Simultaneously

Coming back from the Sonia Delaunay show at the Paris Museum of Modern Art I crossed the Pont d'Alma and took the new pedestrian route along the quais. I used to drive along this route to get to my teaching job at the British School in Croissy-sur-Seine. It has been closed to cars, and, I discovered, a few days ago, turned into a wonderful place to walk, out of earshot of traffic (mostly), but within hearing of the river traffic, currents, waves...there are people biking, jogging, playing board games on tables and in little huts. There are pocket playgrounds and climbing walls. There are places to stop and eat and drink, more or less formally, railroad ties arranged as benches. Under one bridge there is music to dance to, and a little girl, walking with her parents, began dancing, like an automat, as she passed under the bridge.  There was a big silver tent in which people were learning to tango--this was an all-afternoon-into-the-evening event for beginners and experts--and I went in and regretted that it was just a little too far from home (it was on the quai below the Musee d'Orsay) to bring my husband back to.

The Delaunay show? Mixed feelings. Loved the gouaches and paintings, less interested in her fashion and upholstery business, even if it contributed to her return to abstraction post-World War 2 and the work I do love. If she had been recognised earlier in her life, might she have--with that encouragement--developed more as a painter?