Art Nouveau Architecture in Paris and Strasbourg

One of my life goals has always been to see the Tour de France in person. Last month I took advantage of my current residence abroad and made this goal a reality. Unfortunately this was not Lance's year, but I am so glad he decided to come back to the Tour for one more try. Of course, when not battling the crowds for a good spot to watch the cyclists, I also took the opportunity to visit a couple architectural highlights of Paris and Strasbourg. Below are some of the pictures I took of the sights I visited. I had also hoped to visit a recreation of Alphonse Mucha's Fouquet Jewellery Shop (1901) in Musée Carnavalet in Paris near the Bastille, but the room was unfortunately closed for the day. If I do ever get a chance to go back to Paris, I will make a trip back to the museum to see it. My trip ended with a visit to Luxembourg to see the hometown of my friend Paule Kremer. Enjoy the pictures.

29 Avenue Rapp, Paris, 1901, by Lavirotte

If you think that you can pick out the shape of a phallis in the door, you would be correct. Danee Gilmartin's blog "Museum Chick" also has some more interesting musings on this building and others created by Lavirotte in Paris

185 rue Belliard

Below are the buildings I visited on an early morning walk in Strasbourg. While everyone else was heading into Petite France, Paule and I walked out of town to see these great buildings. In Strasbourg German and Austrian style buildings with wooden beams were often paired with typical art nouveau accents, like intricately designed iron gates. No one seems to be able to truly place Strasbourg because of all the different influences present in the city. I actually found one of the buildings below listed in a Wikipedia entry on German architecture, but the building is most definitely in France. This gives us all another reason not to trust Wikipedia. Out of all the buildings, 22 rue Sledian was by far my favorite to visit.

22 rue Sleidan, 1904-5 by Brion

Villa Schutzenberger, 1897-1900, by Berninger & Krafft, 76 allée de la Robertsau

10 rue Schiller, 1903-5, by Berninger and Krafft

It just so happened that my friend Paule was taking a night drawing class during my stay in Luxembourg City so she took me along. Below is one of the drawings/watercolors I made for the class. Three hours seemed like quite a long time, yet just a little over a year ago I was spending four and half hours in a studio class three times a week.

all images © 2010 Meredith Hale

For more information on Art Nouveau buildings in Strasbourg, Paris, and many more cities visit the Art Nouveau World Wide website created by Frank Derville. The website has information on Art Nouveau sights throughout the globe and has been a great resource to me this year. There are very few trips I have taken without using it.