Category Archives: UNESCO World Heritage Site

Fontoy, France to Frankfurt, Germany

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Day 30    Monday, September 29, 2025

Today is a travel day to Frankfurt Germany and we have been travelling for month already. Bob says we have to stop and see another Eiffel Tower along the way but it is not quite as impressive as the one in Paris!

We had no idea that this is wine country.  There are vineyards on both sides of the road as far as we can see.

The hills around each town we pass are all growing row after row of grapes.  We see the odd group harvesting grapes but the main harvest occurred earlier this month.

We stop in Trier and have our picnic lunch on a bench with this view.

The breeze blew water spray and made a rainbow just as I took this photo.

This foot of Emperor Constantine is a replica of one of the largest marble foots to have survived since antiquity. It was part of a 12 metre high seated statue of Constantine.

The Roman Baths are considered to be the largest Roman baths outside of Rome. 

The ruins are impressive!

We are able to walk through the underground tunnels that would have been used as a service level for the maintenance of the bath’s heating system. This is the entrance to the tunnels.

There was a group of schoolchildren ahead of us…probably the loudest group we have encountered on our travels! We took a side tunnel to avoid walking behind them. There are a maze of tunnels and we are free to explore as we wish. That is Bob peeking around the bend in the tunnel.

We do get a bit lost down here, but it was a lot of fun exploring these interesting tunnels.

Which way should we go!

This photo shows the size of the original baths, although they were never actually completed. The ruins of today are superimposed on the original baths.

The ruins are impressive, but they are only half the height of the original structure! We pass this lovely garden on the way to visit Trier’s cathedral.

Photos really do not show how beautiful and enormous the trees are. I wish we were able to grow trees this large back home. These trees wouldn’t survive our colder climate.

Trier Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest cathedral in Germany. Construction started in the 4th century and it was built upon the foundations of ancient Roman structures.

And yes, the inside of the cathedral is very impressive.

It has one of the most ornate organs we have seen… and many huge sculptures with multiple figures. We walk up these stairs for a view of the nave. This beautiful blue and white Baroque stucco work decorates the choir loft of the Cathedral. It is stunning and unusual. This is the first time we have seen anything like this in a cathedral.

We pass this building on the way to the Nigra Gate. There are many ornately decorated buildings in Trier.

I love watching the bubble makers, and the children trying to catch the bubbles. This fellow made huge bubbles…

and lots of smaller bubbles.  I would love to know how to do this.

At the end of the street we can see the Nigra Gate, another UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Porta Nigra, or Black Gate, is the largest Roman gate in Northern Europe.  It was part of the defensive walls and gates that surrounded Trier in 200AD. It is  incredibly well preserved, especially when you consider that it was completed around 200AD, and it almost two thousand years old!

We pay 6€ each to climb inside the gate. This ‘window’ has a pile of coins, perhaps people making a wish?

A view inside the gate.

We can see the Trier Cathedral from the second level of the gate.

Grafiti has been around for a long time.  Some of the dates on the walls are hundreds of years old.  I do really hate this practice of defacing monuments.

There is Bob, I sent him down to the street so he could take a photo of me in one of the gate arches.

Here I am.These carved decorations are still in remarkably good condition.

Walking back to our car we stop for a photo of the Electoral Palace. We had our lunch in its beautiful gardens which have many white statues and small ponds.

Another gorgeous tree.

The clouds are moving in on our drive home.

Big black ominous clouds.

We arrive at our Airbnb in Frankfurt. It is smaller than our last place but cozy and has everything we need.

Bruges, Belgium

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Day 21     Saturday, September 20, 2025

We drive an hour and a half to visit Bruges.  First stop is the market which was supposed to be open for another hour but most vendors are packing up because of the cold and rain.

We see this huge contraption which I am sure is a spider, but it is not moving. I just looked up Bruges Giant spider and found this little video on Instagram…I was right, it is a spider! https://www.instagram.com/reel/DO3Y573jK1r/ 

It is miserable out, lots of umbrellas, lots of rain and it is cold.

We take refuge in this cathedral along with a lot of other people.  It isn’t very warm but it is at least dry. I sit and write in my journal and Bob checks out the cathedral.  I am content to just sit and rest for a bit.

There are large beautiful tapestries on both sides of the altar.

There is an announcement in several languages that the church is closing and will reopen in a couple hours after lunch.  So we walk to the huge central square, lined with beautiful old buildings.  It had stopped raining. The entire old city of Bruges is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The city was not damaged in either of the two World Wars so much of its Medieval heritage remained intact.

The streets are packed with tourists and it starts to rain again so we find a MacDonalds and hide out there for an hour and have our lunch.  It is dry and warm and no one cares how long we sit here.

The rain stops and we decide to get tickets for a canal boat ride.  There is a line but it moves fairly quickly and we watch the boats coming and going while we wait in line.

While we are waiting  I notice that there is a tight rope walker high in the sky!  If you look carefully at the previous photo you can see her in the top right corner just above the rooftops.  Yes, it is a woman, when she hangs upside down we see a ponytail. A rope almost 400m long was stretched at a height of 70m between the Belfry and the Church of Our Lady.

Soon we are travelling on the canals which give us a great view of many of the buildings in Bruges.

You can see the high wire attached to the cathedral tower.

We pass under many bridges, some of them so low we need to duck our heads.

The geese on the canals are owned by the city of Bruges and the penalty for killing one is five years in jail!

The city of Bruges is famous for its well-preserved medieval architecture, including many buildings featuring stepped gables.  Houses with lots of steps on the gables showed that the owner was rich.         
I wonder if the houses on the canal are damp, with the water lapping at their foundations.

This is the oldest bridge in Bruges and our driver/guide tells us that if you kiss under this bridge you will have everlasting love.  We kiss.

There are a variety of interesting buildings along the canals…

..and some great views.

There are also signs that Autumn is here.

This medieval building was built using wood, which was a fire hazard.  Most buildings in Bruges were built in a style known as Brick Gothic. 

After our boat ride we wander the streets and see this.  Lots of people are entering the building so Bob says we should follow them.  

It is an open house for the  new Brusk Art Gallery which will open in 2026.  We enter a room with shipping plastic wrap.  We aren’t sure what it is supposed to be…

…until we enter the next room and there is a  large tape art installation in the form of a web structure, and there are people climbing inside of them!  All of a sudden the giant spider we saw earlier makes sense.

I want to climb inside…my turn next!

It was interesting trying to walk around, but not really all that difficult.

This was so much fun!  Here I am inside this giant web-like structure.

There is the hole I climbed through to get inside.All too soon it is time to climb down. This was such fun.

There were several of these ‘webs’ in this huge room. What a clever idea.

Belgium is famous for its chocolate, which comes in all shapes and sizes!

There is a Carillon performance at 4:00.  We find a spot to sit just as it starts and listen to a variety of music for the next hour. The carillon is a piano like instrument that plays 47 bells.

One of the musicians was very young.

I do a bit of pen sketching while I listened to the music.  The last song played was Beethoven’s Ode To Joy and most of the audience stood up. The lady beside me told me that it is the anthem for the European Union, which has its headquarters in Brussels.  

This is an interesting building, skinny at the front and then widening out as along the streets on either side. 

We wanted to visit the Church of Our Lady which houses The Madonna and Child by Michelangelo. This world-famous white marble statue is the only work by Michelangelo that left Italy during his lifetime. But the church closed at 5:00 so we are out of luck.

We have to settle for viewing this poster.

We order a waffle with dark chocolate to share before the long drive back to our bnb. It  had a bit too much chocolate for us, but was still delicious.

Driving to Belgium

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Day 16    Monday, September 15, 2025

Today we drive to our next location in Brussels. We stop on the way to visit a zoo in Lille, France. It isn’t a very big zoo but we are surprised that senior admission is only €3!

They have a lot of interesting birds. Clockwise… Blue Winged Kookaburra, Helmeted Curassow, Masked Lapwing, Rainbow Lorakeet.

This Crested Partridge seems to like Bob’s whistling.

The Prevost Squirrel lives in tropical forests.  Several of these squirrels are very busy running up and down all the branches in their enclosure. They look like they are playing.

Who doesn’t love Meerkats?  They certainly seem to love each other!

These two huge tapirs share their enclosure…

…with two of these beautiful Maned Wolves from the South American Savannah. They are not in fact related to wolves or foxes. They are their own genus.

This Siamang uses its feet and hands to get at their food.

These are White Pelicans. I am reminded of the time years ago I sat and drew one of these beautiful birds in the Greek Islands. The bird I drew was quite tame and hung about near the fishing wharf. I sat about three feet away from this enormous creature and spent a lovely hour or so drawing him. The locals gave him a name, which I don’t remember, but he was definitely a male.

The last enclosure is a large aviary for tropical birds. These Scarlet Ibis are so colourful and a bit comical with their very long beaks.

Darn, I forgot to take a photo of the information for these birds, except for the Cariama Huppé which is the brown one with feathers on his beak.

After the zoo we head towards the Citadel but unlike the one Bob visited in Arras, this citadel is still in use by the military.

The Lille Citadel is the headquarters for the Rapid Reaction Corps-France.  This is a high-level,   deployable operational unit for the French Army and a NATO-certified force. This unit comprises around 450 soldiers from 14 allied nations.

The white area of the Citadel is used by the military but the surrounding areas have been converted to parkland for the use of the public.

On our way back to the car there is a field with wild flowers.  I am surprised at how many wildflowers I see this late in the year.

Some of the bushes and trees are starting to turn colour.

There is a huge fair setting up next to the parking lot. Too bad we aren’t staying longer.

The weather is all over the place today. Sunny and warn one minute and then cloudy, very windy and rainy the next.  On our drive to Brussels we see a lot of wind turbines.  Many of them are really close to the road. They are so big!Everything was going well until we got close to a town called Tournai. Our route was supposed to take the yellow road that on this map ends in a no entry sign.  Instead we got detoured down the N50 which looked like we would still be OK but we weren’t. We were detoured onto the southbound lane of the highway which had a barrier to allow half of the road to be used for northbound traffic so it was impossible to make an exit left or right!  We had to keep driving..in the wrong direction …until we could get off the detoured road. We then rerouted our map to get to Brussels only to hit more detours, and then Google maps froze!..and Bob is asking me which way to go!!  We find a place to pull over and figure out a work around which means going in the wrong direction again until we get to a place called Mons, where we should be able to take a completely different road to Brussels. That did work but we hit at least four more construction zones where we were detoured again…only this time we kept going in the right direction. Needless to say we were both very happy to finally arrive in Brussels and check in to our Aibnb.

Screenshot

Quiet Day and the Citadel in Arras, France

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Day 15     Sunday, September 14, 2025

I stay home for a much needed rest and work on my blog and journal. Bob goes to visit the Citadel. He writes the rest of today’s blog…

The military Citadel was built in the late 1600’s to protect Arras. It could house up to 1500 troops. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Beside the Citadel is a park with a zip-line course. Notice how the platforms are secured to the trees so that there is no damage.

Sorry for being so long winded. Bob

Reims Cathedral, Carnegie Library and the Saint Remi Museum

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January 1. 2024

I have thirteen days left of our holiday that I did not post on my blog.  I really want to get them finished so I’ll be working on them this month.

Day 79,  Wednesday, November 15, 2023

This is our last day in Reims and we catch the metro downtown.  Reims has a great metro system that is all above ground because of all the champagne galleries beneath the city.

First stop is Reims’ famous cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This cathedral is bigger than Notre Dame in Paris and has more than 2,300 statues on its facades, including a gallery of 56 kings.  All but seven of France’s kings were crowned at Reims.

Inside there are wonderful stained glass windows. There are the traditional rose windows but there are also several modern windows, including this set of three windows behind the altar that were designed by Marc Chagall.

This golden eagle makes me think of the Nazi eagle symbol…it seems out of place here.  A bit of research and I discover that the eagle is also the symbol of John the Evangelist.

The enormous pillars each have a candle holder with a red cross in a circle painted on the pillar.  I wasn’t able to find any information about this symbol, but I am curious about their meaning.

The front doors to the cathedral are enormous and they are flanked on either side by a wall of statues.

The second winged angel just to the right of the central statue is the Reims Cathedral’s famous Smiling Angel.  During WWI the cathedral was the target of German bombing. Struck by a beam of burning scaffolding, the angel was decapitated and its head broken into more than 20 pieces. It became a symbol of the suffering of the people of France, and its photo appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. A priest collected the 20 pieces of the head and with the help of a plaster cast of the statue kept in a museum, the angel was restored in 1926.

The cathedral was heavily damaged during the war and reconstruction appears to be an ongoing process…these statues look quite new.

Next stop is the Carnegie Library. The Carnegie Library of Reims is a public library built with money donated by businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to the city of Reims after World War I. It is built in an Art Nouveau style and is very beautiful.

The card catalogue is still on display.  I remember looking up books using this system and now it is all computerized!

What a gorgeous place to study.  There is even a monitor to make sure all is well.

It isn’t a big library.We are beginning to see some Christmas decorations.  This huge Christmas ornament is just outside the library.

Next we walk for about half an hour, in light rain, to see some restored tapestries in the Musée Saint Remi.  It is a large museum with many other exhibits besides the restored tapestries depicting the life of Saint Rémi.  The museum is in a former abbey and has a magnificent central staircase.

I adored the expression of this bird on a fragment of XII century sculpture.

We finally find the room with the tapestries and once again we are absolutely astounded at the size, complexity and beauty of these tapestries.

There are only three panels of the original ten that have been restored and returned to the museum. Here are the other two tapestries.They are very large!

Close up photos showing some details…

and here’s a couple more.

This large sculpture from 1500 was on one of the staircase landings.  I thought it was quite beautiful .

There was huge room full of model boats and other nautical items…

and rooms with amazing mosaic floors and Greek and Roman pottery.

This very ornately carved piece is a sarcophagus from 367 A.D.

One of the people working at the museum told us to make sure we saw the display about early Magdalenian people who lived at Lascaux.  I particularly liked these wonderfully constructed miniature models.  We had visited so many caves and learned about the people who lived during this time.

The simple entrance to the museum is deceiving.  There was more than we could see in the time we had there.  All too soon the museum was closing and we were ushered out.  Bob is checking Google Maps to figure out how we are going to get home.  Thanks heavens for Google maps…it certainly makes it so much easier to find our way around.

We walk past the enormous Saint Remi Basilica.

It seems to never end…

but we don’t get a chance to go inside as someone locks the entrance door just as we get near.  It is late anyways and time to head home.We saw starling murmurations as they were looking to settle down for the night.  It is such an amazing sight to see so many birds flying together.

Musèe D’Art Sacre and Musèe de la Vie Bourguignonne, Dijon France

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Day 73, Thursday, November 9, 2023

Our bnb host kindly sent me information for a nearby doctor and I was able to make an online appointment for this afternoon.  Bob goes out exploring and visits the Museum of the Sacred Heart in the morning, and I stay home.  Here is his post……

The Musée D’Art Sacre (Sacred Art) is installed in a Monastery Church and contains Catholic religious sculptures, paintings and gold works from the 12th to 20th century.  There are many varied representations of the Virgin Mary.  This wooden sculpture is from the 15th Century.

A 16th Century depiction of Saint Sebastien who lived in the 3rd Century and is called upon to fight plagues and epidemics.A 15th Century painting of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary, the swords are symbols of the sorrow she endured while witnessing her son’s crucifixion.

A 15th Century wood sculpture of Saint George the dragon slayer.  I find it interesting that Saint George was a legend, yet was worshipped by the Church.

A 16th Century depiction of John the Baptist.  Notice how the young girl is not the same proportional size as the others.

Trudy here now…We walk to the doctor’s for my appointment.  It is only three blocks away and surprise, no waiting.  I sit down and within minutes I was called into the doctor’s office. All I really wanted was a prescription for Otrivin, but I was very surprised to find out that it is against the law for any doctor in France to prescribe decongestants for anyone who has Covid!  Go figure…apparently it can cause permanent loss of smell, which is  interesting because on the internet in North America, decongestants are recommended for nasal congestion caused by Covid.  So instead of a little bottle of nasal spray I walk out of the doctor’s office with four prescriptions!   Methylprednisone pills for the Covid, some other pills to protect the stomach from the Methylprednisone as it is hard on the stomach, a nasal spray that has cortisone in it and Paracétamol for aches and pains and headache!   The good news is that all only cost less than 20€.  I am already starting to feel a bit better than I did the last two days , so I wonder about taking all this?

On the walk home we pass this mural…

and very old buildings still in use.

These half timbered houses are from the 15th century…and they are still in use today! The Notre Dame church of Dijon is just around the corner from our apartment. The interior has beautiful stained glass…

but it is the front of the church with its 51gargoyles, or grotesques, that catches my attention.

I love gargoyles and this church is loaded with them, although the ones on this side of the church are decorative rather than water spouts.

The owl is very important in Dijon, there are even owl cookies.  More on this later.I go home to rest and Bob goes out to explore a bit more.  Dijon is a very pretty city, very walkable and our apartment is only a block away from the old town. I hope I feel well enough to be able to see more of it.

Back to Bob…In the afternoon I visit a heritage museum (Musée de la Bourguignonne)  which displays the community and culture of Dijon from 1880 to 1930.  Objects of daily life reflect the agricultural  and urban history and traditions of the times.  Surprisingly there is little mention of Dijon Mustard.

A typical home with a 4 poster bed to help trap the heat.

A 19th Century clock that is about a metre tall.

Marionettes for the children’s theatre in the 1890’s.  They are about 10 inches tall.

The Charite Hospital had a wing for the Daughters of Sainte-Anne.  They are girls who, “having an infirmity (not explained) cannot be placed in the countryside”.  The charter states “we will carefully try to raise these girls to fatigue, and in a way that makes them fit for the functions of the household and families”.  Not sure what this means, and there were no pictures of these girls displayed, so I am not sure how successful their rehabilitation program was.

These ornate walking sticks were related to the La Mere Folle festival where 20 foot versions of this larger character were paraded through town.

A 1920’s beauty salon that sold wigs tied to the status and age of the wearer.

I don’t understand why such a small clock face has such a big wind mechanism.  It must have run for days without needing winding.

 

Dijon Natural Sciences Museum, Archeological Museum…and Covid Test

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Day 72, Wednesday, November 8, 2023

I am not feeling well at all today so I stay home and Bob goes to the pharmacy as I need some Otrivin nasal spray so that I can breathe.  He finds out that I need  a prescription for that in France.  Who knew?  He brings me two other sprays to try, but they don’t do any good at all

I also asked Bob to pick up a Covid Test for me.   I am pretty sure that I only have a cold, so I was surprised to find out that I tested positive, and I have COVID!

Bob goes out exploring, so he is writing the rest of today’s blog…

Our attic apartment is located just 2 short blocks from the old town centre.  The historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site with wide pedestrian boulevards and historic buildings.  The farmer’s market is just around the corner.

I went to the the Natural Sciences Museum in the morning.

I’ve never been so close to a T-Rex before.

This is a copy of a 10-12 month old Mammoth named Dima that wa found in Siberia in 1977.  It is about 4 feet tall.

A Clyptodon, a 1.8 million year old armadillo, that weighed about 1 ton and lived in South America.

I never knew that gorillas had feet that looked more like hands.

In the afternoon I visited the Dijon Archeological Museum.  It is located in the old Abbey St. Benign and contains collections from pre-Roman, Roman and the Middle Ages.

This 15th Century Nativity scene has to be the saddest couple to have a new baby.  Mom looks terrified.

A copy of a 1.3 kg gold bracelet assembled in 8 pieces that is from the Final Bronze Age (1300-800 BC).

An articulated copper belt from 1000-800 BC.

The Scriptorium is in the basement, with no natural lighting.  The Scriptorium is where writing, copying and illuminating manuscripts was done. Can you imagine writing all day by flickering candle or lamp light?

I wonder how much these Roman gold coins are worth?  I’m quite sure the gold coins are replicas.

 

Avignon, France

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Day 64 Tuesday,  October 31, 2023.

We are visiting Avignon today.  There is always something interesting to see on our drives.  I think this is an old chimney stack that is being dismantled.

There is a free parking lot on an island near Avignon with a free bus ride into town.  The first thing we see when walk through the town gate is this magnificent tree.  I know…lots of tree photos, but I do love these beautiful huge trees.  It is too bad our winters at home are too cold for these beauties.

We have seen so many churches…but every time we enter another one it is different and sometimes there are little jewels to discover.  I loved the contrast between the modern paintings and this ancient Gothic church that was built in the early 1300’s…Saint Agricol Church.  There has been a church on this site since 660.  Then there is the sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows!

The indoor market has a living wall… and lots of seafood.  Too bad neither Bob nor I are fans.  The very last picture is of Lapin…Rabbit.  Not something we are used to seeing.  I had rabbit once many years ago and although it was OK, it isn’t something I am interested  in trying again.  

We used to pick and dry these same mushrooms.  I knew they were a delicacy but I had no idea that Morels were so expensive … 640€ a kilogram!!

There is a flea market outside the  indoor market.  These old copper pots make me think of my grandparents and their copper pots.

After having our lunch we walk through this narrow street built between the walls of the Popes Palace and a rock cliff.

Bob has taken some amazing photos this trip…he might become a photographer yet!

At the end of this street there are some painted windows.  We see several buildings whose windows contain paintings of people.  They make me smile.

I love the look of all the cobbled streets but they sure are hard to walk on for a long time.

This is a scale model of Le Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes). It is the largest Gothic building in Europe!   It was a fortress, a palace, and the seat of Western Christianity during the 14th Century.  Nine popes lived here and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our 12€ admission tickets includes the use of a Histopad.  This device allows us to look in any direction, as well as up or down and the Histopad screen shows us what the  room would have looked like in the 14th century.  

I usually wait and try not to have a lot of people in my photos, but it was really hard to do that today.  Everyone stands transfixed, viewing these rooms as they might have been. This room was the treasury and in 1995 a secret chamber was discovered under the stone floor, that still contained precious treasures from hundreds of years ago.  There was no information on how this chamber was discovered.  It is amazing that it would still be there after all this time.  Bob is standing beside this secret chamber in the photo.

In this photo you can just see the top of a sculpture behind the Histogram…

It is made from corrugated cardboard and stands about 5 feet tall by Paris artist Eva Jospin.  I think it is fascinating.  

We take a break in the palace gardens and try to buy a hot chocolate from a machine that only accepts credit cards…it was beyond both of us!  No hot chocolate for us today.

The palace walls rise 52 meters above the garden!

The gardens look lovely from afar but they were actually a bit neglected.  

We return to the inside for the last part of our tour.  However the Histopad photo is not what grabs my attention.
Rather it is the three enormous silk embroidered wall hangings displayed on one of the long walls.  ‘Chamber de Soie’  or ‘Silk Room’ is also created by Eva Jospin.  

We spend a lot of time here as I walk back and forth, studying these huge embroidered panels.  I can not believe how much work it would take to make these.

Here are the other two…

along with some close-ups of the embroidery.

Next door is a small room that used to be a kitchen.  It also has artwork, including this sculpture, ‘Empyrée’, that is suspended from the top of the huge chimney in the center of the room.   Empyrée is from mythology and means ‘Highest part of the sky, where the gods reside’.  I am astounded to read that this is also by the same artist, Eva Jospin.

But then we walk into the next room and see this sculpture that is made completely from corrugated cardboard!  Wow, It is astounding.  I spend a lot of time here as well.  There is so much to look at in ‘Forest Galleria’, or Forest Gallery.  And who is the artist?  Eva Jospin!

Some close-ups of the different techniques used to create this forest.  I cannot believe the size and complexity of this sculpture…

until we walk into the next huge room.  OMG!!  There are simply no words to adequately explain this work called ‘Paysages’, or ‘Landscapes’.  There are three enormous sculptures in this equally enormous chamber.  This one is actually the smallest of them all and they are all made with corrugated cardboard!

This piece is reminiscent of a classical temple on one side…

and here is the back, all overgrown with trees!

These two sculptures are astounding…but then there is this absolutely unbelievable piece that is placed between the other two.  What can I say?

A close up of part of the front…

a side view.  I did say it is very large!

And a view through the center, which reminds me of a river flowing through a rocky canyon.

Honestly,  photos cannot capture the grandeur of this work! I did find a video explaining how these pieces are constructed with corrugated cardboard, but sorry, it is a FaceBook video so not everyone may be able to view it.   https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=437873248434139.      

And here is the link to Eva Jospin’s website.

https://www.suzanne-tarasieve.com/artist/eva-jospin/?lang=en&show=

There was also a room with a video about Eva Jospin and some photos of the process for creating these pieces.  I am in complete awe.

We climb lots of stairs to the roof of the palace.  We started our tour way down there, under the raised seating of this outdoor theatre.

The views from the top are amazing, but it is time to start heading back home.

As we walk back to catch the bus to our car we walk under the Pont d’Avignon.  Bob said they used to sing the French children’s folksong ‘Sur le Pont d’Avignon’ when he was in elementary school.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r8eALyO8E4

We walk through the fortified walls through this rather makeshift looking doorway.

Just as we are leaving to catch our bus one of the town’s little busses passes by.  This is the tiniest bus we have ever seen.

Thanks, if you are still reading and made it this far.  I know this is a really long post, but I want to remember all of it.  I actually pruned out a whole lot more photos!

Arles, France…Walking in Van Gogh’s Footsteps

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Day 62,  Sunday, October 29, 2023

“Vincent van Gogh arrived in Arles in February 1888.  This was the start of an intense period of activity for the artist, in the Mediterranean light.  Indeed, it was his most productive era and during this 15 months in Arles, Van Gogh produced over 300 paintings and drawings, thus forging one of the most important periods in the history of art.  In May, 1989, Vincent left Arles for the Saint-Rémy de Provence asylum, leaving the name of Vincent van Gogh linked to that of Arles forever.” ~ Arles Tourism brochure.

Vincent spent a year at the asylum before moving to Auvers-sur-Oise in May 1890, where committed suicide on July 27th 1890.

Today we are going to follow Vincent’s footsteps as we walk through Arles, looking for the places where he stood at his easel creating some of his most loved paintings. Arles has placed a copy of each of his paintings at the location where Van Gogh would have stood.

First stop is the courtyard at the hospital in Arles.  Vincent stayed at this hospital three times between December 1888 and May 1889.

I feel like I have walked into a painting…

In the old hospital buildings there is also a wonderful photography exhibit by Pierre Vallet.  We later see some more of his work on display in the Arles Amphitheatre.

There is a sculpture of Van Gogh in the courtyard.

On our way to the next location we pass an old church that is hosting an AI exhibition. The audience is invited to sit and interact with these AI games.Here are the screenshots of some of the other games…notice that one of them has a character named Bob.

We pass a shop window with a creepy window.  Halloween is only two days away!

Arles is a pretty town.  We are trying to follow the not very clear map to find the next location when I notice…

this plaque set into the sidewalk.  So now we just have to follow the plaques, and it feels like a treasure hunt!

The stairs of the Trinquetaille Bridge was painted from this spot.

We climb the steps and cross the bridge, walking beside the Rhône River to our next destination.

We pass these ruins which are Roman baths…looks interesting but we are on a mission.

We pass a couple of old stone façades, just one wall left standing.  Back home it would have been torn down.

Starry Night over the Rhône…too bad the river cruise boats are in the way of our view, but we are able to pick our several of the landmarks in the painting.

We make small detour to check out the remains of a bridge that was destroyed in the bombardment of Arles in 1944.  There are many reminders of both the First and Second World War in every town and city that we have visited.

Then we pass a little carnival that was just getting set up.  I thought it was interesting that they have chairs for the parents to sit while their children are on the rides.  

Unfortunately the Yellow House that Van Gogh shared with Gaugin was also destroyed during the bombardment. It stood on this very street corner.Several young boys were hanging about and one of them, Leron (in the blue jacket) asked me to take his photo.  They were fun.

Van Gogh’s next painting was done in the amphitheater, so we buy tickets to go inside, even though the plaque is outside for tourists to see. The Amphitheatre painting shows the arena full of people, but there aren’t many people here today.

I took some black and white photos in the passageways beneath the seats.  I like how the light streamed in through the openings and all the old stones.

We climb to the top of the amphitheatre tower and get a great view of all the very French rooftops.

And up in the tower what do I find?  Graffiti!  It has been around for a long, long time.

Set in one of the stones at the top of the staircase to the tower is a sea shell, partially buried in the stone and just below it another stone block that is full of smaller sea shells.  I love it when we notice these little kinds of details, details that I am sure many people don’t ever notice.

We take another detour to visit the The Roman Theatre of Arles.  It  is a 1st-century Roman theatre, built during the reign of Caesar Augustus.  Bob is sitting consulting our map to figure out where to go next, as we have wandered off the path laid out by the plaques in the sidewalk.

I just love the way the stone steps have been worn down by countless footsteps over the centuries.

We pass this poster of a young man who is carefully looking at another poster

We walk through this old building to reach the square on the other side…

to look for the painting, Café Terrace At Night.  We find the cafe but there is no sign of the plaque with the painting.  We find the location which must have been very close to the spot where Van Gogh stood.

I noticed that the café isn’t open so I went up to take a peek in the windows.  Everything inside looks ready to receive customers, and there is the plaque that we were looking for!  However….

I think it has been closed for a while, as there is a pile of old  mail on the ground at the door.  Too bad, It would have been nice to go inside for a drink.Walking through this plaza I notice another photography exhibit but it is getting late and we still have one more painting spot to find, so we decide not to go in.

But we do a quick peek inside the Church of Saint-Trophime.  We never know what we will find behind church doors.  Every church is different, ranging from quite austere to the incredible elaborate.

We find the park where the next painting should be located and a monument to Vincent but we can’t locate the painting.  Pansies have been recently planted for the winter garden around this monument.

Bob checks out one part of the park and I go look in another.  The tower is part of the Roman Theatre that we sat in earlier.

Finally we find it!  But looking at these photos, I think we should have turned around and taken the photo of the garden in the other direction.  Guess we were getting tired.  There were three more spots on this walking tour but they are almost on the town’s outskirts and we have once again run out of daylight.

It is only 45 minutes to Nîmes and here we are driving in the dark once more.  One more interesting fact, the whole old town of Arles is a UNESCO World Heritage Site!

Chauvet II, Caverne du Pont d’Arc, France

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Day 61,  Saturday, October 28, 2023

Today we are going to visit another UNESCO World Heritage Site to see the oldest prehistoric cave paintings known to date in the world!  The cave is an hour and a half drive from Nîmes, so we leave early.  The drive to the caves is interesting as the countryside is constantly changing.The Sycamore/ Plane trees are starting to show their fall colours.

As we drove into the hills it got foggy…

and we were soon below the clouds.

The Chauvet cave, or Caverne du Pont d’Arc contains exceptionally high-quality paintings dating back 36,000 years.  It was discovered in 1994 and has never been open to the public. Only a very small number of scientists are allowed to visit each year to study the Chauvet cave.  The lessons learned at the Lascaux caves helped prevent any damage being done to the amazing art discovered in the Chauvet Cave.

Construction on the replica cave began in October 2012 and it was opened to the public in 2015. Chauvet II is located 9.5 km from the original cave.

All the photos of the building and the inside of Chauvert II, Caverne du Pont d’Arc are by Patrick Aventurier and can be found on the Chauvet II website. https://en.grottechauvet2ardeche.com/history/

An arial view of Chauvet II.

The building that holds the replica cave.  It has a viewing platform on the top of the building.This is the view from the top of the building.We have time to watch an immersive sound and light experience called ANIMAL before our cave tour begins.

Here are two videos I took during the show.  I don’t know how to edit videos, but they are not long, one is just over 2 1/2 minutes and the other is 3 minutes long.  It really was a spectacular show.

https://youtu.be/n9nf7gZ3V1M.     

https://youtu.be/tsU3uZaAuPI

Before we enter the cave our guide asks us not to ask questions about the construction of the replica cave until after our tour, to help us feel as though we are in the real cave.

The Chauvet caves contain a masterpiece…the oldest known artwork in the world.  They are over 36,000 years old…that is 18,000 years older than the Lascaux Cave we visited earlier.  These handprints tell us that the right hand of the artist had a crooked little finger, perhaps it was broken at one time and didn’t heal properly?

These red dots are palm prints.  If you look closely you will see that there are a few prints that show the fingers and the little finger of the right hand is crooked.  These palm prints were done by the same artist as the previous handprints!

One of the first charcoal drawings that we see.  Because charcoal was used the paintings were able to be carbon dated to determine their age.

Some of the engravings were made by pressing into the soft mud walls of the cave with the artist’s fingers.There are very few owl depictions in prehistoric cave art.  We get to see one here.

As we walk further into the cave there are more animals on the walls.

The next four photographs are all part of a panel showing the largest collection of animals in the cave and it was located in the very deepest part of the cave.

We are in front of the Lion Panel: a12 metre-long fresco of a lion hunt that takes my breath away! We stand in awe, as the flickering lights reveal these drawings.

The lighting mimics flickering firelight and the animals almost appear to move.

Of course the lighting is set on a timer and all too soon it is finished.  I tell our guide that our time here is too short and I don’t want to leave… she asks if we would like a  bonus viewing and when I say yes, she turns the lights on again.   We all got an extra 20 minutes in front of these magnificent paintings!

The Aurignacian Gallery is a complementary area to discover on our own after the cave visit.  There are life size replicas of prehistoric animals.  Wooly mammoths, Megaloceros , the huge deer in the background, …

Aurochs…

Cave Bears and Cave Lions…and Bob’s favourite, the Wooly Rhinoceros.

There are interesting interactive panels, including this photo of a baby wooly rhinoceros that was found in a mine in Russia in 2007…

and one of this steppe bison found in Alaska in 1979.

Something I didn’t know before this trip and all the caves we have visited is how like us Prehistoric Cro Magnons were.  They were hunter gatherers and were anatomically very similar to modern man “but more robust, having larger brains, broader faces, more prominent brow ridges, and bigger teeth. They were well renowned for creating a diverse array of artistic works, including cave paintings, Venus figurines, perforated batons, animal figurines, and geometric patterns. They also wore decorative beads, and plant-fibre clothes dyed with various plant-based dyes. For music, they produced bone flutes and whistles, and possibly also bullroarers, rasps, drums, idiophones and other instruments. They buried their dead, though possibly only people who had achieved or were born into high status.”  ~Wikipedia

After our visit at Chauvet II we drive to the location of the original cave along this narrow road with lots of tunnels.

It was quite the experience.

We park and this is our view.

The cave was located near the  Pont d’Arc, a natural stone bridge.  We would have liked to walk up to the location of the original cave, but it is getting late and we still have an hour and a half drive before us.  Too bad but we don’t want to be driving home in the dark.

The cliffs here are full of what appear to be cave openings, and there is a sandy beach alongside the river that is a popular spot for families.

Bob spots this rock formation in the distance that looks like a horse’s head.  He is good at finding rock formations that look like people or animals.More tree lined roads on the way home…the leaves look golden in the setting sun.

All too soon the sun sets…and we are driving in the dark, but only for the last half hour or so which isn’t too bad.