VIENNE AND TASMANIA ?

This morning the weather looked far from promising. It seems that I had virtually exhausted all there was of interest to see unless I was tempted to go further than 60 kilometres. When I think that nearly three weeks ago it was suggested that I took out a forfeit for 200 kilometres which would be sufficient to visit the region.  I have done over 1000. Saint Rémy-sur-Creuse in the Vienne was  suggested. 30 odd kilometres north. Walks along the river and surroundings were possible too. 

My brother had spoken about underground dwellings he had visited years ago in the centre. With any luck, I was to visit something like it today. The weather was threatening as I drove along but I could stop once or twice to looked out at the countryside. We were near the Berry department of witches and ferries. 


A threatening sky and yellow "gold buttons"
Darker and darker













The car park was empty 




and the cave dwellings closed.

As seen from the road



 In actual fact I had seen enough from the road to let my imagination flow. It would seem that there were people living there today although I saw no-one. 
Built into the wall









The Virgin was there to bless me and hopefully make sure that no troglodyte would pop out and hunt me down. 

And her chapel in a grotte

The virgin above a grotte
Eyes or not, I felt I was being watched as I headed up to the site. 

Signs were around to say I would be eaten by wild beasts if I entered the track - there wasn’t one around of course but I back-tracked even so and then went up the other side. Further up again. And there I was in front of a park which by the looks of it sheltered dwellings for natives of another period. 

But not true....Tasmania ? I couldn’t believe it. A tiny protection made out of bark and how the Tasmania aborigines protected themselves from the elements...and it was not even explained on the little notice where Tasmania is...



A tiny bark shelter for Tasmanian aborigines
Another dwelling !

Commentaires

Lo a dit…
They obviously knew you were going to come to this part of the world so they built those Tasmanian dwellings the week before!
5/4/12 18:51
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