sculpture - Frenchless in France

The Left Bank

Had a lovely afternoon in the Left Bank mostly around the Saint Germain Boulevard.

Had some tea at the famous Café de Floor.

Went into the Saint Germain Church which is usually dark and dreary but they have started repainting as it once was and it’s stunning.

A closeup of one of the columns in the church.

Look at this interior in Flammant, a furniture and decorating store!

Art

I’m not a huge fan of modern art but I try to have an open mind when I see it and found, at an exhibition at the Maillol Museum here in Paris, that I liked and appreciated a lot of it.

The exhibition there was about what they call Naive art, that done by mostly untrained artists who loved to paint and were full of enthusiasm in doing it. They were mocked in exhibitions but were slowly accepted. Rousseau, discovered by Picasso, is probably the most well known with his jungle scenes even though he never actually saw a jungle.

A mix of artists painted Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. Sort of stiff but I liked them.

This was of Palais Royal in the early 1900’s which I loved seeing. Not a whole lot has changed.

There is a permanent collection at the museum done by Maillol including these sculptures all grouped together. I have seen the one in front in bronze at the Luxembourg Gardens.

Peggy’s Cove

One day we took a bus to the photogenic stop of Peggy’s Cove with a population of 45 and lost in time except for some art galleries.

It has a good looking lighthouse on rocks left scaped flat by retreating glaciers.

A closeup.

There is a picturesque little harbour.

I liked this sculpture of a fisherman holding his catch.

This is part of a wall sculpture done by a local artist now dead.

A lovely church too.

We ended our week at the ancient village of Conques. A few years ago Maurice and I were driving in this part of France and were really tired and decided to find a place for the night. We were the closest to Conques, which I had never heard of, and I was delighted with what we found. We had a really nice hotel there too. This time We stayed in a sort of dorm situation run by the church. I’m sure though the centuries the church took care of pilgrims in this very building. It wasn’t luxurious and most people stayed in group rooms. We had a room to ourselves with a bathroom even though we had twin beds and linoleum floors. It was sort of like being back in college.

This was the view from our room looking onto the back of the church and those are old coffins.

The church at night.

Pilgrims have to remove their boots when they enter the dorm. I assume no one’s boots ever get taken.

The sculptures on the front of the church over the entry showing souls going to heaven or hell. Sort of scary.

At night they lit up the sculptures. It was really lovely.

On the way back we crossed over this very modern Millau Bridge-very different from all we saw during the week.

Support

For the last art festival in Venice all sorts of art could be seen around the city. One of the pieces was two arms coming out of the water, hands against a building as if holding it up and it is called Support. It represents the rising of water around the world due to global warming as well as the plight of Venice. I was disappointed to have missed seeing it when I saw photos of it and most of the art was gone but to my delight, it was still here. It is done by Lorenzo Quinn who is the son of the actor, Anthony Quinn. He tried acting for a bit but decided to pursue art full time. His mother is Italian and he was raised in both New York City and Italy and now lives in Italy with his family.

Seen from the canal.

Closer from the vaporetto stop.

From the side.

Right hand.

Left hand.

Shot from underneath. You can go to his website and see the arms being put into a boat and being brought up the Grand Canal if interested as well as his other art.

This and That in Porto

I have a ton of photos from Porto so I’m going to share them. Why not?

If you go down, down, down some hills you reach the Douro River and the interesting area called Ribeira. The famous Porto wine was stored here, and still is, and exported too. The day was mostly cloudy and rainy so I didn’t get any photos I liked but this gives you an idea of what it was like. There are still large buildings for storage and, of course, many places for tasting. Porto wine is sweet and I seldom drink it. I have occasionally dumped some in my spaghetti sauce which gives it a good flavour. We had a cocktail made with white Porto but I couldn’t really taste it.

This is one of the six bridges spanning the Douro near Porto. Two of them had Eiffel-as in Eiffel Tower-involved. He was a genius with metal sculpture and building. This is the Dom Luis I bridge.

We rode a tourist trolley that circled around Porto which was fun.

Isn’t this strange? I saw two of them in two churches in Porto. I asked a person working in one what it meant and he said it was the third eye, as in the one talked about in India. Apparently, this saint had visions. I couldn’t find out any more about it.

I couldn’t make this any lighter and it looks rather confusing. It was a sculpture in Sao Francisco showing the tree of Jessie which shows the ancestral history of Jesus. This church was once Franciscan which I believe was once an order with very plain, bare churches. The Portuguese later decorated it and everything inside is gilded in gold and in the Baroque style.

A close up view of just some of the gilding.

I passed an antique/used furniture store and this caught my eye. It made me wonder about the history and what it was worn to. A dance hall, a party, carnival, a parade? I’d love to know.

I love shops like this, stuffed with all sorts of food and drink items. Such great ambiance.

Another exterior, and interior, that I loved.