Paris Day Trips: Lyon (Part Work)

Matt's visit three weeks ago wasn't just about galavanting around Paris - he came to get some research done as well. So early in the morning on his second day in town, we embarked on a research expedition to Lyon, a two-hour train ride from Paris.

Lyon is the second city of France, known for its rich history (it was the capital of Gaul under the Romans), its beauty (thanks in part to the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône rivers), and its gastronomy. But all that could wait until after we got some work done at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon, or Lyon Conservatory (second only in prestige to the CNSM de Paris).


The Conservatoire is located in a former convent, built in the 17th century, that was appropriated during the Revolution and became a veterinary school. We spent all our time in the reading room, which was well-appointed, quiet, and provided easy access both to internet-enabled computers and listening stations, two things the BN's music library needs to work on.

Matt and I had come to the Lyon Conservatory's library because it houses a nearly-complete collection of scores formerly owned by Nadia Boulanger, a composer, concert pianist/organist, conductor, and famous composition teacher. We were interested in determining whether Boulanger had annotated scores of works by the composers we're studying (Matt is working on Mahler), either for conducting or teaching. It turns out that she only rarely wrote in her scores, and frequently only to indicate mistakes in the editions. But in a few cases, it looked like she had done some analysis (perhaps with a student), and we noticed other interesting characteristics of certain scores.

For instance, in this score of a Beethoven piano concerto, Boulanger wrote in instrument names, probably to help her cue various performers while she was conducting. Notice also the heavy wear on the corners of the pages - this is something she played through or conducted a great number of times. Finally, we realized that some of the scores (like this one) had been bound after purchase, which might indicate that the score was in worse shape, or that someone wanted to protect it. Believe it or not, all of these details can prove useful to a musicologist . . . but ultimately Matt and I didn't find too much that was useful among all the scores we studied in Lyon. Still, we had to look, just to make sure.

Not at all discouraged by our findings (or lack thereof), we took a little time to enjoy the city's gastronomic offerings and lovely old city. To be continued tomorrow . . .

Paris Day Trips: Lyon (Part Play)

Yesterday I described the work Matt and I did during a day trip to Lyon. Today, I focus on the other focus of our trip: food.

Knowing that we'd need sustenance to keep focused during this long day of research, I solicited restaurant recommendations from several Lyon natives. What came back was a suggestion that we try any restaurant run by Paul Bocuse, perhaps the 20th century's most famous chef. His three-star restaurant, L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges, is both outside the city and outside our price range. But there are also four Bocuse brasseries in the city, each serving food from a different culinary tradition. Named after cardinal directions, Le Nord offers "traditional" cuisine, Le Sud Mediterranean cuisine, L'Est seafood, and L'Ouest "island" cuisine (as geographically disparate as Japan, the Antilles, and Majorca). With fixed-price menus around 22 euros, we couldn't help but try two, lunching at Le Nord and dining at Le Sud.


Le Nord was pretty great. We both got soup to start, the name of which escapes me. My salmon (bottom left) was perfectly cooked, and the cream-based sauce was delish. Matt's magret de canard (bottom center) was a little dry, but again the sauce and potatoes were excellent. I ordered the moelleux au chocolat for dessert, which was dramatically melty inside (as moelleux are wont to be).

I took a terrible picture of Matt's dessert, which he wanted to describe himself: "At Paul Bocuse's Brasserie le Nord, they were all out of one one [sic] of the prix-fixe desserts. So they offered us two a la carte desserts at no extra charge. I chose the Gaufres [waffles] with a hazelnut sauce. They were crispy and buttery." As you can see, the waffles also came with separate pots of molten dark chocolate and whipped cream. Yeah.


The most photogenic part of dinner at Brasserie du Sud was the tablesetting. We couldn't get as excited about dinner, in part because the 3-course menu offered many of the same things as at Brasserie du Nord, just cooked slightly differently (ie, there were salmon and duck dishes, and the desserts were almost exactly the same). But the food was still quite good, and if we hadn't been such gluttons and had just gone to "Le Sud" we would have been mighty satisfied.

Luckily there was the beauty of Lyon at night to appease us. It really is a great city, worthy of a visit much longer than a single day. Until next time, Lyon!

Cirque d'Hiver

In Paris, most of the historical "sights" are concentrated in the center and western third of the city. The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, tons of other museums and monuments, they're all jam-packed in one fairly small area, at least relative to the size of the entire city. That's because these are the older and posher areas; more was preserved when Baron Haussmann took his wrecking ball to various "insalubrious" neighborhoods in the 1860s. The east of the city has always been poorer, has been (and still is) home to various waves of immigrants, and seems more susceptible to ambitious urban renewal projects (like Haussmann's) that destroy vast swaths of housing, businesses, and landmarks. All of this exposition serves to highlight the improbability and wondrousness of the preservation of the Cirque d'Hiver.

First of all, a permanent building that primarily houses a circus? Who ever heard of such a thing? Parisians circa 1851, apparently, for that's when the Cirque Napoléon (after the Emperor who inaugurated it) was built. We haven't been inside, but I'm very curious to see what it looks like, since the building played host to the first "popular" concert series in Paris. (Initially conducted by Jules Pasdeloup, for whom the series was named, the concert series survives to this day.)

The Cirque d'Hiver surprises me every time I see it. And it reminds me of the otherwise consistent lack of similarly old, epic landmarks in eastern Paris. Can anyone think of anything I'm missing? (Besides the Gare de Lyon, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, the Porte at Nation, and Père Lachaise, which is a collection of tiny monuments rather than one big one . . .)

If you're walking down Boulevard du Temple from Place de la République, the Cirque d'Hiver will be on your left, in the 11th arrondissement, right next to the Filles du Calvaire métro station. Check it out!

Fête de la Saint-Patrick

No one seems to be celebrating around here (at least not in Belleville, which seems to have welcomed every ethnic and religious group but Irish Catholics), but that needn't stop us from paying hommage to St. Patrick, aka Sanctus Patricius, aka Naomh Padraig, on his feast day. So here's some green from our photo archive.

Barbie, Rue Dénoyez, all made-up for the St. Paddy's Day Parade

Park behind the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, 4e arr.

Lockers, Archives Nationales

Chinese New Year's Day Parade

Lobby, Hôtel Georges V

Completely unintelligible pedestrian sign, Lyon

Napoleon's "Camp" Bed, Fontainebleau

Wall tiles, Le Bon Marché

Design-y Lamps, 5e arr.

Happy St. Patrick's day!