing art. His only child, Victorine was born in 1863 and would add her name to the long story of Monet’s Sunrise. 

Bellio and Monet began a friendship over letters and vowed to keep the paintings until his death. Frequently asking for money, Monet always repaid the doctor in art a deal that was very beneficial for Bellio. His collection would include everything from Botticelli to Hubert Robert and Delacroix to Manet & Morisot. On January 26, 1894, he died and his entire collection was passed down to his daughter and her husband, Eugene Donop de Monchy. 

The two lived at 6 rue de l’Abbaye on the corner of the Rue de Furstemberg where the atelier and museum of Delacroix are located.  Impression hung on the wall alongside Le Gare Saint Lazare and Le Pont de l’Europe which were the real stars of the collection and highly sought after for exhibitions. 

Records show that the two were highly insured for as much as 250,000 francs but the Impression, Sunrise rarely was asked for and insured for under 15,000 francs. A painting that is so highly linked to one of the most beloved schools of painting in the world didn’t matter. 

In 1939 as Hitler was marching toward Western Europe and thirsty for art it wasn’t just the Louvre that sprung into action. Jacques Jaujard had also assisted other museums including the Musée Marmottan and collectors in protecting their art. 

The Musée Marmottan Monet is a gem of a museum on the edge of Paris. Originally a hunting lodge to the Duc de Valmy it was purchased in 1882 by Jules Marmottan who had a large collection of items from the First Empire. His son Paul expanded the collection and upon his death, the home and collection were gifted to the Academie des Beaux-Arts.  

In 1934 it was opened as a museum and over the years would be greatly enhanced by two generous donations. Victorine had already talked with the museum that she wanted to gift a portion of the collection to the museum that she remembered visiting with her father.  Director Henri Le Riche urged her to add her painting to the convoy headed to the Chateau de Chambord in September 1938. After the Munich agreement and what was thought to be the end of a conflict at the end of the month, the plans were halted but in less than a year it was a full-scale movement. 

On August 28, 1939, two cases were sent to the Chateau de Lauroy a location specifically chosen by the Marmottan, Victorine sent 6 Monets and a handful of Pisarro, Sisley, Morisot, and Renoirs that would spend the war next to the collection of the Louvre. 

During the war in 1940, she decided to give the two cases to the Marmottan intended for a room of the museum dedicated to her father. Her husband died during the war in 1942 and another gift was valued at 4 million francs that included Chinese pottery, furniture, and more Impressionists.   

Although, not so fast said the Academy of Art. The Marmottan is run by the Institute de France and the Academy of Art and has the right of refusal on donations. They felt a room named for her father was a step too far and refused the donation. Over the next five years, many lawyers and even the Minister of Education stepped in. After a rewriting of the donation in 1947 it was accepted but reduced to just 10 paintings and a few objets d’art. 

On February 29, 1949, at 4 pm the collection was inaugurated and was only the 4th time Impression, Sunrise was seen although still only went by “impression”. Although few were impressed when they saw it. 

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the exhibition in 1974, Hélène Adhémar, curator of the Louvre, and Jeu de Paume organized a temporary exhibition. She wrote a catalog that included a full-page reproduction of Sunrise, for the first time.  In 1946, John Rewald wrote the first comprehensive history of the Impressionists and mentioned the moment Louis Leroy coined the term but still didn’t give the painting Mona Lisa status. 

Arguably, it is still pretty unknown and only recently mentioned often with the 150th anniversary of the exhibition. 

Much like the Mona Lisa, Impression, Sunrise had its moment on the run that is rarely ever mentioned. 

It was an early Sunday morning just after 10 am on October 27, 1985, two ticket-holding gents strolled into the Musée Marmottan Monet.  A few minutes later, three masked men with guns pushed their way in, forced everyone to the ground, and quickly searched out nine specific paintings they ripped from the wall. Two Renoirs, a painting by Berthe Morisot, and five Monets that also included Impression, Sunrise, and were gone in a matter of minutes. 

For two years there wasn’t a single lead until the commissioner of the art theft department Mirielle Balestrazzin tracked down four stolen Cortot paintings in Japan. Stolen from Eastern France in 1984 the paintings were linked to the head of the Japanese crime syndicate Yakuza, Shuinichi Fujikuma. Fujikuma had his hands in everything and in 1978 he was caught with over 7 kilos of heroin in France and sentenced to five years in a French prison. Locked away he met two other French prisoners locked away for art thefts, Philippe Jamin and Youssef Khimoun, and hatched a plan. 

Fast forward to 1987 and Balestrazzin paying him a visit in Japan.  The Cortots were recovered and a series of investigations of his phone records found some odd details. It didn’t help that they found the Marmottan museum catalog where he had circled each of the 9 paintings that were stolen. Somehow the paintings were taken from Paris to Japan and then sent to Corsica where they were discovered in an empty villa in Porto-Vecchio. However, it took three long years to put that all together and recover the treasured paintings. 

On April 17, 1991, after some minor restoration, they returned to the walls of the Marmottan and you can see them in all their glory. Impression, Sunrise sits downstairs on the lower level and you can’t miss it as you walk down the stairs. When I first laid eyes on it they didn’t allow photos but I snuck a quick very crooked pic now you can snap away all you want. However, make sure you sit there on the bench in front of it and take it all in. 

When it comes to art it’s not just the painting you see on the canvas that is so fascinating. It is the story with all its twists and turns that is so wonderful that the piece is just waiting for you to discover. 

In 1966, Michael Monet, the only surviving child of the great artists gave his entire collection which is the largest concentrated catalog of Monet in the world to the Marmottan Monet. In 1985 Nelly Duhem, daughter of artist Henri Duhem bequeathed her father’s vast Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings of the French masters. 

Visit the Musée Marmottan Monet at 2 rue Louis Boilly 16e, open Tuesday-Sunday 10 am - 6 pm. They also hold two fantastic exhibits a year. 

Episode 202 - Treasures of Notre Dame

When the fire spread through the roof of Notre Dame de Paris on April 15, 2019, we all looked on in horror. However as bad as it looked, it could have been far worse, and in the days following hopeful little signs appeared. 

Statues, paintings, and important relics were saved as well as another treasure that few knew even existed. Rolled up and pushed away in a large box under some benches was a carpet so grand that it lay in the choir to baptize a prince. Over 80 feet long and rolled away it was drowned in two tons of water. When Herve Lemoine, director of the Mobilier National had a chance to see the carpet he was worried it would be damaged beyond repair. 

Unrolled, dried, frozen, and deprived of oxygen to kill any insects they were pleased to see the carpet was in very good shape except for a few dark spots. Named the Drap d'Or (cloth of gold), the carpet dates back to 1825 when King Charles X had it commissioned to be placed in the church when he was in attendance for mass. Created from the drawing by Jacques Louis de la Hamayde de Saint-Ange the carpet went through a few changes before it was ever finished. 

The Manufacture Royale de la Savonnerie was tasked with the job of weaving the immense carpet. On September 15, 1825, at a former soap factory near the Trocadero that was large enough to hold the loom, the weaving began. 

Saint-Ange design included a large white cross with the French coat of arms in the center the monogram of Charles X. Fleur-de-Lis and the necklace of the order of St Michel and the Holy Spirit encircled the coat of arms. Golden vines with grapes and colorful leaves wind around the cornucopias with a neo-classical reliquary on the lower portion. Around a large candlestick are a miter and other attributes of the church that are around the symbols of the four evangelists. At the top an eagle of St John, the angel of St Matthews, Lion of St Marc, and Ox of St Luke. 

The Three Glorious Days that marked the Revolution that ousted Charles X put a halt to the project and the design of the carpet.  Under Louis-Phillippe the Bourbon symbols were removed and the fleur-de-lis and necklace as well as any markings of the former king. It was finally completed in 1833 and was placed in the Galerie d’Apollon of the Louvre for all to see.  On May 2, 1841, it would be used for the first event in Notre Dame, the baptism of the grandson of Louis-Philippe, Philippe d’Orleans. 

Under Napoleon III, it was used for the baptism of his son, Prince Louis Napoleon on June 14, 1856. Following the end of the 2nd empire, the carpet was used once more for a visit of Tsar Nicolas II until it was rolled away for over 80 years. A papal visitation by John Paul II was a great reason to use the colorful carpet once more on May 30, 1980. Mostly forgotten and rolled away, it would return in 2017 for a 10 day exhibit open to the public just after Christmas on January 4th. 

Following the fire and the months of treatment to rid it of insects, it was a real treat to see it in person at the 2019 Journée du Patrimoine in the Mobilier National.  The colors are stunning and vibrant and all the emotions and tears came to the surface as soon as I saw it. 

On July 7, 2022, the restoration of the carpet began by a highly skilled group of masters trained in historic repair. In a large room with looms with massive windows so the natural light streams in they work for endless hours on each detail of the treasured carpet. The carpet weighs over a thousand pounds and a dozen men are needed to lift and shift it just a few more inches. Luckily the carpet was in amazing shape after the fire, although the lower portion at one point was glued to the canvas with fish skin adhesive in the 19th century and has hardened making it impossible to get a needle through. 

They will replace the edging and any dark spots and hopefully will return to Notre Dame or the museum dedicated to her long life for us all to see once more. 

We will have to see if they will return it on display this September during the Journée du Patrimoine weekend but if you are in Paris plan a trip to the Mobilier National, just in case. 

Notre Dame Doors

The old saying goes that the devil is in the details, and maybe this Paris legend is where that expression was born. In the 13th century, a young locksmith named Biscornet said he had a faster and less expensive way of forging iron. With his lofty promises, he was given the task of creating the hinges, decoration, and locks for the great doors of the front of the Notre Dame de Paris. Overwhelmed by his promise and toiling away for months he finally asked for help. When his helper arrived a few days later, they found Biscornet asleep in his workshop in front of the doors. The three sets of doors were finished and, as you can still see today, beautiful. The legend has it that he sold his soul to the devil to complete the monumental task and died shortly thereafter. With the doors in place at the inauguration of the church, nobody could open them, not until a priest sprinkled the lock with holy water and it released and opened.

Today in the Musée Nationale de Moyen Age (Cluny) you can find pieces of the original 13th-century ironwork by Biscornet. Much of the ironwork seen on the doors today dates to the 19th-century reconstruction by Viollet-le-Duc.

The Vow of Louis XIII

Inside Notre Dame de Paris on the high altar closed off to visitors is Nicolas Coustou’s Descent from the Cross. It’s been a popular subject in art going far back in time, but this one has something none of the others have. Yes, of course, it is in Notre Dame de Paris, but this one is also linked to two kings.  

On February 10, 1638, Louis XIII's wife,  Anne of Austria was finally with a child after 23 years (she had 2 to 4 miscarriages)  and he vowed to the Virgin Mary his kingdom for his unborn child.  He wanted a lavish statue created for the high altar of Notre Dame, however, these things take time and Louis XIII died in 1643, and would never see it started. His son Louis XIV took on the project in 1699, 61 years after “the vow” construction of the statue finally began.

Flanking either side of the Pieta is Louis XIII & XIV. On the right  Louis XIII on his knee offered the virgin his scepter and crown and on the left Louis XIV was kneeling and completed the vow all done by the Coustou family. Guillaume, Nicolas, and Uncle Antoine Coysevox. They are surrounded by angels holding instruments of the Passion. Finally finished under Louis XV in 1723. 

Normally this area is closed off and only worshipers are able to go in I was dying to get in to see these statues. Many times I would get up each morning and go straight to Notre Dame at 7:30 am as the doors were open. I could have the entire place to myself and really take in every detail. One morning while trying to get in a bit closer I was stopped by one of the sweet men that clean each day. I had asked others many times if I could go in when no one was worshiping and was always told no. This early morning the man walked up to me while I stood in the transept and asked if I wanted to go in. He said he watched me every morning, taking my time, and making notes with such a look of awe on my face. He led me right in and it is a moment I will never forget, especially now. 

The day after the fire when we got our first glimpse inside the cathedral in photos, there she was. The Pieta in front of the large gold cross and the Louis on either side, rising above the embers, an image no one will ever forget.

8 months from today Notre Dame de Paris will once again reopen to the faithful and those who love this amazing cathedral

Episode 201 - Part 5 When Leonardo & the Mona Lisa Moved to France

Part 5  Leonardo and Lisa Move to France 

On December 9, 1515, Francois I arrived in Bologna to meet with Leo X after his recapture of Milan this was the moment that a young French king met the Italian artist. At the time Leonardo’s benefactors were falling out of power and he needed to make a change. Francois I had asked in December 1515 if he wanted to move to France but Leonardo declined, at the time.  By the summer of 1516, he changed his mind and accepted the king’s generous offer of a palace to live in, money, and anything he would need. 

On August 12, 1516, at 64 years old, Leonardo with his assistants Francesco Melzi, Salai as well as the Ambassador Pallavicini and Battista de Vilanis departed Rome for the long voyage to France. Nothing survives to this day with the exact route or notes on the trip but there are many theories on the path from Italy. 

The 270 km journey from  Rome to Florence took 9 days on foot with walking around 30km a day. Staying in Florence for a few days to say goodbye to friends and family before moving on to Bologna and Castelnova, another 220 km.  By September 6 the group arrived in Milan and remained for two weeks where Leonardo worked on the plans for the Sforza castle. The castle wall had been destroyed by the Swiss army and François asked Leonardo to redesign a new wall. 

From Milan, the route gets very murky. Many historians in the last 500 years have come up with different ideas. Traveling in the fall the snow began to fall and some of the routes would have been treacherous for even a young man. Possible ideas include through Switzerland and one sketch has survived of a bridge over the River Rhone. Through the lakeside wonderland of Annecy is also a possible option. Some reports state that Leonardo rode on the back of a mule for the 1500 to 2000 km journey, while other that he was carried in a chair by his two assistants. 

Packed in his bag were three paintings. Saint John the Baptist, Sainte Anne, and the Mona Lisa. As Leonardo liked to “meditate” on his paintings and also drift between mechanical sketches and his other pursuits he took forever to finish anything. Lisa was started in 1503 and in 1516 she was still unfinished. 

Some researchers believe that the landscape in the background was inspired by his travels through the Alps, but any notes that would back that up were destroyed in the French Revolution. 

On October 28, 1516, Leonardo and crew arrived at the Chateau d'Amboise to the delight of François I. Just a few weeks after Ambassador Pallavicini died of a plague, and the traveling companions were all put into quarantine. Leonardo hadn’t added to his journal until a month later at the end of November. 

The King gave his beloved artist the nearby Chateau de Clos-Lucé just a short walk away. He even created an underground tunnel linking the two together so he could visit Leonardo anytime. 

Francois I was born on September 12, 1494, and was never destined to be king of France. After his father’s death, his mother Louis de Savoy contacted her husband's cousin, King Louis XII, and moved the family to the Palais du Louvre. Without an heir to the throne, the two decided to marry their children and named Francois I as the heir to the throne. Claude de France married Francois I in Saint Germain en Laye on May 18, 1514. On January 1, 1515, Louis XII died and Francois was the new King of France at 20 years old. 

Francois I mother, Louis de Savoy loved the Italian Renaissance and at a very early age he was raised with a love of the arts. Known as the Père et Restaurateur des Lettres, (father and restorer of letters) was no doubt due to the influence of his mother. As soon as he took the throne in 1515 he headed off to Italy where he enjoyed the lavish meals and art. 

Up until Francois I, the kings didn’t have much of an adoration for art and only a scattering of paintings decorated the medieval castles, but that was all about to change. I think of Francois as the Father of Art for France, the man who loved it so much he brought Leonardo da Vinci back to France with him and began the collection that would later be the building blocks of the Musée du Louvre. 

Leonardo da Vinci was only the first of the many artists he would move from Italy to France. The King also invited painter Nicalo Machiavelli, the architect Sebastiano Serlio, and goldsmith Benicento Cellini. While living in France, Leonardo spent more time on party planning and costume designs for the King than a painter. At times he picked up his brushes to work on the three paintings he brought with him but the last three years of his life saw little time with the canvas. 

On May 2, 1519, Leonardo da Vinci took his last breath. Dying of a stroke at 67 years old it was long thought that he died in the arms of Francois I as depicted in many paintings that can be seen in the Musée du Louvre and Petit Palais. The king and the artist were great friends and he believed Leonardo to be the smartest man in the world and often called him father. At the time of the death, the King was in Saint Germain en Laye and would not have been at the master’s bedside, but it’s a nice thought. 

Leonardo changed his will just 10 days before his death leaving all his works to Melzi, including the three paintings. His close assistant and adopted son Gian Giacomo Caprotti known as Salai also had numerous paintings and sketches in his hands after da Vinci’s death. Salai had met Leonardo at 10 years old and became a trusted member of his atelier. 

Salai was killed in a street brawl on January 19,  1524. Without a will, an inventory of his belongings was created on April 21, 1525, and many paintings were listed including  “A Joconde”. 

What happened to the paintings of da Vinci between his death and the following years is also a bit of a blur. Multiple reports had very different ideas before it was in the hands of François I. The sister of Salai has been said to have had Lisa but he had also created a copy or two of the famed painting under the eyes of da Vinci. With so many copies out there at that time it is hard to say. 

In a 17th-century inventory of the royal collection a note that Francois had paid 4,000 gold crowns or 9.7 million dollars today for the famed painting. However, when is a bit harder to find. Many date this to 1518 a year before the death of Leonardo, but if that was the case would she have then left France with Salai? 

For close to 20 years the king of the Renaissance kept his prized lady in his Appartement de Bains (bathroom) at the Chateau de Fontainebleau. A lavish collection of rooms that included baths and steam rooms, the last place to keep a painting. Later moved to the Cabinet des Tableaux, renamed the Pavillon des Peintures but damage had already been done. A 16th-century painting on a wood panel with oil paints was not a match for a cold chateau with horrible heating and ventilation. Many of the paintings from the original royal collection were destroyed due to neglect and not knowing the proper way to handle art at this time. 

In the early 1600s Jean de Hoey and his son Claude were in charge of the Royal Collection and decided to cover the painting with a thick layer of varnish. In 1650 the majority of the collection of Francois I moved to the Palais du Louvre. However, a 1695 inventory of the Petite Galerie at Versailles mentions that at some point she had moved. 

Eleven years later in 1706, she was back in Paris in the Cabinet des Tableaux in the Palais des Tuileries until a return to Versailles in 1709. 

For close to another 80 years she stayed tucked away far from visiting eyes until Louis XIV moved her to Versailles and into his bedroom.  

After the death of Louis XIV in 1715 she was moved to a small room where she would stay for close to another one hundred years and through the Revolution. 

Louis XVI had the idea to give it to the people. Item number 1,601 of the Royal Collection was briefly seen in the halls of the Musée Central in 1798 until another ruler had his ideas. 

Once Napoleon took power he began his love affair with the mysterious Florentine woman. On April 2, 1810, Napoleon walked from the Palais des Tuileries through the Grande Galerie to the Salon Carré to marry his second wife Marie Louise d’Autriche, and walked right past Lisa hanging on the wall. Later that day he instructed someone to remove her and bring her to his room. There were two ladies that night in the emperor’s bedchamber and she remained with him until his exile in 1815 when she returned to the Louvre. 

Episode 200 - Palais Garnier ceiling by Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall is one of my favorite artists, I love his dreamy colorful paintings that can bring a smile to anyone's face. While his paintings are somewhat hard to find in the Paris museums, there is one place you can find one of his monumental pieces, and recently the Centre Pompidou held a special exhibit sharing a bit more of his process in creating it. 

The Palais Garnier, one of the most beautiful buildings in Paris was inaugurated in 1875. In 1872 artist Jules Eugène Lenepveu painted the dome’s ceiling in the salle de spectacle.  The Triumph of Beauty Charmed by Music, Among the Muses and the Hours of the Day & Night was on view over the spectators for almost 90 years. Created on copper plates and attached to a steel structure it would be damaged over time from the gas lighting used in the massive chandelier. 

On February 20, 1960, at the gala for the President of Peru, Marc Chagall attended with friend and Minister of Culture, André Malroux. Chagall had designed the stage sets for Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Malroux loved it. While looking up at the ceiling he asked Chagall to design a new one.

For over a year at the age of 77 Chagall sketched out more than 50 designs using every medium he had. To take on the large format panels he used the Manufacture des Gobelins and his studio in the south of France.  Chagall didn’t want to be paid, only his production costs were covered by the State, and finished it in just eight months.

“I thought of the entire Opera. I deeply felt the genius of Garnier’s architecture and of Carpeaux’s brilliant sculpture. I wanted the ceiling to be like a mirror, to reflect in a bouquet the dreams the creations of the actors and musicians”    
His final design of 12 panels, like a large flower because “France is a rose” comprises scenes from 14 major composers. Mozart’s Magic Flute, Berlioz’s Romeo & Juliet, Bizet’s Carmen and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé are just a few. 

Moussorgski, “Boris Godounov”. In blue includes the Tsar sitting on his throne wearing the insignia of power; above him a winged, monster-headed fame and, in green, the city of Moscow; on the right, on the other side of Walter and Bourgeois’ “Hebe”, at the center of the scene

Mozart, “The Magic Flute”. In light blue,  a giant angel fills the blue sky while a bird or rooster, plays the flute. Chagall, who in 1965-1966 designed the sets and costumes for the 1967 Metropolitan Opera production of The Magic Flute.

Wagner, “Tristan and Isolde”. in green. Leaning into Walter and Bourgeois “Daphne”, the couple nestles below the Arc de Triomphe, lit up with the red of passion, and Place de la Concorde, two of Chagall’s favorite subjects, along with other Parisian monuments (“My art needs Paris as a tree needs water,” he wrote).

Berlioz, “Roméo et Juliette” in green. The embracing lovers are seen with a horse’s head much like Chagall’s 1911 painting “The Holy Coachman” 

Rameau, work not specified in white. On the illuminated façade of the Palais Garnier, which is also red with passion, Carpeaux’s “The Dance”, covered in gold.

Debussy, “Pelléas et Mélisande” in blue. Lying alongside the head of “Clytia'' sculpted by Walter and Bourgeois, Pelléas watches Mélisande from the window in a playful reversal of roles.

Ravel, “Daphnis et Chloé” in red. Along with the (blue) sheep and the temple of the first act, the extraordinary figure of the Siamese couple, which Chagall had already included in the curtain that he painted for the Opéra in 1858, and which can be seen as completing the amorous osmosis begun in “The Walk”, a painting from 1929 showing a couple standing/walking head-to-foot in the street. It is naturally accompanied by a Eiffel Tower, a recurrent motif in Chagall’s paintings. In 1958 Chagall designed the sets and costumes for Georges Skibine’s revisiting of the choreography of “Daphnis et Chloé” 

Stravinsky, “The Firebird” in red, green, and blue. In the top left area, Chagall with his palette and the bird which, curiously, is green; on the right, an angel musician whose cello is also its body, stands near the magic tree containing the bird. Below are the domes and roofs, no doubt of the magic castle, and a bird, red this time, flying down towards a crowned couple beneath a canopy. To one side, a young married couple, a peasant carrying a big basket of fruit on his head, and an orchestra. Should the proximity of the Eiffel Tower (in the Ravel section of the ceiling) be taken as an allusion to “Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel” (1928)? To the right, above the head of Walter and Bourgeois’ “Pomona”, a violinist bends lovingly over his instrument. Chagall designed the sets and costumes for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “The Firebird” in 1945

Tchaikovsky, “Swan Lake” in golden yellow. At the bottom, a swan-woman on a blue lake, leaning backward and holding a bunch of flowers; at the top, a surprising angel-musician, whose head and body are one and the same as its instrument.

Adam, “Giselle” in golden yellow. The peasants’ dance under the village trees at the end of the first act.

In the very center we find four more composers. 

Bizet, “Carmen” in red. Carmen with the bullring, plus a bull and a guitar.

Verdi, work not specified, possibly “La Traviata” in yellow. Behind a young couple, a bearded man holds a half-unrolled scroll.

Beethoven, “Fidelio” in blue and green. Leonora’s movement towards the blue cavalier, who brandishes his sword.

Gluck, “Orpheus and Eurydice” in green. Eurydice plays the lyre (Orpheus’s instrument) and an angel proffers flowers.

It of course was met with many objections for its contemporary images against the classic Opera but like the Eiffel Tower and Pyramid people have grown to love it.  As for the original one, it is still there. Chagall’s was installed seven inches below. You can see a small copy in the small museum in the Garnier, a striking difference to Chagall. 

In September 1964 the Chagall ceiling of the Palais Garnier was inaugurated and since then people have been able to see this beauty while attending a ballet or even on a visit. Since the hall can be closed for rehearsal you may not see it, just ask when you arrive. 

There are still those who believe it should be removed and the original ceiling uncovered. 

In 2022 & 2023, Bella & Meret Meyer, granddaughters of the artist donated to the Pompidou a large set of drawings, ceramics, and paintings and came together in an exhibit this past winter.

Episode 199 - The Crown of Thorns

Each Friday afternoon until Easter the most important relic in the world makes an appearance for the faithful to see at the Eglise Saint Germain l’Auxerrois. Since the fire on April 15, 2019, the Crown of Thorns has been safely hidden away but does make an appearance on a few very holy days of the year until its grand return to its home, the Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris. 

But why is it in Paris you ask? The Crown of Thorns and other instruments of the Passion were purchased in 1238 by King Louis IX, later known as Saint Louis, and brought to Paris. However, let’s back up a little further. The crown was said to have been discovered in the 4th century after Emperor Constantine ordered what was thought to be the tomb of Christ to be opened. His mother Sainte Hélène came along and found the Crown, True Cross, and Nails, parts of the Instruments of the Passion, and set up a chapel in Jerusalem to hold them. 

Between 614 and 637 when the city of Jerusalem was captured the relics began their voyage to Constantinople. For centuries they stayed until the Byzantine city was conquered at the beginning of the 13th century and given to the Latin Emperor in hopes that it would protect the now fractured capital. 

Cousin to Saint Louis, Baldwin II, Emperor of Constantinople came to France asking him to help with a massive debt he had incurred when he borrowed money from the Venetians and gave the crown as collateral. From November 10, 1238 to February 1239 the Crown resided in Venice at Saint Mark’s Cathedral.  Boudoin II in return for his help would give Louis and France the Crown of Thorns.  

This wasn’t an easy transaction, the Venetian barons were in desperate need of money they borrowed against the relics and sped up the clock. The French envoy had to race to Venice to retrieve them in time or they would become the property of Venice.  Saint Louis sent Dominicans, Jacques, and André right away to grab the relics as Jacques could also authenticate that they were the real items.  The deadline was June 18 and the Feast of Saint Gervais and Protais, if not purchased by that day would forever be the property of Venice. 

Jaques and André arrived a day before on June 17, 1238, and were met with a new challenge and price tag. 

While in Venice the 70 2 3o 3 inch long thorns were cut off and began to be distributed around the world. Saint Germain, bishop of Paris, and even Charlemagne had been given thorns and numerous other kings throughout Europe.

Louis had already paid 21,000 pounds to free the Crown but as Jacques and André arrived they were given a new bill for 137,000 pounds! It was half of the budget of the French monarchy but Louis happily paid the fee and agreed to allow the Venetians to hold onto the Crown for the faithful to see one last time in Saint Marks. Negotiations took six months and in December 1238, the Crown finally made its way overland to  France to the small town of Villeneuve-l’Archeveque near Sens.

On August 10, 1239, Louis arrived and Archbishop Gauthier carried the relics out and placed them into his hands. The next day, Saint Louis, his mother Blanche de Castille, and brother Robert d’Artois left by boat on the Yonne River to Vincennes on the edge of Paris.  You can see the tunic in Notre Dame when it reopens December 8, 2024.

On August 18, Louis in a simple tunic and barefoot walked the Crown into Paris. The path was lined with thousands of the faithful holding torches to light the way. Upon arrival, a mass was held at Notre Dame before taking the Crown to the Palais de la Cité and holding it in the Chapel of St Nicolas until the perfect reliquary could be created. 
Not just any building would do for one of the most important relics in the world. Two years later in the autumn of 1241, the construction of the Sainte Chapelle began. The same year Louis acquired a large piece of the Holy Cross, a vial of the Holy Blood, and the Tombstone. The following year the Holy Sponge and Spear came into his possession and were all placed in Sainte Chapelle after it was finished and consecrated on April 26, 1248. 

They would remain in the jewel box church until March 1789. In 1791 the Conseil d’Etat suppressed the church and sequestered the relics and on March 12 they were removed for safekeeping and taken to the Abbey of Saint-Denis in a cardboard box. They were the property of the crown until 1791. 

Windows to the left of the rose window are dedicated to the Crown of Thorns. all 171 of them

In the dark of night between November 11 & 12, 1793 the relics were taken to the mint and melted down and destroyed. Only the Crown and piece of the True Cross survived. 

In October 1804, just two months before his coronation, Napoleon had the relics transferred to Notre Dame on August 10, 1806, where they would be seen by the public for the first time. 

On July 29, 1830. During the Three Glorious Days, Archbishop Hyacinthe Louis de Quélen (Kay-len)  fled the church with the relics under his arm while an angry mob broke into the Cathedral. Many of the relics of the cathedral were stolen, melted down, or tossed in the Seine.  In 1855 they were safely back in Notre Dame.

What the crown is made of has always been in question with a few possible answers. It is two separate plants, a reed that is braided into a crown and a thorny branch wrapped around and bent inwards. The thorny branch is thought to be from the Judea shrub found in Jerusalem, sometimes called buckthorn. All of these very large thorns were removed in Venice. 

The braided reed crown also suffered damage when pieces were cut away over time. During the Revolution to protect the crown, it was cut into three pieces and separated for safekeeping. Thankfully we have all three pieces today. 

The current reliquary was made by goldsmith Maurice Poussielgue-Rusand in 1896 from a design by architect Jules-Godefroy Astruc. Maurice’s father Placide created the former reliquary. It is a hollow tube of rock crystal that is encased in gold mesh with a garland of flowers, leaves, fruits, and thorns on two of the three sections. They are joined with a gold clasp and topped with an enamel seal. On the front, the seals are of Saint Denis, Sainte Genevieve, and the Virgin Mary. On the back are the crests of Saint Louis, Paris, and an effigy of Christ being crowned in thorns. 

The previous reliquary created by Viollet-le-Duc is a real showstopper and was recently on display at the Louvre. In 1862 Viollet produced with goldsmith Placide Poussielgue-Rosand and sculptor of Notre Dame Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume. First used on Palm Sunday, March 29, 1863, and used in processions before the fire. Surrounding the top are the French Fleur-de-lis and the twelve apostles. Below are the three rulers involved in bringing the Crown to France. Baldwin II, his mother Saint Helena, and Saint Louis are seen holding the crown. 

On the night of the fire in April 2019 after we watched the spire and the rooster fall from the sky the next fear was the relics of the Sacristy and the Crown. The very tight security that the crown is kept in made it difficult in that high-pressure moment. Tucked away into the floor of the back chapel is a series of combination key locks that require two keys. The keys are normally never together. That night in a state of panic the two key holders had to fight through the crowd to reach Notre Dame. The keys were handed to the chaplin of the Pompiers de Paris Jean-Marc Fournier put his life on the line and rushed into the cathedral to save the Crown of Thorns. 

Since that night the Crown is safely locked away and comes out the first Friday of each month and each Friday of Lent in the Eglise Saint Germain l’Auxerrois from 3 pm to 5 pm. The veneration of the crown that occurs when the Crown of Thorns is shown was created by Saint Louis and not the Catholic church. The very specific ceremony and showing of the relic can only happen during Easter as put in place over 785 years ago to celebrate the resurrection. 

Open to the faithful,  historians, and anyone who wants to see the priceless relic. Standing nearby are the  Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem who guard the crown and honor the wishes originally created in the 13th century. 

You can visit Sainte Chapelle today, it is no longer an active church and none of the relics remain but it's a must to see the 1200 stained glass windows including the last set of windows on the south side. The 171 windows of the last section cover the discovery of the relics with Sainte Helene to Saint Louis in adoration of the Crown at the very top. 

Chapel of Saint Louis in Saint Germain l’Auxerrois

The Crown can be spotted all over the Musée du Louvre from the Italian masters in the Grande Gallerie to the French painting floor of the Sully wing.

Le Christ couronné d’épines D'après Dirck BOUTS l’Ancien vers 1470

I can’t wait for Easter 2025 when the ceremony will once again be held inside the walls of Notre Dame de Paris. 

Episode 198 - Statues of Notre Dame de Paris

On the night of April 15, 2019, as we watched the flames reach the sky from the roof of Notre Dame de Paris it was hard not to be heartbroken. The cathedral of Paris belonged to the entire world and there was a collective gasp as we watched and hoped for the best. 

In an unbelievable stroke of luck just four days before the fire the statues of the roof were removed one by one. On April 11, 2019, the twelve apostles and four evangelists flew over the streets to head south for a bit of a freshening up. The plan was to return them two by two to Notre Dame to be placed on display before their return to their roof. The plans changed but we are very lucky they can now be seen up close, an opportunity that you don’t want to miss. 

In 1795, my hero Alexandre Le Noir jumped into action to save the monuments of France that were on the path of destruction by the Revolution. The tombs of the kings and queens in the Basilique Saint-Denis would have been lost if not for Alexandre. The rescued monuments made their way to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and became the first Museum of French Monuments. It lasted until 1815 when the contents were returned to their rightful homes Emmanuel Viollet-Le-Duc, an architect who played a major part in Notre Dame had a dream to recreate the museum and in 1879 it was revived and opened at the Trocadero. 

Filled with the casts of French churches and monuments it was the perfect home for the statues of Notre Dame until they could return to their peak over the Seine. 

In 1842 Viollet-le-Duc and Baptiste Lassus were selected to rehabilitate the grand lady. His early plan included the addition of two spires on the roof. The former spire had been removed in 1797 for safety issues and an entire generation never knew the church with a spire. Coming off the renovation of Sainte Chapelle, Viollet-le-Duc wanted to add statues to the roof and tapped Adolphe Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume who he had worked with on Sainte Chapelle. 

Work began on the Apostles in 1848 and they were a bit more than meets the eye. The inner structure was created with iron and then covered with copper sheets making for a much lighter statue that could stand far above the streets. In the Périgeux offices of SOCRA, the statues arrived and the work began. Many of the internal structures had to be partially replaced. Micro-sandblasting with apricot powder the outer layer of the patina was removed. A dark bronze colored paint was added and coated with wax and after a month of work, the statue was complete. 

There are 16 total statues, twelve  Apostles and four Evangelists and they can all be found in the rarely visited Cité de l’Architecture & Patrimoine. There are four different body types and Dechaume then made each unique with its head, hands, and attributes. 

Saint Pierre (Peter), is of course holding a key as he is always depicted in almost every church you will ever enter. Waiting at the gates of heaven, the “Prince of the Apostles” is the first you'll also encounter as you walk in. Saint Pierre is the patron saint of clockmakers, locksmiths, foot problems, and Las Vegas as well as a very long list of others. 

Saint Matthieu (Matthew) A former customs officer and tax collector who left to follow Jesus also wrote the first gospel. The open book he holds is a nod to that. Matthieu is the patron saif of accountants, Italians, and perfume makers. 

Saint André (Andrew) The brother of Saint Pierre, he was a fisherman and one of the first disciples chosen. Sentenced to death by dying on the cross he asked that his cross be different from the one Jesus was crucified. A cross in the shape of an X was created and he magically attached to it instead of having to be nailed. Today he is the patron saint of fishermen, singers, pregnant women, and Scotland which uses the cross of Saint Andrew as its flag. 

Saint Jude has The same body as Saint Thomas he is without any attributes. 

Saint Simon In this statue he is holding a book but is often seen holding a long saw that was the instrument of his death. 

Saint Bartholomew The first statue to be restored, is holding a knife to signify his rather gruesome death. He had been skinned alive and beheaded and now is the patron saint of butchers and leather workers, which is a bit gruesome. On a lighter note, he is also the patron saint of cheese and salt merchants. 

Saint Jacques Le Mineur (James the Younger) Holds a club that he was killed with, often depicted with stones that he was struck with. 

Saint Paul Once the persecutor of Christians had a divine revelation and converted and became a preacher. Killed in 64AD with a sword that cut off his head, he now rests his hand on a sword and strokes his beard. 

Saint Jacques Le Majeur (James the Major) At the scene of many of the most important events he was one of the closest disciples of Jesus. He preached through Spain and was the first to be executed in 44 AD. His name is given to the pilgrimage walk, the Compostela, and can be seen with a walking stick. He also gives his name to scallops and is the patron saint of Spain, Seattle, pharmacists, and oyster fishermen. 

Saint Jean (John) The youngest and beardless one is always easy to spot. One of the most loyal Apostles, he holds a cup that signifies his miracle of drinking poison and surviving. 

Saint Philippe Holds the cross from which he was killed and is the patron saint of pastry chefs and hat makers. 

At the base of each cardinal point leading to the spire is one of the four evangelists in the form of four living creatures. Each is in the same pose and has their heads turned towards the saints that look below. 

The Eagle of Saint Jean, the Angel of Saint Matthieu, the Lion of Saint Marc, and the Ox of Saint Luc. 

The last saint you will find has a special added touch. Saint Thomas, the patron saint of architects, takes on the physical appearance of Viollet-le-Duc. Dechaume also added the architect's name to the ruler that he holds out from his right side as his left arm is raised. Unlike the other 11 statues of the Apostles, Saint Thomas turns to look up at his spire. 

I am relieved that he didn’t have to see his beloved spire burn on that early spring evening. 

Also on sight is the miracle rooster that once crowned the spire. As the fire ate away at the fleche, all I could think of was the rooster that held three precious relics. When the spire could no longer hold itself up it crashed into the transept of the church and the rooster was thought to have perished. The next day, architect Philippe Villeneuve was photographed holding the battered rooster with the relics still safely inside. 

Those precious relics include a piece of the Crown of Thorns. A relic of Saint-Denis, the 3rd-century patron saint of Paris was beheaded and walked five miles holding his head. And a relic of Sainte Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris who saved the city numerous times during her life and many times in the 1600 years since her death.  I think she did it once more on April 15, 2019, saving the beloved Notre Dame from destruction. 

Be sure to visit the Cité de l’Architecure & Patrimoine when you are next in Paris. Located at the Trocadero, just across from the Eiffel Tower it is open Wednesday - Monday 11 am - 7 pm, and Thursday 11 am - 9 pm. 

The special exhibition runs until September 2, 2024 and a few pieces may leave even sooner as the restoration moves forward to the reopening of December 8, 2024

Episode 197 - The Raft of the Medusa

Many know the large painting hanging in the Salle Mollien of the Louvre by Théodore Géricault but did you know it was based on a true story? Le Radeau de la Méduse (The Raft of the Medusa) was painted in 1818 when Géricault was 27 years old. It depicts the story of the French ship Medusa, a 40-gun Pallas frigate that was used during the Napoleonic Wars in 1810. On June 17, 1816, the Medusa left the port of Aix alongside three other ships in the fleet; the Loire, Argus, and Echo. 

The Medusa captain Viscount Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys decided to make up some time and passed the other ships. A novice captain, Chaumereys hasn't been on a ship in over twenty years and was chosen by Louis XVIII for his dedication to the Bourbons. 

On 2 July 1816, the Medusa hit a sandbar on the West African coast at the Banc d’Arguin, 80 km off the Mauritania coast. Following three days of trying to free the Medusa from its captivity in the sand, it was decided that the crew would abandon the ship. Only six small boats were available and would hold only half of its crew and were reserved mostly for the elite and high-ranking officers.  A raft was quickly built to hold the heavy items on board. Guns, casks of wine, water, and food tied the raft to the boats but when it was difficult to navigate the captain decided to cut the raft loose.  When the raft was set free 147 people clung to the partially submerged makeshift plank. 

The worst was to happen with only biscuits, two casks of water, and casks of wine (gotta love the French) and floating under the hot sun. As their raft mates died, they were eaten by the others to survive or pushed into the sea. Many men dived directly into the sea to their deaths. Thirteen days later on July 17, only fifteen members remained when the Argus spotted them. Five more men died before they reached shore, and only ten men survived the two-week ordeal. 

The following February, Chamereys had to face the court and was sentenced to three years in prison. The story captured all of France and when a story was published in November 1817, the young Théodore Géricault was drawn in. The story interviewed two of the servers Henri Savigny and Alexandre Corréard recalling their harrowing tales. Géricault was enthralled and reached out to meet with the two men. With their help, he began to sketch and even make a scale model of the raft and captured the moment that was just two hours before they were saved. They even serve as models for a few of the men in the final painting. So dedicated to getting every detail correct, Géricault spent time at the morgue and even brought body parts from the hospital to his studio to study how the body decays. 

Survivor Alexandre Corréard was an engineer and journalist who wrote the eyewitness account of the tragedy and published it. That act had him fired from his job as an engineer which led him to seek a license on September 9, 1818, and open a bookstore at the Palais Royal.  He named his shop, Au Naufrage de la Medusa, and people flocked to the store to buy the book and meet the author. 

Doctor Henri Savigny, was one of three that volunteered to take the raft. On his arrival in Paris, he testified at the Ministry of the Navy against the captain. When he co-authored the detailed account with Corréard he found instant fame. One other man who was integral to the raft was carpenter Valery Touche-Lavilette. Born on April 26, 1789, he served in the Imperial Guard for two years and was asked to go to Senegal to hope for colonization. It was Valery who helped create and build the raft that stayed afloat the entire voyage. 

Their eyewitness accounts were the basis of Géricault’s early sketches of the painting. Two of which can be found in the Louvre, show a few slight differences from the final version. The first sketch shows the raft’s position off from the one we know so well. If you look closely at each of the figures you can see how they changed and why I love to find earlier sketches of these monumental works. It’s like getting a glimpse into the artist's mind. 

The piece became so large that Géricault had to rent a studio to hold the 16 x 23 feet canvas, adding to its mystique. A good friend, Eugene Delacroix, paid a visit to the atelier on the Rue Saint Honoré, and after he saw the piece he ran home through the streets amazed and inspired if you look at Liberty Leading the People you see Géricault’s influence in the lower left of the painting.

The large painting perfectly captures the fear and urgency of the effort to survive. When you look at it, it can bring all sorts of emotions. On the lower left side, the older man draped in a red cloth holds his dead son's body at the edge of the raft with a look of total despair. In the foreground, the men look to be barely holding onto life and the raft and ready to be swept to sea from the high waves about to break over them. Géricault added twenty figures when in truth it was fifteen historically at the time. If you look at the man in the bottom right corner, the one with his face down is his dear friend Delacroix. 

In the center of the painting, the men have discovered a boat and are pointing it out to the others. At the top of the pyramid, the model discovered a few years ago in the amazing Black Model exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay, is Joseph. Joseph was a stunning model from Santo Domingo who arrived in Paris in 1804. Géricault loved to paint him and used him for three figures and is also the hero of the painting. Raising the red scarf high above him he signals the ship that will eventually save them. 

On August 25, 1819, The Raft of the Medusa was presented at the salon under the name Scene of the Shipwreck. Winning the gold medal but being left without a buyer, it was deemed a failure. The painting returned to his studio until the next year when he was paid 20,000 francs to bring it to London in the Egyptian Hall of Piccadilly then it was onto Dublin in 1821. 

The Louvre on behalf of the director general  Count Auguste de Forbin purchased the painting on November 12, 1824, for 6,000 and since then it has hung in the Louvre. It was sadly 10 months after Gericault died. In 1859 the Louvre ordered a copy that you can see today in Amiens at the Picardy Museum. Pierre Desire Guillemet and Etienne Antoine Ronjat created the copy.

Gericault used a substance called bitumen which made the dark browns and black darker. Bitumen never fully dries and the painting could not be rolled or it would stick to itself and tear. During the evacuation of the Louvre on September 3, 1939, the large canvas traveled through Versailles on a truck used to move stage scenery. As it went through the town it hit a power line and knocked the power out of the golden town. The Raft was hidden away during the war in the Chateau de Chambord. Since its return in 1945, it has hung on the first floor of the Denon wing in the red room of the Salle Mollien just a few steps from the Mona Lisa. Look at all of the paintings in this room including Delacroix and the other Romantic artists and see the way they each speak to each other. 

Théodore Géricault wouldn’t live much longer after he painted his masterpiece. Died at just 32 years old on January 26, 1824. You can visit his tomb at the Pere Lachaise and find a bronze basrelief of the Raft done by Antoine Étex but notice that they covered the naked naughty parts of the gentleman falling into the water. 

The painting is also a good test of how you see the world. Which parts strike you the most? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you see the hope and elation at the top or is it the despair at the lower portion? Either way, it is a masterpiece and I never get tired of sitting in front of it alone on an early morning before the room is filled or sharing it with clients. 

Episode 196 - The Mask Seller of the Jardin du Luxembourg

The Jardin du Luxembourg is the perfect oasis on the left bank of Paris. Recently we have shared a few of the more than 105 statues and monuments on the Paris History Avec a Hemingway on the La Vie Creative podcast. You can take these episodes with you as you explore the garden on your own, or better yet book a tour with me when you come to Paris. 

I have a tough time narrowing down my “favorite” pieces of art in the Louvre and Orsay and the Jardin du Luxembourg is no different. It’s impossible but one that is very high on my favorites list is Le Marchand de Masques by Zacharie Astruc—located in the center of the southeast path under a canopy of trees. 

Le Marchand de Masques, the mask seller, was created on February 17, 1883, in plaster and shown to the State that commissioned statues left and right for the garden. Astruc’s statue of a boy surrounded by the greats of the time was an instant favorite and ordered on the spot. It took almost three years and on February 20, 1886, the statue of a boy was inaugurated. 

Zacharie Astruc was an artist and an art critic and very close with a rag-tag group of young guys shaking up the art scene in Paris. As an art critic, he defended Manet, Monet, and the Impressionists when very few did and was even immortalized with them in Henri Fantin-Latour’s Atelier aux Batignolles hanging in the Orsay. 

I love to find group paintings and sculptures and deep dive into who they are all and this one is a real goodie. Buckle up and let’s jump in. The young boy is surrounded on the base by eight masks of contemporary figures of the time. Authors, composers, and artists, many of which aren’t as well known today, which always makes it so much fun for me to dig into. 

When the sculpture was first unveiled in 1886 there were twelve masks, today we see only nine.  First things first, In his left hand he holds high above his head the mask of the king of the Romantic author Victor Hugo. Hugo died just one year before the statue was displayed in the Luxembourg but was no stranger at that point to statues dedicated to him at this point in his life.  It’s rather fitting that he is seen at the top as each of the men below in one way or another. 

At the base where you can get nice and close let’s jump into the eight men. Starting in the front we see author Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly.  Born on November 2, 1808, in Normandy, Jules was a mystery writer that at times ventured into horror and obscure crimes. A defender of fellow artists Balzac and Baudelaire while he also criticized Zola and Hugo.  Aurevilly died in Paris on April 23, 1889.

Next to Aurevilly is Alexandre Dumas fils, the illegitimate son of  Alexandre Dumas, bien sûr. Born in 1824, the author used his time with courtesan Marie Duplessis as inspiration for La Dame aux Camélias in 1848. In the story, Marguerite would wear a camelia against her chest, white when she was available and red when she was taken. He spent much of his life working against the feelings he had of his childhood but made just as big of a name for himself as a writer as his father did.

Composer and writer Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803. Largely unknown you can just watch France in the World Cup this week and hum along to a little piece he did. Berlioz updated and added the elaborately orchestrated flair to the  French national anthem, La Marseillaise written by Rouget de Lisle. Written by Lisle in 1795 it was outlawed during ther Restoration but returned in 1830.

Next to Berlioz is a name you may recognize as a devoted reader. Jean Baptiste Carpeaux, born May 11, 1827, studied under Francois Rude and became the darling of Napoleon III as he carved through the city. The Danse, which caused him much notoriety on the Palais Garnier was attacked with ink for its risque depiction of nudity. You can see the original now in the Musée d’Orsay along with the model for the Fontaine des Quatre-Parties de Monde and the Pavillon de Flore on the southwest corner of the Louvre. 

Jean-Baptiste Faure was a composer and opera singer born in Moulins on January 15, 1830. His father served as a cantor at Notre Dame. As a young man, he worked as the assistant to the organist at Notre Dame and Notre Dame de Chardonnet. What he may be known a bit more for is his immense collection of Impressionist paintings. He first collected the works of Ingres, Duprey, and two gents on this monument, Delacroix and Corot. In 1878 Faure purchased a painting that shocked all of Paris, Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe. Alongside more than 65 other Manets, he also had 16 by Degas, 37 by Pisarro, and 58 by Sisley. As well as many more amassing over 800 paintings held in his apartment. He frequently sold many thorough dealers Paul Durand-Ruel. After Manet’s death, Faure and Durand-Ruel organized a large exhibit but didn’t put him in a good light with the artist’s family who saw him as a vulture. 

The man next to Faure needs no introduction at all. My main man is Eugene Delacroix and if you are keeping count, it is the 3rd time he appears in the Jardin du Luxembourg.  Born on April 26, 1798, the young Delacroix moved to Paris in 1806 and began to study in the atelier of Narcisse Guérin, and at 24 years old he shared his first piece in the Salon.  Delacroix believed that artists should contribute large pieces to public places as that is how they will be remembered. Hotel de Ville, Palais Bourbon, and the Palais du Luxembourg as well as multiple churches including the nearby Saint Sulpice. Delacroix moved to the Rue de Furstemberg on December 28, 1857, to be closer to Saint Sulpice where he was installing three paintings dedicated to angels. Commissioned in 1849 they were finally finished in 1861. In a letter to a friend, he said they would be the death of him. On August 13, 1863, the master died in his home not far from this spot. 

Author Honoré de Balzac was the master of novels as we know them today. Born on May 20, 1799, he was immediately sent off to live with a nurse for the first four years of his life. The feelings he had of his early childhood would remain with him his whole life. Balzac lived all over Paris trying to outrun his creditors and writing at a breakneck speed. La Comedie Humaine paved the way for the writers of today. Written from 1830 to 1856, Balzac continues the stories from one book to the next, the first “series”. The image of Balzac is a little less frightening in Austruc’s version as opposed to Rodin’s which I am sure Balzac would be pleased with, 

Lastly, we have artist Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot born on July 16, 1796, in Paris on the Rue du Bac. His parents ran a successful clothing and wig shop and wanted him to follow in their footsteps but art was on his mind. Traveling throughout Europe he was able to devote all his time to the landscapes and architecture of Italy and France, many of which can be seen in the Louvre. Corot is known as the Father of Impressionism and one only needs to walk to the end of the 2nd floor of the Sully wing in the Louvre to see how it went from Delacroix to Corot to the Impressionists. 

Originally three other masks hung from the seller’s right hand but disappeared over time. The mask of Léon Gambetta, politician and president of the French Council who was greatly opposed to Napoleon III and lover of Valtese de la Bigne. Today his heart is placed in a very large urn as you enter the crypt of the Pantheon and a monument once stood dedicated to him in the Cour Napoleon of the Louvre where the Pyramid now greets guests. 

Charles Gounod, a composer of more than 500 pieces was born on the nearby Place Saint Andre des Arts on June 17, 1818, and also studied theology at Saint Sulpice. 

And lastly a mask of Theodore de Banville, a poet and great friend to Victo Hugo and Arthur Rimbaud and urged the young poet to come to Paris. 

I hope you venture a little deeper and closer at all the great statues in the Jardin du Luxembourg and all over Paris and even take this with you when you go. 

Coming to Paris soon, book a tour with me and I will share all these and so many more with you, All tours are private and customized to what you want to see, 

Check out ClaudineHemingway.com. Dates in the spring are filling fast and would love to see you soon. 

Episde 195 - The Bells of Notre Dame de Paris

In the first part of a very special monthly feature leading up to the reopening of Notre Dame de Paris we cover the story of the iconic Bells of Notre Dame.

Since the fire of Notre Dame, the great bells hanging in her towers have remained silent except for a few monumental occasions.  On April 15, 2019, as the fire spread from the roof and toward the facade there was a tiny window of time that almost led to complete destruction. 

The bells hang in tall towers in a maze in the wood of the belfry, if the fire reached them the 16th-century timbers would quickly burn and the heavy bells would drop and take the entire facade with them. Luckily for us, the pompiers were able to control the fire in time and save her from destruction. 

The bells of Notre Dame were first installed in the 12th century and were rung by the Bishop de Sully during the construction in 1198. At the start of the 14th century 8 bells hung in the north tower,  In the 13th and 14th centuries the bells were all located in the north tower while the south tour was still too fragile to hold the 2 tons of metal. The original bells were named for saints; Marie, Gilbert, Guillaume, Pasquier, Chambellan, Louis, Nicolas, and Luc. 

Many came from donations from wealthy individuals who may have wanted a little extra nod to get into the pearly gates and also had the honor of naming the bells. Jacqueline, wife of Jean de Montaigu. Jacqueline dates to 1400 and rang for almost three hundred years when in 1681 it broke and was melted down and recast to twice its size. It was then renamed Emmanuel, the largest bell of Notre Dame still over 600 years later. 

On April 29, 1682, Francois de Harlay de Champvallon baptized the bells in the presence of Louis XIV and Marie Theresa who were also named as godparents. Two years later they had to recast and retune the largest bell and allowed for another name change. The Emmanuel-Louis-Thérèsa was rehung in 1686 following the death of its godmother Marie-Thérèsa and baptized before Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. It is the same bell that rings today. 

During the reconstruction of the cathedral in the mid-19th century, the bells were once again removed as Viollet le Duc to rebuild the belfry. Napoleon III commissioned four new bells at the birth of his son with the metal of Russian cannons he took during the Crimean War. Napoleon III also took a massive fog bell from Sevastopol that he hoisted into the south tower alongside Emmanuel in 1857. Seventy years later it was returned. 

From May 1791 to August 1792 during the  Revolution, all bells except for Emanuelle were melted down and used for cannons and coins.  On August 25, 1944, during the liberation of Paris as Charles de Gaulle walked towards Notre Dame to celebrate the Te Deum mass, Emmanuel once again rang out. 

In 2013 Notre Dame celebrated its 850th anniversary, and new bells were created for the beloved cathedral.  With very specific instructions that the bells must be built using the original 12th-century techniques. Not as many founders remained that were up to the task. In the Netherlands, the Royal Eljsbouts bell foundry poured the larger bells while the Cornille-Havard foundry in Villedieu-les-Poeles in Normandy made the eight bells for the north tower. 

On January 31, 2013, eleven years ago,  the bells drove into Paris and down the Champs Elysees. Presented at Notre Dame in front of the dignitaries of the church and state they were baptized on February 2, 2013, and for the rest of the month lined the center of the cathedral so everyone could get close enough to see the inscription and verse that mark each one. The bells rang out for the first time on March 23, 2013. 

Following the fire, the bells remained silent in fear that the vibration could cause more damage. When it was safe enough the sound of Emmanuel could be heard over a kilometer away to note the passing and funeral of former president Jacques Chirac on September 29, 2019. I was in Paris that day and just hearing Emmanuel’s deep sound bounce off the stone buildings brought tears to my eyes. 

On Easter 2023, for more than 5 minutes Emmanuel and Marie rang out while I sat in front looking up at the historic facade marking another exceptional moment in her history. 

The eight 2012 bells were named to remember important people who touched the 850-year life of Notre Dame. The eight bells below fill the north tower and range in size from 1700 to 4200 pounds.

Gabriel - named for the Archangel of the Annunciation and the largest bell in the north tower 

Anne-Genevieve is named for Sainte Anne, mother of Mary and the subject of the right portal of the facade, and Sainte Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. 

Denis the first bishop of Paris and also the patron saint of Paris well known for picking up his head after it was severed and walking from Montmartre to Saint-Denis 

Marcel, the 9th bishop of Paris in the 5th century and friend of Genevieve. When her relics were paraded through Paris, the shrine of Marcel had to make the voyage up the hill to Saint Etienne de Mont to escort her back to Notre Dame.

Etienne much like the church the name was given in remembrance of the old cathedral that once stood where Notre Dame now is.

Benedict-Joseph in remembrance of Benedict XVI pope at the time of the 850th anniversary of Notre Dame in 2013. 

Maurice, the true father of Notre Dame, Bishop Maurice de Sully personally paid for the building of Notre Dame and laid the first stone 

Jean-Marie, the 139th Archbishop of Paris Jean-Marie Lustiger served from 1981-2005.

The south tower holds the two largest bells. Marie was also inaugurated in 2013 and replaced the 15th-century bell that survived until the Revolution and of course Emmanuel.  

Today as the Cathedral is coming back to life the bells of the north tower are being restored and will return by the start of summer.

Join me LIVE from Paris, Sunday, February 25. 2024 as I give you an up close look at this stage in the renaissance of Notre Dame with just 41 weeks to go.

Episode 194 - Love in Black & White

There are a few iconic images of Paris and most seem to be captured by Robert Doisneau, Henri Cartier-Bresson, or  Willy Ronis. Those crisp silver-toned black-and-white images still stand the test of time and are etched in our memories for generations. Les Amoureux de la Bastille might be more iconic than Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville

French photographer Robert Doisneau may be best known for his photo Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville of a young couple in an embrace in central Paris. However, his work as a photojournalist spans decades.

Beginning in 1931 as an assistant and advertising photographer before he was enlisted in the war. Following the war, he worked with Vogue but the perfectly crafted photo shoots were not what he had in mind. He preferred to shoot the streets of Paris, real people going about their day-to-day lives.  

With his camera in hand, he would stroll the streets of Paris where music seemed to be on every corner. Capturing images of the everyday moments in the most beautiful clear photos where the emotion jumps off from the paper in black and white. During his years with Le Point, he would take candid photos of artists in the studio, everyone from Maria Callas to Yves Montand who painted a picture of relaxed unguarded moments.  

On June 13,  1950, Life magazine published what would become one of the most iconic photos of Paris. Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville, by Robert Doisneau.

I love this photo, but more for what is around the couple than the couple themselves. The essence of Paris comes so clearly across in this piece. Taken in front of the Hôtel de Ville in the 4th, the people walking by without even a glance toward the couple in a close embrace is what is so very Parisian. It is not uncommon to see this exact scene on one of the many picturesque bridges, in front of the Eiffel Tower, or on a sidewalk terrace, it is as common to see as a Frenchman walking down the street with a baguette.

It is the romance of Paris that oozes out of everything that is so easy to be whisked away into, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. But back to this photo and where I will squash your romantic dreams of what looks like such a candid moment. By 1950 Robert Doiseneu had been documenting the streets of Paris for a few years after working for Vogue as a fashion photographer. He found his inspiration in the everyday life of Parisians and it was on one of these days he saw a couple kissing. For more than 40 years it was a great mystery who the young couple were, but in 1992 they were revealed. Jacques Carteaud and Françoise Bornet were dating and walking through Paris kissing away when Doisneau caught a glimpse of them. In 2005 Françoise said, "He told us we were charming, and asked if we could kiss again for the camera. We didn't mind. We were used to kissing. We were doing it all the time then, it was delicious. Monsieur Doisneau was adorable, very low key, very relaxed."

So he took them to a few famous spots in Paris to recreate their kiss, but it was in front of the Hôtel de Ville that they struck gold and the iconic photo was created. When you are in Paris, go to this same spot and at the café across the square stand across from the "C" and kiss away and you can make your own version. I can promise you it is not hard to be swept away in the romance of Paris and you too can find out exactly why they call them French Kisses

Doisneau took photos up until his final days, still on the streets of Paris and its suburbs. When he died in 1994 at 81 he left behind more than 500,000 negatives, more than enough for the man and his amazing art to live on forever.  “I don’t photograph life as it is, but life as I would like it to be”. 

The father of Willy Ronis was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and fled to Paris where he set up a photography studio. Willy had other ideas of being a composer but when his father got sick he took over the business. Willy liked the streets of Paris much better than sitting in a studio capturing portraits. One day in 1957 he decided to climb the July Column of the Place de la Bastille. While up there snapping a few pictures he saw a young couple on the edge looking down the Rue Saint Antoine. You can see Notre Dame de Paris, Eglise Saint Paul Saint Louis, and other landmarks immortalized in black and white. 

Willy took one photo,  walked back down, and went on with his day. The image was later reproduced in magazines and postcards and spread across the world. However, Ronis never knew who the young lovers were until 31 years later. At a Valentine’s Day exhibition at the Comptoir de la Photographie in the Marais where his famous photo was on display a young man walked up with a book for him to autograph. 

Talking with Ronis he told him that he knew the young lovebirds that stood so high over Paris. Willy couldn’t believe it, and it got better. “They own a restaurant just around the corner at 10 rue Saint Antoine, I can take you there.” 

Riton and Marinette came to Paris just from Alsace and on that day they climbed to the top this one and only time. Three years later they were married and had opened a restaurant and later had a poster of the photo framed in their bistro in the shadows of the statue of Beaumarchais; the couple had remained for 29 years since that photo. 

As they stood up there that day in 1957, they would be immortalized forever, but they had no idea that the restaurant they would own for the rest of their life was also immortal. Just down the street and in the photo it can be seen in the corner of the photo. 

When you talk about sculptures and love, two artists reign supreme over all others, Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel. 

Le Baiser  by August Rodin was made for his huge bronze "gates of hell". In 1883 Rodin was commissioned to make by the Decorative Arts Museum. It’s hard to think that something that exudes such love and passion was a part of something called the Gates of Hell. 

It took Rodin 37 years, until his death, to come close to finishing the gates that are based on Dante's Inferno. Le Baiser depicts the story of Francesca da Rimini and PaoloMalatesta. Star-crossed lovers in Rimini Italy in the Emilia-Romagna region. Francesca born in 1255 was married off by her father to Gianciotto) Malatesta but quickly fell in love with his brother Paolo. 

When Gianciotto discovered the two locked in an embrace and kiss while reading Lancelot and Guinevere he stabbed and killed them in 1285. 

Paolo had met Dante in 1282 in Florence and when he heard their fate he included it in his Divine Comedy published in 1472. Dante spent more than 12 years writing the narrative poem and finished it in 1320 less than a year before he died. Recanting the three levels of the afterlife, Inferno (hell), Purgatory, and Paradise (heaven) he follows the characters as they navigate their destined ending.

It's amazing up close and has the tiniest bit of sparkle within the marble, just like love should sparkle. My grandparents visited in 1982 and my grandpa and his trusty camera captured the Kiss in all its sepia-toned goodness at the Rodin Museum. I love walking in their footsteps in a place that through love has been handed down to me. The project for the Decorative Arts Museum never came together and you can see a finished version at the Rodin and the original plaster version at the Musée d’Orsay.

When it was first displayed in America in 1893 it was too shocking in its erotic nature and shoved in a corner. A few years later in the UK, it was hidden in the stables of Edward Warren so as not to turn on the soldiers stationed there in WWI. When the French first saw it at the 1898 Salon they fell in love with it and the wealthy wanted their copy. Today you can find four marble and bronze copies all over the world. Only 12 copies can be made from the original Rodin mold to be considered official.  

The bronze version now in front of the Musée de l’Orangerie with a view of the sunset behind the Eiffel Tower is the closest thing to the definition of love. 

The relationship between Camille Claudel and Rodin was one of inspiration, love, and eventually anger. When she was 19, Rodin had brought on some young eager students to help him with commissions including the Gates of Hell. In 1883  they began an affair that would last over ten years. The student and the teacher would be inseparable and he would do all he could to help her through the elite of the Paris art world. 

Camille’s sexual nature of her works did not go over well, especially when created by a woman.  Her family didn’t approve of her work or her relationship with Rodin, creating an even wider divide between her mother and siblings. At the same time, she focused on the tiny details of the human body Rodin’s work also took on a more erotic and sensual nature. If you look at the pieces he created after the two became involved you can see more of two bodies entwined than a single figure. 

The saddest part is that Rodin was just as much her muse as she was his and their love affair comes through in their many pieces: Rodin’s Eternal Idol, Fugit l’Amour (Fleeting Love), The Kiss, and Eternal Springs. Up against Camille’s Sakountala, l’Abandon and Vertumne et Pomone.  

As his muse and lover, Camille wanted to marry the famous artist but he was still with his longtime partner Rose. In 1892 she ended the relationship but her feelings for Rodin were still there. In 1895 the French government commissioned Camille to create a sculpture for the State. Her striking, beautiful, and heartbreaking sculpture L’Age Mur was her answer. 

It depicts an older woman leading an older man away while his arm reaches back to a young woman on her knees pleading with him to stay. Believing that the older woman was Rose leading Rodin away Camille reaches out while on her knees.  Many including Roden thought this was a message to their relationship and were outraged. The French government canceled the commission when they saw the subject and how it offended Rodin. Camille would still complete it and it would be exhibited in 1899, much to the chagrin of Rodin.  Up until this point Rodin supported her financially but that ended with L’Age Mur and her final break from the sculptor. He would later do all he could to help save her from the fate her brother put her in, but sadly it wouldn’t work. 

Even more amazing is her "La Valse" (the waltz), this piece is so beautiful and shares so much emotion and love out of a chunk of bronze. You can feel the love and movement when you take a moment to stop and take it all in. When you have the opportunity to see these pieces up close, get as close as possible look at every detail, and walk all the way around. 

A room in the Musée Rodin is dedicated to Camille and her many sculptures showing her importance in Rodin’s work. For even more Camille she has her own museum outside of Paris in Nogent-sur-Seine. I will take you there soon! 

I could never get tired of seeing her beautiful pieces in the  Musée d'Orsay or the Musee Rodin. For more Camille make sure to listen to episode 51 we did in October 2020.  

Episode 193 - Part 4 - The Travels of the Mona Lisa

When she returned to the Louvre on January 4, 1914, she came back an icon. 

President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie visited Paris on May 31, 1961, for 3 days. The darling of American politics didn’t impress Charles de Gaulle but the French heritage of the beautiful first lady, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy did. Speaking fluently in French to De Gaulle he was powerless under her influence as was Cultural Minister André Malraux. 

A lavish state dinner was held on June 1 in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles on the 220-foot-long table set with Naploeons silver and Bleu Marli Sèvres china. André Malraux quickly fell under her charm and was invited the following May 1962 for a state dinner in Washington DC. 

It was at the May 11, 1962 dinner when sitting next to the minister Jackie & André talked over a plan to send the Mona Lisa to America. Back in France, the idea was not well received. As the date became closer citizens rioted in the streets and the daily conversations over a cafe were all about the Mona Lisa. 

On December 14, 1962, 49 years and a day that she was discovered after her two-year abduction she left France again, this time for the United States. Packed away in an especially designed airtight temperature-controlled case she boarded the SS France to New York under heavy security. The special case stored the painting and the frame separately and as she floated across the ocean, only a handful of people knew of the special cargo. 

Arriving five days later on December 19 federal and local police and military awaited the precious package and drove her to Washington DC to the National Gallery where she was tucked away for three weeks while her room was prepared. On January 8, 1963, to coincide with the opening of the 88th session of Congress the doors opened. For the first and only time in American history, the President of the United States opened an art exhibit with an official speech alongside the President of France. 

From January 9 to February 3 people lined up for hours for a glimpse of the famous Mona Lisa. Security was tight as officials were worried she would be stolen or destroyed. Surrounding her were two armed Marines and a slew of undercover agents within the crowd. Madeline Hours traveled from the Louvre every step of the way with Lisa. Constantly checking the conditions Lisa was exposed to. In the National Gallery, the swarm of people became so large the temperature of the room rose ten degrees. As Madeline moved towards the painting to check the temperature, she moved a bit too quickly and the Marine on guard punched her in the throat. 

In the end, 518,525 people saw her in DC and waited well over 2 hours on the coldest days of winter.  

On February 4, Lisa and Madeline escorted by heavy security made their way to the MET in New York. On February 7, the doors were opened in over four weeks, 1,077,521 people witnessed the mysterious smile. While in the MET the sprinkler system malfunctioned overnight and water flowed down her frame for hours. Thankfully she was protected. 

Madeline Hours was born on August 5, 1913, and would become the director of the C2RMF and advanced scientific studies of paintings and restoration to a place no other museum in the world could reach. 

In April 1974 Lisa left France for the last time, this time to Tokyo under the orders of President Pompidou in an act of diplomacy. Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka had put aside $300 million for France to promote the study of Japanese culture and language. In return Pompidou agreed to let the Mona Lisa leave the Louvre and travel to Tokyo, something Louvre officials were quite against. 

For her departure in  1974, she was placed in a state-of-the-art case that controlled not only the temperature and humidity but also protected her from fire, water, and any other disaster that could occur. In 1962 she traveled by sea but in 1974 she took her first flight and the change in air pressure had to be taken into account. Her traveling case was better than her permanent home in the Louvre and museum officials were a bit embarrassed by this fact. 

In Tokyo, from April 17 to June 11 the crowds were so large that they were only allowed to stop for 10 seconds to look at her and it was highly controlled. She was such a sensation a direct phone line to the Mona Lisa was created. “Hi my name is Lisa and I am known as La Giocondo” 

On her return to France, her flight traveled over Russia where it was ordered to land. Director of the Pushkin,  Irina Antonova heard that the famed painting would be flying over Moscow and pleaded with Ekaterina Furtseva, Russian Minister of Culture to see if Lisa could make a stop. 

Russian President Brezhnev had seen the Mona Lisa on a private visit to the Louvre in 1971 with President Pompidou and was keen to make it happen.  As the flight entered Russian airspace it was “forced” to land. The French agreed that she would be kept behind bulletproof glass and heavy security. It was the midst of the Cold War and only Lisa could thaw the tension if just for two weeks.   Murky figures after recall that 300,000 people waited 7 to 8 hours a day for a quick glimpse of Western art their government despised. 

After her vacation to Japan and Moscow, the French government created a law that would ban her from ever leaving France again. 

With her living conditions far better on a flight than in the Louvre, officials had to make a change. In 1974 she was placed behind bulletproof glass in the Salon Carré. 

From 2001 to  2005 the Salle des Etats was redone and funded by the Nippon television company for $6.2 million.  

Today she is behind two sheets of bulletproof triple-laminated glass in a climate-controlled and heavily monitored casing. Ultrasound equipment surrounds her and the smallest issue can be discovered within seconds. Humidity being the biggest issue, 25 pounds of silica gel keeps her at a perfect 55 degrees Fahrenheit and at 50% humidity at all times.  The wall that she is placed in that was added in 2005  is concrete in case anyone wants to try to drive a car into her. 

In 2018, French Cultural Minister Francoise Nyseen proposed a traveling exhibition of the highlights of the collection around France to fight against “cultural segregation”  She first mentioned it in March of 2018 on a radio program which was quickly denounced by then director of the Louvre Jean-Luc Martinez. Martinez mentioned that the fragile wood panel can’t even be moved between floors much less traveling around France.  

In 2019 the Salle des Etats was repainted a beautiful royal navy blue and was briefly moved to the Richelieu wing, exactly what the now disgraced former director Martinez stated they couldn’t do. 

Once a year in July she is removed from her coffin and inspected. Always on a Tuesday when the museum is closed the entire Denon wing is closed down to employees. National police are even brought in to guard the rooms around the Salle des Etats as she is lifted from her frame. 

A dozen lucky curators and da Vinci experts from around the world are chosen each year to view a once-in-a-lifetime event, the grand lady, naked and out of her casing and sitting on an easel just like she did for Leonardo over 500 years ago. 

Mona Lisa attacked 

In 1956, the Mona Lisa returned for a short time to the Musée Ingres in Montauban, a spot that hid her away from October 1940 to March 1943. While on display a woman tossed acid on the painting that was thankfully protected by glass. 

Back in the Louvre at the end of the year. Ugo Unzaga Villegas, a Bolivian homeless man had a rock in his pocket and decided to throw it at the Grand Dame. It shattered the glass around her elbow and even left a small mark that was restored. Later he admitted he had carried out the act in hopes of being arrested and sent to jail so he could have a warm place to sleep. 

On April 20, 1974, opening day of the Tokyo National Museum, Tomoko Yonezu a young disabled woman pushed through the crowd and sprayed Lisa with red paint. From the start, the museum refused to allow disabled people to attend the viewing. Her attack led her to a stint in prison and a large fine but the museum also added a day so disabled visitors would have their own time and space to see the famous lady. 

On her brief visit to Russia in 1974 a woman tossed a bouquet of flowers at her, nothing was damaged. 

In 2009 on August 2 a Russian woman entered the Louvre and bought a coffee cup with the face of the Mona Lisa on it and decided to enter the room and promptly walked up and lobbed the cup at the glass which only shattered the mug not the painting. She was upset to have been refused French nationality, I can understand this. 

On May 29, 2022, it was a 36-year-old man who pretended to be an elderly woman and used a wheelchair to get a bit closer to the Mona Lisa. Upon entry past the stanchions, he pulled a creme pastry from under his jacket tossed it at the painting, and climbed up to smear it on the glass before tossing red roses at her. It was a protest for climate change but somehow I think Lisa would be happy to have a bite of a French pastry and some red roses after more than 500 years behind glass. 

And just a week ago on January 28, 2024, at 10 am two women waltzed into the Salle des États and removed a coffee thermos of Pumpkin Soup, and tossed it at the Mona Lisa while hundreds stood and watched. “Our agricultural system is sick! What’s more important? Art or the right to a healthy and sustainable diet?” The Riposte Alimentaire group was behind the attack and immediately posted to social media their thoughts. The two women were arrested and will pay a fine. 

As for the Mona Lisa, she has seen it all now. The room was closed for an hour while the staff cleaned the soup off the wall and by 11:30 am the crowd was pushing and shoving their way to the front for yet another selfie. 

You will notice that none of these attacks happened before the theft. Each of these acts is meant to draw attention to a situation and they know that if it happens to the Mona Lisa, it will make the news around the world which it did once again last week. 

Episode 192 - Vincenzo and Lisa - Part Three in the Story of the Mona Lisa

Vincenzo Peruggia

Born October 8, 1881, in Dumenza in the north of Italy. The oldest of five children, he began working at twelve as a house painter in Milan.  In 1908 Vincenzo moved to Paris where he became very sick and hospitalized for lead poisoning, a nugget that will come into play later. Moving away from the painting business he got a job with the A Gobier company that had worked on the glass and windows of the Musée du Louvre since 1832.  

Unhinged people kept entering into the Louvre and tossing paint and slashing paintings so the Louvre decided the most important pieces needed to be protected with new frames and glass. Vincenzo’s time with the Gobier company wasn’t ideal. His French coworkers picked on him and called him Macaroni. Needless to say, he did become the best and when the Louvre needed the frames of the Italian masters replaced, Vincenzo was the only man for the job. 

Each day for a year Peruggia was up close and personal with each of the Italian paintings that had once belonged to the kings of France. After the Raphael’s were completed, Vincenzo tackled Leonardo da Vinci’s and of course the Mona Lisa. This gave him an in-depth knowledge of the future star of the Louvre although he hadn’t decided to steal her quite yet. 

One theory that has been floated around is that he chose the Mona Lisa because she resembles one of his girlfriends. When his tiny apartment was inspected after his arrest they found over 90 letters from a woman named “Mathilde”. The mystery woman is also tied to one of his few brushes with the law prior to the grand theft. 

Vincenzo saw Mathilde one night in a Parisian dance hall and saw another man talking with her. She brushed him off but the man stabbed her. Vincenzo zoomed in to take her to the home of an Italian woman in his neighborhood who cared for the young girl. 

He wasn’t a stranger to the police and was in the system including his fingerprints. However, in those days everything was on paper, and stacks of thousands of criminals would have to be searched through to find the one matching thumbprint. 

On June 23, 1908, he was arrested for an attempted robbery and a few months later again for a fight over a  prostitute and was sentenced to eight days in jail. 

The working theory was that Vincenzo believed Napoleon had stolen her from Italy. For decades his daughter and family believed he had taken her as an act of patriotism. However, that was dispelled when letters were found where he repeatedly said he had a large payday happening soon. 

Following his arrest he was held in the Italian prison and worshiped like a king. Strangers offered to pay for his lawyer, women sent him love letters and brought flowers each day and the Italian papers claimed he was a hero. 

The day after her triumphant return to the Louvre, Vincenzo was in front of an Italian judge. He claimed that all the Italian paintings in the Louvre had been stolen by Napoleon. They didn’t have plaques for each painting with the provenance back in 1911. He also blamed his lead poisoning for his actions. 

Already held in jail for seven months, his trial was delayed until June 4, 1914, and many of the former French officials involved in the case had retired or died. Lawyers Renzo Carline and Fernando Targetti argued that keeping the trial in Italy, not France worked in his favor. When his case was settled he was sentenced to 1 year and 15 days. On July 28 World War I was declared, the next day Peruggia’s case was reduced to 7 months and 9 days. He had been in jail since December 14, 1913, authorities declared he had served enough time, and was released the same day. 

The perfect crime of one of the greatest pieces of art resulted in nothing more than a hand slap. Viewed as a hero everywhere he went he returned to his small village of Dumenza and then joined the army fighting for the country he loved. 

In 1921 with his new wife, he returned to France and opened a paint shop. One day he decided to take her to Paris and visit the Louvre. On a Sunday morning in 1923, Vincenzo who was now known as Pietro Peruggia walked into the Grand Galerie and introduced his wife to the Mona Lisa. 

On his birthday, October 8, 1925, while holding a bottle of champagne he fell to his feet and died instantly of a massive heart attack. His daughter Celestina was just 19 months old, too young to remember her father but claimed until her death in 2011 that her father had stolen the Mona Lisa in an act of patriotism. 

Peruggia was buried in the Condé cemetery in the small town of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés at the eastern edge of Paris. When the family stopped paying for his plot his body was exhumed and placed in a communal grave. There is no grave or marker for the notorious thief but you can go to the Louvre and visit the Mona Lisa, his greatest claim to fame. 

Lisa del Giocondo 

Lisa di Antonio Gherardini was born in Florence on June 15, 1479, to a noble landowning Tuscan family. Not far from The Palazzo Pitti where the Medici family lived was the home of Antonmaria Gherardini and Lucrezia del Caccia. The family lived on the corner of the via Maggio and via Squazza when Lisa was born and then moved to the other side of the river in 1494. Near Santa Croce between via del Pepi and via Ghibellina they discovered their new neighbors, the Giocondo’s. 

On March 5, 1495, at 15 years old, Lisa married the son of her neighbor,  Francesco del Giocondo. Francesco was from a rich family that made their money in the silk business. A widow, a father, and nineteen years older than Lisa who also had a somewhat famous family as a neighbor. Living just a few doors down from Ser Piero da Vinci, the father of Leonardo. 

 A year later they welcomed their first child, Piero, quickly followed by Piera in 1497, Camilla in 1499, Marietta in 1500, Andrea in 1502, and finally Giocondo in 1507. Sadly only two survived past adolescence. 

Francesco became a civil servant and was elected to one esteemed post after another from 1499 to 1512. Once thought to be working for the exiled Medici family he was tossed into prison until the Medici’s returned and bailed him out.  

In 1502, Francesco commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his wife. Leonardo was at the height of his fame at the moment after just completing the Last Supper but was also in need of money so accepted the job. Having just given birth to her son Andrea she sat for the portrait, considered quite large at the time for its subject matter. 

Leonardo began painting her in February 1503 and for days on end the lovely Lisa sat in front of him while a band played music to keep her spirits up during the long sittings. Four or five years later Leonaro put it aside until she would leave for France. 

Lisa never saw the unfinished painting. Contracting the plague in 1539 Francesco died and Lisa left Florence to live with her daughter in the Sant’Orsola convent where she died July 15, 1542. 

Leonardo liked to “meditate” on his paintings, work a little on a painting then take a break to ponder what he would do next. So it wasn’t out of the norm that the painting of Lisa wasn’t finished. In 1508 he carried the painting with him to Milan, then to Rome in 1513 until she moved with the artist to France.

Watch the Mona Lisa is Missing documentary here

Episode 191 - The Recovery of the Mona Lisa

EPISODE 2  in the Sage of Mona Lisa

1913 

For 28 months the Mona Lisa returned to her earlier days of existence, stuffed into a closet without the adoration of thousands of people, although this time it was a tiny apartment near the Canal Saint Martin. 

For all of 1912 and into 1913, Vincenzo went on with his life although he did not return to his job and stayed quiet and close to home.  While the world wondered where the Mona Lisa was. Smart crooks all over the world use the theft for their benefit. Some even employed copyists who thought they could resell copies to rich individuals who could never admit they bought the most wanted woman in the world.

In the winter of 1912, Peruggia left Lisa in his apartment but now in a box that he slid under his stove. A quick trip to London to see art dealer Joseph Duveen who is hailed as the individual to broker more European art to wealthy Americans than anyone else.  When the short, 5 foot 3 inch Vincenzo walked in Duveen immediately laughed him out of his gallery. Peruggia returned to Paris and Lisa in her tomb under the stove and waited another year before his final act. 

On November 29, 1913, Vincenzo once again appeared.  This time in a letter sent to Alfredo Geri, an art dealer in Florence. It stated that the “Stolen work of Leonardo is in my possession. It seems to belong to Italy as the painter was an Italian. My dream is to give back this masterpiece to the land which it came.”  Signed Leonard 

Geri was skeptical at best but contacted Giovani Poggi curator and Corrado Ricci, director of fine arts of the Uffizi. 

Deciding they didn’t have anything to lose they responded and set up a meeting for December 22 in Milan. “Leonard” decided he didn’t want to wait any longer and arrived in Florence on Wednesday, December 10, 1913. Walking into Geri’s shop on the Via Borgo Ognissanti “Leonard Vincenzo” introduced himself and asked the owner if he was interested in seeing the painting.  

Two hours later Geri and Poggi were in the Peruggia’s tiny hotel room on the 3rd floor and looking at what was now the most famous painting in the world. The thief brought her back to Italy in a large custom-made crate with a false bottom topped with clothes, tools, and a mandolin The director was shocked to see what was lying on top of her. 

Vincenzo said he wanted 500,000 lira for her (today that is worth 2.14 million dollars). The two agreed and let him the thief know they wanted to have it checked at the Uffizi before they paid. As the three men walked out of the Hotel Albergo Tripoli a front desk staff stopped them. The clerk thought they were stealing a painting from the hotel room, much tighter security than at the Louvre. As soon as the painting was verified Geri and Poggi told Peruggia to go back to the hotel and they would bring the money over.  Vincenzo must have walked back to the hotel lighter than air thinking all his dreams were about to come true. Instead, the police were called and arrived as Vincenzo laid down to nap and was quickly arrested. 

Considering that the Mona Lisa had been stored under a table and a stove, in a closet, and then in a crate for over two years she was in fairly good shape. She had a small mark on her cheek and a scratch just over her left shoulder. In the 15th century when she was still in the hands of Leonardo a crack developed from the top to just past the part of her hair. Years of mishandling didn’t help and two butterfly joints and a small piece of wood were laminated onto the back to repair her. After her voyage away from the Louvre one of the butterfly joints disappeared. Fun fact, when it was replaced the wood had some tiny insects in the new joints and began to infect the painting. 

After the news quickly spread that she had finally been recovered the French officials and Louvre director and curator arrived in Florence. As a sign of appreciation, the Mona Lisa continued her short staycation in Italy. First, on display in the Uffizi gallery, she remained for five days and was placed in a gold gilded frame. 

During that brief period, the Mona Lisa was set up between Da Vinci’s Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi both painted twenty years before the famous Lisa. Thousands of people lined up each day to catch a glimpse of her before she left for Rome for a private viewing with King Victor Emmanuel. For five days through Christmas, she resided in the Borghese Gallery then onto Milan and the Brera Museum, her last stop in Italy. 

It was rather fitting that she spent a few days at the Brera Museum as its creation was due to Napoleon and his looting of art. The collection was gathered as town officials tried to save things from churches before he arrived. In 1809, Eugéne de Beauharnais, son of Josephine and Viceroy to Italy under his step-dad was asked to create the museum and inaugurated it on the emperor’s birthday, August 15, 1809. 

Finally, on December 30 she left Italy to return home. At 3 am on the final day of the year, she crossed the border into France and 11 hours later arrived at the Gare du Lyon. Hundreds of people waited in the station to welcome her home.  Her final destination was delayed a bit when she first stopped at the École des Beaux-Arts for a private viewing for art students and officials. For three days, by special invitation only the elite of Paris were the first to see her.    Writer Colette was sent to report on the return of what was now the most famous woman in the world. She remarked it was a sea of cameras and the air smelled like a perfume shop. It was THE place to be in Paris the first few days of 1914. 

At 10 am on January 4, the doors of the Louvre opened once again, now with the icon that is the Mona Lisa. For hours more than 15,000 people lined up to see her monumental return. Placed once again in her secure frame Peruggia released her but she found her way back to the same spot from which she was stolen. However, she wouldn’t be staying long. 

44 years before in  1870 during the Seige of Prussia Louvre officials moved out many of the precious pieces of art. Mona Lisa was quietly moved out of Paris along with 360 other paintings to the Arsenal of Brest. On September 1, 1870 in case number 11 on the 2nd convoy left by train from Montparnasse station.  At the time the Mona Lisa wasn’t as famous and didn’t warrant the first convoy although the other Leonardo’s did. 

On August 11, 1914, France declared war on Austria and the entry into the Great War began. At the end of August as the Germans entered Paris the clock was ticking and workers quickly removed paintings from their frames and stretchers, the treasures of the Louvre would leave the protection of the Louvre. 
Once again Lisa was on the move, this time under tighter security. On September 1, 1914, placed in her very own red satin-lined crate, she was driven out of Paris towards Bordeaux and later Toulouse where she would remain until the end of 1918. 

Her biggest adventure was during WWII when she left  Paris not once but twice. The first time in September 1938 as Hitler invaded Sudetenland she ventured to Chambord for a few weeks before returning to the Louvre for 11 months. 

In the summer of 1939 when it was clear that Hitler intended to capture as much art as he could the Louvre acted quickly and she was once again placed in her satin-lined crate and tied to an ambulance gurney placed inside a special truck that was hermetically sealed. She was one of the first pieces to leave the Louvre on August 29, 1939. When she arrived in Chambord the guard placed inside to protect her was unconscious from the lack of oxygen, but Lisa was safe. 

Curator André Chamson and his wife archivist of the Louvre, Lucie Mazauric traveled to Chambord with their 12-year-old daughter Frédérique Hébrand to watch over the famous lady for the duration of the war.  Lucie remembers visiting the Mona Lisa in 1914 at 14 years old and had a hard time seeing her over the dense crowd. Now she had a view that any art lover would dream of. The young Frédérique grew to be an actress and writer and was seen on many documentaries telling the story of opening the wood case to pull back the red satin and glimpse the well-known smile of Lisa. 

Lisa and the Chamson family moved five times before her return on June 17, 1945, to the Louvre and into the Grand Galerie.

Episode 190 - The Theft of the Mona Lisa Part 1

It was August 21, 1911, the middle of a stretch of endless 90-degree days in Paris, and one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century was happening and nobody noticed.  

Brigadier Maximillien Alphonse Pauparin guard in the Salon Carré had served in the French military but had no idea what he was about to face on the morning of August 21, 1911. At the time only former military officers served as guides in the Louvre, not so much now. 

In 1911 two paintings were slashed and the Louvre knew the most important pieces needed to be protected behind glass in new security frames, Mona Lisa was the first.  The A. Gobier company had been replacing windows in the Louvre and was tasked with the protecting of the paintings. Made up of French workers and one Italian which we shall get to in a bit. 

The Louvre was closed on Monday, August 20 and only a handful of guards and staff had been in the Salon Carré after 10 am and nothing seemed off. 

Louis Béroud copyist and artist on August 21 arrived just after the Louvre opened at 10 am and took his easel to the Salon Carré ready to create a painting that involved a copy of the Mona Lisa. As he walked to the wall he noticed a large hole in the place where she normally hung. 

At the time the paintings in the smaller Salon Carré hung within inches of each other on the wall, much closer than they are now, so a large hole should have been pretty easy to spot.  Béroud walked over to Pauparin and asked where the Mona Lisa was. The brigadier scoffed and said it had to be in the photo studio as they removed paintings all the time without alerting anyone. He decided to venture down to ask when she would be back but stopped on the way for a long cigarette break before popping in. 

As he arrived at the studio and asked, “Ou est La Joconde”  he was met with shocked expressions and then the panic set in. It was noon on August 21 and the darling of Leonard da Vinci had been gone for two days they just hadn’t realized that yet. 

As we look back on the events of August 1911 it appears to be the perfect crime although it would never happen today. When a very upset Brigadier Maximillien Alphonse Pauparin was questioned about the woman he saw every day he said “Mon Dieu, she was there Sunday night when the museum closed.” 

In his years at his post, he saw many things. Lovelorn men brought her flowers and letters pledging their undying love to her and one man was even said to have killed himself in front of her, I haven’t found any info to back that up but does make for an interesting little addition. 

One young German man was so devoted to her that his story spread around the world. 

Director of the Louvre Théophile Homolle was on vacation in Mexico at the time and when contacted he joked that the theft of the Mona Lisa would be like someone stealing the towers of Notre Dame. He was fired from his job upon his return. 

Acting director and curator Léonce Bénédite contacted the Palais de Justice to alert them of the unimaginable. Just after 1 pm Prefect of the police Louis Lepine arrived at the now-closed Louvre to investigate. The theft was kept very quiet and the crowd and staff were told that a water main had broken but the rumors began to spread. 

Lepine brought Alphonse Bartillon who served as the chief of judicial identity and had been working on a new form of identifying people through fingerprints and profiling. The entire staff was called in and fingerprints on the right hand were taken. 

In searching the Louvre, the newly created security frame was discovered in a hidden stairwell that was only used for staff on Mondays. Lepine believed the thief had to have had knowledge of the Louvre and had worked there. An interrogation of the staff was launched and it was a plumber named Jules Sauve who gave the only clue they had to go on. 

At 9 am on Tuesday, he arrived to hear someone knocking on a door at the base of the staircase leading to the Cour du Sphinx. The doorknob had fallen off on the outside and the thief was trapped. Sauve graciously opened the door with some pliers and saw the man with a white Louvre coat on and with a quick bonjour et merci they were both on their way.  When Lepine had the plumber in for questioning his suspicions were correct, it had to be an inside job. The doorknob was then found tossed in the Jardin de L’Enfant. 

At the time of the theft, the Mona Lisa hung on the north wall of the Salon Carré below Veronese Wedding Feast of Cana and between Allegorie Conjugale by Titian and Correggio’s Mystic Mariage with its clear influence of Leonardo. 

August 22 Le Temps broke the story and by the next day, the theft was on the front page around the world. 

Back in the Louvre, they searched high and low for more evidence. A partial print of the left hand was found on the casing of the frame but at the time they had only been taking prints from the right hand. With little to go on the Louvre thought she may be gone forever. 

One week later on Monday, August 28, the search of the Louvre was finished and the museum would reopen the next day. 

On Tuesday, August 29, 1911, at 10 am the Musée du Louvre opened its doors to thousands waiting in a two-hour line to enter for a glimpse of the wall where the Lady of the Louvre once hung. Surrounding the now empty wall were four policemen and six museum guards as well as many undercover agents in the crowd hoping the thief may make a return.  Of the thousands of people that came many brought notes and flowers to leave on the distinctive parquet floor. Outside the doors, trinket sellers peddled anything they could with her image on it and even some entrepreneurial prostitutes hid in the shadows waiting for clients. 

Security at the Musée du Louvre had been pretty laughable for quite some time. Reporters hid in a sarcophagus overnight to test the security and even stole small pieces to see if they could get away with it, and they did. When the Louvre reopened on the 29th guests were also greeted by two very angry dogs, Jack and Milord, and a slew of security guards. 

Apollinaire & Picasso 

Poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire & Pablo Picasso read the headlines in the paper just like everyone else in the world.

The two friends were now in a panic to rid themselves of stolen objects from the Louvre.  At midnight on September 5, the two men packed the pieces into a suitcase and worried they would be captured riding in the metro or on a bus walking from his studio in Montmartre to the Seine River. Once there they were afraid they would be seen and decided to walk back up to Montmartre with the heavy suitcase in tow. 

Earlier that day, Apollinaire paid a visit to the Paris Journal to share that he may know who stole the Mona Lisa and turned in the objects. Confessing that a friend but the fictional name, of Baron Ignace d’Ormesan from time to time would steal small sculptures from the Louvre. Guillaume and Picasso benefited from his stolen loot and thought they would do the right thing and tell the authorities. 

On September 6 the front page of the Paris Journal broke “L’Affaire des Statuettes” which also alerted the police who paid a visit to Apollinaire and brought him in for questioning. The thief’s real name was Honoré Joseph Géry Pieret-Belgien who also worked as a secretary for the writer.  The same morning the police paid a visit to the Boulevard de Clichy and the apartment of Picasso. When questioned he said he never heard of Apollinaire and was released later that day. Apollinaire wasn’t as lucky and was held for a week. It would be the only lead and arrest the French police had in the theft of the Mona Lisa and it was a dead end.  The incident would ruin the friendship of the artist and writer and would be one of Picasso’s few regrets in his life. 

‘Groupe d’artistes by Marie Laurencin (1908) – Pablo Picasso, Marie Laurencin herself, Apollinaire and Fernande Olivier

At the advent of WWI, Apollinaire decided to become a French citizen and enlisted in the war, which would last until a piece of shrapnel tore through his helmet almost killing him. The injury would alter his mind forever and he would die on November 9, two short years later at 38 in 1918, and laid to rest in Père-Lachaise. 

At the end of the year, the trail for clues had long been cold. When stolen she hung on the north wall of the Salon Carré named for the annual Salon which was the only opportunity for artists to share their work with the public. In February 1912, the spot that had been left empty was a makeshift shrine until officials decided to move Raphael’s, Baldassare de Castiglione into her place.  In 1528, Castiglione published his “le Livre de Courtisan” filled with the stories of court life in Italy, a 16th-century Downtown Abbey. Close to the same size and more importantly the subject was posed in much of the same way as Lisa. Raphael had briefly seen the painting while Leonardo worked on her. 

In January 1913, the updated catalog of the Louvre was released and  Leonardo’s Mona Lisa as wasn’t a part of its collection. The trail had run cold and the case had been closed. They believed she would never return home again. 

Baldassare de Castiglione by Raphael 1514 located in the Grande Galerie of the Musée du Louvre

How did what appears to be close to the perfect crime happen? 

The Theft Itself 

On a hot Sunday, August 19, 1911, at around 4 pm. Vincenzo Peruggia entered the Musée du Louvre just like any other visitor. In the final moments as the museum closed and guards were ushering people out Peruggia slid into a storage closet just off the Salon Carré. Overnight with a chunk of cheese, a small bottle of wine, and some bread, he worked his way over to the north wall and wrestled the 90-pound painting in its new double frame off the wall. 

This was long before the days of cameras and alarm systems and one could easily hide in the Louvre overnight and wander around, how dreamy.   

At 6:30 am on Monday, August 20 the Louvre was closed to the public. Peruggia in his white Louvre coat walked through the Grande Galerie, Salle des Sept-Metres to a small staircase in the corner backing to the Grande Galerie only used on Mondays by employees. When he arrived at the ground floor the door was locked. Using the screwdriver he brought to remove Lisa from the wall he was able to remove the door knob but it only made matters worst. 

One report states that Peruggia was joined by two men who assisted in lifting her off the wall.  

Over time Peruggia’s version of the theft changed, including that he carried her off and by Winged Victory with a grand farewell before his escape. 

Employees of the Louvre just began to move around for the day and plumber Jules Sauve heard knocking as he walked by. With a wrench, Sauve opened the door and let who would be the most wanted man in the world in a matter of 24 hours out the door and away with the priceless painting. Walking out the Cour Visconti with Mona under his arm he tossed the doorknob and jumped onto a bus that would take him home to the 10th arrondissement.

Vincenzo stayed in his small apartment at 5 Rue de l’Hopital Saint Louis overnight and into the next day. On the morning of August 21 when it was discovered she was gone, Vincenzo stayed home with the grand lady in his closet. 

When the entire staff of the Louvre was called in to be interviewed and fingerprinted, Vincenzo did not show up. Detective Lepine arrived at his small apartment to question the thief who let him in and slowly answered his inquiry. Meanwhile, the Mona Lisa was turned around and propped up in his closet. Lepine never took a look around and left without a bit of suspicion. Worried he would return, Peruggia left his apartment and Lisa in a case and checked into the Hotel Rive Gauche on Rue Saint Peres in Saint Germain and requested a top-floor room in case he needed to make a quick escape to the rooftops. Hiding away in room 603 for three days he awaited any news of the theft to spread through Paris.  

Today it is the Hote Da Vinci and you can stay in the room where Vincenzo and his Florentine lady once stayed with your own copy of Lisa hanging on the wall. 

On Wednesday, August 23 the headline was International news but not even a whisper of a suspect.  Peruggia felt he was in the clear and returned to his tiny apartment at number 5 rue de l’Hopital Saint Louis where the Mona Lisa had stayed alone and would remain for the next 27 months. 

Stay tuned for part 2 out Monday, January 22

Episode 187 - replay Johanna van Gogh

Some of the women that we talk about on La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway podcast I get really attached to, Johanna Bonger van-Gogh is one of them that I adore so much, and her amazing story that everyone should know. 

Johanna Bonger was born on October 4, 1862, in Amsterdam to a musical family. The fifth of seven children, she showed a keen mind at a very early age. While her older sister stayed at home, Johanna’s parents let her pursue her studies focusing on English which would lead her to the British Museum in London working in the library. 

Returning to Utrecht she began teaching at a girl’s boarding school when one day her brother Andries asked her to meet some of his friends.. Andries had been living in Paris and met many artists including Vincent and Theo van Gogh. For Theo, it was love at first sight, but Johanna didn’t have the same feelings. Months later Theo paid her a visit in Utrecht and let Johanna know he was in love with her. Johanna was taken aback by such a pledge of love by a man that she didn’t even know. 

Theo must have worn her down and on April 17, 1889, the two were married. Johanna would move to Paris with Theo and nine months later on January 31, 1890, their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh was born, named after his uncle. 

Theo, the champion of his older brother Vincent and his art was also a great art dealer in Paris. He had started working in the Hague for Paris art dealer Goupil & Cie when they asked him in 1884 to work in the Paris gallery. With any money that Theo made he purchased paint and art supplies and sent them to his brother. In 1886, Vincent moved to Paris sharing Theo’s very tiny Parisian apartment and through Theo would meet many of the greatest artists of the time. Pissarro, Seurat, Cézanne, Rousseau, Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin. 

In 1888, Theo convinced Gauguin to visit Vincent in the south of France. Vincent wanted to set up an artist colony like the Japanese artists had,  but Gauguin wasn’t so sure of the idea. Theo paid for all of his travel expenses while Gauguin sent Theo letters letting him know how Vincent was doing. The two brothers would also write to each other every day. Vincent's letters also include sketches of paintings he was working on with details of the colors he would use and his daily thoughts. Theo would save every single letter. 

Johanna adored her brother-in-law and saw how close the two brothers were and was happy to support him in any way she could. On June 8, 1890, less than two months before he died, Theo, Johanna, and baby Vincent went to see him in Auvers-sur-Oise, it would be the only time Vincent met his nephew. Vincent was in very good spirits but a short time later on July 29, 1890 Vincent died. Theo was devastated and just four months later he was admitted to the Den Dolder asylum in the Netherlands. On January 25, 1891, Theo would die, just six months after his brother. The notes as his cause of death are heartbreaking, “Heredity, Chronic disease, overwork, and sadness”.

Johanna and Theo had been married for less than two years when it all ended. Left with a baby and an apartment filled with paintings she wasn’t sure where to start. Her brother told her she should just toss all the paintings out, but Johanna loved Theo and Vincent and couldn’t do it. Vincent only sold one painting while he was alive so the outlook at the time didn’t look good. 

Returning to the Netherlands she moved to the small town of Bussum to open a boarding school for girls, but Johanna was also a smart businesswoman and knew that the town also had a high concentration of art critics and dealers. She had worked very closely with Theo and knew what to do. Women in the art world,  just before the turn of the century were mostly unknown which worked in her favor. The men’s art club didn’t see her coming. Before he died Theo told her to never sell Vincent’s paintings in groups, bring them out one at a time to generate interest. 

In 1901, Johanna married Johan Cohen Gosschalk, a Dutch painter who was a great support. Later that year, with art dealer Paul Cassirer and his cousin Bruno, she helped create an exhibition of Vincent’s paintings in Berlin. Germany was an early market that discovered Vincent long before anyone else including the wealthy Helen Kroller-Muller. Muller over time would build the largest personal collection with 91 of Vincent’s paintings.

Controlling the circulation of paintings she created the narrative of Vincent’s story and was just getting started. Remember all those letters Vincent sent Theo? After Theo’s death in a box she found piles and piles of letters, Theo saved every single one. Johanna started to transcribe each of the letters with Vincent's thoughts, state of mind, and sketches. You have to remember at the time that nobody outside the artist community knew who Vincent was, he wasn’t famous when he was alive or after his death and many thought his paintings were horrible and his use of color shocking. However, that was about to change. 

Johanna began to release pieces of the letters and the Vincent we all know now with all the ups and downs came to life. Suddenly his paintings began to sell and his interest in his life was a topic at the local cafe. In 1915 she would lose her second husband and decided to go to New York with her son. Johanna spent all her time on the letters, for four years she diligently transcribed them and also translated them into English. She was very careful not to let the letters overshadow the paintings, the two had to go hand in hand building interest in Vicent and his paintings. 

Johanna also kept a detailed diary that her son would later release after her death. In one entry she wrote “Imagine for one moment my experience when I came back to Holland realizing the greatness and the nobility of that lonely artist's life”, She held her responsibility to Theo  & Vincent very close to her heart. As Vincent Willem grew up he was surrounded by more than 200 paintings of his uncle covering the walls. Out of all of them, one was the most important to his mother, Sunflowers painted in 1888. When news of Gauguin's arrival came, Vincent decided to paint a series of paintings to surround his friend's room. Seven paintings, three of which were copies he did himself all of the happy sunflower that would jump off the wall.

After his death alongside all of his other paintings, Theo would hang Sunflowers of sixteen stems in a vase on his wall, it was his favorite. After their deaths, Johanna held onto this painting and would never part with it or let it be exhibited. In 1924 Jim Eend working for the National Gallery in London was given a large amount of money from Samuel Courtauld to purchase paintings of modern artists. Jim went to visit Johanna and wanted to purchase her beloved Sunflowers. She told him no, and it wasn’t for sale,  “I have seen this painting every day of my life for 30 years and can’t part with it”. Jim persisted and just before Johanna died she sent him a letter that she would sell it to him. Vincent had spent time in London at the National Gallery and her goal was to get his paintings into the public museums so generations could enjoy them. 

On September 2, 1925, Johanna died in Laren, Netherlands at 62 years old. Her son Vincent continued the legacy of their family and in the 1960s created the Van Gogh Foundation. The over 200 paintings that she could never sell that surrounded their home would become the basis of the collection in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1973. 

 In 1914, she had Theo’s body moved to lay beside his brother in Auvers-sur-Oise, the two brothers together once again. 

Johanna wrote in her diary, “I wish I could make you feel the influence Vincent had on my life”. If it wasn’t for Johanna van Gogh, we would never know the life and genius of Vincent and for that gift she gave us all she should be remembered as a saint. 

Episode 186 - European Christmas Traditions Part Two

Oh the many patisseries of Paris, those lovely welcoming windows that tease you with tasty treats. Of all the things my grandmother loves about Paris, it would be the pastries that are at the top of her list. I could have a personal meeting with Marie Antoinette, but what kind of pastry we ate would be what she would want to know. I do love a light-as-air Saint Honoré or a Mille Feuille with its layers of pastry cream, but I would rather have a platter of cheese any day. I would just never have told her that.   Every year on Christmas Eve in Provence after their Christmas dinner they embrace the sweeter side of life.

Les treize desserts de Noel, is the tradition of having thirteen desserts that represent Jesus and the twelve apostles. Before you stop reading and book that flight to get to Provence tonight, these aren’t the pastry cream-rich desserts. They vary from town to town but most will include a variation of nuts, fruits, and specialties of the region each representing a piece of their faith. 

The first four items represent the four monastic communities. Walnuts for St Augustin, almonds for Carmelites, raisins for Dominicans, and dry figs for the Franciscans.  Next comes, pomme à l’huile, the olive oil flatbread eaten with grape jam. Two different nougats, Nougat de Montelimar, the white nougat symbolizes the good with pistachios, pine nuts, and hazelnuts, and black nougat represents the evil with caramelized honey cooked with almonds. The bulk of the thirteen includes dried plums, dates, quince fruit paste, candied melons, pain d’epice, Oreillettes, Calisson d’Aix en Provence, plenty of grandma’s favorite marzipan, and finishing with seasonal fruit. It all ends with a Buche de Noel and the desserts are left on the table for three days.  Joyeaux Réveillon de Noel to all and to all a good night. Now how about the thirteen cheeses of New Year’s Eve

12 days of Christmas 

You thought Christmas ended 11 days ago but I have one more story for you. Do you know the little diddy “The 12 Days of Christmas”? Well, guess what, the 1st day starts December 26th! Shocking right? Although it has nothing to do with turtle doves.  

Going way back to the year 567 the Council of Tours proclaimed that the period between Christmas and the Feast of the Epiphany would be the 12 days of Christmas. There is more on the Epiphany tomorrow. In the Eastern Orthodox religion, the 12 days in-between were all feast days starting with Saint Etienne on the 26th, Saint Sylvester on the 31st, and the Virgin Mary on the 1st. It all ends with the Magi’s and some cake. 

There is one story that each line of the 12 Days of Christmas is somehow related to the bible and a code to teach people Christianity in places not open to it but that has been found over and over not to be the case. 

Maybe this means there should be more presents and celebrations each day to help survive those first days of the year? 

As for the song it first appeared in 1780 in the British book, Mirth without Mischief as a poem but it most likely is older than that and French in origin, bien sûr! It wasn’t set to music until the 20th century, and it sticks with you forever. 

Also in some places, it’s okay to still have your Christmas tree up until after tomorrow, so sit back down with a glass of wine and enjoy the glow of twinkly lights for another evening. 

On January 6 the celebration of the Epiphany marks the visit of the Magi or Three Kings that brought the gifts to Christ. It also marks the conclusion of the 12 days of Christmas that ends the night before.  But more importantly, it's about a delicious French pastry, the Galette des Rois. 

Celebrating the Epiphany with the Galette dates back to the 16th century but fell in and out of popularity in the 17th century when the priests of Saint-Germain and Louis XIV considered it a pagan ritual.  Nevertheless, the people cannot be parted from the pastries for long, so they decided to create la fete du bon voisinage or the neighborly relations day. And when the king or royalty sunk in popularity during the French Revolution it became the Gateau de L'Egality or the equality cake.

In Paris and northern France, it's created with flaky puff pastry, filled with almond frangipane, and hidden inside a lucky charm or "une fève". The youngest person is to sit under the table and call out who gets the first slice, and each thereafter. Whoever finds the charm gets to wear the crown for the day. 

I prefer to celebrate with a tiara because a little sparkle makes every day better. It always reminds me of my great-grandmother who would wrap dimes in tin foil and hide them inside cakes when I was little, it is always best to find them before you bite into them.  You can easily make this wonderful and simple dessert, tiara not included.

Episode 185 - French & European Christmas Traditions

Bûche de Nöel, gingerbread, wreaths, and advent calendars are just a few of those wonderful things that make December so special.  Most of the holiday customs in America derive from Europe and a few have some interesting stories that may surprise you.

On the evening of December 5, children in Europe and the north and eastern side of France leave their shoes out at night hoping to wake up and find some sweets and treats waiting for them.

Saint Nicholas was an actual person and the basis for the modern-day Santa Claus who was born on March 15, 270 in Lycia. The 3rd-century saint was devoted to the church from a very early age and lived a life of selfless giving. When his parents died he gave all the money they had away helping those that had nothing. 

Nicholas learned of a man who had three daughters but had lost all of his money. Without a dowry, they were destined to a life of prostitution. To keep his identity secret  Nicholas walked by in the dark of night and dropped a small bag of gold coins in their open window. The oldest daughter was married shortly after when she had the much-needed dowry. Nicholas returned two more times, allowing each of the daughters to marry. 

Scenes of the life of Saint Nicolas de Bari by Ambrogio Lorenzetti 1332

Musée du Louvre & Uffizi Florence

However, the most famous of all stories is a slightly gruesome one, but with a happy ending. Three boys were lost in the woods and after days without food, they wandered into the door of a butcher. He promised to give them food if they came in, but had a dastardly plan in mind. Killing the three boys he stuffed them into a barrel of salt and planned to sell them off as pork later. Nicholas found out and arrived in time to revive the boys and save them. 

That butcher is known now as Père Foutteard, often seen in images of the saint holding switches for the bad kids. Sounds much worse than the threat of the Elf on the Shelf to me. 

Nicholas died on December 6, 343 and today he is the patron saint of children and prostitutes, which is very fitting from the legend of his life. 

Today you will find children leaving their shoes to wake up to find an orange and some chocolate coins and treats. 

Saint Nicholas of course morphed into Father Christmas in England and Santa Claus in the US, all derived from the kind man who delivered gifts to those who needed them. Come this Saturday night, start a new little tradition, and leave your shoes out, after all, we could all use a nice little treat these days. 

Let’s start with that centerpiece of the season, the Christmas tree. Dating back to the 16th century the first tree was set up in front of the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg, at the time it was part of Germany but now it’s France so we can say the lovely Christmas tree is French. The original trees were decorated with edible items like dried fruit, a far cry from our popcorn garland. Originally the tree was set up for the solstice on that darkest day of the year, and like many of those European rituals, they morphed into Christmas celebrations. The triangle shape of the tree represents the holy trinity and that star you place on the top represents Bethlehem. For those of you that add an angel looking over you, it is the angel of the nativity. 

The evergreen bows of the trees and wreaths represent eternal life as the bows are always green, a sure sign of hope in these dark months. The greenery used also has symbolic meanings, Laurel for victory over prosecution. Pine and holly for immortality and Cedar for strength and healing, Holly symbolizes the crown of thorns and one legend even says the True Cross was made from the wood of a Holly tree. Add some pinecones or seeds for life and resurrection. 

The wreath has a much longer history and first began as what some may imagine as a crown. Back in the Etruscan times of Southern Europe, it was the wreath of laurel leaves that was all the rage. We all know the images of Julius Caesar and Napoleon sporting their golden laurel crowns on their heads and those crowns would eventually become the harvest wreaths hung in the homes across Europe. Constructed of elements from their crop it was a way for the family to pay tribute to the prosperity of their harvest. However, we still aren’t to the fragrant wreath you hang on your front door yet. 

Advent Wreath in Eglise Saint Sulpice December 10. 2023

In the 16th century Minister Johann Wichern, a pastor who would visit the children at the local mission came up with an idea to help solve the age-old question “How many days to Christmas”. Wichern used an old wagon wheel and covered it with evergreen bows and twenty-four candles. On each evening one of the smaller candles was lit and on Sunday one of the larger white candles.

This was also the birth of the advent calendar, then known as the advent wreath which many families in Europe still do every Sunday night. The Advent Wreath goes back to the Middle Ages. Each candle for the week represents 1000 years, adding up to 4000 years since the birth of Adam & Eve. The 3 purple candles for the first three weeks represent Prayer, penance, and good work. The final week is a pink rejoicing the faithful. Eventually, the Roman Catholics adopted the idea in the 1920’s with each of the four candles representing a moment in the biblical story of the season. 

Today we know advent calendars as everything from the inexpensive cardboard filled with chocolate to the expensive ones filled with Bonne Maman jam or a special Christian Louboutin treasure to open each day. My grandmother always had an advent calendar and I still buy them each year, it’s just as much fun today opening a little door to find a little treat. 

Now for some sweet stuff. Gingerbread may be one of the oldest of all the holiday traditions and dates back to the year 992 when an Armenian monk brought the treat to France. Near the town of Pithiviers just south of the Ile de France where he would spend the rest of his life teaching other monks how to make the early version of gingerbread. In the 13th century, the German Franconia monks created a version called Lebkuchen. It can be soft and almost cake-like and also harder cookies which my grandmother always made. Later in the 17th century they actually made a law that only certified bakers could make the spicy cookies, with a small clause that let anyone make them for Christmas.  

The gingerbread house itself also originated in Germany and was first seen in the 1800’s and was inspired by the age-old tale of  Hansel and Gretel. The Grimm’s fairy tale of children in an edible house inspired a baker to create one out of Lebkuchen. 

One of my favorite stories might be the legend of the Bûche de Nöel. The cake that looks like a log actually started out that way. Back in the 11th century,  the solstice was a night of celebration. Once we have reached that shortest day of the year each day after we get a sliver of added light counting the days to spring. To celebrate, many of the families cut a log from their dormant fruit trees, bathed it in wine or cognac, and decorated it with evergreen, ivy, and pinecones. They would burn it after the sun went down to celebrate the upcoming spring filled with wishes for a productive season.  

The log would sometimes burn for days and into the new year, which added extra luck. The ashes were saved and they added a level of protection to the home and would also be used in medicine. As the years passed, the larger fireplaces became smaller and smaller and families no longer held the yearly celebration. In the early 17th century, the log itself became a cake. A delicious genoise cake that is rolled and filled with pastry cream, frosting, or jam and rolled. The cake is decorated and covered with marzipan or meringue mushrooms and decoration, still resembling the log from long ago. Why wait for Christmas this year, make one of these and enjoy it on the night of the solstice, December 21. 

Episode 184 - Rose Valland replay

Rose Valland, the heroine of France died on September 18, 1980, at 82 years old. She devoted her entire life to art and the restitution that so many families sought.  Rose was a very quiet child with a thirst for knowledge. Born in 1898 her mother had to apply for grants so she could attend university In 1918 she began at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyon which would take her to Paris where she would attend the Beaux-Arts, Sorbonne, and Ecole du Louvre. 

Incredibly smart she was able to absorb everything she read and learned languages quickly. All of this would be useful in 1939 as Hitler and his thirst for art was moving across Europe. Rose spent the war years at the Jeu de Paume, cataloging everything with her photographic memory, noting every piece of art, where it was taken from, and where it was going.  Quiet and rather plain looking they never saw her as a threat but she put her life in danger every day.

After the war, Rose was an integral part of the Ministry of Culture, and the Monuments Men to retrieve more than 60,000 pieces including paintings, statues & objets d’art. 

In 1968 she officially retired but never stopped working. Just after the war, she met Joyce Heer a British translator working for the US Embassy. They lived together in her small apartment on Rue de Navarre until they moved to a cottage in Ris-Orangis.  Rose continued to write and published three books dedicated to art and the race to save it.  Joyce died in 1977 and Rose lived out her remaining years alone, surrounded by her notes and books until she died in 1980.  The two are buried together in Saint-Étienne-de-Saint-Geoire, where she grew up. 

One of my largest driving principles is that everyone knows how amazing Rose Valland was. I am thrilled to see that there is now a petition to have her interred in the Pantheon. The highest honor for any figure in French history and one she deserves more than anyone. Please sign the petition and share it with anyone you know. 

We released a wonderful podcast about her in 2020 and if you haven’t listened to it yet please do so you can learn more about this amazing and brave woman.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

Episode 182 - Eglise Madeleine

The beautiful Neoclassical Eglise Madeleine that crowns the Rue Royale off the Place de la Concorde came from the vision of a few rulers and almost didn’t happen. 

It was first conceived by architect Pierre Contant d’Ivry, architect to Duc d’Orleans in 1757. A Latin cross church with a dome inspired by Jacques-Germain Sufflot’s plans for the Eglise Sainte Geneviève, later known as the Pantheon.  Louis XV laid the first stone on August 3, 1763, but his death the next year halted any progress. 

By the Revolution, the foundation had been laid and stopped on December 31, 1791. Shortly after a wine merchant took it over and in 1806 it was given to the Banque de France but Napoleon would put a stop to that before they could move in. 

The next page in the history of the church came In 1806 Napoleon Bonaparte wanted a temple created and dedicated to his army and on the 2nd anniversary of his coronation on December 2, 1806, he signed the decree planning just that. Out of 80 architects, Pierre-Alexandre Vignon was chosen by the Emperor to create a temple based on Greek and Roman architecture. 

The building continued until 1811 and once again they ran out of money and the project stopped yet again.  In August 1816, Louis XVIII would be the man to bring the project to its conclusion. Originally he wanted a church dedicated to his brother Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette but with his niece and only surviving daughter of Louis XVI,  Madame Royale they personally paid for the building of Chapelle Expiatoire.  

Architect Jean-Jacques-Marie-Huvé took over after the death of Pierre Alexandre Vignon laying out the vision of the church and incorporating all of the ideas from the architects before them. 

The facade with its 52 columns each topped with a gorgeous flowering Corinthian capital gives the church its dominating exterior in the center of the street. On March 20, 1842, the church was open for its first mass, and on October 9, 1845, it was consecrated. 

Surrounding the outside are also 34 saints including Sainte Genevieve and Saint-Denis as well as the saints of the Orleans family Antoine, Charles, Ferdinand, Francois, Adelaide, Christine, and Helen. The three archangels are Gabriel, Michel, and Raphael as well as a guardian angel. On the back is where the real treasure is hidden.

Just a little over six months before the end of the” War to End all Wars”, German shells fired at Paris and decapitated a statue. The Germans had begun using the Paris Gun, a long-range gun that was named after the city more so to get into the heads of Parisians than to destroy the city.  Large 220-pound bombs could be shot through the air and travel more than 80 miles. They were silently flying through the sky at over 3000 miles an hour until they hit their target. Parisians at the time thought they were being dropped from a Zeppelin.  

March 22nd  the Paris Gun fired a shell that killed 88 people in the Eglise Saint-Gervais, the single deadliest attack of WWI in Paris.  On Thursday, May 30, 1918, a shot was fired and landed just behind La Madeleine. It was the feast day of Jeanne d’Arc, and as the faithful arrived to light a candle, another saint didn’t fare so well. The many Christian saints line the outside of La Madeleine, and on the back, you will find the four evangelists. Matthew, Mark, John, and Luke each with each of their symbols. Matthew and his angel, Mark and his lion, John, and his eagle, and Luke with his bull.  

When the shell hit a fragment flew, hit Saint Luke, and took his head right off.  They never replaced it, and today you can still see the headless Luke with his adoring bull looking up at him. I love that Paris leaves things like this so you are reminded of a moment in history.