Diné laid under the chaise lounge with her paws crossed, while beautiful thunderheads built up over the Sandias and floated by earlier in the afternoon. A vulture appeared to fly above the clouds as it circled over the river. The picturesque clouds turned into a dust storm in the late afternoon, but, alas, no rain.
I drove through north Corrales and all access to the river and bosque are closed. People say we are in a drought, but really we are experiencing what is more normal for arid New Mexico. So if the bosque and state parks and wilderness areas are only going to be open when we have above normal rainfall, New Mexico may end up being closed for longer than most of us will live. Rosencrantz was hanging out in the bamboo looking smart, and René was having a bad hair day after I gave him a shower.
Sophia was begging to get out and sit on me while I was sitting at the table working on photos at Tristan’s and David’s. Apparently I remind her of her previous owner and she got very excited to be out with me, started grooming me, and regurgitating for me, which is a very loving gesture coming from an African Grey! There is a family of quail in their back yard. Mama and papa quail sit on top of the wall and act bewildered that the chicks can’t get up on the wall with them. The chicks blend into the bark, mulch and wall.
Don’t tell anyone, but I did sneak a little bit of rain past customs. It’s a piddling amount, just enough to turn the dust on the cars into muddy drops, but it’s rain all the same. When I went out to photograph the clouds, a hummingbird hovered at what it thought was a safe distance from my lens, but even in the low light of overcast skies at dusk, I got a clear shot of it hovering in front of clouds. A crow flew through my photo of the backlit clouds, and as it flew over me I could see it had something in its beak, but it was so strongly silhouetted against the clouds, I couldn’t see what it had.
We got into the Louvre when it opened, rushed to the Mona Lisa and there were only about 50 or so people crowded in front of her, making it easy to get up to the rope to get the closest view possible. The Mona Lisa is the perfect portrait of the perfect model in the perfect pose. She is like a self portrait of how everyone would like to see themselves, and the reflections in the multiple layers of glass protecting the Mona Lisa adds to the sense of the portrait as a reflection of our own portraits.
After three hours in the Louvre we had browsed the entire Italian and Spanish painters wing and then went through the exhibit on Egyptian art and culture. In the Spanish sections, there was a small exhibit of plates by Goya, where I got the photo of the woman looking out the window that almost matched Goya’s woman on a horse.
One thing really nice about our apartment being so close to the Louvre is that we go back to the apartment and fix lunch before we go out again. Laurie made crepes for lunch that were wonderful, and then we strolled through the Tuileries on our way to the Musée l’Orangerie where they have expressionist paintings by Cézanne, Renior, Monet, Picaso, Rousseau, etc. Along the way we saw goats mowing a moat, a teenage bird bigger than its mother still asking her to feed it, duckings napping, flowers starting to bloom, iris and a few roses.
In the afternoon we walked to the Cathédrale Sainte Croix des Aemeniens about 3 km east of our apartment to attend three recitals. Along the way we saw a lot of interesting triangular buildings, some women on a building holding up a balcony, and we walked through a large flea market before we got to the church. The church was old and not in the best repair, but the acoustics were phenomenal. The first recital was Youn Soon Lee on piano. She played Beethoven so well her playing was like listening to an orchestra. The pieces she played were light and showy with lots of flashy runs and arpeggios that she would build up, pull down, build up, pull down and build up again until she brought the pieces to their explosive climaxes. Ms Lee’s performance was magnificent.
After the first recital we walked down to a restaurant/bar and got coffee before the next recital. The area we were in had a lot of art studios and private art galleries, the bars were filled with people, and the streets bustled with people walking, riding bikes and navigating cars through the crowds making their way to and from the flea market.
I didn’t think we could hear much better than Ms. Lee’s performance, but Miran Dévétak’s interpretation of List and Fauré was nothing short of phenomenal. List was heavy, complex and melodic, punctuated with fits of quick runs and dynamic, loud sets of chords. Fauré was a little lighter with a modern (1900sh) rhythm, and very quick, complex fingerings that Mr. Dévétak executed flawlessly.
The third recital was a violin/piano duet by Eun Bi Gang on violin and Jean Dube on piano. They were also fantastic performers. Ms Gang started by doing a solo of Martinon Sonatine No 5 op 32. The piece had some amazing secondary rhythms that she played under the melody, which was really remarkable. Mr. Dube accompanied her on the piano on Bach’s Sonate 2 Andante, Mozart Concerto No 5 1st Movement and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto op 35 1st movement.
On our way to Notre Dame in the morning, we came across a bird market that had cages and cages of small parrots, parakeets and finches. While I was photographing flowers (the poppies were huge) and roses in the garden behind Notre Dame, I came across an early bird getting worms.
Our last day in Provence, and the sea was calm enough for us to get a boat out to Chateau d’If, the island castle turned prison that was made famous by Alexandre Dumas in his novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The most famous prisoner on Chateau d’If was Edmond Dantes, Dumas’ fictional character who was wrongly imprisoned on d’If for 14 years, and who meets the Abbe Faria after Faria digs a tunnel into Dantes’ chamber. Faria educates Dantes, Dantes escapes posing as the dead Faria, and becomes the Count of Monte Cristo. Even though Dantes and the Abbe never existed, there is a tunnel adjoining two chambers that are labeled Abbe Faria and Edmond Dantes. The castle is in great condition with access to almost every room. In some of the rooms they have sound effects to give added ambience. There are lots of seagulls nesting on the island, and ignoring the signs saying that seagulls are dangerous, I got very close to one that sitting on her eggs. She was very vocal about my close proximity, but simply held her ground.
We went to Arles yesterday where there is a lot of really well preserved Roman ruins, Arles has a lot of interesting old architecture as does all the old cities in Provence. After Arles, we drove down the Rhone peninsula to a little strip of beach. The area is a large nature preserve with flamingos. The wind blew hard all day and is was really strong on the peninsula — it was so strong that I was having trouble getting clear photos of the flamingos.
We went to Marseille today. Marseille is beautiful, bustling port city that has lots of energy and lots of people from all over the world in the streets. Since Marseille was founded by the Greeks over 2000 years ago, a the locals think of Marseilles as the true capital of France. There is a lot of old architecture, and a couple of churches built in neo-Bizintine style with the alternating color of the stones and mix of Eastern and Western architectural styles. We have shrimp for lunch, which was great.
We got back from Marseille just a little late for Lundi de Pentecôte, a concert of Bach’s BWV 173 Erhöhtes Fleisch und Blut et 184 Erwünschtes Freudenlicht at the St. Jean de Malte Cathedral. Bach wrote the music for Pentecost, and fortunately the priest was still explaining the music when we walked in, and there were a few open seats, so we didn’t miss a note. The performance was fantastic, and sound in the 13th century cathedral was outstanding. The musicians played baroque instruments and the vocalists were phenomenal. They also had a couple of modern pieces which were performed by three people playing the pipe organ simultaneously. The pieces were Le jar din suspendu by Jehan Alain (1911-1940) and Le vent de l’Esprit: sortie se la messe de la Pentecôte by Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992). The modern was not the type of organ music I would seek out, but it was well performed and interesting. The orchestra and vocalists got a standing ovation, and we brought them back for an encore.
Laurie and I got to Notre Dame at 8:00 am, right after it opened, listened to mass, and then looked at the exhibits behind the altar area. The French government restored the pipe organ and the bells for the 850th anniversary, and the exhibit noted that renowned musicians play the pipe organ on Sundays. They also have concerts at Notre Dame, so we are planning on attending a concert and going on a Sunday to listen to the organ when we return to Paris at the end of the month. After mass and exploring a little more of the church, we sat out on the bleachers and ate bocadillos for breakfast before we had to go back to the hotel and collect our luggage to catch the train to Provence. Since there were few tourists sitting on the bleachers that early, the sparrows mobbed us to get our bread. They were quite aggressive little beasts, and I think they would have preferred to have eaten us if they were big enough.
Getting mob of 20 students plus a few parents and a kid to the TGV (high speed train) on time proved to be quite challenging, as we all barely got on the train before it left, and three people managed to get on the wrong train, but fortunately the two trains were attached and stayed together until we got to Aix en Provence.
The countryside was covered with green fields punctuated by fields of yellow Colza flowers (used for canola oil) and a few brown fields waiting to be planted most of the way to Provence. Low clouds hung in the sky all the way to Aix with the atmosphere below the clouds alternating between clear and mist. The landscape became drier and rockier the further south we went, but it was still much greener and wetter than New Mexico.
We are staying with a family in a large house on the northern edge of Aix en Provence. Sophie, the hostess, is a native of Aix, but has lived in England with her Husband Paul. She has one daughter living at home, a couple of other students who go back to the States on Wednesday and a dog name Lilly, who insists that I throw a ball for her and give her lots of attention.
We are starting on classwork this morning and our first cooking class is this evening.
Off Center & Not Even 