Tanguy

Song -  Stary, Stary Night by Don McLean

Vincent Van Gogh painted three portraits of Père Tanguy a valued friend who ran a small paint shop in Paris. Tanguy would occasionally accept artwork for payment of art supplies. This one was painted in 1887 and is hanging at the Musee Rodin in Paris.

"Painting is a faith, 

and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion."

--Vincent Van Gogh

I Hear You Knocking

Song - Knock on Wood by Eddie Floyd

I'm still knocking.....knock, knock, knock......come in

A striking knocker from a door in Umbria, Italy

A worn bedroom window lock inside the Saint Paul Asylum

in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France

where Vincent Van Gogh spent some time 1889-1890

And modern door pulls from Paris, France

Watch for a delightful surprise in tomorrow's post!

Art in the City

Song - Are You in the Mood by Django Reinhardt covered by Zak Martel

Yesterday, Mr. B and I drove into the City to see the James Tissot exhibit "Fashion & Faith" at the Legion of Honor.  It was a beautiful clear day and we could see the ocean, the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and downtown from the knoll in front of the museum. 

Above is an early self portrait of the artist and is painted rather loosely and impressionistic. Tissot was a French painter and lived in France and London from 1836 - 1902.

 

This is a painting of his muse - Kathleen Newton who lived with him from 1875 until her untimely death from TB in 1892. And while his "style" is not to my taste, I found the show delightful. It was interesting to see how he rendered people in work and play. 

The young girl playing croquet was one of my favorites but unfortunately I had left my "real" camera at home so all of these shots were from my cell phone so they are not very good quality.

Tissot rendered fabric with great care as he was well acquainted with drapes and folds coming from a father who was a successful drapery merchant and a mother who designed hats.
As a painter, I would go crazy rendering all of the pinstripes on this woman's gown!!!  But it was beautiful to look at.

 Afterwards we headed upstairs to the Legion's regular exhibit and I found some of my old favorites like "The Bath" above by Jean-Leon Gerome

And "The Absinthe Drinkers" by  Jean-Francois Raffaelli

 "Shelter on Montmartre" by Vincent van Gogh

 "Sewing Party at Loctudy" by Edouard Vuillard

 And after all of that eye candy we went around the corner for some dim sum that was excellent!

After the busyness of the holidays, it was nice to spend some quiet time together on a beautiful day!

"Part of the secret of a success in life is eating what you like 

and let the food fight it out inside."

--Mark Twain

Raining in Paris - Day 22

Song - Wish You Were Here by David Gilmour


This post is taken from my French travel journal and my trip through Southern France in April 2018.  For some reason my iPad and Blog were not communicating at the time so I was unable to write any posts. At home I am able to blog "post" travel! Thanks for joining me on the journey!

It was threatening to rain today so I figured that it would be a great day to spend indoors at the Musee d'Orsay but so did a thousand other people.......and this was the "no wait" line for those who already had a museum pass!

But once inside I was rewarded with beautiful art to warm my soul and stimulate my creative juices.....this is a detail from Le Pont d'Argenteuil by Monet.

Mary Cassatt's "Jeune femme cousant dans un jardin"....sigh....

And detail from Monet's "En norvegienne, dit aussi La Barque a Giverney".....enjoying the yummy colors in the sunshine!

Renoir's painting of "Jeune femme a la voilette".....just look at the softness of the veil covering her face.....

Close detail from Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Mademoiselle Gachet dans son jardin a Auvers-sur-Oise"

There is nothing like seeing the real deal - the colors and the brush strokes - there is energy here!

 "Les Roulettes, campement de bohemiens aux environs d 'Arles" also by Van Gogh

And beautiful detail from Edouard Vuillard's  "Le dejeuner en famille"

Garish and amazing quick gesture drawing by Toulouse-Lautrec painted on pieced canvases - once again you can just feel the energy radiating off the canvas.

And I will leave you with a sweet intimate moment in a detail from "Le bal de l'Opera" by Henri Gervex.

In the evening we dined at Le Recamier and enjoyed the best of souffles as well as fun waiters! Mr. B's first time there.....can you tell that he loved it?

"Art enables us to find ourselves 

and lose ourselves at the same time."  

--Thomas Merton

PS - My apologies for misquoting John Lennon on yesterdays quote: 
It should of read "Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars and the sun."
Corrected by my brilliant and sweet husband Mr. B!

Becoming Vincent - Day 18

Song - Vincent by Don McLean

Mr. B and I have breakfast at his favorite patisserie in Avignon.....maybe in all of France - "Festival des Glaces".  He loves the food but also the waiters.

This is "fast food" in France - good ingredients and well made!

Our next stop is the TGV station in Avignon to see if we can get a train on Friday to Paris as it seems they will be striking on Saturday which is the day we have tickets.  After a lot of waiting it was determined that there was not availability on Friday in any class cabin.  So we find out that it just may be possible that our current train might be running on Saturday but we will have to come in again tomorrow to check......

So off to Saint-Remy-de-Provence to see the hospital-asylum where Vincent Van Gogh stayed and where he painted many of his famous paintings overlooking the Alpilles.

The ancient olive grove is still there.....

The hospital is now called Vincent Van Gogh Monastery Saint-Paul and is just outside of Saint-Remy. If you go through Saint-Remy on a Wednesday as we did, prepare for a lot of traffic and detours as it is a huge market day in town. I have heard it is exceptional and next trip plan to partake!

Me and my friend!

The chapel next to the hospital

The cloisters

 Vincent's bedroom

 Above are the tubs that they used for "shock treatment" in the 1800's.  They would place the patient in the tub, cover them with the board and then poor ice water inside. Yikes!

The iris, rose & lavender garden in the back.

The path back to our car

 It was peaceful, quiet, simple and no crowds.

Right next to the hospital is the ancient Roman site "Glanum".  We have been here before and we had several more adventures on this day so I just took a photo from the car.

 We were headed to Gordes but stopped for lunch in the old part of Cavaillon - Mr. B says it is famous for it's cantaloupe. I did not know that!

 I had a small little salad.........and finally learned the word for a drinking straw - "paille" which sounds like a combination between pie and pay.

 And Mr. B enjoyed fish with basil sauce......

This is town of Gordes and there is a little pull out on the road before you arrive so you may take photos and enjoy the view of this amazing cliff-side town. It was a beautiful warm day and we found a little shop to purchase several Provencal tablecloths to bring home.

The shopkeeper was very nice and so appreciative of  Mr. B's French. He showed us a walking tour of Gordes which we only did a portion of because it was so steep - duh - the town is on a cliff.  Also, we wanted to get over to the Abbaye de Senanque before they closed.

 Ten minutes from Gordes is the Abbaye and although the lavender isn't blooming right now (July - Aug.) it is still an amazing place to visit. 

 It has been a Cistercian Monastery since 1128.

 And it still is a working community today.  The monks bake bread, plant vegetable gardens, tend to honey bee hives, and grow lavender for a livelihood. 

 The cloisters

 You can take a tour but if you do make sure afterwards you go into the rear chapel during services so you can hear the monks sing.  It will bring tears.  Be sure to check their website for times, fees and dress codes.

Click HERE to enjoy.

The bight red poppies were just beginning to bloom and it was hard to snap a photo even when Mr. B slowed down for me!

We stumbled across a great place for dinner that had baked potatoes for a side dish which made us feel like celebrating!

 Mr. B had their generous portion of steak........

 ......while I dined on their generous portion of duck!

L'Ardoise has a 14 century wine cellar below the restaurant with a well which Mr. B toured with one of the waitresses.

Luckily he returned to moi!

"Great things are done by a series of 

small things brought together." 

 --Vincent Van Gogh