Paris Quick View (Number Five)

  No one has yet told me they are tired of Paris photographs so I will continue to offer up a few every now and then.  If any of you do get tired of them just let me know.  Drop me a note, call me on the phone, send me a telegram.  (Come to think of it, I've never received a telegram.  That would be kind of cool.  Can you even still send telegrams?  If you know the answer to that last question, send me a telegram and let me know.)

  Maison Rosimond is the oldest house on Montmartre, built in 1680.  Almost 200 years later, Auguste Renoir lived here for a time, one of many painters who spent time on this lovely estate.  As can be seen in the photo, the house by itself is the perfect French Painting.  The land surrounding it, falling away behind it down the backside of Montmartre, as well as Rue Cortot which runs along the front of it, could not help but inspire painters like Renoir, Utrillo, and Valadon.  We could have stood outside the house and just soaked up its beauty save for the fact that this building houses the Musee Montmartre, and we had arrived late in the day.  One of the museum workers hurried us on, reminding us that we had very little time left to view the displays.  Our tour was brief but highly enjoyable.
  Inside the museum we found many posters by Toulouse Lautrec, Theophile Steinlen (including his famous Chat Noir poster), Jules Cheret as well as other items from the heyday of Montmartre in the early 1900's.

  One of the more arresting images was Jules Cheret's poster advertising Hugo's History of a Crime, his attack on Napoleon III.  I had never seen this before, and a quick image check on the web did not list any places that have this image.  Here we see a man laid out upon a broken stone with the words la loi chiseled into it.  The Law.  I have never read this, however I now have the opportunity, since I found a complete Victor Hugo collection for Kindle by Delphi Classics.  History of a Crime is in the collection.  What intrigues me is the fact that I came across a statue in Montmartre Cemetery a week after I saw this poster, which has the body of a young man sprawled across the crypt.  Upon the crypt are the words La Loi.  It is the image of Alphonse Baudin, a revolutionary who was killed upon the barricades in 1851.  Hugo's story came out 26 years after Baudin's death.  The odd bit of this is the fact that I did not realize the poster and the memorial were connected until a later examination of the photos.  A close up of the poster shows the dead man's face to be unmarred.  However, a close-up of Baudin's statue reveals a bullet hole in his forehead.  I am looking forward to reading the novel and learning more about this story.


Click on the photo to better see the detail of the bullet hole.