Art, Paris, Travel

Lucy’s Paris Painting

lucysparisartistpainting
In the I Love Lucy Season 5 episode Paris at Last Lucy sets out to explore Paris and “discovers” an artist whose paintings she hopes will become valuable some day. However Lucy’s meets another kind of artist –  a con artist.  The painting Lucy buys is a view of Notre Dame Cathedral from the Left Bank.  Of course this scene is filmed in the studio, however  assuming the “artist” is painting the scene before him, this places  Lucy and the artist Charpentier in the vicinity of Quai Saint Michel. The  building with the awning to the right of the painting is Hotel Le Notre-Dame SAINT-MICHEL which I recognized immediately because it is where I stayed when I was in Paris  a few weeks ago. It is an interesting boutique hotel in a listed Paris building, with interior decor by Christian Lacroix. It’s a great location for exploring the area and we had a view of Notre Dame from the room and a Brasserie on the ground floor under the awning. Just around the corner is the famous Shakespeare & Co bookstore.

parispaintings
View of Notre Dame from Quai Saint-Michel, Paris
notredame
Google Maps View of Quai Saint-Michel, Paris, Hotel Notre Dame on the right – click for Google street view

galien-laloueSimilar Scene by French artist Eugène Galien-Laloue for sale on eBay or download from Wikimedia HERE

americanexpressparis1950s
Establishing shot of American Express at 11 Rue Scribe, Paris, from I Love Lucy episode Paris at Last

Incidentally, Lucy meets the artist in front of the American Express office, a film clip of American Express at 11 Rue Scribe, Paris, is used to establish the scene. This is approx 2 miles away from the Notre Dame location the artist is supposed to be painting.

amex-11-rue-scribe
American Express building  at 11 Rue Scribe, Paris, in Google Maps

The American Express building at 11 Rue Scribe, Paris, is now home to a Nespresso Cafe and is no longer an American Express office.