Journées du patrimoine

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted, but what better moment to get back in the swing of things than the Journées du patrimoine?

Confession: I've never been in Paris for a Journées du patrimoine.

But, if I were there this year, here's my wish list of things to see. It would probably require teleportation and line-jumping skills to see everything.

1) Government ministries:

-- The Ministry of Culture (Immeuble des Bons-enfants). The Culture Ministry has moved to new digs recently. The building looks awfully cool.

-- Ministere de la cooperation (Hotel de Montesquiou). I have no idea what the Ministry for Cooperation even does, but if the hotel de Montesquiou is the former digs of the Belle Epoque dandy Robert de Montesquiou, friend of Proust and one of the inspirations for the dandy in A Rebours by Huysmanns, I'm there! Maybe there will be a jewel-encrusted turtle crawling around on the oriental rugs ...

-- Ministere de l'Economie et des finances (Quai de Bercy). I am not sure how I feel about this massive rectangular block, but it was designed by Paul Chemetov and Borja Huidobro, people I respect. I just want to see what's inside ...

-- The Hotel de Ville de Paris. Actually this isn't very high on the list since I've been inside part of it, at least to the Bibliothèque administrative de la ville de Paris. If I were more adventurous I would totally have gotten "lost" and wandered, relying on broken French and a brandished "carte de lecteur" to extricate myself from any sticky situations. Next time?

2) All things Le Corbusier

--Le Corbusier's atelier (16th arrondissement)

-- Fondation Le Corbusier/Maison La Roche (16e)

-- Villa Savoie (Issy?)

-- Cité du Refuge/Armée du Salut (13e)

3) Parks and Gardens

--Parc de Sausset (Aulnay-sous-bois). Yeah, yeah, *that* Aulnay. The park is supposed to be really nice ... and its landscape architect, Michel Corajoud, is giving tours HIMSELF. What I wouldn't give...

-- Vaux-le-Vicomte (Melun). Le Notre, Le Brun, and Le Vau, before Versailles. Purists like this one better.

This is not to mention the walking tours of architecture in the Paris region (Boulogne-Billancourt in the 30's, for example) or the new Cité de l'Architecture et du patrimoine in the Palais de Chaillot, or even the new Musée des arts premiers at the Quai Branly. Or the churches, or the former Mont-de-Piété-- the municipal pawn shop!!

http://www.journeesdupatrimoine.culture.fr/