Paris, parc Monceau: Guy de Maupassant

It was difficult to decide which of three photos to use for today's blip: the losing candidates were photos of the square des Batignolles and the garden of the Palais-Royal. However, they were equally worthy candidates, so a few words about them are apposite.


Les Batignolles

This is a district in the north east of Paris, fairly close to the gare Saint-Lazare, the Paris terminus for trains to and from Normandy.

In French, a "square" (borrowed from the English) is a fenced and landscaped area in a town, a place to be enjoyed by the general public. The little Square des Batignolles is delightful - how could it not be? - one of its many attributes being a small, round orangery. This houses an orange tree, and the tree bears a single orange.

In addition, a winding path in the square is named allée Barbara, in memory of the singer-songwriter who I discovered had spent some of her early years in Batignolles. (One of the musical greats of the 20th century, but unknown in Britain: she was just too French.)

The Barbara connection almost won the blip competition by itself, but ......


The garden of the Palais-Royal

A place steeped in history and intrigue. Here Richelieu governed France, the French revolution was born, and the writer Colette spent her last years. If you can find one of the entrances to the garden, you will soon succumb to its charms and discover how very difficult it is to leave.


And so to the winner: parc Monceau

You may have already read about or seen this park. If you have read Edmund de Waal's "The Hare with the Amber Eyes", you may recall that Charles Ephrussi lived at 81 rue de Monceau and frequented the park. If you have seem the French film "Tell No One" (based on Harland Coben's book), the park was used as the setting of a key scene.

This large public garden has known many changes over the centuries. What y0u see today is the mid to late 19th century version.

The park has six marble statues, five of them portraying literary or musical notables: Chopin, the playwright Alfred de Musset, the comic playwright Edouard Pailleron, the composer Charles Gounod, and the writer Guy de Maupassant. All five of these statues contrive to include feminine admirers of their subjects. In the photographed statue, the lady beneath Maupassant is said to be "dreaming after reading one of his books".

Maupassant was a Norman and an incisive, witty writer about both country and town life, an early master of the short story. And he would have just loved this statue!

I salute Maupassant also for writing: "I left Paris and France because in the end the Eiffel Tower annoyed me too much."