Last Judgements and Midnight Trains

Today was our last day in France—it is so hard to leave! Yet change is the nature of travel, so today we bid farewell to Beaune by visiting its own Hotel Dieu, a 15^th century hospital founded for the poor and sick by famous art patron and Burgundian Chancellor Nicholas Rolin. Though we also got to see the main hall for patients and some slightly disturbing medieval brain surgery tools, the main draw of the Hotel Dieu is Rogier Van Der Weyden’s Last Judgement polyptych, popularly known as the Beaune Altarpiece! This was spectacular to see in person, the multiple thin layers of glaze making the wood panels luminous and vibrant with bright color, and there was huge magnifying glass that moved along the altarpiece showing off various small details like the jewels, angels’ wings, and draperies. Stevens gave each of us a tiny postcard model of the work with the outside panels of the patrons opening onto the inner Last Judgement image and everything—I love mine sooo much. It is now safely in my journal for all time.

 So bye bye Beaune, on to Autun to see Gislebertus’ portal tympanum on the Romanesque pilgrimage church of St. Lazare. Though I didn’t recognize the name at first, this is an artwork I have seen in several classes and one that I have always especially liked for its creative, detail-oriented sculpture (especially the devils). We sat down and drew parts of the tympanum and compared the two Last Judgement images…but it was a little cold and I was relieved to go inside the church (I didn’t dress appropriated—you never know what the weather is gonna do!)

Almost right next door to the church was the Autun museum where we saw Gislebertus’ other surviving sculpture of Eve, who is very beautiful and also quite serpentine as she is captured in the act of tempting Adam. This is the first female nude created since antiquity and is very special.

 And with that, our studies in France were at an end. We drove back to Dijon to await our overnight train to Rome, set to board at 8. There was a gameplan to try and get all our baggage on the train in the 4 minutes provided—people were assigned to be lifters or draggers, but then it turned out we were in the slightly wrong place and all turned to anarchy. But we all still made it on! Alex, Melissa and I shared a miniscule cabin with triple bunkbeds (all narrow). I had the one on the very top trying to be generous, but then it turned out mine was the best because of all the extra room provided by the luggage shelves. I spread all out, curled up, and slept blissfully through the night. I’ve always been a great car sleeper, so it was ideal really.

I'll have Chardonnay today, s'il vous plait!

     Today was our free day in Beaune (how else could I have caught up on this blog all in one day? phew!) But I did not spend the whole day sleeping, oh no! Even though I might have wanted to when at 8 am I popped out of bed to turn in mine and Alex's journals to Meg--poor old Alex took it easy today as she was not feeling well, so no cameos for her today. We had all intended to go rent bikes and ride through the vineyards, but like many of the best laid plans, this one was foiled. The bike shop was out, so we spent some time in the local Saturday market (Lauren would have especially loved this) and then set out on foot into the grapey unknown.

      I know I went on and on yesterday about how beautiful Burgundy is; well i'm about to do it again. The vineyards were a golden paradise. We strolled through the vines and I made sure to try one red grape--a pinot noir, i would learn later at our wine tasting--and one green grape--a chardonnay. They were small, but sweet and delicious!

      At 4:15, everyone met in the breakfast room to walk over to our wine-tasting at one of the premiere wine makers cellars in Beaune, founded in the 18th century in what was before that a castle the king built to put down Burgundian rebellions in the 14th century! Apparently medieval fortifications have all the right characteristics for ideal wine cellars. Our exceptional guide took us down into the deep to see some of the oldest and most special wines they have dating all the way back to 1843. This winery owns a large portion of land yet only produce 600 perfect bottles of wine a year not counting what they produce using other people's grapes. It is some of the best wine in the world and highly sought after! Burgundy is special, with many rules and regulations on how much, what kind and how people can make wine in their provence, so only the two varieties of grape I mentioned before are allowed--no pinto grigio here!
       At the actual tasting we sampled 6 types of wine, 3 reds and 3 whites. There were big barrels in the middle where you were supposed to spit as it reveals different flavors on the way out. I was suspicious but it actually did! It was a lot of fun learning to taste wine like the pros, and all the flavors you can find in just one sip is pretty cool. More cheese and bread for dinner--hey, it's France!

Pilgrim's Progress

        It was an early morning and a long day today, but a wonderful one (except Alex feeling sick, boo  :( but don't worry Mrs Cronin she is hanging in there!) The breakfasts at the Hotel Grand St-Jean here in Beaune are very nice and have a lot of options, so we were rearing to go as we boarded the bus for the long ride to Vezelay, a stunningly gorgeous hilltop town and site of an incredibly important pilgrimage church that is right on the Camino. YES THAT'S RIGHT I WAS ON THE PILGRIMAGE ROUTE TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA! The minute I saw the pilgrim's shell embedded in the road up the hill to the church, I was ecstatic--My dream come true! (Lauren this doesn't mean you are off the hook-- we are still walking it! This was a preview) Also it was Lauren's birthday today!

        The church is Romanesque and built to accomodate the pilgrim's coming here to visit the relics of Mary Magdalene, which we got to see down in the crypt, though these are new relics--as in regifted by another church--as the old ones were destroyed during the French Revolution. In particular we were there to study the portal tympanum in the narthex and the column capitols down the nave, but these seemed a little hard to read to me and I much more enjoyed dreaming about pilgrimage and having it all explained to me like a simpleton.

        After some time in the church and look around back at the stunning vistas, we walked down the hill through town to find some lunch. I had a delicious trois fromage quiche and a chocolate eclair, all of which I ordered in very understandable French! Then it was back on the bus (despite my declaration to Stevens that I was breaking from the group then and there to walk the Camino) and on the way to the monastery at Fontenary, home to the Cistercians.

        Fontenay was an absolute vision, probably more lovely than anywhere I've been in my whole life before (and that is saying something!). The sun was confident and everything seemed to be in technicolor. Cistercians didn't believe in very much representative decoration in the churches in rebellion against contemporary Benedictine materialism, but this only seemed to bring the awe-inspiring natural setting of the monastery to the forefront. Light poured in the windows of the simple but monumental church building, empty of art save for a particularly joyful Virgin and Child standing in the nave--it made me smile to think how much her beauty must have pleased the monks as they bustled around in their quiet, thoughtful lives. As a self-sufficient community, the monks had an enormous fish pond where there are still large fish swimming. There are also magnificent gardens. This time I told Stevens to just leave me--I would have been quite content to take up residence and become the last monk of Fontenay.

        But that's not all! Today was endless. Next stop of the Chateau d'Ancy le France, the 16th manor home that introduced Italian Renaissance style decoration to France. We had a great tour guide of the many sensational rooms of the chateau, filled with ornate furniture and wall paintings. My favorite paintings were of St Anthony and the Desert Fathers in the chapel--I was just really feeling the monks today I guess, but the colors and style were very whimsical. I also had a great time finding secret doorways and passages all through the house.

       For dinner after our long drive back to Beaune, many people went to the supermarket near our hotel for snacky groceries, probably because our dinner the night before was so huge and no one was really in the mood for a big production. I got a jar of nutella--which is much less expensive here--an apple and a bag of french rolls. Then I snacked and tried to frantically catch up on my journal before it was due in the morning.
      The day was so full of beautiful sights that I never wanted it to end--I really love Burgundy!

Headed South

         The day we left Paris was a big travel day! We drove five hours down to Beaune, making a pitstop in Dijon, France, an adorable town and home to the art of Claus Sluter, a significant early Renaissance sculptor renowned for his ability to capture emotion and realism. Our first stop was the Musee des Beaux Arts to look closely at the funerary monument of Philip the Bold, an important duke of Burgundy and patron of Sluter, and particularly the pleurants or grieving monks that walk among the decorative arcading along the base. We were all asked to choose one monk to draw, and the one I picked was A) the best EVER and B) turned out to be one of only two rendered by the hand of the actual artist. Yay! I liked him because, even though he is sad, he is looking up hopefully, hand reflectively behind his head.

The museum had an extensive collection, so we looked a while longer and then i went downstairs to have a French coke out of a bottle and buy a postcard with my monk on it :) 

       After the museum we drove the short distance out to the monastery of Chartreuse de Champmol, which is now a psychiatric hospital and home to several of Sluter's more large scale sculptural programs: the sculpture that was once in the now-destroyed mausoleum of the Dukes of Burgundy and the Well of Moses, a large and complex well in the center of the monastic cemetery. The Well used to have a crucifixion on top but it was destroyed and now all that remains are the WEEPING ANGELS (yes there are crying angels on it oooh scary) and the prophets that line the base. These sculptures portray the realism and humanity of the pleurants but now on a monumental scale. 

        When we arrived in Beaune sometime later, it was almost immediately time to go to our "special dinner in France" for which we all dressed up. Only just down the road, the restaurant was very nice, and we were seated down in a cellar-like room to eat. There was wine, cheese bread, two kinds of regular bread, then an AMAZING starter of escargot (I could eat 50 of those little snails right now!) which was served in a pesto and those little dishes with the special snail holes, then a chicken with a side of pasta, then a cheese course (I was the only one brave enough to eat the super regional white cheese, which was soft, mild, and served with sugar!) and finally a chocolate lava cake. What a dinner! It was literally 11 o'clock when we made it back to the hotel. 

Wide-eyed Wanderings on our Last Day in Paris

          On our final day in Paris, we first visited the Museum located in the monastery at Cluny which has a fabulous medieval collection which has the nice addition of being located in a medieval space. We all had to do presentations on a piece of our choice, and I LOVED the altarpiece that Alex, Whitney and I presented. I thought our presentation was pretty excellent and Meg seemed to agree! There was also a giant narwal horn....

       After the museum we had a delicious lunch of endless steak-frites in the Latin Quarter at a restaurant Stevens assured us was one of the most post in Paris. It was lots of fun and SO good.

   I really wanted to go to Saint Denis and thought that if I hinted to Stevens enough he would volunteer to go with me (it's apparently in a fairly dangerous area of the city and he has offered for the past SIX YEARS to take students) but he did not catch my drift apparently and forbade me to go alone. I was very disappointed so I'll just move on from that, the wound is still too fresh...
    BUT Whitey, Alex and I went to the Arc de Triomphe, walking along the Seine and then the Champs Elysees. The weather was beautiful and warm as it was everyday we were in Paris. In the evening a group of us went to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night (Andrea was supposed to join us but she got sick :( ). They make it sparkle once every hour, so we had a great time watch the monument twinkle through the light drizzle while eating delicious crepes!

Chartres

    Our day in Chartres was wonderful! We spent two hours with Malcom Miller, an englishman who came to Chartres in his youth and never left. He took us through the iconography of the windows frame by frame which was fascinating, and very enlightening! We also looked closely at the famous gothic sculptures in the north and south portals.

They are currently repainting the interior of the Cathedral and it is beautiful!

        In our break, Stevens surprised us with a picnic on the hillside beside the cathedral where we could look out over the hills in the French sunshine. It was bliss! Cheese, bread, meats, chocolate--what more could you want?

     When we got back from Chartres in the evening, Alex and I met up with ANDREA DAVIS! She was gorgeous and already looking very confidant and parisian in her new city!

The Louvre and BATOBUS

       Monday was our Louvre visit, but we had to morning free so Alex, Whitney and I walked over to Notre Dame and purchased tickets for the Batobus, a ferry with 8 stops at the important monuments along the Seine. All morning we coasted along the river admiring the city, with a quick stop at the Eiffel Tower. It is beautiful and BIG in person. 

When it was time to meet the group we got off at the Louvre stop, had a quick snack, then met in front of the pyramid for a quick introduction with Meg! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and everyone was in high spirits.
        Inside the Louvre was a different story--we went over to see the Mona Lisa which was tolerable, but then the Winged Victory was undergoing renovation and the Netherlandish exhibit was closed so no Van Eyck. After those two blows it was like we didn't have a plan anymore so we spent a pointless hour in the medieval exhibit not really doing anything and then went to look at Vermeer's (which were amazing but don't really have to do with our period). Meanwhile I am freaking out wanting to go look at the large-scale 19th Century French paintings and resentful of the wasted time... but finally we escaped and went on our own to see what I had been anticipating!

I especially enjoyed seeing The Raft of the Medusa, Girodet's Sleep of Endymion, and ALL the paintings by Ingres. I had been very excited to see David's work, but for some reason the colors didn't feel as bright as they should in person--too much contrast on the slides in class, maybe? Still, it was very special! I was a little disappointed that Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People is away for the year... so we had bad luck about which exhibits were closed when we went and it was overall pretty exhausting. Still, the Louvre! And what I saw was spectacular!
       After this Alex, Whitney and I hopped back on our boat and were almost late for dinner which was at the same place as Saturday night, but this time I had spinach ravioli, lamb medallions and a molten chocolate cake--it was soooo delicious!

 

Parlez-vous Francais?

      Today was our first real day in Paris! We started with a typical french breakfast of bread and hot chocolate at the hotel before walking across the Seine to the Ile de la Cite, where we toured Notre Dame and Sainte-Chappelle!

       Notre Dame was absolutely beautiful, and for its 500th or so anniversary they have set up huge bleachers in front so you can sit and look at the facade, which is dazzling, especially in the French sunlight! Inside is dimmer (this church is pretty early Gothic) but very magical, particularly when Mass is going on, which it was when we went inside! There was singing, incense, and many people sitting in the nave to worship, which was great :) I did wish I could have walked straight down the nave and gotten a better look at the famous statue of the Virgin and Child, but it made for a very neat experience of the space.

   


















  We briefly went down in the crypts of the city aka the roman ruins of a city called Lucretia which is underneath Paris. It was interesting though we had very little context... I sneakily touched one of the ruins shhhh... and there was a cool touch screen simulation thing where you could look at Notre Dame in different phases of its construction.

       After that and on the way to Sainte-Chappelle we stopped at a traditional bird market because apparently the Parisians really like to own birds for some reason. There were also several really fluffy bunnies and one of them had a tiny baby that was worth the price of admission (the bird market was free but still).
       Our last group stop of the day was Sainte-Chappelle which got a lot of hype beforehand, possibly leading to it being a slight letdown. Still, it really feels like being on the inside of a reliquary, the gilding and painted walls, along with the stained glass that occupies most of the wall space makes it really shine. The rose window is also breathtaking!

        On this part of the trip we are in charge of a lot of our own meals, so Kelsey, Whitney, Alex and I went to a cafe and have Croque monsieurs and madames for lunch--really good! We then quite leisurely walked down the Seine to the Musee d'Orsay for a tour of the Impressionist gallery on our own. I especially enjoyed seeing Monet's different versions of Rouen Cathedral, Renoir's portraits and Le Moulin de la Galette, and every work I saw by Manet. Using fundamental French I had to find Olympia, who was hiding on a lower floor.

          I have barely seen my hotel room the past few days. Whitney, Olivia and I stopped at a cafe for a hot chocolate on the way back from the d'Orsay so we only just got back in time to meet some friends to go to dinner. Again, there was some production involved in finding a place and surviving the consequences of our choice. Afterwards I got some ice cream from a stand and when they didn't return my change I was brave enough to ask for it in French, and I got it!

Bienvenue a Paris!

       This morning (very early) we woke up in Oxford, said goodbye to Sally and William, choked down a muffin and a banana, and boarded the bus for London! Before we knew it we were aboard the Eurostar coasting at high speeds towards the City of Lights!

It took about two hours but was very smooth and easy travel. When we arrived in Paris (ahh!) we got on yet another bus and drove towards the center of town. Our hotel, called the Hotel Milhieu is in the Marais district, and everything around it looks just the way you want Paris to look--beautiful, wide avenues, little cafes and shops, and all different kinds of people!
      Always in art history classes I have been told that the light is different in France, and I was like yeah, yeah, whatever.... Well...

      The light is different in France. It is warmer, slanted, and more golden. It makes everything magical! Stevens says this becomes even more noticeable in the south of France. We were lucky to get such a beautiful day when we arrived.
       After moving into our adorable, quiet, blue room (with a huge bathtub) we headed out into the city and got falafel that came highly recommended by Stevens. It was delicious and A LOT of food!

        We then walked around and explored the city a little bit more. I timidly tried out some of my french (not very well) on a man in the pharamacie and he was so friendly! Unfortunately when I tried in my hotel the man at the desk knew I was with the american group and just switched right over into English with a "What?" honestly I think I said what I was trying to say correctly and he just didn't want to bother.
         At 7:15 everyone congregated in the lobby to walk to dinner in an absolutely charming French cafe. The food was DELICIOUS and the red wine bottles kept arriving... I had ravioli, then mussels, and finally a huge slab of cheesecake. The atmosphere was perfect!