Chatellerault shop exterior

 

I have been meaning to capture this Quincaillerie exterior for the last 9 years. 

Now I see it has closed!

It is just to the side of the food market.

It has something (je ne sais quoi) about the colours, the sign-writing, the symmetry!

Animalia

Not quite like the song about the sale of a doggie in a window!
A fixed feature,  not far from La Place in Angles sur L'Anglin, 

one of 157 plus beaux villages de France.

London Street Art

In February last year, Street Art, Sculpture and Architecture within the vicinity of Old Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane and Aldgate was exciting and fun!  I stayed for one night in City Hotel in what I thought was a single room but they'd upgraded me to a huge double bed and a single bed.  Oh what luxury "toute seule"!!!! My son and I met up mid day for coffee and a chat and then lunch and a chat at Wagamama. Soup and tea was delicious.

An iron window

in Angles sur L'Anglin. One wonders who invented this design! 

Do you see something different?

Metal in my Village

Mousey Mousey

This is Sweet Street Art in an Angles sur L'Anglin French Gutter, August 2013

The medium looked like Sealing Wax!

L'Ancien Theatre in Chatellerault: 6

The Peristyle is used as a foyer.

1967 the theatre was deemed to be outside of the cultural life of Chatellerault and any project to renew it was too onerous. 
1973 there was an order for it to be closed because of the danger of fire.
1977 The Maire confirmed it was going to be destroyed. An association to save it was led by Michel Bidron. it has been a long process but I am so very glad the theatre has been conserved and is classed as a Historic Monument de France. Thank you to all those who had faith!
And now....please go to the theatre as part of the audience or have a guided tour.  Treat yourself!
There is a depth to this theatre that I have not been able to relate or reproduce in these postings nor yet uncovered. Over to you!

PS If I am able to read / translate / discover more important facts I will update my blog with new postings! 

L'Ancien Theatre in Chatellerault: 5

These photos are of a maquette on display.

And some other lovely decorative features:

L'Ancien Theatre in Chatellerault: 4

The sets, curtain and allegorical ceiling paintings are the artistry of Emile Vernon, from the École des Beaux-Arts, Tours, France. This is a reproduction of the main curtain which has two oculi to espy if the audience are ready for the show!  It depicts the Henri IV bridge over La Vienne river between Chatellerault and Chateauneuf.  I wonder if all the original has been kept and if so, where? I hope examples of the other artefacts are in storage somewhere.

 This blog shows his paintings in their original state - untouched! Thank you to the blogger!

SPRINGTIME COMETH
Evidently the cranes went over yesterday but I didn't see them! 

L'Ancien Theatre in Chatellerault: 3

I am very fond of this theatre and have been a member of "Les Amis" for several years, offering my humble support for the rescue of this unique building.  It was dilapidated and at its worst when a friend and I had a guided tour. Earlier this week I was rapturous and so happy to see it looking exquisitely beautiful when I attended the AGM.

I don't think my level of French would withstand a performance but maybe if I can find an event that hasn't yet sold out I would love to dress in my finery and be chaperoned as part of the audience, as part of the theatre that the actors may or may not see when all the lights are shining upon THEM.  I would be in the dark in more ways than one!   I would be with the Godesses of Thalia and Mesopmene in Paradise!

You could read: 
http://www.ville-chatellerault.fr/grands-projets/ancien-theatre

L'Ancien Theatre in Chatellerault: 2

 These are images from the electronic presentation available to view in the 'peristyle' / foyer.

1495 Les Minimes positioned outside of the walled moated town of Chatellerault.

The Moat has long since been filled, but how or why or when I do not know!  In this 1495 engraving one can see the churches of St Jacques, the 10th century Roman church and St Jean the Evangelist. I find it Fascinating, the more I look. And when was the wall taken down?

The cheapest seats in the Gods are called Paradise.

The chapel window still exists but is bricked up.

Des baies géminées  can be seen here.

By now those who buy the cheapest seats go to the chicken run! 

Le gril is machinery which controls the raising and lowering of the sets 'de scene'.  I think it is fantastic that these were preserved and now restored.

2014

If you wish to hear in French then go to here

L'Ancien Theatre in Chatellerault: 1

  In future it will be called Theatre Blossac.
L'Ancien refers to the 'former' not 'ancient' theatre.
Now, re-instated it is situated on the Boulevard Blossac.

HOWEVER, it has been restored exquisitely, ambitiously and impeccably. 

It is a working theatre in the Italianate Style.
I recommend everyone to have a guided tour. 

HISTORY:
1495: A theatre was built in the chapel of the Convent of Minimes.
1791: It was purchased by the town council.
1804:  A wooden tower was destroyed.  I don't know which tower is referred to. The wood was recycled to build a simple amphitheatre with apx 400 seats to host meetings and Republican ceremonies.  It was organised by a charitable company whose aims were to "bring relief to poverty, promote the arts and provide residents with pleasant relaxation which would improve their morals." 
(Maybe the translation means morale!) 
1814: It was decided that a new theatre was required for the town.
1839 to 1844: A small neo-classical Italian theatre was built by Michel Delage, who was a mason in Châtellerault, according to designs by Louis Renaudet.
1860: It became a Municipal Theatre. I think it was called La Redoute because until recently that was the name of the hall in front of the concealed theatre and the hall upstairs.  "The cultural space now includes a theatre (in the nave of the old church), a peristyle attached to the front of the church and, upstairs, a fireplace and the room dedicated to La Redoute meetings concerts and balls." 
1899: The theatre was extended to seat apx 600 in the audience. The simple brown, blue and yellow decor was transformed with rich paintings, sculptures and embellishments of red and gold.  The sets, the curtain and the allegorical ceiling paintings and murals are the work of Emile Vernon, of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Tours.  
Émile Vernon, was born in 1872 and died in 1919. He was a student at the School of Fine Arts in Tours, France and received the premier prize for drawing in 1888.  He was taught and influenced by William Bouguereau and Auguste Truphème at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.   In 1898, he participated in the Exhibition of Fine Arts and Decorative Arts in Tours.  He exhibited regularly until 1913, with portraits, landscapes and floral paintings.  He excelled in watercolour paintings of women and children in bright colours and bucolic scenery, and was well known for the portrait of Mrs.Vernon, Under the Lamp.
1945 to 1958:  although there were performances the building began to degrade becoming dangerous.
2012: Restoration began to replicate the Italianate theatre of 1899.  The foundations, roof, walls, stairway, plumbing, electricity, et cetera have all been updated according to current building regulations. Paintings and decorations have been restored: curtains, dressing rooms, benches, seats and theatre boxes, chairs in the balconies, the proscenium, cornices, friezes and IN FACT everything has all been replaced and or restored.  The machinery which operates the theatrical screens and sets has also been upgraded.In addition, a lift has been installed.  
Two stone muses, Thalia and Melopmene were returned to the facade of the theatre.
In Grecian Mythology the Muses were the inspirational goddesses of knowledge, of the arts, of music, song and dance and all were the source of inspiration to poets in the court of Zeus.  In very ancient times there were three Muses, but later there were nine.  
Each inspirational Muse received a name and spheres of responsibility or attributes:-

Calliope (epic poetry) 
Clio (history)
Erato (love and erotic poetry)
Euterpe (lyric poetry)
Melopmene (tragedy)
Thalia (comedy)
Polyhymnia (religious hymns)
Terpsichore (choral song and dance)
Urania (astronomy)

2013: The theatre was re-opened.  It has cost 5.85 million euros to restore.  The Heritage Foundation supported the restoration of the theatre. The work was overseen by Millet Key, an International firm associated with Arnaud de Saint-Jouan, Chief Architect of Historic Monuments. 25 companies were involved.

See next posting for more photographs.

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?

I absolutely love this painting and would love a copy!
My first thoughts are that she is seductive, beautiful,  elegant, sensuous, amorous, glamorous, evocative, erotic, fashionable, wealthy, intellectual, educated.  Someone who mixes in the circles of the elite and the bourgeoisie, with artists, musicians, composers, poets, writers. Someone who appreciates music, dance, or cabaret.
Perhaps this pretty-in-pink-woman has been sipping expensive pink champagne as she poses for the artist. (I would like that!)  She the muse, turns her head  haughtily or naughtily to one side, so that he can replicate her exquisite features with a Grecian or Roman nose.  Tricky to define! She drops the dress from her shoulder! It says what it does!


I did some research:
Her name is Marthe de Florian, an actress. She appears to be wearing a wedding ring.
The artist is Giovanni Bondini - the date1898 - It was at the time of La Belle Époque in Paris.
In Society the artist and she would have appreciated Debussy or Ravel, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rousseau, Matisse, Rimbaud or Verlaine.
A shadow falls upon the opulence depicted in the frame.
A shadow falls upon the history of this story.

Evidently, it has been reported that the owner of the Parisian apartment  fled to the South of France in 1940 to avoid the German invasion of Paris. She abandoned all her possessions which she had inherited from her grandmother and never returned but did continue to pay the rental! When she died at the age of 91 in 2010 the heirs of her estate ordered an inventory to be made of the items in the apartment which were covered on dust and cobwebs and had not seen the light of day for 70 years!

The person who discovered this painting said "his heart skipped a beat" when he saw it.
My heart skipped a beat when I found it on the internet.
I loved it so much I sent it to a friend and oh my! 

I discovered the story of the house frozen in time because I wanted to find new internet reading so had googled BLOGS IN FRANCE and the choices  revealed the following blog:
http://www.theparisblog.com/     Scroll down to the date January 2nd 2014

You can read more at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8042281/Parisian-flat-containing-2.1-million-painting-lay-untouched-for-70-years.html

and also at: http://www.house-crazy.com/a-parisian-apartment-frozen-in-time-for-70-years/
and at:   http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/32/Madame_de_Florians_Abandoned_Apartment

L'Art et Lard - Le Petit-Pressigny 2013

I would love several of these in my garden.
The walking story leaflet does not clearly name the sculptor.
Possibly Jacques Cancre.

Oh to be an iron lady!   Foolishly, I thought my foot would cope with a little wandering if I was mainly left at the English Tea Tent, but it didn't work out like that as my friend's husband didn't come with us. A second able bodied person was needed with three children under the age of 5 on scooters whilst Mummy pushed a double buggy! She managed to see fewer than half of the exhibitions.
My plan was that they would do the trail, report back to me what they thought was worthy and take me to the location in their car. Haha!
I saw a few exterior metal sculptures and the origami sculptures of Lisette des Flots who is always so warmly welcoming as was Rieja van Aart, a photographer and organiser of the event.
By the time I had unexpectedly supported my friend,  I needed supporting as my foot started to burn. This was controlled to some extent by several paracetamols!

Winter Origami

At least I got out into the big wide world as I haven't seen it since being in Cornwall AND I bought a bottle of THE BEST walnut oil from L'huilerie Lepine.  Their open days at Availles-en-Chatellerault are 16 and 17 November, but like apples, there are few walnuts this year! Now, I'm pooped and the roofers will be coming this week!  I've slept a lot as I have done most of the week and the brain feels rather foggy but at last the DVT injections have ended!

Chapter Two of A Cornish Adventure

We took a train to Penzance and warmed ourselves with an amazing hot chocolate. I do wish I'd chosen a Danish pastry!

Onwards!   Our cycles skirted the Pz fishing depots as we headed towards Mousehole.  (The only family holiday I ever remember brought us here and it doesn't appear to have changed!)  A three-roomed shop with apartment for sale was 550k.  I asked the price!  A little shop like that would do me to a tee!

We stopped at Newlyn Art Gallery with colourful, contemporary art that made us talk about what we saw!  I loved that!  Overjoyed, I delighted in "fuschias flowering in the hedges, falling to the floor", as worthy as any art.

Driving east, we stopped at Dartington but it was raining. I didn't have my camera under the umbrella. We came to Totnes, Devon whereupon a bus and a river ferry transported us to Dartmouth. 
Here we debarked, only to hear my name being called!  Who?!! Someone from the commune I used to live in!! I used to work with her as a volunteer with children's activities and adult TEFL!  Four years ago I nearly bought part of her property! Small world! She was so friendly, absolutely charming as French Parisians are, and as surprised as I was! Spooked! I needed a strong coffee and glass of wine or brandy but not hot the chocolate substitute which was pathetic!

I loved the colours and styles of houses, the interesting boutique/antique shops, the defence constructions and the chateau at the mouth of the River Dart, the working boats, the general ambiance including tropical plants, the stately demeanour of the buildings steeped in a richly important heritage of nautical history, sailing, warfare, where 'The Mayflower' once moored when The Pilgrim Fathers sailed from Southampton to America.  There was never enough time to explore further as our bus for the return journey was waiting.  Steam train and return river ferry timetables did not coincide with our needs.  Fish and chips were delicious, eaten whilst seagulls glared at us !

Totnes was quirky! Now we travelled north-east to Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, to settle in the sunshine and walk along the sands before the overnight stopover for a very early flight to France.

Three counties in ten days.
It was an invitation, an opportunity, an educational experience for inspiration.
It was fun and an adventure.
It was enjoyment and laughter.
It was for that moment in time with a valued friend.
It strengthened the knowledge that I can't yet afford to live near the coast unless someone lets me have a small artist's studio and then I think I would! But then I really would have to learn to paint!
Au revoir Cornwall!