It was in June of 1840, the month of roses, when Pierre-Joseph Redouté died suddenly at the age of eighty. His coffin was laid to rest in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris with a wreath of roses and lilies, the two flowers he loved the most. Although he never met a flower he didn’t like, the rose and the lily were the perfect epitaph by which he was remembered. He is still considered the greatest botanical painter of all time.

Who was Pierre-Joseph Redouté?

Pierre-Joseph Redouté was born in 1759 in the village of St. Hubert, in the province of Liége a part of the Ardennes that then belonged to the Duchy of Luxembourg and now belongs to Belgium. He was the grandson, son and brother of painters. So it was almost inevitable that he would follow in their footsteps. Redouté left home at the age of thirteen. He spent the next ten years living a precarious life painting interior decorations, portraits and religious commissions. He travelled across Flanders and the Low Countries studying the works of the master Flemish and Dutch botanical painters Jan van Huysum, Rachel Ruysch and Jan Davidsz de Heem.

At the age of 23, Redouté moved to Paris where he spent the rest of his life. It was at the end of the Age of Enlightenment and the city was a mecca for science and culture. When Redouté wasn’t working at the theatre where his brother was a stage designer, he frequently visited the Jardin du Roi, now the Jardin des Plantes. He would draw for hours on end. It was there that he caught the eye of Charles-Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle. A French aristocrat, he was also the Superintendent of Parisian Waters and Forests, a biologist and plant collector.  L’Héritier encouraged Redouté to produce botanical studies. He offered free access to his botanical library and plant collection. He also became Redouté’s instructor, teaching him to dissect flowers and portray their specific characteristics precisely.

The royal garden collection

L’​Héritier was so impressed with his new student he commissioned him to illustrate two books on botany. As a result Redouté created more than 50 drawings. They are included in L’Heritier’s Stirpes Novae, New Plants, and Sertum Anglicum, An English Garland. L’Héritier generously recommended Redouté to Gérard van Spaendonck, the miniature and flower painter to King Louis XVI. Together with other artists, van Spaendonck produced drawings and paintings for the famous Vélins du Roi, Royal Collection of Paintings on Vellum, archival drawings and paintings of all the specimens brought to the Jardins du Roi. Nearly 7,000 gouaches and watercolours on vellum representing flowers, plants and animals.

Spaendonck recruited Redouté as a pupil and staff painter, and he subsequently contributed over 500 paintings to the ongoing Vélins project. Spaendonck taught him a special watercolour technique that produced flower paintings on vellum with an unusually bright translucency. By his own account, his student’s work was finer than his own.

An international influence

In 1787 Redouté and L’Héritier left France to study plants at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, near London for a year. While there, he collaborated with the greatest botanists of the day. He also participated in nearly 50 publications depicting both the familiar flowers of the French court and rare plants from places as distant as Japan, America, South Africa, and Australia. Redouté produced over 2,100 published plates depicting over 1,800 different species. Many of them had never been rendered before.

Marie-Antoinette was a fan

L’Héritier also introduced Redouté to members of the court at Versailles. This led to Marie Antoinette becoming one of his patrons. She appointed him her personal court painter. Even though encounters with the royal family were few, one biography cites a famous incidence when Redouté was asked to visit the royal family in prison during the Revolution. They wanted him to capture the beautiful moment of a rare cactus in bloom. With skill and savvy, Redouté survived the political turbulence of the French Revolution and the ensuing Reign of Terror.

During the 1790s, Redouté gained international recognition as one of the most popular flower painters in the world. His renderings of plants remain as fresh now as when he first painted them. He was a celebrity and had a fashionable clientele. He even had a private apartment in the Louvre as well as a country residence outside of Paris. His salary was in excess of 18,000 francs a year – a huge sum in those days.

He perfected the colour stipple engraving technique, which he had learned during his stay in London. He first applied it in his illustrations for L’Héritier’s publication of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle’s work, Plantes Grasses Succulents. It was Redouté’s first major botanical work featuring only colour-printed plates.

Josephine Bonaparte was a fan too!

In 1798 the Empress Josephine Bonaparte, the first wife of Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, became his patron. She appointed him to paint the flowers of her garden at Château de Malmaison. She was resolute in filling her gardens with the finest specimens of nature as well as having their essence preserved on paper.

That same year Redouté published 500 plates of exquisite lilies in his book Liliacées. In 1819 his paintings were exhibited at the Louvre. In 1824 his most famous work, Les Roses, was published. It was said that each delivery of the finished colour copperplates was received with a storm of enthusiasm. It was these two works which distinguished Redouté as a true artist and not merely an illustrator. Between 1802 and 1816, eight folio volumes were printed, each dedicated to Empress Josephine.

A master artist

After Joséphine’s death, Redouté was appointed a Master of Draughtsmanship for the National Museum of Natural History. He became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1825. Between 1827 and 1833 Choices of Beautiful Flowers and Fruits, was printed. By then Redouté had become a master engraver of such singularity that he was able to apply all of his colours at once on one single copper plate. Folio editions of this masterwork were published each year for seven following years. In 1834 he was awarded the prestigious Order of Leopold of Belgium for his artistic contributions.

Eva Mannering, who wrote the introduction to the 1954 publication of Pierre-Joseph Redouté’s Roses remarked, “The conditions which made possible a work like this exist no longer, nor do the roses themselves as they are illustrated in this book… They are reminders of a more leisurely age, pleasing and delighting us in their colourful abundance. For by giving us one rose, he has given us at the same time, all the roses of all summer days.”

Sue Aran lives in the Gers department of southwest France where she runs French Country Adventures which provides private, personally-guided, small-group food & wine adventures into Gascony, the Pays Basque, Tarn and beyond…

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The mere mention of the word ‘Paris’ can conjure a vision of rows of handsome Hausmann stone buildings – some of them sober and classically proportioned, others more florid and exuberant, but all reflecting the aesthetics of the mid-nineteenth century. Being accustomed to this vision, what we generally do not imagine as being classically ‘Parisian’ is the expression of a design movement that emerged several decades later in the 1890s and flowered for a quarter century: Art Nouveau.

La Belle Epoque

While that generally peaceful and prosperous era in France is known as La Belle Époque, it was also a time beset by rampant industrialisation, urbanisation and commercialisation. The uniformity of cheap and nasty mass production was seen to threaten long traditions of individual craftsmanship that used and expressed the qualities of natural materials. Out of this concern, Art Nouveau arose in Belgium and  France – influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement – as a wide-ranging aesthetic, encompassing architecture, art, furniture, homewares, jewellery and more. It was essentially a rejection of industrial modernity and took inspiration from the materials and forms of the natural world.

What we envision as being classic inner city Paris was mostly created in a frenzy of carefully planned destruction and reconstruction led by Baron Hausmann from 1853 to 1870. Of course, Art Nouveau did not even exist in that era, so obviously could have no expression. So most of what we see of Art Nouveau in Paris today is essentially grafted onto existing Hausmann structures. The most obvious public manifestations of Art Nouveau – apart from some Metro entrances – are doorways and architectural details.

Doorway to Art Nouveau

A typical example is pictured (top), being the doorway of 29 Avenue Rapp, 7^th arrondisement. The base material is timber, being only lightly varnished to express its true colour, texture and grain. The flowing lines of hand carving suggest natural movement, greatly accentuated in the glass panes by the waving of the intertwined fronds and rushes fashioned from finely hand wrought metal. The metal hinges resemble sea creatures, while the door handles suggest salamanders. It’s all about uncontaminated nature and natural movement, far removed from mass industrial production. It was indeed beautiful, but it was not to last very long.

As the Bolshevik revoltionary, Leon Trotsky, acutely observed, ‘War is the locomotive of history.’ As the first massive conflict of the industrial age, the cataclysm of The Great War (1914-1918) smashed through European civilisation in a demonic roar of coal-fired engines, flames, friction and heat. In scale, intensity and breadth, the victims of the war were beyond reckoning. In parts of northern France, where industrialised violence and butchery reigned over four years, in addition to the appalling human cost was the destruction of sublime medieval art, including some of the intricate stained glass windows of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims.

The Great War not only devastated the artistic culture of the past, but also of the then-present. In that sense, the Art Nouveau movement in Europe was also a casualty of the war. In the relative peace of the 1890s and the immediate pre-war years, the bucolic whimsy of Art Nouveau with its gently flowing lines could create a convincing world of artisanal contentment existing alongside but separate from the crude industrial world. Trotsky’s locomotive of war demolished such faery-like romantic notions: revolutionary industrialism was triumphant.

During the inter-war era of the 1920s and 1930s, it was a complete repudiation of Art Nouveau that seized the imagination of the world in the shape of Art Deco. In shorthand, we could say that whatever Art Nouveau was, then Art Deco was not: it defiantly turned the aesthetic upside down. In place of flowing organic tendrils were the jagged metalic lines of Deco; where one-of-a kind arts and crafts pieces made from raw and natural materials were favoured by Nouveau, they were superseded by factory-made products produced by new synthetic materials, such as bakelite. Art Deco was urban and urgent: it was of the ‘now.’ Art Nouveau was provincial and naïve: its dreamy day was done.

Well, almost but not yet completely. In the mid-1960s, all those Nouveau-inspired flowing forms made a comeback of sorts with the emergence of Psychedelia. Leaving behind the muted autumnal colours of Nouveau, Psychedelia went beyond the highly saturated and exaggerated colours of the French Fauves (or ‘wild beasts’) and embraced even wilder contemporary ‘DayGlo’ colours. But the influence of Nouveau was unmistakable in the free-flowing line work of pop graphic art, especially as applied to ephemeral posters for pop concerts, modern art exhibitions and (ahem) ‘happenings.’

Back in present-day Paris, there is really no single focal point where you find all the Art Nouveau gems. While the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in the Louvre complex has a fascinating collection of artefacts, the best advice (as always) in Paris is to stay on foot and keep your eyes wide open – and not on your phone. At street level, the joy of Parisian Art Nouveau discovery awaits you.

By Brad Allan, writer and wine tasting host in Melbourne, Australia and frequent visitor to France…

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Artist Sonia Delauney moved to Paris from the Ukraine in the early 1900s where her art was hugely influential…

When we think of the defining features of twenty-first century life, the increasing dominance of digitised technologies must be right near the top. These ‘soft’ technologies are virtually(!) non-physical and are often said to exist in what we airily describe as ‘the cloud.’ Unsurprisingly, the course of contemporary art has been strongly influenced by digitisation, too. Sometimes that influence is forward-looking and original. But at other times, digital art treatments can be backward-looking and laughably kitschy. For instance, in projecting digital images of nineteenth century Impressionist paintings onto vast blank walls, destroying any sense of painterly texture, true colour and scale.

What is modern art?

The term ‘modern’ as applied to art (and anything else) is entirely subjective. What’s happening now is undeniably ‘modern’ simply because we all happen to be here now. But what defined being ‘modern’ in 1937 was a whole lot more analogue than today. It was a world of pulsating physical energy, friction and wires, often measured by circular dials with quivering needles.

Back in 1937 ‘the cloud’ was somewhere that you actually ventured. Strapped inside a roaring, dangerous, bone-shaking, winged metal box: a primitive aeroplane by today’s standards. But considering that powered flight had existed for barely 25 years, a pioneering single-winged, propellor-driven plane that could fly at 550 km per hour (340 mph) – such as a ‘new’ Hawker Hurricane – was a wonder of the modern world.

Sonia Delaunay’s ‘modern’ art

Among the artists of the 1930s who expressed the dynamism of the modern analogue world was Sonia Delaunay. Born into a Jewish Ukrainian family in Odessa in 1885, she was sent to live with her mother’s more affluent family in St Petersburg as a youngster. Sonia’s imagination was stimulated by visits to the great art galleries of Europe. She became intensely curious and forward-looking. Moving to Paris, she was obsessed with modern movements in art and design. She achieved fame with her own individual painting style and theatrical costume designs. Her work explored the interplay of wedges and curves of flat bright colours. Her inspiration came from  contemporary Cubism and Geometric Abstraction.

In 1937, she was commissioned to create a series of murals for the Palais de L’Air at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et des Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, hosted in Paris. One of her remarkable and large murals – 8.5 m x 3 m or 28 ft x 10 ft – was titled ‘Tableau de Board’ (or ‘Dashboard’). This ‘modern’ mural still looks utterly striking 85 years after its creation. In the Geometric Abstract manner, it embodies Delaunay’s characteristic use of intense flat colour and curves (rather than recognisable objects) to generate feelings and meanings in the viewer.

Curves, colours and cockpits

But for this purposeful commission, Delaunay adds something new to her art. Some definite and instantly recognisable ‘real world’ elements, including dials and gauges set into an aircraft instrument panel or dashboard. The strong horizon line, with more muted colours below, delineates the inside of the machine from the outside world. Yet the continuation of the curves connects the machine and its environment. The central circular elements suggest both the control wheel inside the plane’s cockpit and the spinning propeller just beyond it. To the top left and right of the mural we can see daytime on the right and approaching night in the left. All within the curved and layered colours of the sky. Viewed as a whole, it is a wonderfully unified modern visual concept. And without a ‘cloud’ in sight.

Sonia Delaunay narrowly avoided the lethal deportations of French Jews during the German occupation of the 1940s. She continued to be a successful artist after the war. In the latter part of her life, she was feted with a retrospective of her works at the Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne at the Pompidou Centre. She was the first female artist to be celebrated with a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre Museum. She became an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1975. After a spectacular career, Sonia Delaunay died, aged 97, in Paris in 1979.

By Brad Allan, writer and wine tasting host in Melbourne, Australia and frequent visitor to France…

The post The Art of Analogue Modernism appeared first on The Good Life France.

In 2015, artist Paul Rafferty began a project to find the locations of Sir Winston Churchill’s painting locations for a book. His focus was the South of France, where he lives, though his discoveries went beyond this region. It became a voyage of discovery which took him to many of the most iconic locations of Provence and the Cote d’Azur and resulted in a gorgeous coffee table book, filled with photos and anecdotes.

An artist inspired by an artist

Long ago, in 2004, I came across a watercolour in an antique bookshop in Los Angeles. It was signed ‘Winston Churchill’. I took a photograph and sent it to David Coombs who is the authority on Churchill’s paintings. He informed me it was not by Sir Winston as he never painted in watercolour. Thus began my interest in Churchill’s paintings and a bond with David. I began to locate places where Churchill painted…

Finding these locations through a combination of Google Earth, cartes postales anciennes and knowledge of the region turned out to be a huge challenge. It was much more of an undertaking than I had ever imagined. Even before this, I had found myself painting some of Churchill’s locations, though many of the views were not obvious. The painting at Villa Sylvia in Cap Ferrat titled “The Little Harbour, St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat” painted in 1921, is a good example. This pretty little cove lies just below the exquisite Villa Rothschild and I had painted this exact view before, though I had taken in a wider field of view. Churchill chose a more cropped view and focused on the villa. It was the jetty tower with its distinctive gazebo on top that I eventually recognised, one of many Eureka moments. This led me to find another painting of the garden of Villa Sylvia featuring an old pergola. The painting of the magnificent villa Churchill visited with Sir John Lavery was a new discovery, no one knew he’d ever been there.

Location, location, location

Finding the locations was just one element of my search. Getting into these places, if they were private, was a whole other task and no less daunting. I had to find out whom owned the villa or chateau. Try to contact the owner and ask permission to visit. These are very private, wealthy people with large secluded properties. Thankfully, the admiration for Churchill and documenting history won them over, and I was kindly granted access.

Living the good life on the French Riviera

There is no doubt that Churchill lived a grand life on the French Riviera. Not for him the life of  poor, starving artist. His travels were replete with valets, Scotland Yard Detective bodyguards, secretaries and all manner of equipment to write and paint. Churchill was a Francophile and loved his trips to the Cote d’Azur, coming often and staying as long as was permissible. Though there was one occasion he ventured there alone. Winston, arriving at the glorious Chateau de l’Horizon and low on funds, tried the hazardous experiment of foregoing his valet. Greeted by his hostess, Maxine Elliott, he said “You have no idea how easy it is to travel without a servant. I came away from London alone and it was quite simple.” Maxine replied “Winston, how brave of you.”

Winston was enraptured by the French Riviera, the sun, the colours and abundant subject matter were irresistible to him and he longed to capture them on canvas. The Pol Roger, fine food and Casinos were also to be indulged in.

I visited Cassis, Lourmarin, Pont-du-Gard, Cap de Antibes and many other locations on my journey to follow in his footsteps. Discovering where Churchill painted the red rocks between Theoule and St Raphael was a special find, It’s really not that easy to find a specific rock among a coastline full of red rocks!

Painting the south of France

Churchill painted a possible 600 paintings in total during his lifetime, at least 150 of them were of the South of France. He only painted one canvas during the Second World War, in Marrakech, which he gifted to President Roosevelt.

Considering his relatively limited time and output as a painter, one has to judge his work with this in mind. To me, he excelled as an amateur painter. The more I looked at the canvases and the locations, the more I came to respect him as an artist. He painted large canvases on site, in the elements. He would finish them off at his studio in Chartwell because of his busy schedule. If it was possible to return to the same location to continue or complete a canvas, he would.

Churchill painted fast, a one and a half hour session could see the canvas covered. He was bold,  attacked the canvas and did not shy away from a subject, colour or challenge. He adored colour and squeezed all the colours of the rainbow onto his palette. Some of his works tended to have somewhat garish colouring. His wife Clementine would encourage him to “cool your palette a la Nicholson” (Sir William Nicholson, friend and artist mentor).

Lady Churchill would also try to grab a canvas off his easel when she thought it was done, much to the chagrin of Winston. He had a tendency to overwork a canvas and kill the freshness he’d captured on location.

Following in Churchill’s paint brush strokes

I live in Mougins where Churchill visited the Guinness family in the 1930’s and painted the chapel next door, Notre Dame de Vie. In 1960 Pablo Picasso bought the house having also visited the Guinness family and falling in love with the Mas. This would be Picasso’s home and studio until his death in 1973.

Pont-du-Gard is remarkably carpeted by Churchill’s brush, glowing as it does in the last light. In fact this was a common thread with the canvases as they tended to be painted in the afternoon light, probably after his lunch.

I used laminated reproductions around the size of a large post card to find the exact spot on location. This was imperative for me as I wished to line all the elements up with the canvas. Many times it would be identical, quite incredible considering the development along the coast.

One of the highlights of the book occurred during my research when I managed to discover a small photograph at Chartwell, showing Churchill in a dark robe at Chateau de l’Horizon holding a painting of St Paul de Vence. This proved to reverse a decision made on national tv, the BBC’s Fake or Fortune programme, and the painting is today in the Churchill collection.

Churchill was a fine painter

Even though Churchill considered these paintings ‘my daubs’, he was very serious and studious about his work. I came to the conclusion that for him, this was a passion above all others and a way of escape from his busy life, and a means of relaxation that no other hobby could offer. He would be absorbed while painting, time would pass quickly and his mind was focused only on his subject. Despite his love of good food and wine, he even had to be badgered and coaxed from his easel to go to lunch or dinner. A true artist…

Paul Rafferty’s book Winston Churchill: Painting on the French Riviera, published by Unicorn is available from Amazon and all good book shops. The author is hoping to produce a documentary of the project and has plans to produce a companion book of Churchills paintings of Great Britain, the Stately Homes and landscape he so loved.

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In the 1880s, French artist Georges Seurat was using tiny points of colour to create paintings that conveyed a sense of calmness, including slowly flowing waters. Unsurprisingly, Seurat’s technique was called ‘Pointillism.’

But let’s revert to the present day and we’ll work backwards. If you take a close look at a colour picture in a newspaper, you’ll see that the image is composed of tiny dots or points of colour. The impression of full and natural colour is created by combinations of only four dots of different colours: cyan (a shade of blue), magenta (a shade of red), yellow and black. The printing combination is commonly known as CMYK – the ‘K’ being for ‘Key’ or black.

Picture this: joining the dots

While printing relies upon overlaying dots of four coloured inks to achieve its effects, Seurat’s dots were composed of oil paints in an infinite colour range.

Seurat was not trying to capture a photographic style of realism. He was more interested in conveying an impression or the mood of a scene. As Seurat discovered, his technique of Pointillism was ideal for capturing scenes with a sense of slowness or stillness.

Bathers at Asnieres

One of Seurat’s masterpieces is called Bathers at Asnieres (displayed in the National Gallery, London). It depicts a sunny day with ordinary working people relaxing in the waters and on the banks of the River Seine. The attractive natural scene is just outside of Paris. But in the distance through the heat haze, you can see a smudge of the city’s industrial smoke rising into the sky. In all likelihood, it’s the Paris of smoky factories where these ordinary people usually lived and worked just about every day of their lives.

But on this special sunny day, these working people are taking it easy. Their moments of precious relaxation captured for us forever in Seurat’s tiny points of colour on canvas.

You can see several of Seurat’s paintings at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Written by Brad Allan, writer and wine tasting host in Melbourne, Australia and frequent visitor to France.

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Every now and again, when chatting to French friends they’ll drop in a sentence that contains the words “the 7^th Art” or maybe “the 9^th Art” and recently there was talk about the “10^th Art”. You, like me, might be wondering what on earth they’re going on about…

Well in France, the arts are classified. The 7^th Art refers to cinema. The 9^th Art refers to comics. And the 10^th Art to video games! So what are the others and why are the arts classified?

It’s all down to a German philosopher by the name of Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel (170-1831). It’s a pretty complex topic and he wrote heaps of notes the subject but what it boils down to is that art is defined as being a uniquely human activity. That the product of this activity or the idea that one has of it, deliberately addresses the senses, the emotions and the intellect.

His thesis was that art is unique to man. It distinguishes him in nature, and that this activity has no clearly defined functions. And while he was writing lecture notes for his students, the idea of classifying arts was born, though the origins of categorising art go back to Greek antiquity and the nine muses. They were the daughters of Zeus and their arts were: eloquence and epic poetry, history, lyrical and choral poetry, music, tragedy, rhetoric, dance and choral singing, comedy and astronomy.

After Hegel’s death, his notes were collected in a book, “Aesthetics”, which explains his vision of the link between art and the world. His classifications of the 5 major arts caught on in France but since then its been an evolving list and five more arts have been added.

The French Arts

1st Art: Architecture

2nd Art: Sculpture

3rd Art: Visual arts – painting and drawing

4th Art: Music

5th Art: Literature and poetry, writing in general

6th Art: Performing Arts, dance, theatre, mime and circus

7th Art: Cinema

8th Art: Media arts – radio, television, photography

9th Art: Comics. They’re a respected art form in  France which boasts the world-famous La Cité Internationale de la Bande Dessinée et de l’Image in Angouleme, and hosts an annual huge comic festival. (Read more about it in what to see and do in Angouleme).

10th Art: Video games or digital art forms…

So next time you hear the expression the 7^th Art, you’ll be able to drop in a few comments on the other arts too!

More on the arts in France

History of the Louvre – the world’s most visited museum
La Piscine Museum, Roubaix – an art deco wonder with a world class collection
If you like your art weird and wonderful – check out the Fondation du Doute in Blois, Loire Valley
Carrieres de Lumieres, Provence

The post The classified arts of France appeared first on The Good Life France.

 What do an abandoned quarry and an old iron foundry have in common? They both house magical sound-and-light shows that must be seen to be believed.

The Carrières de Lumières (“Quarries of Light”) has been operating for decades near the mountaintop fortress of Les Baux-de-Provence, and is one of the most popular tourist sites in all of Provence. It’s in an old quarry made up of three mammoth rooms carved inside a mountain. A sister site, the Atelier des Lumières (“Workshop of Light”) opened in 2018 in the 11^th arrondissement of Paris.

These stunning digital exhibitions use over 100 video projectors and a spatial sound system to recreate works of art on walls up to 10 meters high and on the floors as well. Thousands of moving images, choreographed with beautiful music, transport you into the works of art themselves.

Van Gogh in Paris and Provence

Every year a new artist is featured and for 2019 it was Vincent Van Gogh. He painted many of his masterpieces near Les Baux, in Arles and St-Rémy. Visitors to the Carrières can also visit those towns to see where he lived and worked. Van Gogh’s paintings are famously vivid and colorful and they become even more so with the digital magic of the Carrières and Atelier.

The main art programmes run throughout the day and lasts about 30 minutes. In between showings may be a shorter program on another topic.

When you are visiting Paris or Provence, add these seriously special son et Lumiere shows to your list – it will definitely perk up your day!

Details

In Paris: www.atelier-lumieres.com Metro:  Voltaire, Saint-Ambroise (line 9); Rue Saint-Maur (line 3); Père Lachaise (line 2)

In Provence: www.carrieres-lumieres.com

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Claude Monet’s paintings of the Alabaster coast in Normandy, and in particular Etretat, are hung on the walls of the most prestigious art museums throughout the world. (Above: Etretat painted by Monet in 1885, now hangs in the Musee des Beaux Arts, Dijon). Monet spent time in the Etretat fishing village in February of 1883. He painted over twenty views of the beach, capturing different perspectives, various weather conditions and changing lights from different times of day.

But Monet was not the only impressionist to be spellbound by the dramatic white chalk cliffs on the Alabaster coast. Other impressionism painters like Gustave Courbet, Berthe Morisot, Eugene Boudin and Camille Pissarro also felt inspired to capture the seascapes of the Alabaster coast on to their canvases.

Once you visit the Alabaster coast yourself, it is easy to understand how the painters derived so much inspiration from these amazing cliffs, nature’s sculptured wonders, the result of thousands of years of thrashing seas and roaring winds.

The Alabaster Coast

The Alabaster Coast, also known as Côte d’Albâtre, is 130km in length. Its name is derived from the alabaster white limestone, making the cliffs white in appearance.

This gorgeous coastline begins at Cap de la Hève and ends at the Bay of the Somme. The Alabaster coast is dotted with charming fishing villages and seaside resorts. However, the most well-known villages are Etretat, Fécamp and Dieppe.

Things to do in the Alabaster Coast

Visit Etretat

The most famous of all the towns on the Alabaster coast is the magnificent town and beach of Etretat. The little town of Etretat, once a fishing village, has drawn the artists for centuries and later photographers from across the globe.

Thousands of pictures of Etretat can be found on the Web. However, nothing compares with viewing this coastline with your very own eyes. It is incredible.

Take your time and walk along the many trails. Each trail provides you with different perspective for viewing the white, chalky cliffs and the incredible rock formations. If you only have time for one trail, make sure you hike up to the cliff top so that you get those fantastic bird’s-eye views from above. If you’re fit, climb the 341 steps to the chapel and monument, as the views from there are magnificent as well.

Etretat town is charming and worth exploring. You will see beautiful half-timber buildings that are typical of the Normandy region. The small streets are dotted with quaint shops selling local specialties and souvenirs. Also there are many fresh and delicious seafood restaurants serving the daily catch from the sea.

Visit Dieppe – the oldest Seaside Resort in France

It would be a shame to visit the Alabaster Coast without popping into Dieppe. Dieppe is the closest beach to Paris and is lively throughout the year. Historically, this town was the first seaside resort in France during the 19th century. It was here that the aristocracy discovered the summer leisure-time activity of sunbathing and swimming.

Today, Dieppe has a beautiful and lively port, lined with fresh-from-the-sea restaurants. The small town is also known for its stunning architecture, beautiful beaches, lovely churches and extensive maritime history. It also has one of the best markets in France.

The GR21 Hiking Trails on the Alabaster Coast

The GR21 hiking trail on the Alabaster coast is 186km long. The trail begins in Le Havre and ends in Le Tréport. On this beautiful trail, you will see the best of Normandy’s beautiful white cliff coastline, its luxuriant green countryside, centuries old architecture and World War II sites.

You don’t have to hike the entire length. You can choose to hike sections only (according to location, difficulty and length). All the GR21 trails are clearly indicated with red and white markings and detailed maps can be obtained in the tourist offices in Normandy.

If you decide to walk a multi-day hike, it is easy to find accommodation and food supplies in the villages en route. There is no better way than experiencing the magnificent scenery of the Alabaster coast than walking this fantastic trail

Jeanette Gory writes a blog combining her passions of travel, art and reading at: www.itravelwithart.com

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In the 1870’s the Impressionists and post-impressionists were centralized in the Parisian capital. Here they would discuss art and their next exhibitions in the cafés and nightclubs of Montmartre. However, towards the end of the 19th century, many became fed up with the capital and scattered to go their separate ways.

A fascination with light and bright colour led many of them south, away from the greyness of Paris and towards the seaside villages of Cote d’Azur and rustic Provence. Two post-impressionist painters in particular, Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh left significant artistic legacies in Provence.

Paul Cezanne – Aix-en-Provence

The most famous “son” of Aix-en-Provence is the post-impressionist painter Paul Cezanne. Except for a short period in the French capital, Cezanne was born and spent most of his life in Aix-en-Provence.

Today Cezanne is a celebrated household name of the entire town and region, however in his life time, he was virtually unknown. When visiting this picturesque town, follow in Cezanne’s footsteps by exploring the streets, places, and landscapes that inspired him.

Cezanne’s Studio (Atelier De Cezanne)

Cezanne’s studio in Aix where he painted during the remaining four years of his life, is open to the public. The studio is not large but is full of objects that he used in many of his famous still life paintings. Also, displayed are letters that Cezanne wrote to his friends and fellow painters, Monet and Manet. You can’t help but feel as if Cezanne just popped out to paint his beloved mountain, Sainte Victoire and will be back shortly to finish another painting. The audio guide is well worth the few euros it cost to hire.

Cezanne’s Family Home – Bastide du Jas de Bouffan

When Cézanne was 20 years old, his father, the wealthy banker, bought the Jas de Bouffan Estate (top photo).

TIP: To visit this house, you need to book a guided tour in advance at the Tourist Information Office. The guide takes you into what was once the family home of Paul Cézanne. You will see one of the main rooms which was once Paul Cézanne’s studio and explore the beautiful gardens where Cezanne often set up his easel, canvas and paints here to paint the view of Sainte-Victoire mountain in the distance..

Musée Granet

Musée Granet is a lovely museum with an impressive collection of art from the 14th to the 20th century. In particular, the museum has a fantastic collection of the impressionists and post-impressionists. The collection includes paintings, drawings and sculptures of the famous 19th century artists such as Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and Cezanne. Also displayed are collections from the major 20th century artists including Bonnard, Picasso, Braque, Dufy and Klee.

The Bibemus Quarries

Just a few kilometres outside of Aix are the stunning Bibemus quarries. Made up of exquisite orange ochre rock formations, Paul Cezanne painted them on many canvases. It is a beautiful place to visit even if you are not a fan of Cezanne. Take note that the trail is a little rough and only suitable if you have no mobility issues. The quarry can only be visited with a guide, but it is worth doing as you’ll discover the exact locations of Cezanne’s most famous paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh in Arles

Van Gogh arrived in Arles on 20 February 1888. After spending two hectic years in Paris, he longed for somewhere quieter and sunnier. When he arrived in the small provincial town of Arles, Van Gogh took a room at the hotel-restaurant Carrel, and later, at Café de la Gare at 30 Place Lamartine at a rate of one franc per night.

This is how Van Gogh described this accommodation to his brother Theo in a letter: “Today I am probably going to begin on the interior of the cafe where I have a room, by gas light, in the evening. It is what they call here a café de nuit (they are fairly frequent here), staying open all night. Night prowlers can take refuge there when they have no money to pay for a lodging, or are too drunk to be taken in.”

In early September, he rented four rooms in the Yellow House at 2 Place Lamartine, Arles. Paul Gaugin moved in as Van Gogh’s guest for nine weeks. Unfortunately it is no longer there after being bombed during WWII. Today a newsstand and boulangerie stand in its place.

The Arles hospital

When Van Gogh became unwell with psychotic episodes, he admitted himself into the local Arles hospital after cutting off his left earlobe, now named L’Espace van Gogh. It was originally built in the 16th century as the main hospital in Arles and continued to function as a hospital until well into the 20th century.

The courtyard’s garden is landscaped to resemble the Van Gogh’s famous painting “Le Jardin de l’Hôtel de Dieu”.  The complex houses the town library as well as exhibition spaces, a series of souvenir shops and a cafe. The hospital has become a pilgrimage site for Van Gogh fans. It’s address: Pl. Dr. Félix Rey, Arles and entrance is free.

Jeannette Gory is a blogger with a passion for impressionist art and history – find out more at: www.itravelwithart.com

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In 2015 I went to the Lille for the opening parade of Lille3000. I had no idea what to expect. I’d heard from friends that it was a quirky and incredible art “event” but nothing prepared me for the reality.

Held every few years, Lille3000 is a huge event with what seems like a strange name – but there’s a good reason! In 2004 the city was elected European Capital of Culture. They put on a grand show, in fact transformed the streets, opened art galleries and museums. When their year of culture was over, the citizens of Lille decided actually, it wasn’t! They wanted to keep the cultural vibe going to the year 3000. So Lille3000 was born.

It’s a festival of art like no other in the world. The streets are transformed, huge events take place and many locals participate. To call this city an arty party feast is an understatement. And if you ever needed a reason to visit, this is it. Go see the opening parade, visit the art installations and discover one of the richest artistic collections in France.

Lille3000 2019 | Eldorado

It all kicks off on April 27 when the opening parade takes place. This year’s theme is Eldorado and the organisers of Lille3000 are bringing Mexico to the city! Inspired by the great Mexican festivals such as El Dia de los Muertos or the Puebla parade, it’s going to be colourful and vibrant. Expect more than 1000 costumed dancers, singers and performers. There will be a major sound and light show and a spectacular night out.

But it doesn’t end there as there are months to follow of performances, events and exhibitions. This art festival runs from 27 April until 1 December 2019.

Amazing street art for Lille3000

On leaving the central Lille Flandres Station, visitors face the Rambla, leading into the heart of the city. Over the years this famous thoroughfare has been become used to being transformed for each festival. Hosting the elephants of Nitin Desai, during the theme of Bombaysers, the arches of Jean Claude Mezière, and even a street in Beijing. This year, it is popular art figures who are taking over the Avenue Faidherbe. For Eldorado, it will be decorated with Alebrijes: 10 monumental sculptures created by the Museum of Popular Art in Mexico City. Giant statues made of wood or papier-mâché, representing wild and domestic animals plus fantastic creatures created from hybrid and imaginary elements.

At Lille Flandres station, visitors will be welcomed by a giant, 10m-wide, moon. It’s the work of British artist Luke Jerram. ‘Museum of the Moon’ is an inflatable installation based on images of the moon provided by NASA, accompanied by a soundtrack.

Lille3000 events

At the end of the Rambla, is the 17th century Old Stock Exchange, in front of the Opera House. It’s inner courtyard hosts a popular second hand book market. Chess players compete with booksellers for visitors’ attention. In 2019 it will be enhanced, for the festival, with Golden Sun Mirrors.

Dozens of exhibitions will take place in venues throughout the inner city of Lille and its suburbs .

At St So Station cultural venue, a Garden of Eden, inspired by the Pozas in Xilitla, a 32-hectare tropical forest known for its waterfalls and lakes, and home to huge surrealist concrete sculptures will be created. British poet Edward James will be the star here.

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art, Outside Art of Lille,  exhibits works by Modigliani, Picasso, Miro and Bernard Buffet all year round. In 2019, for the Eldorado festival, the Lam will hold a major retrospective on Alberto Giacometti.

Former hospital, Hospice Comtesse founded in 1237 by Jeanne de Flandre (Countess of Flanders) is now a museum. It will be exhibiting works of Mexican art, paintings and sculptures by such artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Rosa Rolando, selected by the Museum of Modern Art of Mexico.

And there’s much much more. Check out the Lille3000 website for details: eldorado-lille3000.com; Lille Tourism

More on Lille

Arty Party Lille3000 2015 – want to know what to expect, check out the last time this amazing event took place.
Ten things to do in Lille
Roubaix – La Piscine, a most extraordinary art deco swimming pool which turned into a museum
Palais des Beaux Arts, Lille
Ten places to eat out in Lille
Lille – charm and culture by the bucket load

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