Post by GitteK on Jun 26, 2007 14:03:26 GMT -5
So what’s happened these last days ?
CHARTRES
Sunday I went to Chartres – again with train delays, had to wait 45 minutes for the train at Montparnasse.
And I didn’t even get to ride my favorite highspeed rolling pavement – sob, sob ! It is so funny and interesting. If you never really understood Einstein, I recommend that you take a ride with the 9 km/hour tapis and start walking (try backwards, though you won’t be given a prize for “The 2007 Most Popular Tourist at Montparnasse Metro” if you do) and then look at the people on the passing 3 km/hour tapis. Stand still, look at the people going in the other direction, walk forwards, take another ride..….. Philosophize a bit about movement, speed, time – and you’ll need a double pastis to recover ! ;D
I have been to Chartres once (on my first trip with my father in 1973) but couldn’t remember anything from the town. Spotting the cathedral was not really that hard (!!), so I decided to take a walk around the town first and visit the cathedral later.
Maybe my expectations were too high or maybe the tourist brochures that I had seen have been too glittery and romanticizing the town, but it didn’t really leave any deep or lasting impression with me. But still I did most of the town, being the very hardworking conscientious tourist – and having paid 26 euros for the aller-retour trainticket…… Had it not been for the cathedral the town in itself would be bob-bob-bob……… dull.
THE CATHEDRAL
It is a very impressive building – I am always in awe at the thought about how the building masters could calculate the design and proportions of the vaults etc. so that they did not crash down during construction (which they did as a matter of fact, from time to time. I can recommend reading Ken Follet’s novel “The Pillars of the Earth”).
Yes, the stained glass windows are magnificent, but I am an ignorant ox (!!) when it comes to stained glass windows, because to me they look more or less the same, very pretty.
But what really knocked me out of my Eccos was the incredible, mesmerizing choir screen that runs around the choir (sic!). If you only walk around staring at the windows, you will miss the choir screen, but I am so fascinated by these carving works in stone (and wood) – I can look at these for hours.
And I also find it exciting to think that the artist could smuggle (or be commissioned to insert) political or social or secret messages into the way he depicted the figures, e.g the way they are positioned in relation to each other, their facial expressions, the symbols, the animals etc etc. It’s the same with the gobelins showing historical events or mythical stories: the way one or the other nobleman holds his hands or the level at which he is placed in relation to e.g. the king or the order in which the persons are placed in the picture etc. etc.
www.sacred-destinations.com/france/chartres-cathedral-pictures/slides/reredos-c-beck.htm
I must admit though that Le Basilique de Saint-Denis remains number one cathedral to me. I am looking forward to seeing the Reims cathedral Thursday when I go on my champagne tasting tour.
STALINGRAD
Monday I went to Stalingrad……… might as well, because the morning temperatures must have been very close to the ones that got the better of Napoleon in those days.
Ouch, that was cold….. still your trusty reporter took a stroll along the Bassin de la Villette to see what it was like. The area has a great potential for a really lively, cozy canal atmosphere with people picnicking and playing music and sitting at the cafés, but right now it feels deserted. I saw 3 gendarmes (handsome devils…..) on their mountain bikes on their way to discipline a group of black youngsters, not really a party you would be longing to join.
MUSEE CLUNY DU MOYEN AGE
Being one of the museums open on Mondays of course there were quite a few people there, but not that bad. Many cute French children, hopping around like little bunnies and chatting with their little voices like sparrows, constantly causing their schoolmistress to “shoo-shoo” them.
They have this major restoration work going on in the Roman part of the building, so there was scaffolding everywhere. On the first floor you are shown all that Roman stuff, bits and pieces of broken pillars, faces with nose broken off etc………. hmmmm……… what to say…….. my husband would have pulled out his old Massey Ferguson and shovelled it all together in a big pile for later to be used as roadfilling. ;D
BUT so much the greater was my thrill to go upstairs to the medieval collections ! Go, go, go, go, go……
The gobelins were amazing. You can get really close to the gobelins as long as you don’t touch them, so you can study how the threads are woven and how delicately the hues and colours change just a liiiiitle bit for each thread, e.g. in the folds of a robe or a cape.
And the paintings and the wood carving work are no less wonderful.
Yes, the Lady with the Unicorn- series is very special and I am sure that all the esoterics and symbolists and seekers of higher consciousness can give you deep lectures on the symbolism – but somehow I find the gobelins depicting “real” life (or crusade stories or historical myths) much more intriguing.
And somehow I can't help comparing Gustave Moreaus paintings to old gobelins - I even thought that when I was at his museum some days ago. They same richness of detail and all sorts of strange things.
www.musee-moyenage.fr/homes/home_id20392_u1l2.htm
www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000013896.html
www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000013900.html
MISCELLANEOUS TUESDAY
Had plans to go see La Manufacture des Gobelins (naturellement) – I was so excited to see how on earth they can manage to control the threads, the design, the colours of these gigantesque gobelins ?? I take it that the were/are woven in one piece in one process only – and I am simply so impressed with the craftsmen/women who can do this. So no big plans in the morning – I only had till 13:30 before I had to be at La Manufacture.
GOBELINS ON STRIKE
Duhhh, long nose to GitteK. “Les conférenciers” are on strike, you can only see the exhibition, not the factory/workshop.
However I was not really crushed, because La Manufacture is on our list for September also, when I take my mother and her friend (another old lady) down here.
So I saw the exhibitions which were splendid of course. They also had modern gobelins on display and other objets d’art (gold and glitter stuff, Truffaut would drool over them for his antique shop I suppose).
I look forward to seeing the factory/workshop in September. BTW they have also made a marvellous restoration work on the main building itself, beautiful, beautiful.
GARE DE LYON
Other tidbits from today:
Do visit Rue Crémieux in the 12th – just around the corner from Gare de Lyon. The cutest little pedestrian street with only 2 storey houses and filled with plants in pots in front of the houses.
Do visit Gare de Lyon – if only to see the TGV trains all lined up waiting to rocket off !! They are cool and weird and scary at the same time.
I went up the stairs to peep into Le Train Bleu and maybe get a drink in the bar. Yes, the place is wonderful in its own too-much-opulent way. Never made it to the bar, because it was all crowded, so I just looked around and left. Which brought me a Meryl-Streep-Miranda-acid farewell greeting from the usher-lady: “Au revoir; merci, Madame”……
And that's all for now, mes amis.
CHARTRES
Sunday I went to Chartres – again with train delays, had to wait 45 minutes for the train at Montparnasse.
And I didn’t even get to ride my favorite highspeed rolling pavement – sob, sob ! It is so funny and interesting. If you never really understood Einstein, I recommend that you take a ride with the 9 km/hour tapis and start walking (try backwards, though you won’t be given a prize for “The 2007 Most Popular Tourist at Montparnasse Metro” if you do) and then look at the people on the passing 3 km/hour tapis. Stand still, look at the people going in the other direction, walk forwards, take another ride..….. Philosophize a bit about movement, speed, time – and you’ll need a double pastis to recover ! ;D
I have been to Chartres once (on my first trip with my father in 1973) but couldn’t remember anything from the town. Spotting the cathedral was not really that hard (!!), so I decided to take a walk around the town first and visit the cathedral later.
Maybe my expectations were too high or maybe the tourist brochures that I had seen have been too glittery and romanticizing the town, but it didn’t really leave any deep or lasting impression with me. But still I did most of the town, being the very hardworking conscientious tourist – and having paid 26 euros for the aller-retour trainticket…… Had it not been for the cathedral the town in itself would be bob-bob-bob……… dull.
THE CATHEDRAL
It is a very impressive building – I am always in awe at the thought about how the building masters could calculate the design and proportions of the vaults etc. so that they did not crash down during construction (which they did as a matter of fact, from time to time. I can recommend reading Ken Follet’s novel “The Pillars of the Earth”).
Yes, the stained glass windows are magnificent, but I am an ignorant ox (!!) when it comes to stained glass windows, because to me they look more or less the same, very pretty.
But what really knocked me out of my Eccos was the incredible, mesmerizing choir screen that runs around the choir (sic!). If you only walk around staring at the windows, you will miss the choir screen, but I am so fascinated by these carving works in stone (and wood) – I can look at these for hours.
And I also find it exciting to think that the artist could smuggle (or be commissioned to insert) political or social or secret messages into the way he depicted the figures, e.g the way they are positioned in relation to each other, their facial expressions, the symbols, the animals etc etc. It’s the same with the gobelins showing historical events or mythical stories: the way one or the other nobleman holds his hands or the level at which he is placed in relation to e.g. the king or the order in which the persons are placed in the picture etc. etc.
www.sacred-destinations.com/france/chartres-cathedral-pictures/slides/reredos-c-beck.htm
I must admit though that Le Basilique de Saint-Denis remains number one cathedral to me. I am looking forward to seeing the Reims cathedral Thursday when I go on my champagne tasting tour.
STALINGRAD
Monday I went to Stalingrad……… might as well, because the morning temperatures must have been very close to the ones that got the better of Napoleon in those days.
Ouch, that was cold….. still your trusty reporter took a stroll along the Bassin de la Villette to see what it was like. The area has a great potential for a really lively, cozy canal atmosphere with people picnicking and playing music and sitting at the cafés, but right now it feels deserted. I saw 3 gendarmes (handsome devils…..) on their mountain bikes on their way to discipline a group of black youngsters, not really a party you would be longing to join.
MUSEE CLUNY DU MOYEN AGE
Being one of the museums open on Mondays of course there were quite a few people there, but not that bad. Many cute French children, hopping around like little bunnies and chatting with their little voices like sparrows, constantly causing their schoolmistress to “shoo-shoo” them.
They have this major restoration work going on in the Roman part of the building, so there was scaffolding everywhere. On the first floor you are shown all that Roman stuff, bits and pieces of broken pillars, faces with nose broken off etc………. hmmmm……… what to say…….. my husband would have pulled out his old Massey Ferguson and shovelled it all together in a big pile for later to be used as roadfilling. ;D
BUT so much the greater was my thrill to go upstairs to the medieval collections ! Go, go, go, go, go……
The gobelins were amazing. You can get really close to the gobelins as long as you don’t touch them, so you can study how the threads are woven and how delicately the hues and colours change just a liiiiitle bit for each thread, e.g. in the folds of a robe or a cape.
And the paintings and the wood carving work are no less wonderful.
Yes, the Lady with the Unicorn- series is very special and I am sure that all the esoterics and symbolists and seekers of higher consciousness can give you deep lectures on the symbolism – but somehow I find the gobelins depicting “real” life (or crusade stories or historical myths) much more intriguing.
And somehow I can't help comparing Gustave Moreaus paintings to old gobelins - I even thought that when I was at his museum some days ago. They same richness of detail and all sorts of strange things.
www.musee-moyenage.fr/homes/home_id20392_u1l2.htm
www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000013896.html
www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000013900.html
MISCELLANEOUS TUESDAY
Had plans to go see La Manufacture des Gobelins (naturellement) – I was so excited to see how on earth they can manage to control the threads, the design, the colours of these gigantesque gobelins ?? I take it that the were/are woven in one piece in one process only – and I am simply so impressed with the craftsmen/women who can do this. So no big plans in the morning – I only had till 13:30 before I had to be at La Manufacture.
GOBELINS ON STRIKE
Duhhh, long nose to GitteK. “Les conférenciers” are on strike, you can only see the exhibition, not the factory/workshop.
However I was not really crushed, because La Manufacture is on our list for September also, when I take my mother and her friend (another old lady) down here.
So I saw the exhibitions which were splendid of course. They also had modern gobelins on display and other objets d’art (gold and glitter stuff, Truffaut would drool over them for his antique shop I suppose).
I look forward to seeing the factory/workshop in September. BTW they have also made a marvellous restoration work on the main building itself, beautiful, beautiful.
GARE DE LYON
Other tidbits from today:
Do visit Rue Crémieux in the 12th – just around the corner from Gare de Lyon. The cutest little pedestrian street with only 2 storey houses and filled with plants in pots in front of the houses.
Do visit Gare de Lyon – if only to see the TGV trains all lined up waiting to rocket off !! They are cool and weird and scary at the same time.
I went up the stairs to peep into Le Train Bleu and maybe get a drink in the bar. Yes, the place is wonderful in its own too-much-opulent way. Never made it to the bar, because it was all crowded, so I just looked around and left. Which brought me a Meryl-Streep-Miranda-acid farewell greeting from the usher-lady: “Au revoir; merci, Madame”……
And that's all for now, mes amis.