A couple weekends ago, I went on a trip to a town in the north called Cateau-Cambrésis. It was organized by one of the professors who taught a couple of our orientation-week classes, and it was mainly to see the Matisse museum for a gallery talk by an artist who is currently exposing there. I love Paris, but it was lovely to get out of the city for a bit. We started here:
This is a pigeon house. This region used to be known for it's messenger pigeons, and is still a bit of a hobby. This roost was designed by a contemporary architect who has had his work featured in MoMA.And here is a view of the countryside there. It was very flat:
The church in Cateau-Cambrésis. It was constructed in the 17th century by the Jesuits, and the stained glass windows feature scenes from the life of St. Martin. That's all I've got...
The church in Cateau-Cambrésis. It was constructed in the 17th century by the Jesuits, and the stained glass windows feature scenes from the life of St. Martin. That's all I've got...
This is Kees Visser, explaining some of his work. He is mostly self-trained and lived in Iceland for a number of years, but is orgininally Dutch. The art is not really my sort of thing, but I thought it was really interesting nevertheless, and the gallery space was really nice.
Here is his biggest work in the gallery. It is meant to correspond a bit to the Matisse stained glass window (picture later on):
There was an incredible park outside of the museum, and it was possibly my favorite part of the trip. It was perfectly tranquil, and the afternoon light was marvelous:
The town was having it's local festival! Sadly, we didn't have time to go, but the gauffres were so tempting.
Here is that Matisse window! It is installed in an elementary school. Can you imagine being in school with something like that? Unbelievable.
Here is his biggest work in the gallery. It is meant to correspond a bit to the Matisse stained glass window (picture later on):
There was an incredible park outside of the museum, and it was possibly my favorite part of the trip. It was perfectly tranquil, and the afternoon light was marvelous:
The town was having it's local festival! Sadly, we didn't have time to go, but the gauffres were so tempting. 
Here is that Matisse window! It is installed in an elementary school. Can you imagine being in school with something like that? Unbelievable. 
Here is what little French children do in school!
And then, as a perfect end of the day, we saw a hot air balloon on the bus ride back to Paris. For those of you who do not know, I somewhat inexplicably love hot air balloons.
And then, as a perfect end of the day, we saw a hot air balloon on the bus ride back to Paris. For those of you who do not know, I somewhat inexplicably love hot air balloons.
Since then I have remained really busy, hence no blog posts. A week ago from Monday, I went to a nearby bar for a poetry reading put on by Shakespeare & Co. Two weekends ago was also Nuit Blance in Paris, which was an all night art party, aka my dream! But more about all of that later.
