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april 4th, 2004
Lacoste II
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Bonjour everyone. I got lots of photos and news to tell you all about. Start of by saying Queen Palla Walla has left the country, and not a moment too soon! It was just pissing me off seeing all the stops they were pulling out for a bunch of rich people, but the total lack attention they pay to the students. At least we got a shower curtain out of the deal.
So it has been a fairly quiet on schooldays. I went to Bonoiux (the rival city across the valley) a few times and did some drawings there. The cool event that happened though was our art history professor made friends with a young man who's father was the last "Bell ringer" at the old catholic church at the top of the hill. He was able to give us a first class tour of it, which for all purposes is no longer in use. It also had the remains of a giant pipe organ, but it was destroyed by the Nazi’s in WW2. The church is different from most because the first half of it is built in a Romanesque style from about 1100 b.c.e., but the rest of it is gothic built at much later different points. You can see the evolution of several hundred years building technology under one roof. I didn't take any photos, but some friends did, so I will hopefully get some from them soon.
We had Friday off so we all mostly relaxed and got homework done. Saturday however was very busy. We first traveled to the city of Arle, where we visited their museum of ancient history. They had all kinds of pagan and Christian stone coffins, some thousands of years old. They also had a great deal of ancient stone art, and even ancient Roman indoors plumbing!
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Pegan coffin in the upper left, a Christian coffin to the right. Notice the different subject matters and styles. |
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Middle is the head of a giant sculpture of Augustus. |
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Ancient Roman Pots, Mosiacs from Pompei, and Ancient Roman plumbing! |
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After we left the museum we went into the city. First stop was the catholic church of St. Thorphime. It’s famous for the relief sculpture on its entryway known as a "portal". In the center is Jesus, blessing the people to the right, who are going to heaven. However the people to the left are walking in the opposite direction surrounded by hell fire and brimstone (I think its safe to assume that they aren't quite as blessed). The general idea behind this sculpture was medieval scare tactics. Most people couldn't read, so it was a very much a "Believe now! Do it now or god will fuckin spank you!". Oh those medieval Catholics...
Next stop was the cafe Vincent Van Gogh painted in his famous "Night Cafe". Van Gogh was from Arle, and there are places all over the city where he used to stomp around including the mental hospital he checked himself into. During his stay there he painted a lot of great work. I apologize ahead of time; I saw tulips in the garden and sort of went of a flower photo free for all. But most of them were cool photos so I included them anyway even though tulips are by no means unique to France.
The best experience I had in Arle however was on my way back to the bus. I passed a window where an older man was carving at some wood. I watched him for a second, and when he looked up he saw me, so I gestured that I was watching him carve and I that liked his work. He immediately got very excited, said of bunch of stuff in French, opened the door and gestured me to come in his shop. There we both stood, not having a damn clue what the other was saying, but I showed him my sketch book which he greatly approved of, and he promptly gave me the nickel tour of his small studio. After our "art" moment, we shook hands and parted ways, never to meet again.
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St. Thorphime Church, the Final Judgement is depicted in the entryway called the "portal". |
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| Two veiws of Arle, a roman ruin built into the side of a building (center), and an anceint roman area (right), still has bullfights in it. |
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The cafe Vincent Van Gogh paintted in his famous "Night Cafe" |
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The mental hospital in Arle Van Gogh spent some time in and painted many works. |
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| After Arle we left for St. Remy where Vincent Van Gogh was put in a mental hospital, this time against his will. There are some photos of the courtyard and of his room. The best part of this stop though was outside walking around the grounds; we found a massive stone quarry that we technically weren't supposed to be in. But I was with a professor so if we got in trouble I was ready to through him under the bus should the authorities have arrived. The quarry just kept going deeper into the ground, and almost looked like a ruined parking garage. |
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The courtyard of the mental hospital St. Remy where Van Gogh was commited. |
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View from Van Gogh's window, and his bed. |
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Some roman ruins just outside or St. Remy. |
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| A huge quarry in almost the backyard of St. Remy. |
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photo journal entries
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