HOLLYWOOD – AUBAGNE – PARIS: A TRIANGULAR JOURNEY

Posted on February 19, 2017February 20, 2017 by Susan Manfull

It’s Academy Award season, and as it was with me a year ago when I wrote of Marcel Pagnol, I am drawn back to Provence, in fact to his hometown of Aubagne. On this occasion it began last fall when I was discussing with my wife Benedicte, who is French, about the genre films that Hollywood is known for which might appeal to her. In the past couple of years she has become a fan of American westerns, so I thought Foreign Legion fare could be of interest. What I quickly ran up against though was tha...

MARC CHAGALL AT THE CARRIÈRES DE LUMIÈRES: EXTRAORDINARY

Posted on July 24, 2016October 4, 2016 by Susan Manfull

The Carrières de Lumières defy description. One could say (aptly) that it is a multi-media extravaganza—about 100 projectors casting 3,000 images on walls as high as 14 meters, spilling onto the ceiling and the floor, and choreographed perfectly with music ringing out from about 25 speakers strategically placed within the 5,000 square meters of a former limestone quarry certainly qualifies as fantastic spectacle. However, until you step through the door into the cavernous quarries where lime...

THE MUSÉE EXTRAORDINAIRE CELEBRATES ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY

Posted on July 5, 2015December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

Forty years ago, Georges Mazoyer (1925 - 1996) opened his Musée Extraordinaire in the tiny Luberon village of Ansouis. Deep-sea diver, artist, and world-wide traveler, this extraordinarily unusual man spent ten years refurbishing the small space--a former stable--adjacent to his studio and filling it with the souvenirs of his adventures. Encouraged by friends to share his passion for underwater life, the museum was a labor of love that today is carried on by his daughter, Nicole, and her husband...

MEET MADAME CÉZANNE

Posted on January 11, 2015December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

Post-impressionist artist Paul Cézanne, born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839, spent most of his sixty-six years in his beloved Aix and he died there in 1906. He grew up there, studied law at the university, took art classes at the city’s Musée Granet—even won a second-place prize for his painting at that museum—and famously painted nearby Mont Sainte-Victoire some five dozen times. Cézanne is generally regarded as the most famous painter to emerge from Aix-en-Provence and is certainly regarded a...

THE LIKES OF LEONARDO DA VINCI, RAPHAËL, AND MICHELANGELO ARE HEADING TO THE CARRIÈRES DE LUMIÈRES

Posted on November 9, 2014December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

The quarries in Les Baux-de-Provence were once renowned for their abundant supply of limestone. Over 2000 years ago, the Romans made use of this limestone for rebuilding the Celto-Liguirian town of Glanum and for building the Municipal Arch and Mausoleum that still stand across from Glanum. The Roman city of Arles was built with limestone from these quarries. Over a thousand years later, in the 11th century, the infamous Lords of Les Baux built their formidable citadel from the limestone in the...

THERE’S MORE THAN ONE D-DAY

Posted on June 7, 2014December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

June 6th marked the 70th anniversary of the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy. I got a message early in the morning from good friend and retired Marine Bob Finneran, reminding me what day it was. But, I didn’t need reminding. I, like many people of a certain age, tuned into the live broadcast of the international ceremony marking this occasion from Ouistreham beach—code named Sword beach—in Normandy. I watched the heads of state of the world's most prominent countries as they arrived an...

THE LITTLE PRINCE RETURNS TO NEW YORK

Posted on April 6, 2014November 27, 2015 by Susan Manfull

Look up at the sky. Ask yourself, “Has the sheep eaten the flower or not?” And you’ll see how everything changes. And no grown-up will ever understand how such a thing could be so important. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Little Prince If you are a regular reader of The Modern Trobadors, I suspect that you know “the little prince.” It’s likely that you know him well. People who travel, like the little prince, open their eyes, their ears, and their hearts to the adventures the world has ...

NEW SHOW AT CARRIERES DE LUMIERES: BE ENVELOPED BY THE MUSIC, MOVEMENT, GLITTER, AND BRIGHT COLORS OF ARTIST GUSTAV KLIMT

Posted on March 30, 2014December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

What does a town do with a vast web of stone quarries with a “Closed” sign on every door? The folks in Les Baux-de-Provence turned theirs into the largest permanent multimedia show in France. Carrières de Lumières (formerly called Cathédral d’Images) is a smashing success. Close to 400,000 visitors attended last year’s show. For over 2000 years, the quarries in Les Baux-de-Provence were a primary source of limestone for this area. The Romans exploited the quarries for material to rebuild the ...

AUGUST IN PROVENCE: TOO HOT AND CROWDED?

Posted on August 18, 2013January 8, 2016 by Susan Manfull

August in Provence. It is hot and crowded. The line of cars inching their way along, hoping to snatch an open parking spot for the most popular markets is foreboding and the sea of people that fills the streets of those otherwise picturesque villages steals any of your remaining enthusiasm for the outing. Reservations for lunch or dinner are impossible, a disappointment mitigated only slightly by the knowledge that the wait staff would be too cranky to bear anyway. And the lines of buses parke...

A NICE TIME TO BE IN NICE: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MUSÉE MATISSE!

Posted on July 21, 2013December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

Nice was where we first touched down in the South of France. We were on our way to Aix-en-Provence and then, to our final destination, Lourmarin. We had a direct flight from Boston to this city, known as the capital of the French Riviera—so the itinerary was practical—but, really, who doesn’t want to delight in the beauty of the Cours Saleva Flower Market; walk along the famous Promenade des Anglais; and visit the iconic Negresco Hotel whose guest list has included such luminaries as Pablo Picas...