It was a very busy Saturday in the streets of central Paris with heaps of shoppers, walkers, tourists, and locals all in the mix, partly brought out by the weekend and also the sun and warmish temperatures.
While Jan helped one of her nieces (Jocelyn) with some school research at the America Library of Paris I brought Dennis and Peggie and the boys for a walk. We started at the Sorbonne area, and walked down near Notre Dame. We visited the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation, which honours the 200,000 people deported and murdered by the Nazis. The boys were subdued there for obvious reasons. We then walked over to the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. It was fantastic. The boys had interesting reactions to the shows ranging from the relatively gritty (on Harlem in NY in the 1980s and disaffected youth in Tulsa Oklahoma in the 1960s and 1970s), the history of nude photography (from the origins of the camera through surrealism in Paris, the Nazi era, the 1970s, and to the present moment), huge animal photographs, and a variety of other shows there. Liam (9) really liked the Animal Voyage exhibition but I think Tom (13 at the end of January) is moving on a little, or perhaps just betwixt and between…and what better way to end an afternoon of delights and challenging topics to make sense of than a visit to the bon bons stand on Boulevard Saint-Germain.
