L'Orchestre de l'Académie de Musique

One of Silke's few regrets (although there are some others) about not being in Calgary this year was not being able to play with the Calgary Youth Orchestra (CYO).  She is on the CYO mailing list, and every time she saw what they are playing, she exclaimed that it wasn't fair, and that she wanted to play that music too!  The Erik Satie conservatory orchestra is a fine level for Jerome, and exciting for him because it is a complete orchestra with woodwinds and brass, but it was not up to Silke's level.  I pulled her out of the conservatory orchestra (which entailed some small amount of drama) and we started looking for other options.   Emmanuel Emerich recommended l'orchestre de l'académie de musique.  He not only recommended it, he also talked to the conductor to arrange an audition.  Which was a good thing, because the minimum age is nominally 18.  L'académie de musique is not for professional musicians, nor even for those who are studying music at the university level.  The conductor, Jean-Philippe Sarcos, founded it to promote classical music in the younger generation, and particularly in the decision-makers of tomorrow.  The orchestra is intended for those university students who have graduated from the conservatory system (roughly equivalent to an ARCT in Canada), but are now pursuing other studies and other careers.  It provides them a chance to keep playing their instrument at a high level, and to stay connected with classical music.  In addition to the orchestra, their are choirs, with over 300 singers altogether.  The choirs welcome all levels, but provide a quite rigorous training, even for beginners.  Anyway, you want to know if Silke got in.  She did!  (Yes Jeff, with the first violins :)   She had a rehearsal tonight (Monday), three and a quarter hours.  (There are also Saturday rehearsals.)  It was midnight before she got home and got to bed.  We will see how she survives the week after that.  But she is incredibly excited about it.

l'orchestre de l'académie de musique au Cirque d'Hiver

Anyway, you can hear the orchestra, and see why Silke is so excited about it.  A few years ago they did a production of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana for French TV, which was also shown on the BBC.  Someone recorded it from TV and put it on youtube, so here it is (the sound quality is decent, except for a slight lag between the picture and the sound)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LzMtqcI-nI

(The shots of Paris in this video are fun for us.  Name the place!)

Here is their fall program: http://www.academie-de-musique.com/-actualite-2008-2009- .  (Yes, I know the link contains "2008-2009" but it does in fact link to this fall's program.)

I don't think we are going to be hearing any more regrets from Silke about not being able to play with the CYO this year.

A picture at the Louvre

Nope, it's not a photo of the Mona Lisa taken by holding a iPhone up above the crowd.  Sorry.  There are several those taken every minute, but sadly we're not posting one here.  Instead, here is a picture of us in front of an advertising banner.  30,000 works of art on display, and we take just one photo of  advertising.  Why?  Because it's kind of humorous, and because it's for Carte Louvre Famille.  And we have one of those.  A year's family pass to the Louvre, which is a 10 minute walk away.  How cool is that?

Thanks to Mrs. Agopian doing a wonderful art history program with Silke last year, Silke recognized a number of works today.  She was pretty much jumping up and down to see them in real life.  (So was Jerome, but he was just trying to get a view over the heads of the crowd.)

If you really want a photograph of the Mona Lisa, you can find really excellent ones on the Louvre site: http://www.louvre.fr/oeuvre-notices/portrait-de-lisa-gherardini-epouse-de-francesco-del-giocondo .

By the way, at the end of the school year, one of the exams that Silke will have is an art history exam.  There is no separate art history course, instead the material is spread across several subjects, French, History, Art and Music classes.  The exam is oral.  She needs over the course of the year to prepare an art history notebook, which she will hand to the examiner, who look through it and then ask her questions about the material that she has prepared, and Silke has to be prepared to answer and to speak intelligently about art history.

Help Jerome pick a statue for art class

Jerome has to take a photo of a statue to art class.  I think they might be drawing the one they bring from the photograph.  Here are some possibilities:

Choice A

This is a monument at place Saint-Michel .  Lucifer is having a bad day.

Choice B

The above figures are cool, but probably pretty hard to draw.  However on either side are dragons.  These are easier to draw, and they're more exciting for an 11 year old boy.

Choice C

Dragons still too hard to draw?  No problem.  What about this one from les Tuileries?  It's... um... dunno actually what it is.

What's your choice?  (Jerome ended up deciding to take photos of all 3 to art class.)

Vélib

Carolyn has always loved commuting by bike.  It keeps her fit and sane.  -20 and snowing was never enough to stop her riding her bike in Calgary.  Paris has this wonderful bike-sharing program called Vélib, which you've probably heard about.  It's fantastic, with 1900 stations in Paris.  Carolyn even has an app that shows, in real time, how many bikes are available at nearby stations, or, if dropping off a bike, how many free slots.  Carolyn just has to swipe her card, which is the same as her transit pass, and she can take a bike.  There's a small annual fee, but no charge each time to use a bike, as long as it is returned within 30 minutes.  Most of her commute is along the Seine.

Carolyn on a Vélib bicycle

A Vélib station

The view on Carolyn's morning commute

Jerome learns to tie his shoes by watching a TED talk

This is not a post about Paris, except that I mention how dirty the streets are.  I bought Jerome a pair of gym shoes that he needed for gym class.  Dedicated shoes for gym class are required, because the gym floor would get rather disgusting if you wore your outdoor shoes in the gym.  Coincidentally, tonight Silke and I were visiting someone from who is married to a Japanese woman.  He mentioned, while providing us with slippers to wear inside, à la japonaise, that every time he returns from Japan, he forgets to look where he is stepping in the Parisian street.  Yuck.  Anyway, about the shoes for Jerome, I neglected to notice that we picked out running shoes with laces.  This is an important detail, because once, a few years ago, I tried to teach Jerome how to tie shoelaces.  The outcome of which was, we thereafter only bought him only shoes with velcro fasteners.  So the day before Jerome's gym class, Carolyn notices that his gym shoes have laces.  Brief panic, then she then has the flash of genius, to see if there is a TED talk about tying your shoes.  Jerome has nearly perfect retention of anything he has ever seen in a TED talk.  It turns out, there is such a TED talk.  So now Jerome can tie his laces.  By the way, you are probably tying your laces wrong, so you should watch it too:  http://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_how_to_tie_your_shoes.html .

Rue de Rome

In Paris, if you want anything music-related, you go to rue de Rome.  The whole length of the street is stores related to music.  Violin shops, piano shops, stores specializing in saxophones or contrabass, music bookstores, anything!  I have no idea how you choose a luthier.  In Calgary, there are two good luthiers in the city.  Here you stand on the corner of rue de Rome and there are luthiers as far as you can see up the street.

One of many luthiers on rue de Rome

Decoratively carved contrabass bridges

Public drinking fountains with carbonated water

This is a public drinking fountain with chilled carbonated water:

I knew these existed, but we weren't out looking for one.  We were just out for a stroll along la promenade plantée when we came across it.  La promenade plantée is a former metro viaduct, now converted to an elevated garden.  The original metro is now underground.  La promenade plantée is 4.5 km long, and it passed through several gardens along the way.  Gardens are one of the most attractive things about Paris.  There are the large famous ones of course, Jardin du Luxembourg and les Tuileries, but there are countless small charming public gardens, all well-frequented by Parisians.  It wasn't always like this.  In the 17th century there were apparently zero public gardens on the right bank.  So where did they come from?  Former palaces, every one.  Even les Tuileries was formerly a palace and its grounds - must have been a mighty big palace.  And at least part of today's le Jardin du Luxembourg was formerly the grounds of a palace belonging to the de Medicis.  But mostly they were smaller, only half a block size or so.  All of these palaces were destroyed by republicans (mostly burned) sometime during the revolution, or some time during the 19th century, which was a time of continual conflict between monarchists and republicans.  Some were of surpassing beauty it is said, and full of rare art.  But the gardens are better, if you're not aristocracy.  Actually, the central Paris of today is largely 19th century, a little is 18th century, and it is only the rare occasional building that is older.  Such as le cathédral Notre Dame de Paris.  Which is awesome in any case, and stupefying when you know it dates to 1163.

Don't believe me that Paris has fountains with sparkling water?  http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2013/09/11/sparking_water_fountains_italian_and_french_cities_have_them_can_we.html