The new neighborhood

After a perfect train ride down to Arles yesterday, today was our first day to really spend any time checking out the new neighborhood.

Although we are within one block of an historic, religious site, Alyscamp, where Van Gogh and Gaugin both painted in 1888, we are also now quite close to the new titanium, cement, and glass tower designed by Frank Gehry.  It still isn't finished, and I try not to look at it, but today I walked down to and past it in order to view it in context.

Looking eastward

Looking westward

The tower is named Luma Arles and it is built on an abandoned railroad yard.  Many of the other railroad buildings in the complex are being redone to create huge art studio, gallery, and maker spaces.  This is definitely up-scaling the old railroad yard, but the trains still run on the adjacent tracks.

The base of the tower and more of the re-imagined railroad yard

The railroad and more of the re-imagined old rail yard

Fortunately, one doesn't have to walk too far to return to looking at more classic architecture and designs.

Top of a more traditional building nearby

Ground floor of the same building

Soothing relief for the eyes after looking at the Gehry tower

Classic door pull

A trip to the Opera

Today we went inside the beautiful Garnier Opera house.  However, we didn't see an opera.  We attended a ballet performance.  And the dancing was quite amazing.  But beyond the beautiful production (which even included rain), we were enchanted by the inside of the building, especially the red-velvet performance hall.

The building was designed by Garnier as a grand theater of the belle epoque.  According to Rick Steves Paris guide, it was completed in 1875, although the date above the stage is 1669.

The spectacle of this building can't easily be captured in one post, so I will just concentrate on the magnificent ceiling.  It is a tribute to the composers of operas and ballet music painted by Marc Chagall.

The whole painted ceiling

Berlioz

Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky (left), Giselle (on right)

Chagall has painted an image of the opera building in red.  He has signed the piece, dated 1964.

Fidelio by Beethoven (on the inner circle of the ceiling)

Matisse at the Pompidou

Today was chilly, 39 degrees when we headed out into it.  And a bit of rain was falling.  So the perfect thing to do on a chilly, damp, gray day is head to a museum to find some color.

At the Centre Pompidou, we looked at modern art for a couple of hours.  There was a new display of work by Henri Matisse, and we hadn't seen many of the pieces.  It's always nice to experience an old artist in a new way.

Here are photos of a few of the Matisse pieces we viewed today.

Portraits:

Young girl with black cat (1910)

Portrait of Greta Prozor, 1916

La blouse roumaine, 1940

Nudes:

The dream, 1935

Nude with oranges, 1951

Bronzes:

Bronze nude, 1909

Bronze nude series, 1909-1936 (?)

Springtime

In Paris, of course.

Today is our first full day in Paris.  The weather forecast for the weekend is pretty chilly, so we opted to go cycling today.  We rented bikes at a shop about 2 blocks from our hotel, and rode along the Seine starting on the right bank, then crossing over to the left bank.

Our goal was to ride to the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower).  We figured out the route last year, but hadn't ridden up into the Parc du Champ de Mars (the big park in front of the tower).  Today we rode into the Parc.  The weather was nice for cycling.

The first photos are of statues on the pont d'lena, the bridge across the Seine, next to the Tour Eiffel.

These two photos were taken in the Parc du Champ de Mars.

And the view from a pedestrian bridge across the river.

Our last day taking photos underwater

We snorkeled again this morning, and found ourselves frequently accompanied by a pair of lined butterflyfish.   They were quite friendly, and were often too close to take photos of.

Bori and the lined butterflyfish

We made a couple of attempts to take an underwater selfie.  Since you can't see what you are aiming at, it's a little harder than you might think.

Aloha!

This year, we have seen lots of beautiful tropical fish, and tried to photograph many of them.  Some were incredibly hard to catch up with.  Others were kind and posed for us.  Here are a few interesting fish to last you until next season.

Redlip parrotfish

Bird wrasse

Rockmover wrasse

Ukelele festival

Today, after swimming in the ocean up north, we stopped at Waikoloa for their annual ukelele festival.  We had been enormously entertained 2 years ago by the large scale and avid participation of Hawaiians in performing the music and interpretive dance.  Today, there was only a single performance stage, and during the time we watched, it was a single Hawaiian playing lounge music on an electric ukelele, with the accompaniment of a music synthesizer.  It was definitely not the Hawaiian music we were expecting.

A big crowd showed up, and we saw lots of people carrying their ukelele cases on their backs.  There were clinics on how to build ukeleles and lessons available.

 

Chasing butterflies

Make that, chasing butterflyfish.  We have the great fortune to frequently encounter 6 or 8 different butterflyfish as we snorkel here in Hawaii.  They are lovely fish, often in various patterns of yellow, white, and black.  As a group, they look like an art class assignment.  Several species have the same Hawaiian name.

Racoon butterflyfish (kikakapu)

Fourspot butterflyfish (lauhau)

Ornate butterflyfish (kikakapu)

Threadfin butterflyfish (kikakapu)