Picasso's Bust Dedicated to Guillaume Apollinaire

[For Step Five of the Gertrude Stein Pilgrimmage, please see my entry at: France > Ile de France > Paris > Fouquet.]

It just so happened that there was an organ concert scheduled in the St-Germain-des-Prés Church around the time we wandered in from the boulevard. My Gertrude Stein Pilgrimmage was the last thing on my mind. We had time to stroll leisurely through the church interior, before the concert began, and we did not feel obligated to stay until the end.

Back on the street, we resumed a relaxed tempo and quite by accident, rounded two corners and found ourselves in a tiny square behind the church. A lovely bronze bust was mounted on a pedestal. I approached to admire it and to read the inscription. To my amazement, it was by Picasso, dedicated to a friend of his, a favorite poet of mine, and a member of Gertrude Stein’s salon: Guillaume Apollinaire. It was already a part of our plan to seek out Apollinaire’s tomb in the Cimetière du Père Lachaise at the time we were to be there in search of Gertrude Stein’s. But in this moment in the park, it seemed that the pilgrimmage had sought me.

[For Step Seven of the Gertrude Stein Pilgrimmage, please see my entry at: France > Ile de France > Paris > Cimetière du Père Lachaise > Gertrude Stein's Grave.]