Jardin d'Acclimatation et Fondation Louis Vuitton

Last night our neighbours on the floor above had a dinner party...now, we love experiencing the French joie de vivre, but, in a 19th century building, that means creaky parquet flooring is the only thing separating us from them, and every footstep or chair movement sounds like huge possums are active in our ceiling!

Long story short, we are a little fatigué aujhourd'hui...so, with a beautiful blue sky forecast, we decided on a day in the Jardin d'Acclimatation, which is part of the Bois de Boulogne located on the edge of the rather affluent 16th arrondissement.

The Jardin d'Acclimatation is a testament to the vision of Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps, the head gardener of the City of Paris in the mid 1800s.  He redesigned some of the most beautiful parcs in Paris - in addition to the Bois de Boulogne, the Bois de Vincennes, Luxembourg Gardens, Parc Monceau, Parc Montsouris and Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

The drawcard for us in the Jardin is the Fondation Louis Vuitton.  The gallerie is currently 'inter-exposition', which means many of the rooms are closed while the new exhibitions are installed.  We had seen the previous exhibitions and, while we could have paid a reduced entry fee to enjoy the gallerie structure - which is amazing - and the current installation by Daniel Buren, we were happy to spend the day in the park and view the installation from the exterieur of the building.

The installation 'in situ' by French artist Daniel Buren is titled 'Observatory of Light'.  The installation is an array of coloured filters applied to the 12 glass 'sails' of the building - a play of colours, projections, reflections, transparencies and contrasts, showing the building in a new light.

It was probably gorgeous from the inside, but, in our sense of laissez-faire today, we were happy to lay in the sun and contemplate the Observatory of Light from the outside.