Musee Rodin

Excellent collection of all your favourites: large castings, marquettes, marbles all jumbled around inside and in the grounds of a beautiful 18th century house at the back of Les Invalides. A cosy and intimate setting for works I've only ever seen in portentous places like the Cantor in Northern California, or at special exhibitions at the Royal Academy. Lovely garden too.

Very enjoyable and not expensive to visit - 10 Euros for two adults for everything including the current exhibition of 300 drawings (some racy enough to make Tracey Emin look tame), kids free, EU students under 25 free - so bit of a bargain for a family from one of France's non-state funded museums. Merci beaucoup.

http://www.musee-rodin.fr/

River of Stones - January 2012

Time to get excited again about paying attention to just one thing every day - join the river here http://www.writingourwayhome.com/p/river-jan-12.html.

My small stones will be posted on the Work - Gems page of this blog.

Saying Goodbye to George Whitman

Family, friends and the writers of Paris turned out today to say goodbye to George Whitman, founder of the world famous Shakespeare and Company, who died last week at the grand age of 98. 

He was buried at Pere Lachaise this afternoon following a beautiful service with eulogies from Jeanette Winterson and his daughter Sylvia and readings of Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas, So Long by Walt Whitman, George Himself by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and George's open letter The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart.

Without George's unfailing generosity there would be no Other Writers group for me to go to and I would never have met all my Parisian friends.

My happy life here is largely thanks to him.

Rock Hair - Paris

Certainly the grooviest hairdresser in Paris. Great cut, friendly staff, good music. Not cheap, but worth it for the experience. There are three branches: 7, Boulevard Beaumarchais, just next to Bastille metro and my local, plus at 68 Quai Jemmapes and 53 Rue Monge. One tip - they don't take cards, only cash or cheques and rather trustingly let me leave the salon to go to the cash point.

Gumbo Press

I have another new poem, Espresso or the best cup of coffee in the world, in the latest edition of Gumbo. You can read it here http://gumbopress.co.uk/wordgumbo/wordgumbo4.pdf

Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris

or Musee de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, has a wonderful representative collection of the last hundred or so years of mainly French art, especially good on Cubism, such as this Braque: 

It mounts special exhibitions (Georg Baserlitz at present), but the permanent collection is free to view. It is housed in the Palais de Tokyo which was built of the 1937 International Exhibition, a favourite haunt of skateboards of all ages; so if you hate art you can grab a coffee and watch the free entertainment  - middle-aged men practising tricks and teenagers laughing at them. 

An excellent way to spend a few hours on a Sunday and there was hardly anyone there today, unlike the super-crowded Pompidiou. A few more images to give you a feel for what's there:

http://www.mam.paris.fr/

Graffiti Project - latest

You have got to be joking  - St Paul, Paris.

Poetry News

My poem, The Card Box, is in this quarter's Poetry News, which has just been published.

http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/

Graffiti Project - latest

Konny Steding - wonderful woman - rue de Renard, just down the street from the Pompidiou Centre

http://www.konnysteding.de/Flash/start.htm

Roundyhouse

I have a new poem, Cairo 2011, in the latest edition of this magazine from South Wales. For information on how to buy a copy, go here http://www.benybont.co.uk/another/roundy.htm#rx

Graffiti Project - latest

Gregos, probably my favourite artist so far in Paris - a bit scary really and more famous for his faces such as

and

and

of which there are apparently hundreds around the city. For more go here http://www.gregosart.com/STREETART/Eng/HOME-PAGE.html

Graffiti Project - latest

I think these are by Invader (http://www.space-invaders.com/artworks.html), and/or his imitators, but you can never be sure as I haven't bought his Paris book.

Graffiti Project - latest

More Fred Le Chevalier - I told you he was everywhere