Avignon – Day 2

First day in Avignon (previous blog entry) was taken up with seeing the “lay of the land” of La Vielle Ville (Old Town). The second day (Friday, Sept 19th), I spent a good portion of it taking the self-guided tour of the inside of the Palais des Papes. One enters through that large “porte” that was visible on yesterday’s picture of the “front” of the Palais:

Main “porte” (gate) of the Palais des Papes. Those double tours above were part of what was restored in modern times to return the Palais to its 14thC appearance

As a 14thC visitor, if you have made it this far and still haven’t figured out who the important person is that lives here, the porte is letting you know – the arms of the pope display:

Note the papal “hat” in the arms

Through the porte (after paying for one’s ticket) and one enters the Cour d’Honneur, the inner courtyard of the Palais Neuf. The second photo shows a great picture of a “top view” of the Palais des Papes along with the self-guided tour. One follows the path of the white arrow first (bottom floor) and then the blue arrow (one flight up).

Cour d’Honneur: south (on left) and west (on right) walls

When you stop and really look at the statuary in many medieval buildings, you can see an attention to detail that amazes. The Palais des Papes is no exception. Here are some examples of stone denizens found here:

The sublime…..

…the fierce…..

…and the sweet.

Walking through a dark wide passage, you enter into the courtyard of the Palais Vieux, called the Cour Benoit XII. Benoit  (Benedict) XII was the 3rd pope at Avignon (1334-1342) and it was under his papacy that the existing episcopal palace at Avignon was torn down and what is now called the Palais Vieux was built onto/into the Roches des Doms.

La Cour Benôit

After Benoit XII, the next pope was Clement VI. He decided that the Palais Vieux was just too vieux, and he had the Palais Neuf built. At the same time, modifications to the Palais Vieux were made too. For example, a cloister was added in it to provide living quarters for staff (a lot of that needed for a pope) and guests. None of my photos don’t do it justice (too many people around), so if you want to see it, follow this link. In the Palais Vieux is the Consistoire (Consistory). This is the room where the Assembly of Cardinals would  be convoked. If I got my directions right, the pope would have been seated “in state” against the wall at the end of this photo.

La Consistoire – where the Assemby of Cardinals was held

Now, this room had all kinds of interesting information… about the buildings, like here’s a drawing of the stonemason marks on the north wall of the Tour Saint-Laurent (way cool!):

Stonemason marks in the Tour St-Laurent

…and information about the papacy as well. Here’s a map of all the places in Europe that owed allegiance (and taxes) to the Pope in the 14thC:

Sources of papal revenue in the 14thC

Onto the next floor. Here we start in the Grand Tintel, which is a huge room that sits above the Consistoire. This was a room for assemblies and festivals. This amazing roof was built between 1414 and 1419, when the Tintel was rebuilt after a fire destroyed it.

[photo 752]

Le Grand Tintel – the great assemby room

The door visible in the wall at the end of this photo leads to an antechamber, where people would wait for their personal audience with the Pope. And, from there, to the Pope’s chambers. These chambers are covered with frescoes that are incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately, photography is prohibited. And the souvenir books that I purchased that did have images I could show you, I have cleverly sent back to the U.S. already…sigh. But here’s a photo on the Internet from the Studium (also called the Chambre du Cerf – Room of the Stag – because of the hunting theme of the images) and today’s “bit with the dog”. To see an incredible array of these images, try entering “chambre du cerf avignon” into Google and click on Images. The images are really amazing! The Pope’s chambre (private room/bedroom) is also decorated. It’s harder to find a good image of this one, but try this one – it’s slightly overexposed, but you get an idea of the intricate patterns there.

So the tour has done a really good job of saving the best to last. You see the amazing images on the walls of the Pope’s personal chambers and then you enter into the Grande Chapelle , where the Papal Mass would be given. The dimensions of this room are really impressive and to think that it too was probably decorated and certainly filled with the treasures of the Church. While the Pope could enter this room from his apartments, everyone else would have come from the Cour d’Honneur, up the Escalier d’Honneur, an imposing double staircase, and to the Grande Porte (which is being restored from the damage done during the Revolution and beyond):

L’Escalier d’Honneur, leading up to the Grande Chapelle

At the top of the l’Escalier d’Honneur, the Grande Porte, through which you enter the Grande Chapelle

Once through the doors, you would be in the Grande Chapelle. This was built in 1351 as part of the work done by Pope Clement VI.

The western end of the Grande Chapelle: you can barely see the opening for those big doors you came through on the right.

The eastern end of the Grande Chapelle, with the alter… the room at the right being where the Pope would put on his vestments before the service

All in all, a most amazing tour of a most amazing building! The day’s goal also included getting another box of stuff sent off to the U.S. So I decided that lunch would have to wait and got the mailing done – it is always a bit of an undertaking. After that, however, I was truly starved. But a meal was out of the question, as I had made reservations at a trendy restaurant for dinner that night and didn’t want to eat heavily beforehand. So I “suffered” by stopping at a Salon de Thé and had a chocolate éclair and some green tea…I know, I know….but someone has to do it.

The dinner was at a restaurant called “Les 5 Sens” (The 5 Senses). It was (I am sorry I keep using this word)…amazing! The room was beautifully decorated, very trendy with the colors of the walls simplifying yet bringing together the accent color of a red-rose red. But onto the food…AMUSE-BOUCHES: two sets of “amuse-bouches” (appetizers, I suppose is the mundane translation): 1) 3 little canapés (my favorite was a puff pastry “roll” with tapenade in the dough); 2) vichyssoise w/ a dollop in the shape of a mussel shell that was made of puréed potatoes and leeks. BREAD: Then the usual offering of bread, but this was either triangles of olive bread rolls or nice crusty bread rolls (I choose the olive bread). ENTRÉE: (which is the French word for what you have first, an appetizer) a nicely browned scallop with 2 little cannellonis that are filled w/ some sort of soft cheese that has roasted red pepper and green onions in it, sitting in a lovely broth that had little bits of cauliflower and a celery leaf in it, with little croutons over top, and – the pièce de résistance: a “cloud” of “sea form” – probably very lightly whipped egg white. PLAT: (main course) thin slices of duck – fairly rare on the inside, but with a nice brown crust on the outside; duck has been marinated in red wine enough to taste the wine, and on top it has some sort of “granola” bits. This was served with a purée of potatoes (which was actually browned on top, so it was like having a “potato pancake” on one side) and another of carrot, and with a lovely cooked mushroom. DESSERT: a “5 senses” specialty – fruit of the day = strawberry…..a cheesecake layer cake: two thin “slices” of cheesecake with strawberry glaze/jam “frosting” between them and on the top, sitting on a crunchy crust; a strawberry coulis sauce over that; sitting on top: a small scoop of strawberry sorbet and a tiny scoop of some kind of pink fluff that might have had pistachios in it too; and here the “pièce de résistance” was a nest of spun sugar threads. HOT BEVERAGE: more mint tea!! Needless to say, I waddled home…my stomach full enough that I did a bit of packing and reading before I was ready to sleep (poor me)!

And that’s it for that day! I am sorry to be so behind in this blog, but there is so much to do and internet only wants to work when it wants to work! À bientôt!

Travels in the south of France – Avignon, Day 1

I have spent the last 2 days in Avignon, home to the popes of the Catholic Church from 1309 to 1377 (according to Wikipedia). My hotel there, while quite adequate in other ways, did not have the type of Wi-Fi access that WordPress liked, so no blogging…But I’ve just made it to Lyon (and acceptable Wi-Fi), so I’ll try to catch you up.

In previous visits to France, I have never made it to Avignon to see the Palais des Papes (Papal Palace). Part of that was because the time period for this phenomenon is 14thC (not 16thC – a person has to have her priorities!) and partly because I never really did understand why the Church split into two. On the second point, I am now a bit wiser. I refer you to the Wikipedia entry for a summary. For my SCA friends, I am thinking that I would like to do a Medieval Studies on this building(s) and its history sometime maybe in the winter.

I have to say that Avignon is pretty amazing! I came in on Thursday (9/18) around noon on the TGV (train à grande vitesse = high-speed train). For those of you who haven’t seen these creatures, they are pretty cool. Here’s two “engines” nose to nose:

After an inauspicious introduction – the walk from the train station to the hotel was not particularly attractive, despite passing through the ancient city gates. But, as I had time to use up until the room was ready, I took guidebooks in hand and went for a walk around the outside of the Palais des Papes. I have to say, I was very impressed with it, in spite of my earlier reservations. It is a massive building, or more accurately, collection of buildings. And that it has survived all this time, since the 14thC! Of course, most any large, ancient building in France was used, during the Napoleonic era (or sometimes later) as either a prison or military barracks. The Palais has the glory of being both. Yet, again, as with many ancient French buildings, it has been lovingly restored to the time of its glory.

The complex is very imposing, designed to be a worthy home to the head of the Christian faith. Also, due to the reasons for the Pope leaving Rome, it was designed to be militarily defendable as well.

Palais des Papes – from the front. Somebody really important (and wealthy) lives here!

And the owner is willing to protect what he’s got: arrow slits above the gate. These slits are everywhere on the building!

Before heading out, I was in need of sustenance. So I stopped at La Couscouserie, where I had a lovely lamb tajine (Moroccan “stew”). Cooked with the lamb were prunes, dried apricots, golden raisins; and over the top were orange slices, slivered almonds, and some sesame seeds. Served with it was a bowl (trough really) of couscous. Yummy! And lovely hot mint tea afterwards!

Walking around the complex, one sees all kinds of neat angles of pieces against other pieces, and against the sky. I took lots of photos – not as many as at St-Germain, mind you – but still, lots of photos. I’ll share just a few….

The first sighting!

The walls of the building are literally built out of the rock called “Roche des Doms”

When you’ve gone around the bottom of the first of the two complexes, the Palais Neuf (new), you start climbing up the Roche des Doms, where the Palais Vieux (old) is. To ascend, you take the Escaliers Sainte Anne (who must have been in very good shape):

You climb…..

…and you climb…and you keep climbing

But when you finally reach the top, the view is incredible! You are at the top of the Roche des Doms. Extensive gardens at the back of the Palais Vieux are behind you and the Rhône River is in front of you. Across the Rhône is Villeneuf-lès-Avignon, with some beautiful buildings of its own (next trip).

Lots more garden than this, but it gives you an idea. Trees, flowers….

…and denizens!

The Rhône River flows past Avignon, on its journey from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea!

Fort Saint André (1364-1368) in Villeneuf-lès-Avignon, across the river, 49 km away

At the west end of the Roche, it is possible to climb down to river-level again. I did so into the Tour des Chiens (today’s “bit with the dog”):

Looking back south to the Palais Vieux

Climbing down to the Tour des Chiens

Once down at river-level, I was able to see the famous “Pont d’Avignon” (for those of you who took French class and had to learn the song). It was visible from up above too, but I have to limit the photos somehow. And then I was able to walk around the ramparts (city wall) that is still largely intact.

Le Pont d”Avignon…and those aren’t grey sheep in the foreground…that’s all lavender!

And I did a goodly amount of Provence-themed shopping: bright colors in pottery, pictures, and linens (my weakness – I now have 6 Provencal napkins). But the feet were getting pretty tired at this point. So back to the room for a rest. Then back to the Place de l’Horloge (Clock Place) for dinner at a brasserie: chicken fricasée in a basil cream sauce with egg noodles. It was relatively simple, but quite good. I’d like to see if I could try to make this one at home.  Even so, I didn’t eat it all, so that, for the first time in days, I could go to bed without an uncomfortably full tummy. And for dessert?….sorbet (did I mention that I love sorbet?).

The next day I took the tour inside the Palais des Papes. Lots more incredible sights. Lots more photos. But I think I’ll save that for the another blog entry. Time to sign off, rest a bit, and then commence the quest in search of dinner. À tout à l’heure (=”later”)

Finishing up in Paris

Well, tomorrow (Thursday) morning, I leave Paris and take a TVG (high-speed train) down to Avignon. Today has been spent running various errands: looking for a particular of an art magazine (no luck); trying to cash old francs to dollars (also, no luck), These attempts were unsuccessful. However, in my wait for the Banque Française to open, I wandered around the area, looking for something interesting to eat and came upon Mamie Gateau – a delightful little café that served fresh lunch tartes (i.e. quiche) and patisseries. I had a wonderful lunch of tarte with zucchini and Provençal spices (rosemary & thyme) and a bit of nutmeg and slices of goat cheese on top. Yummy! For dessert, I had the lemon tarte, which had real, exquisitely made meringue on top and very lemony custard beneath – a real “lemon meringue pie”! It was amazing. My last task was to lighten myself of some of the books that I’ve been collecting by sending a 7kg box back to the U.S. Now, I think, it’s off to the Restaurant Polidor, which has a reasonable robust beer selection…and it is within walking distance! But it doesn’t open for another 50 minutes….so let’s try to get this blog caught up in the meantime….

Yesterday (Tuesday, 9/16), I was a truly adventurous traveller: I took the EuroStar (chunnel train) over to London for the day, so that I could see the exhibition “The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered” at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG). The exhibit was quite small and did not allow photography, but the exhibition was very interesting. The NPG has a project called “Making Art in Tudor Britain”, which is undertaking to look at the Tudor art with the latest scientific analysis. The exhibition was the result of the analysis and in a few cases the restoration of some of the really famous Tudor portraits found at the NPG. So the information was quite interesting and, fortunately, the exhibition book seems to do an excellent job of presenting the information. I think the most fascinating parts for me were: a) just to see these famous portraits up close; b) to see the amazing clarity restored to Queen Elizabeth’s Phoenix portrait as a result of its restoration (the previous link is also the NPG’s summary of this project). The details of the embroidery on her gown are so much more vivid now! And the cloth of one of the famous portraits of Queen Mary Tudor (Elizabeth’s predecessor) was so detailed you could see the threads going across! So it was worth the hop across the channel. But because the exhibit was kind of small, I had time to fill before my reservation at the NPG’s restaurant for afternoon tea. So I went to the National Gallery, which turned out to be right next door. And here were an amazing number of “famous” works of 15th & 16th century art (well, it had lots of other stuff too, but I didn’t go see them). Lots of painting by an Italian artist, Giovanni Battista Moroni – there must have been six or seven of them. One of his famous ones (for us clothing fiends of the 16thC) is called “The Tailor” and shows what an (Italian) tailor of the mid-16thC would have looked like:

“The Tailor” by Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1565-70

And the National Gallery’s gift shop let’s you pick paintings in their collection and have an image printed (not for free, alas). So I did just that for “The Tailor” and will now have one to hang in my sewing room! I also got to see Holbein’s “The Ambassadors“, which is cited in all kinds of contexts in works about the 16thC. It is a big painting and the colors and detail are beautiful. And there were several paintings with useful pictures of headdresses, so progress on that front, as well! And, of course….there was the bit with the dog, a (I thought the Golden Retriever wasn’t “invented” til the 1800s, but Piero di Cosimo painted this around 1495…so somebody’s wrong 😉

“A Satyr mourning over a Nymph” by Piero di Cosimo

I went back to the NPG just in time (well, a tiny bit late…blame waiting on the printer for my “The Tailor” print) to make my reservation for afternoon tea. It was in their restaurant on the 3rd floor, whose entire exterior wall is glass. This means you get a lovely rooftop view of the city of London, looking south towards the river. You can see the top of the Tower of London and behind that, the tower of Parliament. And being an idiot, I forgot to take a picture of the view! Sorry about that. But a lovely tea was had: little sandwiches of cucumber, chicken salad, smoked salmon, and a lovely little toast with carmelized onions and a slice of goat cheese (yummy!); next tray up were two little scones and a little pot of strawberry jam and another of clotted cream (yeah!); top tray had mini pastries. By then I was getting a bit full so I only ate the tiny eclair and the little fruit tart with custard. All this with nice hot tea and where they didn’t put the milk in before the tea had steeped (unlike some places in the U.S.). I scooted back to the train station, waiting a bit for the EuroStar back to Paris. A little bit of a panic as I was out of Metro tickets and was planning to buy was I needed for the rest of my stay here with the credit card. But that nasty ticket machines would not take my credit card, nor would they accept bills. I was finally able to find enough coin to purchase just the one ticket I needed to get back. And so I was back in my hotel room by 11pm that night. An exhausting, but fun day.

The day before that (Monday, 9/15) I was able to make it to the 16thC château, Saint Germain-en-Laye. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it there during this visit because I didn’t know how much time the Archive research would take. But since that work went relatively quickly, I had Monday “free” and bolted for St Germain. This château sits in the western outskirts of Paris. In the 16thC, this château was far outside the city gates, in the royal forest of Boulonge (Bois du Boulogne). The château has been restored to its (mostly) 16thC configuration, when it was built by François I. In the room that sells tickets sits this great model of the château as it would have looked in the very late 16thC. You are looking at it from the Seine river and the buildings in the foreground are the “newer” part, added to the grounds by Henri II and finished by Henri IV. The chateau sits at the very back/top of this model.

And this is how the chateau looks (though this picture is taken 90 degrees counter-clockwise to the view of this model).

Now it is the home of the Musée d’Archéologie – i.e. lots of prehistory and early history stuff. I confess that this subject doesn’t do much for me, so it’s easy for me to stroll thru the rooms, ignoring the exhibits and concentrating instead on the architecture.

King’s “chambre” – the window to the left looks out onto the lovely gardens seen in the first photo of the château

The picture above is the King’s “chamber” (bedroom), which would have been a way more public space that our bedrooms today. It was an honor to be part of the King’s daily dressing and undressing ritual in this room. Only those closest to the King’s would be permitted to enter. In the 16th, the King’s bed would have here on the wall behind you. The wooden pillars at the left would not have been there (nor would the carpet ;-). The wooden wall wasn’t there because behind it is access to a “tower” room, which the King used as a small “cabinet” (office). Off the tower room would have been a passage that allowed the King to go down to the gardens without having to go through the public rooms and people that would always have been there.

And this picture is of the ballroom. This type of room was new to buildings of this time. It has beautiful large windows on both sides and is a large, common “pleasure” space. On the other side of the wall at the end is the château’s chapel. In the 16thC, there was a private access for the King to enter from this room. Alas, the chapel was closed during this visit because they were preparing for an upcoming exhibition. Alas!

I can go on and on about this building. I took about 100 photos of it. But the internet is fighting me and I must get going to eat, so I can get to bed at a reasonable hour. I have to wake up at 6am (aaaahhh) to start my preparations for tomorrow’s travel. A revoir from Paris…and on to Avignon….

A tour of 16thC Paris

What I forgot to include in yesterday’s blog were the pictures that I took of the “microfiche hive” at the Archives Nationales. Here live those lovely manuscripts that I was viewing:

Looking “west” down the rows of microfiche readers

Looking “east” towards the front desk (in back of photo)

On the agenda for today (Sunday), a guided tour of Le Marais, a district of Paris (modern 3rd arrondissement), where some 16thC architecture still exists. The Musée Carnavalet organizes the tour, as it is the official “museum of the history of Paris”. The guide did speak English but as the other two members of the tour were French, she spoke French. I understood about 95%, which is an improvement over past years. The tour was very interesting. The Hôtel Carnavalet itself is a 16thC building, a “hotel de ville” (town house). It is famous for having been where the authoress Madame de Sévigné lived. She wrote very chatty letters to her daughter in the country describing life in Paris. She wrote 3-4 per week, over the course of 10 years! That’s a lot of letters! Her family decided to publish them after Madame’s death. They provide a very interesting insight into life in the upper society of France. Some subset of these letters is a staple of any class on French literature of the 17thC. Here’s a 16thC part of the Hôtel Carnavalet:

Courtyard of the Hôtel Carnavalet

One of the really cool things that the tour guide showed up was a piece of the original late-12thC/early-13thC wall that surrounded Paris. It was built by king Philippe-Auguste to protect the expanded city and included over 625 acres, bigger than Paris was then! Every 230 ft, the wall had a tower and periodically it had portals as well…a big wall! And this one only held Paris for about 200 years, when King Charles V had to build a new one! Anyway, here’s the extant wall:

Looking to the right – remains of tower at far right

Looking to the left

The guide then took us up a small alley that had extant 16thC buildings that “normal” people lived (probably middle class). This picture tries to give you a feel of the 16thC street:

 

The most famous 16thC architecture (though late in the century) is the Place des Vosges. This is one of the most beautiful “Places” in Paris. In the mid-16thC, it was the setting for the royal palace called the Hôtel des Tournelles. According to Wikipedia, this “palace” was actually many buildings spread over several acres outside the city wall. Here’s a 1550 image from Wikipedia:

Area of Hôtel des Tournelles around 1550

However, when King Henri II was mortally wounded in a tournament (1559), he was take to Hôtel des Tournelles because it was the closest royal building; he died there. A combination of it being “old-fashioned” and the place where her husband died, Catherine de Medici had it torn down in 1563. Its remains served many purposes after that (including being a dueling site). Then in the first decade of the 1600s, Henri IV gave the pieces of the land to his noble to build their hôtel de villas. This is what we see now.

The walk ended there in the Place des Vosges. So I took myself back to the bookstore of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and came away with several lovely books. I then returned to the Hôtel Carnavalet to take a look inside its museum. Found a lovely fragment of stained glass with a French Hood and a cool model of the Île de la Cité in the late 16thC:

Taking a roundabout route back to the Metro stop, I decided that lunch was in order and stopped at a lovely little café, Le Sévigné, and had the requisite Croque Monsieur (the French version of a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, but, as with most French food, way better). The café was across from one of the many small parks throughout Paris, where these lovely flowers were enjoying the sun:

And with that lovely image, I am ready to sign off once again. Dinner plans are uncertainly, given that late lunch. Perhaps a gyro over in the Left Bank? À demain….

Round 1 of Research — done!

As you have no doubt guessed, blog posting has taken a back seat to the busy-ness of the days here.  But I’ll try to catch you up.  Round 1 of research is now done. I spent parts of the past two days looking at 16thC manuscripts at the Archives Nationales. On the whole, the results were very satisfactory. Lest you think that my “work” here is nothing but an excuse to get to France, I thought I’d show you a picture of a handwritten page number… Can you tell me what page it is?

A folio number of a 16thC manuscript

I’ll let you off easy…it’s 289. The thing to remember is that the person writing is doing so with a quill pen. His/Her goal is to write as much as possible without picking up the pen from the paper (decreases ink blots). So the first “piece” of the number is: (two ones tied together and then a line up to a “c”) = 200. Next piece is (the four “i”‘s) combined with next piece of (two “x”’s) = “quatre” “vingt” (4 twenty) = 80. Last piece is (ix)=9. Easy, right?

Yesterday (Friday) began relatively early…I got myself to the Archives about an hour before the day before. Even had time to stop on the way to pick up a lovely “potato cake”: big pastry filled with some sort of soft cheese and cooked potatoes flavored with dill. Here it is, half eaten after the day’s research. And another picture of the courtyard of the Archives Nationales, where I did consume one half of said potato cake.

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Friday’s research allowed me to finish up with the 1st of the three manuscripts, King François’ account for 1541. I then was able to get through the 2nd one, which was Queen Éléonor’s account for 1544. Thankfully, this one was only 40 folios long (that’s 80 pages: one front page & one “verso” for each number). I even had a bit of time to start in on the 3rd document, Queen Catherine de Medici’s account for 1556! A successful day. With Archives closed, I decided that because I had missed checking out the Louvre bookstore (due to the amazing fact that the room was ready when I checked in, so I slept instead of going), I would head that way. One can enter the Louvre bookstore without standing in the line for the museum by going through Le Carousel du Louvre, a fancy shopping center, which can be accessed through the Metro. An “inverse pyramid” sits in its lobby. In this photo, the entrance to the Louvre is just out of the picture on the left.

This bookstore has been significantly remodeled from past years. During last year’s visit with my beloved, it was under construction, so the full contingent of books was not available. But construction is now complete. Can’t say that I am overly fond of the result, as the entire bottom floor has now been given over to the sale of glass, ceramic, etc. reproductions. Books have now been relegated to the 1st floor and I think that some weeding had to occur for them to fit into the new space. Very sad. I did not find anything that I had to have except a few of the beautiful glossy art magazines that had articles about Anne de Bretagne (Anne of Brittany, Queen of France from 1498-1515). Could it be that I have all relevant 16thC works?……Naaahhhh!

Went home to rest the feet and then out to one of my favorite places to eat in Paris: Chez Fernand. One of my favorite things there is the salad of haricots verts (small green beans). And one of my favorite meals just happened to be on special that night: filet of beef with sauce au poivre (black pepper sauce) and gratin dauphinois (a casserole of layers of finely sliced potatoes, garlic, nutmeg, and cream). It was incredible!! Finished with sorbet scoops sitting in their own pasty crust “bowl”, which was most convenient for breaking into bits and scooping out the sorbet. I went home very full of food.

Today (Saturday) was another busy day…or maybe the time zone change finally caught up with me. Anyway, by the time I got back to the room at 5:30, I crashed….and I mean literally. I just stretched out across the bed and melted into the mattress. After about 45 minutes of sleep, I rotated 90 degrees so I could be on the pillow and slept another hour. But I felt refreshed when I finally woke up…and hungry. So what filled this day? In the morning, I was still full from dinner. Eating breakfast just didn’t seem worth it. After confirming that the Archives were indeed open until 4:30 on Saturdays, I decided to take care of some organizing, finally getting out by 11am. I decided to try to locate a place that said it sold a history magazine that I couldn’t find in the Louvre and that was another one focused on Anne de Bretagne. Who knew that 2014 is the 500th anniversary of her death? Alas, no luck with that search nor the other one I had undertaken, but I walked through the 7th arrondissement, a wealthly area with lots of lovely window shopping. So I was able to get some gift shopping done.

By the time I had “not found” my last magazine source, I was up to the Siene, across from the far-west end of the Louvre. Needing to rest feet and feed tummy (which finally noticed the lack of breakfast), I headed for the lovely park area between the “wings” of the Louvre. Here’s the Seine as I crossed it, looking east:

And looking west (that big glass building is the Grand Palais):

Lunch was the remaining half of the potato cake. Then it was time to get my butt off to the Archives to finish up the research. Several hours of staring at microfiche and I had pretty much printed out the bulk of Catherine de Medici’s 1556 account book (50+ folios). There were long entries of itemized purchases from her tailor and, I think, some costs for these items. The year 1556 would have been when she was Queen, had produced all of her surviving children, and before the death of her husband Henri II in 1559. So she’s wearing (and buying) more than the unrelieved black we see in images of her after her husband’s death (and she lived almost 30 years after his death). She was pregnant until June of that year with twins, who did not survive long after birth. The manuscript if filled with tiny 16thC handwriting, so it will be awhile before I can transcribe/translate it all. But it promises to be an interesting task, especially when I can compare what I find with the information in the article by Isabelle Paresys – the article that alerted me to this manuscript in the first place. It was actually this article that was the cause of me stumbling across the 1532 inventory that I have already started transcribing/translating and describing in this blog.

So that’s the last day at the Archives (at least for this visit) and I have to say, the time was very productive…and fun, in that nerdy sort of way. I took the Metro home – no ambling, due to tiredness I described at the beginning of this day. Dinner was at a lovely Italian restaurant, where I had bruschetta and smoked salmon followed by lasagna, green tea (tea bag, but still green, not black), and a limoncello (lemony liquor goodness). I waddled back to the room.

That’s all for now. Good night from Paris!

And the research begins….

Today was the day to start research. Given that my body had even-less-than-usual desire to move in the morning (because it thought that it was 2am), I really had to pull on my big-girl panties to follow thru with this plan. But follow thru I did. I mapped a path via Metro & feet to bring me to the Archives Nationales, home (hopefully) of 16th-century manuscripts I want to see. The main “tourist” building is quite grand, very classical. But turns out that what I’m looking for is around the corner and in back, in a fairly bland modern building. So I’m only showing you the fancy one.

Archives Nationales – not 16th-century architecture, but still pretty impressive!

Once inside, my first task was to “s’inscrire”, which meant I got a library card!!!  Yeeeesssss! I then had to stash most of my possessions in a locker, bringing only the research files, computer, camera, and a pencil (and the new library card) into the “stacks”. Then up to the 3rd floor (what we would call the 4th floor, because in France, the 1st floor is one floor up…actually makes more sense to me); this is where the hive of microfiches is. I am hoping that I have correctly translated the “libre access” designation on the microfiches that I want: that they will be “open access” and I didn’t have to reserve them. And indeed, the research gods are kind and that’s the case. There on the reader screen appears page after page of handwritten 16th-century text!

The research gods quickly showed that their benevolence is not an extended thing, as I then had to figure out how to locate the pages I was looking for. I went in with a manuscript # and some folio (page) #s. But the page #s were also handwritten and, of course, in roman numerals. This required a crash course in roman numerals (not, alas, something I have been speaking of late). So now finding what page I was on because a matter of figuring out that: a) what are roman numerals again? (thank you, internet); b) the roman numerals were in lowercase; b) they had to be deciphered from the handwriting for stuff like learning that the roman-numeral “v” looked more like a “b”. On top of that, there were what can only be called “Variations on a theme of Roman Numerals”, the biggest one being that after page “lxxix” came “iiiixx” — now what’s with that? Am I not deciphering the page numbers correctly? sigh….research is never easy. To paraphrase Dr Seuss, I puzzled and puzzled til my puzzler was sore. And then I thought of something I hadn’t before…maybe these numbers, just perhaps, don’t start with a 4. In French, the word for 79 (lxxix) is built pretty much like it is in English. But the word for 80 is complete different. Rather than having an “eighty” word, in French the word is “quatre vingt”, which translates literally to “four twenty”. So here is the use of the term way back in a 16th-century roman-numerals= page #: “iiii” (quatre = four) followed by “xx” (vingt=twenty). Pretty neat, once I spent the couple of hours figuring it out. Having performed that task of my quest, I was allowed to locate my pages….and actually able to print some of that beautiful handwriting out! Squueeeee!

So while the day was not quite as productive as I had hoped, it was still pretty exciting. And tomorrow I will not have to spend the time to figure this stuff out…I’ll get another task, no doubt (no guarantee that the next document uses the same pagination). The library closed at 4:30, so then it was that part of the day that must be “used up” before dinner consumption can commence. Today’s goal was more ambling (to work off sitting for 5 hours). I started with a walk around the Archives building. Around the corner is an older portion of the building that, turns out, in the 16thC was the hôtel (“town house”) of the Guise family (major “players” in court & political life of that time). Now that’s pretty cool!

If you look at the left corner of the previous picture, you can see the top of this tower peaking out.

Last two lines of plaque: Hôtel de Guise de 1553 à 1704. I love finding the 16th century!

Further ambling yielded some perfume (which I had decided I deserved) and a view of the Georges Pompidou center, home of a huge amount of modern art. I have to say that my architectural (and artistic) tastes run along the more ancient lines. I find the building pretty ugly and haven’t yet found enough reason to go inside it. A heathen, I’m sure. But for the modern-art lovers out there…

That’s modern alright. Gotta say that seeing the structure of a building on it’s outside is kinda cool!

The rest of the time was spent sitting in a café across from the Louvre sipping a pot of real loose-leaf green tea (a not-easy-to-find thing in France) and then checking out bookstores for current works on the 16thC (some success here). Followed by a quick “pop around the corner from the hotel I’m staying in” to eat Indian food. God, I love this place! Now it’s getting late once again. And I have promised myself that I need to get my *ss out the door earlier to get more time at the Archives tomorrow. Good night, all.

First Day in Paris

After a full day of travel, I am finally in Paris! Yeah! First photo shows you one of the most lovely sites I know – an Air France plane waiting for me at the gate in JFK.

The most lovely sight – an AirFrance jet with a seat for me on it!

No other travel photos to bore you with. Suffice it to say, when one arrives at the gate in Paris at 1am EST (7:30am Paris time), there was much traveling to complete to get from there to one’s hotel room. But as a great gift from above, the hotel room was available when I got there! No need to wander around Paris, half awake, waiting until check-in time. So a goodly nap was taken to offset the one-plus hours of standing in line at the passport checkpoint!

And there she is…Notre Dame, sitting on the Île de la Cité, that little island in the middle of the Seine.

Woke from the nap refreshed and ready for an evening jaunt, to while away a bit of time before restaurants are ready to feed you dinner (7pm at least). The jaunt started as all journeys to Paris should start, at Notre Dame Cathedral.

The intricacy of the carving is just amazing. Notre Dame was completed in a much shorter time span than most cathedrals, thereby benefiting from more uniform decoration.

As if the external architecture of this building isn’t amazing enough, there was a mass in progress as I went in. So my first wondrous gazes upward in the building were accompanied by a single female voice. And to think that this church has been housing (the French have a better verb here: abrîter – to give shelter to) masses like this one for hundreds of years….It was so beautiful, the contrast of the darkness of the stone depths with the light of the occasional electric lighting, candles, and stained glass. Sigh….

Looking down the spine of the nave, as you walk into the church.

And then there is the stained glass. I must say, the new little camera did a great job of it!

And there’s the magic that supports it all…those incredible flying buttresses. Not only to they provide the needed “push” to keep the open walls up, they are also beautifully decorated.

When I came out of the building, the church bells were ringing to signal the end of mass, just as Mary Stuart would have heard them on April 24, 1558, when she married the French dauphin (heir to the throne) in this very building, over 450 years ago! How cool is that?

I then headed on for the meal, which needed to be light one because the stomach is still very much in the U.S. time zone. Perfect meal? A galette (non-sweet crêpe) with ham, egg, and ratatouille in it accompanied by the all-important pitcher of “cidre brut” (non-sweet cider, from the Normandy region of France). A lovely evening of sitting outdoors on a restaurant terrasse on the Left Bank, watching the daylight disappear, eating good food, drinking good cider, and watching lots of people stroll by. And as dusk begins to get serious, the restaurant turns its lighting on, and doesn’t it just include small heat lamps in the ceiling above. Great evening just got better!

A most excellent ending to the first day. Good night from Paris!  À bientôt!

And I’m off…..(almost)…..

Hello, friends and fellow textile lovers. It has been a goodly while since I have made entries on this blog. But hopefully, that will be changing.

I’m going to deviate from the translation of Queen Éléonore’s inventory and use this blog to describe my upcoming trip to France. The purpose of this trip is to find more information on fabric and clothing in 16th-century France. Here’s the itinerary in a nutshell:

1. I’ll first be visiting Paris, where the primary task will be to check out the Archives Nationales de France (National Archives) for several 16th-century manuscripts that (hopefully, fingers-crossed) will have some useful clothing references. Other Parisian tasks include a 16th-century “walking tour” of Paris, a revisit to the château St-Germain-en-Laye (16th-century royal residence), and the all-important perusal of the Louvre bookstore for French titles on art, costume, and architecture. During this time in Paris, I will be taking a one-day “hop” across the channel to visit “The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Revisited” exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London. 
2. Next I’ll train down to Avignon to see the Palais des Papes (Papal Palace). I’ve never actually made this pilgrimage in previous visits tp France. The only real fabric-related task here is to see if I can get my hands on the catalog for an exhibition that the Musée du Petit Palais put on in 1997 called “Brocarts Célestes”. I’ve seen the book at Bard College and it has some incredibly beautiful images of 14th-, 15th-, and 16th-century textiles. Alas, my cell-phone photos of it did not come out as clear as I would like and attempts to locate a copy of this book for purchase here in the U.S. have been unsuccessful. Perhaps, going to the source will prove successful? Again that “fingers-crossed” thing…..
3. Finally, I will be spending several days exploring the library of the Musée des Tissus (Fabric Museum) in Lyon. This library is open to the public but its holdings, alas, are not accessible on-line (or maybe just I haven’t found out how to access them on-line?). So my quest here is to get an idea of what information is here on textiles and clothing of the 16th-century.

So there we go. Tough job, but someone has to do it…. I leave in 2 days (Tuesday, 9 sept). My goal is to provide frequent (daily?) updates on this blog to record this trip.

So come along and join me through the wonder that is France…..

À bientôt  (see you soon),

    Dawn

Fabrics of the inventory – cloth of gold (pt 5)

Cloth of Gold

Metal thread

So, in a previous post, I presented a classification system to help identify a cloth of gold. This system presents three characteristics about the metal (gold or silver) thread. In addition to helping to identify the structure of the cloth, these three characteristics are important in determining the value of the cloth: they all impact the quantity of metal thread used in the cloth. Let’s look at each of these characteristics and their impact on the value of the cloth:

A) Metal thread could be of two basic types:

filé thread – has a thin sheet of the metal (gold or silver) wrapped around a core fiber of silk or animal membrane (lamella).

drawn wire – is a metal (gold or silver) wire drawn into a very fine wire. It can be made either entirely of the metal or it can be a gilt layer over a less expensive metal. For example: silver wire with a gold layer over it, or bronze wire with either a gold or silver layer over it.

Impact on Value: The filé thread is usually less costly than drawn wire because it contains less of the precious metal.

B) How far across the metal thread goes:

brocade (broché) – (discontinuous pattern weft) the additional metal-thread weft is woven back and forth, just at the point where the gold (or silver) design occurs.

pattern weft (lancé) – (continuous pattern weft) the additional metal-thread weft is woven all the way across, from selvedge to selvedge.

Impact on Value: These two weaves present a toss-up in terms of their impact on value. The brocade is more labor-intensive, which would probably increase the cost of production. However, the continuous pattern weft would be using more metal thread, which would increase the cost of materials (more gold or silver).

C) How smoothly the metal thread is pulled:

flat – (normal weave) the additional metal-thread weft is pulled tightly across the surface of the cloth, giving it a “flat” surface.

looped (frisé) – (pile weave) the additional metal-thread weft is drawn up over a rod to create loops, which gives the cloth its “looped” surface. Think of what modern terry cloth (bath towels) looks like.

Impact on Value: The flat surface is usually less costly than the looped surface because it uses less of the precious metal.

Some images will help to show the beautiful appearance of these characteristics.

Fabrics of the inventory – cloth of gold (pt. 4)

Cloth of Gold

What might “Drap d’Or” look like?

(3) Cloth of gold robbes worn by the daughters of the House of Montmorency, 1544. [Garnier-Pelle2008]

The theme of Lisa Monnas’ book Merchants, Princes and Painters is to show how painters through time have represented expensive cloth, including cloth of gold. Due to her familiarity with the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Ms. Monnas undertakes the fascinating task of associating images of cloth, as represented in art work, with actual extant pieces of cloth. In this book, there are some truly lovely images of both art work and cloth. And if that wasn’t wonderful enough, she includes many “close-ups” of cloth pattern from art works! With these, it is possible to get a real feel for what the cloth might have looked like, especially the works of the 15th and 16th centuries, when the more “realistic” style of painting became the norm.

As discussed in my previous blog entry (Feb 1st), cloth of gold was most often used as a generic term for any cloth having gold in it. However, in her definition for “plain cloth of gold”, Lisa Monnas does provide a more specific definition for the term “plain cloth of gold and cloth of silver” as it was used in 16th-century England:

[plain cloth of gold and cloth of silver were] imported Italian silk fabrics shot through with pattern wefts of drawn wire, silver, or silver-gilt; can be lampas or twill with the pattern weft held in place by the main warps. (Monnas2008, pg. 302)