Les Flâneurs: La Danseuse

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Day 2 - St. Louis

The day began warm and party cloudy. Rain was suggested as a possibility for later in the afternoon but it never materialized.

After a leisurely morning in the Loaney household three of us — Susan, myself and Melissa as our tour guide — left Ballwin and headed into the city.

The first stop was the GatewayArch, the icon of St. Louis overlooking the Mississippi River. Located in an area once dominated by abandoned warehouses and rotting buildings the Arch is today surrounded by a gorgeous green space beneath which is an incredible museum documenting the history of St. Louis as well as how the Arch was constructed.

We parked near Busch Stadium (home of the St. Louis Cardinals) and walked the few blocks to the Arch and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

Susie and Melissa

the Arch presents so many photo opportunities!

entry to the Arch

a small sampling of the wonderful museum located beneath the Arch

standing in line waiting to board our assigned elevator capsule

capsule no. 6

waiting for the door to open

inside the capsule

at the top!

the views were spectacular, east across the river!

and west across the city looking toward Kansas

Busch Stadium

the Old Courthouse

there's really quite a lot of space at the top but the downward sweep of the floor can be a bit disconcerting

the stairwell near the top for exiting and boarding the capsules

the trip back down

Leaving the Arch we walked across the street to the Old Courthouse. Now a National Park, it houses several floors of exhibitions covering the specifics of the notorious Dred Scott case of 1857 as well as the larger issue of slavery and its impact on American society and politics.

facing the Arch is the Old Courthouse

inside the rotunda of the Old Courthouse

From the courthouse we made our way back to the car and onto the highway heading west.

Our next stop on our exploration of St. Louis was Forest Park. The location of the 1904 World’s Fair, today the park houses the Zoo, the Art Museum, and the Science Center — ALL FREE! — as well as an incredible green space.

We made our way to the Boathouse Restaurant for lunch. Here we had our first taste of one of St. Louis’ specialities: toasted ravioli (basically ravioli with any filling that’s deep fried). Delicious!

in front of the Boathouse

Toasted ravioli

After lunch we made our way to the Art Museum and the 18th & 19th century European galleries. To our very pleasant surprise we learned that the museum holds one of the 14 or so copies of Edgar Degas' La Petite Danseuse!

St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park

La Petite Danseuse by Degas (the one on the left)

"In deep thought" 1881 by Alfred Stevens

Although there was much more to see both in the museum and Forest Park we eventually made our way back to the highway in search of another St. Louis speciality: gooey butter cake. We had asked Penelope, our server at the Boathouse, for a recommendation and she suggested Gooey Louis in the Lindenwood Park neighborhood and so there went.

A simple storefront greeted us as did the single employee who informed us they had just one cake left, a classic version, which was soon ours. Later that afternoon after returning to the Loaney home we sampled the cake and it was, in a word, scrumptious! It was rich and buttery with just the right amount of sweetness. Susan has both a recipe and a plan now to try making one on her own. Can't wait!

St. Louis Gooey butter cake

Tomorrow we leave for Little Rock as we continue our drive into the deep south.

Sunday trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

Looking for something to do in this part of New England is not much of a challenge: Three hours in any direction and you've got a wide range of interesting opportunities for exploration: ocean, mountains, major cities. On a recent Sunday Susie and I opted for the latter, Boston to be exact, or at least a small part of it, the Museum of Fine Arts.

We couldn't recall with any degree of accuracy the last time we were in this Boston cultural icon; it was many years ago although we do recall going to see an exhibit of photographs by Alfred Steiglitz.

Anyway, we pointed the Mini north up I-95 and in less than an hour found a parking space just around the corner from the museum (lucky us, apparently) and found our way into the Huntington Avenue entrance. The is the one you really do want to see first, believe me; the rotunda is nothing short of magnificent -- and for $25 a head it should be great.

the Huntington Avenue entrance

Before you walk inside, take a moment and get up close to Cyrus Dallin's incredible "Appeal to the Great Spirit":

"Appeal to the Great Spirit" 1909 by Cyrus Dallin (1861-1944)

Once inside, with map in hand we stumbled our way through a maze of corridors and galleries looking for the 19th Century French Impressionists.

After about 10 minutes we both concluded that museums have become rather like hospital complexes today: a warren of spaces that seem to be only tentatively connected with one another. We also concluded that with practice, and repeat visits we would undoubtedly be able to find our way around with ease. But how many tourists have the luxury of living barely an hour away?

the Renoir corner

Near the Renoirs we came across one of Susie's favorite sculptures, La Petite Danseuse by Degas. We have now seen 4 of the 14 existing copies of this lovely and moving work at The Clark (Williamstown, MA), the Met (NYC), the Orsay (Paris) and now the MFA.

Susie and La Petite Danseuse

Nearby was a painting that struck me straightaway, "Grotto by the Seaside in the Kingdom of Naples with Banditti, Sunset" (1778) by Joseph Wright (1734-1797). I don't know if it was the color, the scene itself or the depth of field but I thought this piece fantastic:

detail

And then there was the fabulous "Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome" (1775) by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691-1765). What incredible detail and workmanship to replicate all those views into one "gallery":

detail

We then stumbled across a very nice collection of work by Dutch and Flemish painters, and one in particular, "Winter Landscape Near a Village" (1610-15) by Hendrik Avercamp (1585-1634) really caught our eye:

The MFA is also home to one of the largest collections of the American impressionist and portraitist, John Singer Sargent. There were at least two pieces where he used the same young female model, Rosina Ferrara, on the island of Capri:

"Rosina - Capri" by John Singer Sargent

The featured exhibition right now is a collection of Samurai armor -- fascinating, especially as they had tricked out not only "foot soldiers" but even men on life-size horses as well (and yes, the horses were wearing masks, too).

Looking for and at so much wonderful art really builds an appetite so we opted for a light lunch at the New American Cafe, one of four eateries in the museum.

The service was indifferent, the prices so-so but the food wasn't too bad and the company outstanding; plus it was a cool location to be sure.