I have been derelict in keeping this account of our travels up to date, so may skate over some elements.
On Thursday 12 May, we headed out of Amelies les Bains for Barcelona. We stopped by Banyule sur Mer to visit the small farmhouse where Aristide Maillol lived, worked and is now buried. The house is now a small gallery, with a lovely selection of sculptures, photographs and a couple of installations recreating the original rooms. Maillol is buried in the garden under a sculpture of his muse. I found it very satisfying to refresh my appreciation of his life and work.
The drive to Barcelona was relatively straightforward. We stayed in a hotel about 18kms from the city centre at Llobregad de Corbera.
Friday we took a bus and metro trip into the city. A walk through the streets, a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which we found disappointing in that its exhibition on Punk culture didn't really speak to us! A visit to a small gallery displaying remnants of the roman wall around the city was interesting, then a visit to another gallery focussed on the work of a Spanish sculptor Francisco Clara which again was disappointing as it had few works of any real merit.
Saturday was much more interesting. A visit to the Museo Picasso, focussed on his early career was a real pleasure. Picasso's artistic skills and creative energy stood out in virtually everything he touched.
I tried to book a tour of Barcelona's civil war sites, largely described in Orwell's Homage o Catalonia, which I read when i was at school and reread at university for a course on anarchism when doing my M.Litt at UNE. Unfortunately we had left it too late and the tours were booked out.
Sunday morning, after some indecision abut where to go, we headed north, originally thinking to head to Albi, but deciding en route to head to the visage of Uzes in Languedoc. We booked a night in a hotel while we searched for something longer. Uses is a terrific town, on the cusp of a tourism boom, but quite delightful notwithstanding. We wandered around the town for a couple of hours soaking up the atmosphere. Dinner in a very pleasant bistro, "Ten", with a less traditional menu.
Monday involved a slow start, a french breakfast at the hotel, coffee and croissant, then Boronia set to work to try to find accommodation were we could cook for ourselves. We finally settled on a place in a micro village - maybe a hamlet is a better description - named Audabiac, some three kilometres outside the town of Lussan, some 20 odd kilometres north of Uzes.
We then spent a few hours exploring Uzes, and came across an extraordinary antique shop called Atmosphere. The shop contained scores, if not under of antique and highly decorated walking sticks, priced in the hundreds of euros each, plus a vast selection of other desirable objects, all quite expensive. I asked about a small silver box, with the masonic insignia etched on its lid, to be told in was two hundred euros. I estimated that the sale value of the total stock must exceed a million euros, an extraordinary store!
Next we headed off on a drive toward Avignon. We decided to explore Pont du Gare, not knowing anything at all about it. It is an extraordinary roman bridge built in the first century AD, some 160 feet high, and a key element in a fifty kilometre aqueduct taking water from a spring near Uzes to Nimes. The wikipedia page on Pont du Garde is worth a read.
Finally we headed to Audabiac, having confirmed our accommodation request during the day. We have booked ourselves in till next Sunday. We arrived to discover we are lodged in a delightful two story medieval cottage, stone walls, exposed wooden beams, very comfortable and compact. It has all the essentials, good hot water, wifi, a firm bed, and a refrigerator and stove. It will be an excellent base from which to explore the surrounding region and do some extended walking. The hamlet of Audabiac is quiet, and very pretty, a typical village Provencale.
No comments:
Post a Comment