News Post

February 5, 2006

First Saturday and then Sunday.

I arrived in France on Wednesday and was picked up at Charles de Gaule Airport in Paris by Bernard. He is very sweet, and you would never know how much of a pain it must be for him to keep driving up and down to the airport any time Vincent or I come in from the US. I can’t quite remember what happened the first couple of hours in Blois, but I saw Francoise, of course, and Karine, Thierry and the girls and little Tom, who is adorable and quite enthusiastic about dinosaurs. In fact, he is more enthusiastic about dinosaurs than any other topic.

On Thursday I spent the afternoon with Marine, who had very little school that day, wandering around Blois in the cold damp fog, which was perfectly miserable mix with jet-lag. Marine and I then picked Lea up from school and Leah and I went to the gym where she had a sort of gymnastics class. Dutiful uncles watch that kind of thing from time to time.

Friday morning was market day in Contres, not to be missed! Absolutely freezing, with very few merchants and fewer marketers. On Friday I saw a movie with Karine and the girls, and a friend of Leah’s named Sophie. Dinner at B & F’s, but we hardly ate anything as we had eaten oysters and duck confit for lunch and were still belly-swelled.

Saturday was the long drive from Blois to Pont Aven. I guess I left Blois around 10:30am and made my first real stop in Angers. I have been in Angers three times, maybe always to see the incredible Teinture de l’Apolcalypse. This magnificent ancient tapestry is magnificent.

I have seen this tapestry twice before, each time I am amazed at so many things about the work. Images from the tapestry have been in my paintings for years, though less so recently. Once again my visit was a revelation. Not only are the images beautiful, if awkwardly drawn, but the scope of the project is such a great inspiration. Over a football field long, I was once again amazed. The telling of a great story, the story of the end of the world as imagined by medieval minds is so powerfully done. The images unfold like story-board illustrations, and (still not having read the text) I followed along letting the titles of each morsel reveal the specific action and gradually the whole plot. I think that this work still can inspire me, and I would like to combine some of my most recent work concerning torture in Iraq somehow with this very powerful masterpiece.

Well, now I am settled in Pont Aven, more or less. It is a bit empty, but I think that will change when the students arrive in an hour or so. I have a very large window facing out on the street that leads into the town (all of five blocks long) and the building across the street has a restaurant "Restaurant Tahiti" on the first floor, just in case for one second I would forget how linked Pont Aven is to Gauguin's history here...