World Walker

For those of you passionate about impressionist art, Normandy is going to be one of the best places to visit in Europe this summer. Normandy is not only home to Monet’s Giverny house and garden, and the many sites such as the Rouen Cathedral and the white coastal cliffs he and other impressionist artists painted, but this year the region is hosting what promises to be a great festival. The administrative regions that make up Normandy and the various relevant art galleries and cultural institutions have come together and organised Normandie Impressionniste 2010: a programme of over 100 events and exhibitions for June through to September this year.

This festival is not just a series of exhibitions of impressionist art, although there are a number of those planned too. For example, the Castle Museum in Dieppe will curate an exhibition of paintings that depict that City and its surroundings; and the museum of fine art in Rouen will curate an exhibition of paintings of the city by Monet, Gaugin and Pissarro. Other exhibitions are slated for Le Havre, Hornfleur, Giverny and Caen. Besides the exhibitions the programme includes a variety of concerts and theatre productions, as well as outdoor sound and light shows and open air concerts and picnics – outdoor dining and picnics were a common theme for the impressionists.

During the evenings in the summer of 2009 the city of Rouen gave us a taster of what we can expect in 2010. The cathedral, the one that Monet painted thirty times, had Monet’s paintings projected on to its façade (pictured above). And, the front façade of the Museum of Fine Arts was used as the backdrop for an animated sound and light show that told the history of the impressionist movement. The following three photographs give an idea of how striking the projecting of images onto the front of the museum was.

For more about impressionism in Normandy and the programme for Festival this summer, have a look at the following blog: Monet, Giverny & Normandy.

When it comes to the Europe’s Neolithic period – that time in prehistory associated with the origins of farming in Europe – Stonehenge in southern England is perhaps the best known. The area surrounding Stonehenge is rich with all sorts of other monuments from this period, including such sites as Avebury, Silbury Hill and various barrows and burial chambers. An equally impressive area of Neolithic monuments can be visited in the Morbihan area of southern Brittany, France. These megalithic monuments include for example the stone alignments at Carnac, the burial cairn and art of Gavrinis, and the enormous menhir at Locmariaquer.

Carnac is a series of over 300 standing stones, spread over 4 kilometres, making up about 40 hectares. Associated excavations suggest these stone alignments are dated to between 4500 and 2500 B.C, a period that saw the beginning of sedentary existence and farming in western Europe. This makes the stones amongst the first of the monumental structures built in western Europe. The alignments of Carnac (made up of Kermario, Le Menec, Kerlescan and Le Pett Menec) are generally considered to have had a religious function. It is thought that the alignments of standing stones indicated the way to a sacred enclosure.

There is free access to the alignments from March to October, and a wonderful visitor centre at Kermario.

Gavrinis is a small island that is only reachable by boat, as it is located out in the Gulf of Morbihan. Today it is uninhabited, measuring only 750 by 400 meters, but it is the site of a large megalithic, decorated burial cairn dating to the Neolithic period, and thought to be the same age as the Carnac alignments. At the time of the cairn’s construction, around 3500 years before the present, the ‘island’ was connected to the Breton mainland – the cairn having been built on a granite hill. Since then, the sea level has risen, turning the hill into an island.

The mound of granite rocks that makes up the cairn has a diameter of about 50 meters – and covers a single rectangular slab-built burial chamber. The chamber is at the centre of the mound, about 2.5 meters wide, and is reached by a 14 meter long passage. The chamber is made up of 50 carefully placed slabs – at least on of which is thought to weigh up to 17 tons, and the passage is made up of 29 slabs, 23 of which are ‘decorated’ with engraved geometric patterns.

Gavrinis is open to the public from the end of March to the end of October, and you get a boat to the island from the old fishing village of Larmor-Baden. Times vary but you will not go wrong if you plan your trip in the afternoon; in the summer there are morning crossings as well.

The Great Menhir of Er Grah in the fishing port of Locmariaquer is thought to have been erected around 4700 years B.C., and is the largest known, single block of stone to have been transported and erected by Neolithic people. The menhir is 20.6 m high, and weighs 280 tonnes. It is thought to have fallen over and broken during an earthquake. The stone comes from a few kilometres away, and originally there would have been quite a few of them. But, as with many of these stone monuments the large stones have been re-used by everyone from the Romans to more recent farmers.

There is usually free access to the menhir and various cairns and dolmens in Locmariaquer. There is a Locmariaquer archeological information centre that is open throughout the year at varying times depending on the season.

If you are visiting Brittany, or thinking about it, and you are interested in Europe’s archaeological heritage, the megalithic monuments in the Morbihan area of Brittany are well worth a visit. If archaeology is your passion – you could quite easily stay in the area for a couple of weeks and still not have seen everything.

The photographs in this post are used courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the spectacular cave paintings in France, often said to be the origins of art. For anyone interested in the other end of the time-scale, more contemporary art, and more comfortable settings, Paris is certainly the place to visit. This year, 2010, there are some great shows on the programme for art lovers visiting Paris, including Lucian Freud, Claude Monet and even Yves Saint Laurent. And, as is always the case for Paris, not only do you get to see some great art, but it is also exhibited in some great buildings, oozing history and tradition.

The prestigious Grand Palais, a large glass exhibition hall that was built for the Paris Exhibition of 1900, is kicking off their year with a high-profile exhibition by Christian Boltanski, a French artist of 65 often said to be obsessed with death. His sculpture titled Personnes (People) features a giant crane, which he says is the finger of God, picking through mounds of old clothes to the noisy sound of heartbeats in a metaphor on destiny and death. “It will be very cold, I hope. I asked them to turn the heating off,” he said recently. “The body must feel lost. It’s part of the work.” An equally thought-provoking show at the same time, but at the Mac/Val arthouse in the suburbs, entitled Apres (After) explores the afterlife, where ghostlike creatures ask the visitor “How did you die?” or “Did you suffer?”

‘Turner And The Masters’, an exhibition which opens at Le Grand Palais in February juxtaposes paintings by the 19th century artist JMW Turner alongside older works by artists who inspired him, such as Canaletto, Rembrandt, Watteau, Titian, Poussin and Rubens. Later in the year Le Grand Palais stages an exhibition dedicated to Impressionist master Claude Monet — bringing together more than 200 of this favourite artist’s oils.

The Musée d’Orsay, which was once one of Paris’s main train stations, has some great shows lined up. Opening 19 March, until 27 June) is Crime and Punishment, which explores the aesthetics of violence. Co-curated by Robert Badinter, who as France’s Justice Minister abolished the guillotine, the exhibition will feature works from the heady post-revolutionary days of 1791 through to 1981, when France banned capital punishment. There are also exhibitions of works by the painter Meijer de Haan (1852-1895, exhibition: 15 March – 13 June) who is known from his somewhat mysterious portraits painted by his friend Paul Gauguin; Jean-Léon Gerôme (1824 – 1904, exhibition: 19 October 2010 – 23 January 2011) and Heinrich Kühn (1866-1944, exhibition: 19 October 2010 – 23 January 2011)

In March the Pompidou Art Centre will host the first major Lucian Freud show in Paris in more than two decades. The 60 works on display will include his well known portraits and nudes, as well as his much lesser-known naturescapes and drawings.

Over 100 works of the graffiti art icon and New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, a friend of Andy Warhol’s who died aged only 28 in 1988, will be on show from October at the Paris Modern Art Museum. The first ever retrospective of Yves Saint-Laurent, who died in 2008, will be on display at the Petit Palais from March. The exhibition will feature around 300 models, drawings, documents and films at a show curated by two of France’s top fashion historians.

This year France and Russia celebrate an official year of friendship, there are cultural events throughout the country and the capital to mark this year. For example, the Louvre museum will exhibit from March to May an exhibition entitled Sainte Russie that brings together over 400 works, most of which are on loan, that tell the story of Russia’s Christian history from the 9th to the 18th century.

Skiing is not cheap, especially when you’re skiing at Chamonix in the French Alps.  That means it’s necessary to try to save money wherever possible.  Hostels are a good place to start.

Le Chamoniard Volant is an inexpensive option just a short walk from the middle of town.  In ski boots on snow covered roads maybe 10 or 15 minutes.  The hostel itself is perfect for the traveling ski bum, although, there were some older people and even a family or two staying there.  They even have free parking if you’ve managed to get yourself a car.

The hostel is filled with wood, wooden walls, wooden floors, wooden tables, which, in the mountains seems to work quite well.  The bedrooms are tight, but have bunk beds which make for a good place to hang your wet ski clothes to dry overnight.  I suggest bringing your own sheets, those provided are thin and don’t leave much to the imagination.

The bathrooms were all shared and did not have a sink.  Luckily, each room did have a sink.  The showers were incredibly clean and well maintained, although they had the habit of going a bit cold halfway through only to regain the temperature later.

If you’re really looking to save some money for the skiing, the hostel offers a community kitchen.  If you’re looking to save a bit of money but not willing to cook, pay for dinner at the hostel.  For just 12.60 EUR I ate enough salad, bread, cream of broccoli soup, beef stroganoff, and cheese to feed a small army served in the dining room.  Or at least one of the four bunk rooms in the hostel.

All in all, the hostel was simple with very few frills.  Considering it was a ski trip, that was perfect.  A place to sleep, a warm meal, and a nice shower.  Plus the view of the surrounding mountains was amazing. I couldn’t ask for more.