Stuffed

Sure, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (the Hunt and Nature museum) might not sound like an obvious place to visit, but I have been using Monocle's travel guides in several cities now, and totally trust their suggestions, one of which was this place. It didn't disappoint. I am by no means pro-hunting or a lover of stuffed animals, but if you check this place out yourself next time you're in Paris, I'm sure you'll understand (although make it there towards the end of 2020, as it's now shut for refurbishment) why it's so interesting. It's in a beautiful grand old house, where each room is themed by animals, and mixes the old with works by contemporary artists. It's also a not very known place, so it was nice and quiet when we went. Do you seek out the less obvious places when you travel? What's the most interesting place you've been to this year? I'd love to hear!

Paris people, dogs and a cat

There was a series to be had on this corner. We were sitting at a bistro in Pigalle, resting our feet and re-fuelling, when we noticed several kids walking past in fancy dress. I only got about three kids worth of pictures, and this was the best one.

This guy made us laugh; he was refusing to look at us, and would constantly turn away whilst we took pictures of him. Maybe we should have respected his privacy.

I wasn't sure if this guy was Bill Murray of not (it wasn't), but his silhouette looked so cool with his hat.

I can't see her - can you?

Never in my life have I seen a dog in a bomber jacket and matching trousers before, and I'm kind of not surprised that I saw one in Paris.

Good look.

At Le Petit Keller, where we had amazing Japanese food. The owners' kids were hanging out at the bar as we were eating, which made the place all the more homely.

Les amoureux.

This guy has got his camera face nailed.

A guy sitting with his cat on a bench early in the evening. I wish we'd gotten Buddy used to walking on a leash; I would've loved to be the strange lady in our neighbourhood, walking her cat.

Bonjour tristesse?

Art Brut

Henry Darger

Lee Godie

Mr Imagination

William Dawson

Lee Godie

Merde. I'm four months behind... I guess I can claim I live the slow life - at least here, haha! But I'm sure you're used to it by now, and it's still the holidays, soooooooo... Back to Paris then! These pics are from Halle Saint Pierre, a gallery dedicated to Art Brut, aka outsider art. I so wish we had a permanent place for this kind of art here in London too (maybe we do - tell me if so?). The first five shots are from the Chicago Art Brut exhibition which was all kinds of wonderful (I've linked to biogs about the artists below the pictures, but please note both exhibitions that I mention have already finished). The last three were from the Hey! Modern Art & Pop Culture exhibition they had upstairs, but I didn't really pay attention to who the artists were as we were pretty tired by then. The bookshop and the café looked really good too, but we had to move on ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Around Montmartre

Hells bells time has flown! Didn't mean to stay away for this long, but there's just not been enough time recently to tend to this visual diary of mine. I doubt I'll be able to catch up here until the autumn, unless I can discipline myself and not watch episodes of Call My Agent! (set in Paris no less - and very enjoyable it is too) in the evenings. Aaaaanywaaay, Montmartre is rather high up innit, so lots and lots of stairs to climb.

Like I said - lots and lots of stairs. And pretty light.

When you travel, do you play the game where you pick a house that you would like to move into? We did. This was my pick. Wonder what it was like on the inside...

My friend Z was curious to see Sacre Coeur again (last time she saw it was on a school trip when she was 14), and from having walked around quiet and empty streets we literally turned a corner and hit touristville head on. We spent about 10 mins there and hurried away quickly.

Can't remember who this bust (see what I did there?) is of, but it seems her boobs are quite popular.

We kept exploring the neighbourhood and came across this gorgeous flower bed; spring is surely the prettiest season, non?

There were lots of magnifique houses in this mews. I broke the rules of the house game and bagsied one here too 😁

Didn't seek this mill out but happened to come across it by chance anyway. Tres cool.

These three, enjoying a moment in the sun. The lady on the right be stylin'!!

Nice bit of street art. I'm guessing the last bird in the bottom picture is saying "Batman"?

I really enjoyed our walk in Montmartre. Now let's hope it doesn't take me another five weeks to put another post up!

Rich details

After we saw the Hammershoi exhibition we checked out the rest of what Musée Jacquemart-André had to offer, and it didn't disappoint. It reminded me a lot of the Wallace Collection here in London; a fancy house with someone's (who was insanely wealthy and liked collecting art and artefacts) private collection now open to the public. It's so hard to imagine that people once lived there, as it does just feel like a museum when you're there. It's so awesome that the likes of me and you can now go and look at parts of cultural history whenever we want, and be transported to another world and life, and get a little breather from the here and now.