the weblog of robin camille davis

“La Mort de Sénèque” (The Death of Seneca), or “Vieux pêcheur” (old fisherman?). Black marble and alabaster. Rome, 2nd century AD. Louvre.
You guys.
This statue.
Look at his eyes.
Look at his veins.
Look at his moobs.
Look at his man parts.
Look at his thighs.
Look at his moobs.
Sweet dreams, mes amis!

Nobody seems to like these as much as I do. I guess it’s all about context. Imagine a room full of beautifully restored Greek statues in the Louvre, and then these two heads maxin’ off to the side, still very much on display. The crazy packing tape just makes it for me.
A quiz, because you [...]

Meredith and Phil breezed through Paris this weekend! Their stays overlapped by four hours, which we spent lunching at Café Latin (corner of rue Saint André des Arts & rue Gît-le-Coeur in the Latin Quarter — highly recommended) and wandering, as one does. It wasn’t strange at all to be a BCF contingent strolling the [...]

On Fridays, Crow, Caiti, Gabe, and I write short fiction pieces based on a chosen rule. We don’t tell you the rule but rather encourage you to read all 4 shorties and take a gander yourself. Here is mine:
Moment/us
“Will you wait a moment?” he asked us. Motionless, we said, “Just a moment,” and he smiled [...]

I had an excellent lunch today: chicken piccata, fresh hot baguette, and an orange for dessert. It was so delicious I’m going to share the recipe with you! I originally got it from foodtv.com, but I adapted it because ew, capers.
Chicken Piccata Recipe

2 chicken breasts (butterflied, google it) or 4 “aiguilles” whatever that means in [...]

faces on the métro behind books & papers, all sporting clefts between brows
a new sculpture on boulevard saint-michel: a copper ball splitting open on a platform; no description or explanation; no other pedestrians seem surprised or confused or even slightly interested
a young woman enthusiastically and kindly offering a carton of eggs to a homeless man [...]

Left: Femme Voilée (la foi?), by Antonio Corradini, early to mid 1700s, in the Louvre. Photo credit. I’ll go back and take my own photo of it sometime.
Right: Veiled Lady, possibly by Raffaele Monti, 1860s, in Chatsworth House, or else a reproduction of Monti’s Veiled Lady, the internet refuses to tell me. Photo credit.
If you [...]

This is a plaque in Église Saint-Sulpice. Not sure when it was engraved but it had to have been a while ago. What I find most interesting about it, aside from the glorious letterforms, is the “vous estes” in the middle. In today’s French, “you are” would be “vous êtes.” That circumflex accent denotes that [...]

Caiti, Crow, and I all wrote a little something today. There are two things our three stories have in common. Any guesses?
Read my fiction after the jump…

I’m lucky to live on the 8th floor (7e étage). Lovely sunsets like the one above are an everyday occurrence.
Moment on the Métro #2 (I have no great photo to go with this but it was still pretty magical):
Earphones cup ears. Hearer hears beats. Ride is rough. A realization: rocking train rocks to pulse of [...]