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Celebrating
travel, culture, language and l'art de vivre |
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Archived ArticlesGray Paris is Paris In his 50’s classic “I love Paris,” songwriter Cole Porter endorses Paris in almost every season and weather: I love Paris in the springtime, Like Porter, I am a fan of the place in high season or low, rain or shine. And let’s be frank, there are a lot of days when there just is no shine. London has its fog, and Paris has its gris (gray).
The Impressionist Claude Monet captured an entire palette of blue-grays in his many renderings of the Gare St. Lazare (St. Lazare train station) in the 1870’s. Puffs of steam billowing through the station plus the moody Paris skies gave the artist a tonal field day. Fellow painter Gustave Caillebotte tried his hand at the same game in his work Place de l’Europe: Temps de Pluie (Paris Street: Rainy Day).*
If you’re a sun lover as I am, it’s easy to write off the gloomy couleur (color) and consider booking a TGV ticket down to sunny Provence.* But over time, I realized that ‘gray Paris is Paris.’ C’est comme ça (it’s just like that). I also found that Paris gray is the perfect backdrop when real color shows up. Splashes of hot pink cyclamen fill window boxes in winter on the street le Faubourg St. Honoré. Roses explode with reds, oranges and yellows in the gardens of the Musée Rodin (Rodin Museum) in summer.* Red banners adorn the entrance of the Musée Jacquemart-André (Jacquemart-André Museum) year round.* And when a man or woman walks down the street wearing a gorgeously colored scarf, it makes you want to run up and hug them. Now, I don’t get disappointed when la météo
(the weather report) predicts a day that is nuageux (cloudy)
or couvert (overcast). Instead, I throw an umbrella in my
sac (handbag), set off for a stroll and savor the rich, gray
tapestry that is Paris. * Caillebotte’s Paris Street: Rainy Day is part of the collection
of The Art Institute of Chicago. Versions of Monet’s St. Lazare
train station can be found at the Musée d’Orsay
in Paris and at the National Gallery in London.  |
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Events
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Or,
should I say its many grays? When you start to look closely, overcast
Paris—both the city and the sky above it—is a kaleidoscope
of grays…from cool blue, lavender and charcoal tints to warmer
beige and tan shades. The color scheme changes with the light, the
amount of cloud cover and the time of day. Paris landmarks such
as la Seine (the river running through the city), Haussmann
era apartment buildings, and stray seagulls from Normandy naturally
lend themselves to the gray parade. 
Parisians
also comply to match this somber panorama. Tante Marguerite,* a
noteworthy restaurant on a quiet street in the seventh arrondissement,
displays a chic, gray façade. Clothing shops carefully lay
out a gray-toned rainbow of cashmere sweaters when the first frost
hits. Even the Vélib (the free bikes residents use
to ride around the city) are a nice, solid gray.