Paris Opera - Palais Garnier

On Monday I posted a card of the Hippodrome in New York. Then I saw that this week's Sepia Saturday theme is theaters (or theatres, depending on where you live.) So, I decided to post a couple more, including the Frankfurt Opera house and La Scala. I will have additional theater-related posts over the next few weeks, but I'll intersperse them with others, because I know some of you have already had enough of opera and theaters. But today, we're off to Paris.

The Palais Garnier certainly dominates the focus of the Place de l'Opéra. The building housed the Paris Opera from 1875 until 1989, when the new larger Opéra Bastille was built. The Palais Garnier is now primarily used for ballet performances. I have visited the building and the Paris Opera Library-Museum, but I have never been to a performance there. I did see a performance of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Opéra Bastille in 2007, which was roundly booed by the audience, in part because of the modern reinterpretation and the spare set with its glaring gold backdrop.

Here's the Palais Garnier at the turn of the century. The card is embellished with lots of glitter, which unfortunately doesn't show up well on the scan.

And another view from decades later.

Here's the back of the first card, sent in 1906 to Cherry Morgan, staying at the Mount Hotel in Scarborough, England. The message reads:

Dear Cherry

We have put across the Channel. Some of the Channel was on ___of us Rough. Paris is very gay - hope you and your Ma are enjoying yourselves. Send love.

E.M. Costaline (?)

This is a post for Sepia Saturday, which is as entertaining as any theater. Click the box below to be transported.

Paris, not just in the spring

Paris anytime! I know people who swear that it's best to visit Paris in the dead of winter.  Others claim it's a good idea to visit Paris during the month of August when all the Parisians are somewhere else. Is it ever the wrong time to visit Paris? Whatever your preference, there's so much to see and do in Paris that it almost doesn't matter when you go. I would like to be there to hear the horse-drawn carriages on the Champs-Élysées, but I think I'm a little late.

I like the idea of traveling to Europe by ship instead of by plane too. It's not the norm these days, but I guess it can be done. I'll just dust off my steamer trunks.

The first card doesn't have a message on the back, but the second one does. Edith sent this card to Mr. and Mrs. W. Abbott in Chicago in 1930. Here's her message:

7-29

Dear Folks -

This is some town - and I don't mean maybe. Will have to have a good memory to remember all we have seen - Hope to get our tickets to sail tomorrow - oh, for a calm sea - 

Love to all -

Edith

All Roads Lead to Pastries

No matter which Paris avenue these gentlemen choose, they will definitely encounter a pastry shop. Chances are the pastries will be delicious.  They may even decide they want to go to several pastry shops and compare; I know someone who did that.

I was particularly enchanted with French macarons, those crunchy, chewy meringue-based cookies with the various fillings.  They have become popular in the United States now too, but I have yet to find a good one here, or at least any that compare in any way to the ones in France. In case you've never had one, macarons look like this. If you were just buying something based on appearance, you might never try one.

Renard Gregory's chocolate macaron is the best.

Then there are pastries based on the macaron, like these:

This is called an Ispahan, a magical creation that combines the flavors of rose and raspberry with litchi. One of them was from Ladurée and one was from Pierre Hermé. Although they were both excellent, one was better than the other. Unfortunately, I don't remember which.
Maybe it was the one from Pierre Herme. I suggest you try both!

To Amy from Paris

Today is Sepia Saturday, an opportunity for bloggers to share interesting old photos. Sepia Saturday is hosted by Alan Burnett, who also has a lively and entertaining blog entitled  News from Nowhere, and another blog (Fat Dog to the Big Apple) about a virtual walk across the United States with his dog, Amy.

Here is a lovely view of Paris from the turn of the century.

And here's the back of the card, which would appear to be addressed to Alan's dog.

The message reads:

The Little Palace was built for the Paris Exposition and is now a Museum of Modern Art.

Best wishes,

Mrs Hax (?)

From Paris to Miss Annette Markoe

L'avenue du Bois de Boulogne connects the Place Charles de Gaulle with the Bois de Boulogne, a park of almost 900 hectares designed by Baron Haussmann. It's a beautiful park, although it's not as idyllic as it used to be.  There is a fair amount of prostitution in the park now. In this early photo, it appears that it was an ideal place for a family promenade. As noted in one of the comments below, the avenue has been renamed Avenue Foch.

Although this is a lovely card, once again the real highlight is the recipient of the card.  The card was sent to Miss Annette Markoe on March 10, 1906 with love from Frank. Annette had an uncle Frank, so this could well have been from him. At the time, she would have been eight years old.

Annette was the daughter of James and Annette Markoe. Her mother was reported to have been a mistress of J.P. Morgan before she married  Dr. Markoe, J.P. Morgan's physician and close friend as well as a prominent surgeon. Although Dr. Markoe had not been married before,  his wife had previously married and divorced William Wetmore. The divorce proceedings and the alimony arrangements were decided by the New York Supreme Court and reported in the NY Times in 1890. Apparently Dr. Markoe's marriage to a divorcee with children was not considered scandalous enough to keep them out of the social pages. In addition to her previous children, they had only one child together - Annette.

In January, 1916,  a coming out party for Miss Annette Markoe was hosted by Mrs. C.C. Cuyler at Sherry's and reported in the New York Times. Annette and her family regularly appeared in the social pages of the New York Times, including for the event of Annette's 1918 marriage to William J. Schieffelin Jr., great grandson of William Vanderbilt, in St. George's Episcopal Church.  The newspaper article related how her father walked her down the aisle, described her dress in great detail, and listed all of the various attendants and their family ties. Two years later, her father, Dr. James Markoe, was shot to death in the same church by an escapee from the mental asylum who is thought to have mistaken him for J.P. Morgan Jr. (link to newspaper article here)

Annette Markoe Schieffelin and her husband had two children. The husband and both children preceded her in death, but when she died in 1997 at the age of 99, she left behind 8 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. Here's a link to her NY Times obituary.

I am curious as to what Annette's childhood house might have looked like. Whatever grand residence may have been there on West 55th Street near 5th Avenue was replaced by another building as early as 1920. Those midtown Manhattan residential areas have long since been replaced with commercial buildings and apartments, however the 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church (still standing), would have been visible from their house across the street back in 1906.

If you're interested in finding out more about the Morgans (and the Markoes by default), you may want to read Ron Chernow's House of Morgan. More recently, Jean Strouse has also written a book specifically about J.P. Morgan. Since Morgan died in 1913, there were very few people who knew him who were still alive, but she was able to interview Annette Markoe Schieffelin for the book.

For now, I must give up this story.  It's downright addictive. I started looking at the NY Times archives for C.C. Cuyler and Mrs. C.C. Cuyler and found more than enough interesting information for another post there, including C.C's death by a backwards-moving car in Biarritz in 1909 (his chauffeur was having trouble shifting from third gear to second.) Now I feel somewhat more justified in avoiding cars with stick shift.

Porte Saint-Martin - Paris, France

There's a lot going on here, everything from horse-drawn carriages and bicycle deliveries to street cleaning, some probable flirting, and a very nice beer advertisement in the upper right corner of the card.
Here's a view of the same location today, remarkably unchanged, except for the ubiquitous automobiles.

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Porte Saint-Martin was one of the symbolic entrances into 17th Century Paris. Although it served only an ornamental function, it was built on the site of a former tollgate. There was once a Metro station here at Saint-Martin. It was closed at the beginning of World War II and only briefly reopened before being shut down for good. The station still features the old porcelain advertisements, but the Metro doesn't stop here anymore. Here's a website that shows some interior shots of the phantom station.

Sacré-Cœur!

This Paris postcard shows a very early view of La Place de la Concorde. It's murky, but there's definitely something missing. What is it? Here's another view from 1912:

What is that thing in the background on the right? Why, it's Sacré-Cœur, located at the summit of the Butte Montmartre in Paris, the highest point in the city! Construction of the basilica began in 1875, but wasn't completed until 1914.

Here's another in-between view, where the basilica appears to be not quite complete. As a side note, the obelisk in the center of the square was a gift from Egypt back in 1833. It was placed in the square in the exact location where the guillotine had stood, the same guillotine that killed Queen Marie Antoinette, Princess Élisabeth of France, Charlotte Corday, Madame du Barry, Georges Danton, Maximilien Robespierre, and thousands of others.

Paris - Le Palais du Trocadéro

The Palais du Trocadéro was built for the 1878 World's Fair in the form of a large concert hall with two wings. It contained a large organ, the first to be installed in a concert hall in France. The organ was eventually moved to Lyon where it is still in use.

The Palais du Trocadéro, which was not particularly popular with the French, was demolished to make way for the new Palais de Chaillot for the Exposition Internationale of 1937.

This card was sent on August 10, 1918, three months before the end of World War I. The message reads:

Hello Mor:

Just to say that that just over here and still able to do my little share in this big thing. Regards to all the folks, I am

Eli

The card was also passed and stamped by censors and marked by the recipient as answered on 9/14/18.