If I were in Paris... Friday, November 26 (late!)

I missed the last two week's of this round-up, so this is a slight catch-up post. I know we were all too busy with eating turkey and spending Christmas dollars to miss it.

Today in Paris it is nearly freezing (34 degrees F),so I would opt for indoor happy places.

I would definitely try to get tickets to LULU, by Frank Wedekind, playing at La Colline, in the 20th. This is a brand-new production of the play and the production photos look great. There are two English-subtitle performances coming up. Wedekind began this play in 1892 and finished it in 1913, thereby spanning the entire period of early modernism/abstract theatre.  Most famously, this was translated into film by G.W. Pabst, starring the incomparable actress Louise Brooks. This production looks to be using the 1960s as the erotic background.

Overiew from website: "In a world where eroticism seems to have become a common law, no man can resist Lulu, even if death is the consequence of pleasure.... In Lulu’s story, the enchanting eros, promise of happiness, ends up turning to trash. The grotesque accents Wedekind valued so much echo till the very last tragic burst of the plot. It is this vim and the combative strength of this writing Stéphane Braunschweig will nourish his staging of the “monstrous tragedy” with."

Besides that, I would definitely be tempted to go see the windows (surely up by now!) at the major department stores. Just as in American, Galleries Lafayette, Printemps, and Bon Marche come up with something brilliant as their theme and decorate inside and outside to the fullest extent of the law. Here's an example from 2008:

Stunning.

Given, too, that this is not a time for tourism, I would certainly enjoy longer, less crowded trips to the Louvre, the d'Orsay, and any other museum usually so crowded in the summer or Christmas time that visits are painful. Now, there would be room to stroll, linger, and visit those odd little rooms that do not hold famous treasures.

I would definitely be interested in the current exhibition at the Musee de Cluny, the premier medieval museum in Paris, on "Out of Gold and Fire: Art in Slovakia at the End of the Middle Ages." This is the kind of event one can see in Paris that in the US people would simply ignore. Again, with 60 different works--as well as mthe museum's superb gift shop--this would make for a lovely afternoon's visit. Followed by a walk through the Jardins de Luxembourg and a glass of wine or cup of hot cocoa on the Rue des Rennes, while staring at the windows. Even with the cold, this walk--with frequent stops--would allow one to get fresh air, exercise, hot cocoa, and see medieval treasures.... what more could one ask?