Dear Friends and Family,
Had a super comfortable flight on British Air, sort of a fluke, but we ended up in first class with real sheets on a flat bed and a pair of pajamas. We had dinner in the lounge before flying so we could sleep longer. Decided not to include photos because it's just not that interesting and might give rise to uncontrollable envy ;-). When we arrived at Heathrow, even though we were flying regular class down to Marseilles, we got to have a great British breakfast in the lounge and showers. It's definitely the way to go if you're very financially comfortable or your dad's an airline pilot or owns an airline. Or if you've built up a lot of points (our method of choice).
Stayed with our great friend Annie, who lives outside of Marseiles. She has been super busy with her job and was in Torino that day, so some house guests kindly picked us up at the airport, Vianny with one of his charming 3 daughters, Lu. Annie drove like a mad woman back from Torino and arrived to have pizza with us all. Great pizza; so much for our avoiding-wheat diet. In fact, we have had to pretty much forget avoiding wheat in France.
I seem to have lost a beautiful photo of the girls, but here are 2 of them, Lisa and Alix, 3 and a half and 5. They lived for Annie's swimming pool.
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| Lisa, 3 and a half, and Alix, 5 |
Kiki Smith is in a fabulous show in Avignon at two spectacular venues, the Palais des Papes (the Pope's Palace) and Collection Lambert. The show is titled "Les Papesses" and shows work of Camille Claudel, Louise Bourgeois, Jana Sterbak and Berlinde de Bruyckere, as well as Kiki. It's on until November 11, so if you happen to be in Southern France, it's well worth going there. Very well curated and installed show.
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
L'on y danse tous en rond
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| Le Pont St. Benezet in Avignon |
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The entrance at Collection Lambert. Ghostly underdresses and nightgowns lead the way upstairs. Our friend Annie taking a photo.
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| Annie Salt, Elodie Stankovic of the Collection Lambert and Era |
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| Wandering thru Kiki's sculptures. |
All have been Kiki Smith so far.
And below, Louise Bourgeois; surrounding the figure is a wall made of weathered, but very strong old iron doors.
Walking from the Collection Lambert to the Palais des Papes, we saw the most amazing street performances. Festival Off was going on in Avignon - small company performances, and many performers were out in the street drumming up business in the most amusing ways and passing out flyers for that evening's performances.
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| This could only be France. |
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| The weather was very hot and oppressive. We felt sorry for the people in heavy costume. |
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| Shadow theater. Darling little boy. |
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This pianist played beautifully, but quite a load to pedal around in this hot weather.
My blog spot is telling me I'm getting too large, so will have to do a Part 2.
Sending love,
Era and Don
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