ANECDOTES BUT LITTLE HISTORY - Part 3

I am absolutely hopeless for remembering anything during walks around cities. Or in this case tiny townships. Anecdotes perhaps, but dates and history have never been a strong point for me. Even going back onto Internet and looking up does not mean that I will remember anymore. 

So we walked around this medieval township for two hours the other day. War and more war stories were related.  But it has always been a Thermal Source. Something I can’t work out (and neither could the guide explain it), Henry lV discovered how good the water was for his skin and yet he never came here....

Coming down
The dungeon - 2 floors
There is a dungeon (11th century) we were able to visit. This was used for the lepers.  They could use the echo chambers to confess in without breathing over the priest. We all rushed to a corner and whispered to someone on the other side of the room. 


The Notre Dame Church was opened for us. Destroyed partly during the last world war so the windows have been renewed and are modern. I like that.



 The city was cut in two during the war. Occupied and not. It was the river that was the demarcation and yet, I found a stone quite a long way from the river, indicating where it was. Who do I believe?
Stone indication demarcation

Saint Roch but there are many versions
Then of course there is Saint Roch himself with his dog (end 14th century) He had powers to cure the pest and then caught it himself A dog brought him bread every day. An angel cured him miraculously and then I gather he was imprisoned  and what happened after.....

Of course, I like «Klaxon» - «Hooter» the duck. He is the lord of the river and inspects you when you arrive. I walk along there every day and Klaxon and I are quite matey.

Inspection time...


But what really did strike me. The population in the middle ages was 1300. Today it is aound 1500 !  Apart from the dermatological products «La Roche Posay» bought by l’Oréal 7 years ago, the Casino and the Thermal industry, there is no activity at all. Very little full time employment. Seasonal work of course but even L’Oréal got rid of many of the full time employees when the company took over.

Commentaires

Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

CONFLICTS AND ENCOUNTERS OF MULTIPLE HISTORIES

Image
Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg. Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a precursor of a cross-cultural style of painting, infusing Western modernism with African and Caribbean symbolism. He must have been one of the very rare artists who was in contact with all the movements of his time …and all those that I follow. Cubism, surrealism, CoBrA…but he never lost sight of the world around him and took on the struggle to paint the drama of his own country, Cuba. The above photo plunges us at once into the exhibition. Was he an attractive man? I think there are later photos which make him look less brutal….but in my book,
Lire la suite

MY BELOVED PICASSO -I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS -

Image
After 25 years as a museum, it was time to renovate the Picasso site. The « Hotel » as we call it, has quite a history. It is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985,  (he is an art historian of 19th century architecture) “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the Parisian houses of the 17th century”. Hotel Salé The Main stair case Another coming down "Picasso" would have liked these lights The building has seen many occupants come and go over the centuries. However, paradoxically, before the place was entrusted to the museum, it was rarely “inhabited”, but instead leased out to various private individuals, prestigious hosts and institutions. And so it became the Picasso museum. The renovations began in 2009 and quite obviously went well over budget and should have opened before the holidays started this year. The political arguments too had to be contended with not to mention the changes in Directors and the big question bei
Lire la suite

THE CHOICE OF ONE OF THE RICHEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD

Image
The exhibition season is very full between January and the French holiday period. I make less and less effort to go and see the « block-busters » and there are some museums which are not easy to get around. The Jacquemart André is one of them. The rooms are so small and when a couple of groups move in, it is virtually impossible to see a picture or move at all. Still I was interested to go and see the Alicia Koplowitz collection. Now I come to think of it, there have been quite a few private collections shown to the public since the end of last year.  Naturally I knew nothing about this woman.  Alicia Koplowitz is very well known in her home country, Spain. Thanks to her company, the Capital Omega Group  a comprehensive financial services company , she has become an important collect er Alicia is is a Spanish business magnate. When her father died, she and her sister inherited Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (CYCSA), a company founded by her father. She  sold her part of the comp
Lire la suite