June 15: This apartment, at 21 Rue Maître-Albert on the Left Bank in Paris, is what we rented it for 10 nights recently for $1,550.
June 13: I’ve always admired the great French street photographers such as Robert Doisneau and Henri Cartier-Brisson. One of the books I bought in Paris on our recent trip as a gift to my daughter, Kristi, is titled “PARIS Mythique:100 PHOTOS DE LEGENDE,” taken by these photographers and others. I shot this this picture of a woman striding along, her dog on a leash (the French LOVE their dogs, which unlike in Minnesota are allowed to enter stores and even restaurants), obviously on her way somewhere. She’s carrying a helmet, so she’s headed from or to the place she parked her bicycle or motor scooter.
June 13: Dorette, her granddaughter, Avery Dusterhoft, and I spent more time in the Louvre than in any other art museum we visited during our recent visit to Paris. And yup, along with hordes of others, we took a peek at Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” protected now behind bullet proof glass. I’m old enough to have seen it hanging on a wall like other paintings, but criminals attempting to steal it and nut cases to damage it put an end to that. Actually, it’s not my favorite work of art in the Louvre. That’s this sculpture, Michelangelo’s mysterious “Dying Slave.” I can’t explain why it draws me in, but it does.
June 12: Before traveling to Paris recently with Dorette and her granddaughter, Avery, I reread Marcel Proust’s novel within the novel, “Swann In Love.” It’s set in Paris and is an excellent introduction to one of the world’s great literary works without committing yourself to all 3,031 pages. One day, as we walked from the Arc de Triomphe toward the Eifel Tower, I was taken aback by this street sign. Odette de Crécy had lived in this neighborhood! OK, I know she’s a fictional character, but I still glanced around. She was nowhere to be seen.
June 12: Dorette and I first saw “Cadenzas d’amour” (love locks) attached to bridge railings when we visited Paris four years ago. Couples emblazon them with sentimental messages, lock them to a bridge grating, and toss the key into the Seine. The authorities tried to end the fad, but as this picture I took recently shows, it’s still going on. Go figure.
June 11: During our recent trip to Paris, I reflected about the long friendship that has existed between France and the United States. The Statue of Liberty in New York, as every schoolkid knows, was a gift from France symbolizing this close relationship. I think students still learn how important France was during the Revolutionary War, when it helped the U.S. achieve independence from British rule. And, of course, we repaid the kindness during two world wars. So it’s not surprising to see names such as Avenue de New York, Avenue President Wilson, Avenue President Kennedy and Place des Etats-Unis. As well as statues dedicated to Americans such as Thomas Jefferson and, pictured here, George Washington. Vive la France! I can’t wait to visit you again.
June 10: I prefer a sunny Paris, but even here rain, lightning and thunder must occasionally occur. Dorette Kerian and her grandaughter, Avery Dusterhoft, walking ahead of me had worn their wet weather jackets on this somewhat moist day. I, on the other hand, needed to put down my umbrella to take this shot.
Bloomington, Minn., photographer Dave Vorland, along with Dorette Kerian and her granddaughter, Avery Dusterhoft, recently returned to the U.S. after a visit to Paris, “the City of Lights” (“la Ville des Lumières”). Dave has been to Paris several times, so he knows his way around quite well, as is evidenced by these beautiful shots, included in the second of two galleries about the trip.
