Last Days in Paris

After the weekend in Dijon, it was nice to come back to our flat in Paris. We spent the rest of the week doing very little but enjoying the warmer weather, walking around the different neighborhoods, and trying to take care of last minute details while we had free access to Internet.

We did get a chance to see JP a couple of times before we left, once for lunch at the Jardin des Plantes where he was working and another time at the Cite de la Musique where he has his main office. Maybe half of the museum was closed for renovations but JP was able to escort us through that area and a tour of his workshop. The museum offers a great collection of instruments that have fallen out of use in more recent times.



There was also a fascinating exhibit on the tools used in promote virtuosity in young performers when speed and agility were greatly prized. Check out the different ways you can widen the spaces between a person's fingers.



One of my favorite sections, however, was the twentieth century musical instruments. This exhibit showed the shift from acoustic to electronic. This area had these gigantic boards with knobs on them that allowed musicians various ways to distort sound. Jacob really wanted to play one.



Continuing on the vein of music, Jacob had made several connections in Paris and one of the last things we did there was to attend the Placard Headphones Festival in a squat on the outskirts of the city where Jacob got a chance to DJ a set. The squat was held by this artists' community that had moved from a building in Belleville. The artists were having an open studio and block party in conjunction with the Placard Festival.



The space where for the Festival was this old modular home from the 1960s.



It was Jacob's second excursion as a DJ, and I thought that it was pretty good. Everyone really enjoyed the music.



And then it was frantic packing and last minute tasks before we set off for Italy.