Paris - More bits and pieces

There is so much of interest in Paris that it is often difficult to keep it in any kind of logical order so, naturally, we need to present a "bits and pieces" blog from time to time.

Just around the corner from where we are living, there is a film school and it is one of the most famous in the world.  It is the Ecole nationale supérieure des métiers de l'image et du son or La fémis. It is the French state film school. FEMIS is an acronym for Fondation Européenne pour les Métiers de l’Image et du Son. The school  offers courses balanced between artistic research, professional development and technical training. Its alumni have won three of the world's most prestigious film prizes - Cannes Film Festival's Golden Palm, Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion and Berlin International Film Festival's Golden Bear - ten times, making it the most rewarded film school in the world. 

Entrance to the Film School

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All over Paris you can see lovely green fountains.  These are free drinking fountains that were erected at the end of the nineteenth century. Wallace fountains are public drinking fountains designed by Charles-Auguste Lebourg that appear in the form of small cast-iron sculptures scattered throughout the city. They are named after the Englishman Richard Wallace, who financed their construction. They are recognized worldwide as one of the symbols of Paris. The four caryatids represent kindness, simplicity, charity and sobriety. Each one is different from her sisters, by the way she bends her knees and by where her tunic is tucked into her blouse.

Wallace Fountain near Shakespeare and Co.

This week Paris celebrated VE day.  Flags were flying and people were marching, but a more sober aspect could be seen at the hundreds of monuments to the dead, particularly the partisans and the deportees, which seemed to sprout flowers all over the city.

Memorial

In our arrondissment, in the Marie, there were flowers laid at the monument celebrating those who had died during the wars in which France, and particularly the citizens of Montmartre had participated.

Monument in the Marie

The Marie itself is a lovely building, particularly inside.

Interior of the Marie