A Border, Picasso, music and a burger

We started the day with a visit to the Musée National Picasso-Paris...and on the way we spotted a Parisien Border Terrier!  I followed him like I was paparazzi, but the best I could snap - without looking seriously crazy - was a shot from behind!  Fi, Paul and Ruby...this one's for you.

Back to Picasso...the Musée re-opened in October 2014 after closing for renovation in 2008.  I visited the Musée in 2007 and loved it, and when Brent and I went to visit in 2008, it had closed the day before.  Brent has been waiting, waiting, waiting for the doors to re-open, so we were excited to visit today.

The renovation has opened up the internal spaces of the Hôtel Salé, a glorious 'hotel particulier' with soaring white walls and white concrete pillars, and the exhibition space is set over five floors.  The lower level gives you access to the garden, and there is a rooftop café on one of the upper levels.

The collection of the Musée began with a gift by Picasso on his death of his personal art collection, some of which are on display - Max Ernst, Matisse, Cézanne are some I remember from today.  In 1973 the inheritance tax on Picasso's estate was paid as a "dation" - a law introduced in France in 1968 that allowed the payment of inheritance tax by way of artworks, in exceptional cases where the art contributes to the cultural heritage of France.  5,000 works were passed to the Musée as "dation", and this occurred again following the death of Picasso's second wife Jacqueline.  The collection comprises paintings, mixed media works, lino prints, drawings, letters, photos, sketches, sculptures and a short film playing on rotation - Le Mystère Picasso (1956), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with Claude Renoir as director of photography.

We split the visit with an interval in the garden...a coffee in the sun...this is what holidays are for!

My favourite works today were Picasso's Nu au bouquet d'iris et au miroir, Chouette dans un intérieur and Max Ernst's Bird in a forest.  Brent's favourite was one of Picasso's lino cut interpretations of Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe.

We will miss the 30th anniversary exhibition of the Musée starting in October this year, but there's one we'd like to see that's planned for Autumn 2017...so we've put it on the travel calendar...

Then it was off to our favourite streets of the Bastille for a visit to Heartbeat Vinyl, with dinner planned at Starvin' Joe burgers.  We noticed huge changes in the area, although some familiar spots remain - many streets have lost their grunge and are now home to boutiques of upcoming designers and many more cool cafes and bars.  It's still a fun area and there's a weekend festival at the end of September with lots going on in the boutiques, the cafes and in the streets - which I hope we can get to.  The Bastille is still one of our favourite areas in Paris...and I felt pretty hip myself sitting at the front of Starvin' Joe's having a burger and a beer!