A Paris sky. The Eiffel tower as seen from the Trocadéro, across the Seine. Summer 2022
A gentleman from Punjab maybe? A restaurant somewhere in Marylebone, London. Chicken Tikka Masala was excellent.
Brussels, at the Mont des arts. A monument to rectitude? No. The statues are called “Musique et chant”, Music and song. By Oscar Jespers. 1960. (Wonders of Google search. Merci Gilles.)
Urchins are the new black. Montmartre.
“Je ne vois pas la … cachée dans la forêt”. I don’t see the … hidden in the forest. Magritte museum, Brussels. This is part of the Surrealist Manifesto, published in 1924. All founding members are photographed with their eyes closed. No caption in the museum though. Now, looking closer I could identify: top row, 3rd from left, André Breton, founder of the movement. Left column, 2nd from the top, a young and slender Salvador Dalí. Right column, 2nd from top: Paul Eluard, the author of “Liberté j´écris ton nom.” (Liberty I write your name), and last but not least, right column, 2nd from bottom, René Magritte, Belgian artist.
The closed eyes pictures was (were?) a brilliant idea. I could not identify the others. I hope the museum will do something.
“Wheatfield with cypresses”. Vincent Van Gogh, 1889. National Gallery, London. Few have mastered the art of light as he did.
“Il dépend de celui qui passe que je sois tombe ou trésor, que je parle ou me taise. Ceci ne tient qu’à toi, ami. N’entre pas sans désir.” It depends on who passes by whether I am tomb or treasure, that I speak or remain silent. Friend do not enter without desire.
Same statue as the first shot, another angle, with a view on the Palais du Trocadéro. A monument of Art Déco. The inscription was meant for the then “Musée de l’homme”. Alas its fantastic collections were pilfered by the Quai Branly museum. The inscription remains. (Paris, 2022)
Art déco, Brussels. Going up on the Mont des Arts. The statues of Music and song are to the right.
Transportation museum, London. in 1914, as WWI started and all men were called to war, many of their jobs were taken by women. “Shocking idea” for the time, right? Women occupied many positions in the London underground. Successfully, I might add. Then, after the war, end of 1918, beginning of 1919, men came back. And women were sacked. I believe it is the appropriate word. Sacked. This picture was taken in1919, where one woman after the other got her “good bye” letter from a bespectacled gentleman. Bang, bang, thank you ma’am? (Pardon my French). Do read the letter below addressed to a Miss Shrubsole:
“…your services will not be required…” From July 18th to 27th, it was a week’s notice, wasn’t it?
The joker. South of Paris. A “city” of street art under urban highway bridges surrounded by construction sites. Great art, but the environment was a bit spooky… (More on a later post.)
“L‘intelligence”. Verstandhouding in Flemish. Interesting, ‘verstand’ means ‘to understand’, if I’m not mistaken. So ‘intelligence’ would mean ‘to understand’? Can we have a bit more of both, please? René Magritte, one of my many favourite painters, was the Belgian “member” of the Surrealist movement. Great artist. Make sure to visit the Magritte museum when you go to Brussels. (Painting date: 1946. Right after the war.)
“Embroidering the earth’s mantle”. Remedios Varo, 1961. Tate modern gallery, London. Varo was a Mexican artist. She and Leonora Carrington were distinguished members of the Surrealist movement. This painting was part of a tryptic. Already showed one… (One more to go…)
Jacques Brel (1929-1978). No trip to Brussels would be complete without paying homage to Brel. “Le plat pays qui est le mien.” The flat land that is mine…
Jeanne d’Arc. Petit Palais. Paris. By Emmanuel Frémier, 1875. A rather unique interpretation of Joan of Arc. On her knees, praying.
Laure Diebold. As I mentioned before, many mailboxes in Paris are decorated with portraits of great figures of French history. Laure Diebold was a member of the French Résistance. She was Jean Moulin’s secretary until his arrest and execution. She was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. She was not even thirty years old. She was on the verge of dying of typhus when the camp was liberated by the American troops in 1945.
July 1946, Laure Diebold is decorated of the Order of the Liberation by General Legentilhomme. One of only six women to become members of the order. Hubert Germain, the last companion of Liberation recently died. He is buried at the Mont-Valérien. The Order is now extinct. Ms Tina Turner, I beg to differ: we do need other heroes…
“Whaam!”. Roy Lichtenstein. 1963. Tate modern. London. That was 60 years ago. I guess we’re back there now, aren’t we? (I tried to see if I could smuggle it out of the museum. No dice. Too large…)
“Bus stop! Bus stop!… please share my umbrella…” Paris, 2022.
Thank y’all for riding Equinoxio’s Underground. Some of you may know I’m a total failure at Dickens. Never got past the first few pages of “Little Dorrit”. Makes a big hole in my résumé. I might try “A tale of two cities” (London and Paris. I took the liberty of adding Brussels.) I do have great expectations about discovering Dickens… 😉
Until then, allow me to take you to another Bus stop:
Equinoxio 
Another wonderfully eclectic Grand Tour – thank you! 🙂 As an aside, I think the guy in the middle of bottom row of Surrealists is that other son of Breton soil, Yves Tanguy?
Thank you my friend. Yves Tanguy? I’m not so familiar with him. vaguely. Let me see…
Yes! Yes! Absolutely. I’m not too familiar with his work, but I’ve seen him around. Merci.
You are very welcome! I nearly included him in a recent post, so, it was pure good luck that I could recognise him! 😉
One builds from post to post. An American friend has just found the complete list. I need to have a closer look. I don’t know all of them.
PS. Here’s the list she compiled or found. Maxime Alexandre, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Luis Buñuel, Jean Caupenne, Salvador Dalí, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Marcel Fourrier, Camille Goemans, René Magritte, Paul Nougé, Georges Sadoul, Yves Tanguy, André Thirion, Albert Valentin.
I do recognize Aragon now, Buñuel was very young, difficult to recognise, Max Ernst of course is clearly there. And Tanguy.
What great detective work! Yes, I can now see Max Ernst but the others would have had me stumped til doomsday!
Aragon was very important in France but he was before your time I think. I remember him well. “Les yeux d’Elsa”. Don’t remember when he died. 70’s maybe? No, 1982. Just checked. I had a feeling he was alive when Mitterrand came into power…
Mitterand seems so long ago now! 😉
It does. 40 + years ago. he managed to screw up the entire French economy in 18 months… Until he turned around.
And you spotted Tanguy!
Such an outstanding post!
I loved all the images and your descriptions 💙
Grazie mille Luisa… Tutto bene con te? 💕
Bene, grazie!
Sending you a big hug 🤗
Lo stesso… 🤗
So many cool pieces of art! Wow!
I was lucky. Glad you liked it. 🙏🏻
Avec plaisir, Brieuc des Équinoxes !
Après une petite recherche, j’ai trouvé que le sculpteur de la femme du Trocadéro est Daniel Bacqué, Finalement, Maillol n’était pas si mal !
Merci pour le voyage et un bel après-midi à toi.
Merci pour la recherche. J’avais vu son nomw quelque part mais je ne m’en souvenais plus. Effectivement, je n’aimais pas bcp Maillol étant jeune, mais avec le temps… (Comme dirait léo Ferré…)
A+ cher ami
PS. Image search est génial. Déjà que je ne prends quasiment jamais de notes en voyage. Juste une plaque quand il y en a, maintenant plus besoin… Merci du tuyau.
Dag Brian. Another ecletic trip in European main cities. The cool thing about these posts is, apart from the interesting back stories, that the onlooker never can predict what is going to pop up in the next picture. My attention kept hanging for a bit at the Margritte painting and it’s title. I don’t really get why Les Flamands translated l’intelligence into ‘verstandhouding’, for as far as I know it means something different. Verstandhouding is linked with the verb ‘verstaan’ wich, in Flemish more then in Netherlands Dutch, does have the element of understanding in it, in technical terms: hearing, using ones ears, knowing what the other says, and in the intellectual way: being able to comprehend what is said. But it also describes a sense of relationship, bond, connection. So one can have a good ‘verstandhouding’ with someone, one knows the other well, understands his or her feelings and situation. Magrittes painting could very well depict the third meaning of ‘verstaan’ or ‘verstandhouding. But then I still don’t grasp the relation between that and the title l’intelligence. But hey, we are talking surrealism here! What’s in a word? Gotta think outside the box. 🙂 Tot ziens Brian.
Dag Peter. I’m glad you caught my intention. Precisely to keep the reader/onlooker on his/her toes… 😉
I agree with you. That’s why I made the comment (with my limited Dutch). The captions are in French, Dutch/Flemish/English. Magritte was certainly a French speaker, I don’t know whether he spoke Flemish. Maybe not. So the captions are written by the curators. Now “Intelligence” in French may also be “intelligence with the ennemy”. (Which would be treason. It is possible that the title was meant this way, which would be your third meaning.
And yes, Let’s think outside the box. (All Magritte’s titles were way outside the box.)
Tot ziens
Love the dramatic effect of Eiffel
Tower.
Thank you. It’s a shot I’d never taken. Often one goes up towards the Trocadéro, not looking back to the Eiffel tower. I just turned around casually, the weather was cloudy, and I saw the shot. 🙏🏻
As if getting summarily fired weren’t bad enough, these women then had to pose for a publicity photo? What an indignity.
Another wonderful worldly post to enjoy. 🙂
Thank you Gigi. it was nice to put together. Glad you liked it… 🙏🏻
So glad you took the time to do it. Keep them coming. I look forward to seeing the world through your eyes.
With pleasure Gigi. I am fortunate to have travelled a bit… So it’s nice to share. Your arm on the final mend?
Beautiful tour Brian and lovely finish. Brussels is one of my favorite places though I never visited the Museum. I was big on the café’s though. The best coffees and chocolates. I have an anecdote on my stay there I will have to share with you sometime!
Very good coffee and chocolate indeed…
do share. My curiosity is piqued… 😉
Stop me if I’ve told you! Just as we pulled into Brussels our car overheated ( a sweet little Opal with notorious bad luck, eventually was stolen and discovered in a bar parking lot in Trier, a few weeks after getting it back someone fell fell asleep at the wheel, slammed into the rear and totaled it. Sadly the other driver died). So we stayed in a hotel deserted but for the 4 of us and the desk clerk who served us soup he made himself. We were stuck there 8 days waiting for the car to be fixed while we ladies toured the city on foot drinking delicious coffee with chocolate while the guys helped fix the car. Luckily the AF approved the stay so no one was AWOL. At night we visited the Grand Place and went to movies with subtitles. It was delightful. 😉
Why stop you? 😉 I love tour stories. You may have told some of it before.
Visiting the Grand-Place and watching movies with subtitles sound like a nice adventure… What’s a week? 👍🏻
It’s one if my favorite adventures … in that creepy hotel. Lolol!
I can relate to that. I have been in a couple of creepy hotels too…
They are easy to find over there. 😊
Anywhere. Tell me of a hotel in Minas gerais, where we slept all clothed with a chair blocking the door handle…
Geniales imágenes. Impresionantemente bellas
Gracias.
Muchas gracias por visitar y comentar. Me alegro que te haya gustado… SAludos.
Very interesting post Brieuc. The surrealist poster intrigued me and I found the names of the men: Maxime Alexandre, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Luis Buñuel, Jean Caupenne, Salvador Dalí, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Marcel Fourrier, Camille Goemans, René Magritte, Paul Nougé, Georges Sadoul, Yves Tanguy, André Thirion, Albert Valentin.
That dismissal letter is indeed humiliating. I recently read that after WWI, the Brits felt compelled to grant women the right to vote after all they’d done. One third of the men between the age of 28 and 32 had been killed however so they made 30 the legal age for women to vote. There were other restrictions as well. Wouldn’t want to have them taking over the place.
I didn’t know about Laure Diebold. Quite remarkable. Thanks.
This was a very nice search you did Carol. Thank you. Buñuel, Ernst and Tanguy were other masters at their crafts. I’ll look the others up. Don’t know all of them…
And yes, that attitude in the UK was… Unforgivable. One detail. in 1919, on that picture all the women wear long hair and dresses. My grandmother cut both around 1917-1918. As many did. I imagine the “underground” company would not have any of that “nonsense”…
About Diebold, neither did I. I know about Jean Moulin, but not about her. It is a good thing to have those mailboxes painted. Keeps the memory of unknown heroes.
Au revoir.
My grandmother also cut her hair in a bob around that time, maybe a bit later since she was born in 1905—the baby of my 4 grandparents.
The other name I recognized was the poet Louis Aragon. He was married to Elsa Triolet, the first woman to win the Prix Goncourt and who wrote Le premier accroc coûte 200 francs.
1905… She’d have been 15 in 1920… Rebellion age… 😉
Yes, Aragon. he wrote “Les yeux d’Elsa…” (I haven’t read her work.)
I highly recommend Le premier accroc…. There are four independent stories. I think I’ve read three of the four. All excellent. Fiction but fiction that is written by an eyewitness to the time period and the action of which she writes.
Thanks for the tip. I’d heard of the book before but never read it. I will look for it on my next visit to the “bouquinistes” sur la Seine… 📚
Encore un bel article !
Merci de nous le partager.
Bonne journée Brieuc
Biz
Merci à toi Mélie. Bonne nuit. Biz
I must admit to being a fan of Dickens. I have just signed up to a readathon of his short stories. I will be reading six of them. This is a very interesting post. I learned a few new things. I am trying to create Van Gogh’s Field of Sunflowers as a cake for my husbands birthday in May. The flowers take a long time to make hence the lead time.
A dickens readathon… Wow. I’ll start with one at a time… 😉
A Van Gogh cake? I am impressed. Flowers are made of sugar right? There is a blogger, lives in SA, he and his wife make cakes… He lives near Jo’burg I understand.
The readathon is for Dickens’ short stories. I think I have six or seven to read by June. The flowers are made of sugar dough/fondant. I don’t know that blogger. What is the name of the blog, I’d like to look it up.
Link to Ark’s blog:
https://attaleuntold.wordpress.com/2023/02/10/51577/
Thank you, I found the spider post with the cakes. I see their studio is close to where I live. I have visited and said hello. It’s nice to know about Emily because people are always asking me to make them cakes but I don’t bake for orders, only for my family.
I can’t believe you went? I am delighted! (But I understand I will a beating from “Ark”… LOL.
Haha, I am full of surprises.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I still can’t believe you made contact. He is a great guy. And I’m sure Emily is. I wish I could easily “cross” the street and knock on both your doors… (He just scolded me for forgetting his name. LOL…) (And well deserved…)
It is funny that he scolded you. I am always delighted to find new and interesting bloggers, and a South African blogger who lives just across down is a real treat.
He was joking of course. (Now I have his name written in stone… LOL)
And yes, it is quite a coincidence. You could have lived in Cape Town…
Tot ziens Robbie
It is a nice goal of six or seven… 👍🏻
If I recall the post with a spider has some photos of cakes… So you can have a look. He posts a lot about the “wildlife” in his garden. From birds to spiders… He’s a nice guy. (I just never can remember whether his name is Duncan or Douglas… I’m now ashamed to ask… LOL)
I’ll see if I can find it. I know how you feel about forgetting the bloggers name. That has happened to me too and I’ve used the wrong name.
Douglas
For shame… After all these years!!! smh tsk tsk.
😎
May the Defence approach the bench your Honour? My client would like to plead possible early senile dementia. He, my client claims he had almost total recall. Not quite as Dr Reid in Criminal minds but close. But, again, according to my client, he is forgetting or confusing names… Douglas and Duncan sound very much alike and are stored, according to my client in close areas of his memory. He also adds that he had a Boss called Douglas a long time with whom he didn’t get along. Which may have added insult to injury, er, I mean, added to the confusion. My client is on knees right now begging for the clemency of the Court. Thank you, your Honour.
(S) Bruno Martinez, attorney-at-law…
PS: I know, i Know, but I am really having increasing trouble with remembering names. Solution. I have downloaded one of your photos, with your boxer on your lap. And labelled it. Douglas. Not Duncan. Nor Ark…
(Please have mercy!)
PS2. Robbie tells me she visited? Amazing.
The Van Gogh is nice and I love the letter for the women being sacked. So interesting and not long ago at all.
Barely a century ago. A lot has happened since. Still a lot needs to be done, but overall I think there has been progress.
And yes, the Van Gogh is very nice.
An intriguing tour of Paris with some unusual points and photos.
I believe that curry is the No.1 dish in the UK now, but guess it makes a change from meat and 3 veg.
Love the selection of photos in this post, as always.
One tries for the unusual, doesn’t one?😉
Yes, I think curry is the main english dish now. (Better than oxtail soup…) (Which can you believe I was seerved in Kenya, in the middle of the bush at a camp in Mara National park?)😳
Of course! 😉
Wow, now that’s another story Brian!
Nice! Love the Van Gogh. One of two of my all time favourite artists.
The ‘dismissal’ photo is timely as this afternoon I read that a fighter plane fly-over at a game in the States would feature all female pilots.
Only took just over a hundred years.
And a couple thousand before that… 😉 We were lucky to witness this…
Van Gogh now? I think you mentioned him before. Who’s the other one?
Salvatore Dali.
I absolutely adore his work.
A mad genius if ever there was one.
Yes! Yes! You mentioned him before. (But as we will “later” comment, my memory is… what was the word?)
Another fantastic journey. A cup of coffee, your images and words, and the leisure stroll – perfect! That dismissal letter was a dainty slap in the face. I suppose that gentleman was some Mughal official or maybe emperor. Keep these posts coming, Brian. I’ll keep the coffee ready. 🙂
Thank you Terveen. Keep the coffee warm… 😉
You are right, the dress and style, I suspect Mughal. (With some Persian influence in the art of course…)
A bientôt.
Artistic Collection of pictures, thanks for sharing . I’ll keep them in mind while i get chance to visit respective cities 🙂
Thank you. Hope it helps when you get there. 🙏🏻
My apologies for my tardiness in getting to this wonderful post! I have to say I just love the way you mix and match things. It keeps us on our toes and very interested. Merveilleux voyage que tu nous offres à chaque fois 🙂
Pas de souci. Le post est là pour longtemps. Je suis ravi que l’idée marche. Justement je cherche à maintenir l’attention. “En éveil.”
Super!
Tu n’as pas a t’inquièter… Tu réussis très bien.
Oui, super!
🤗
(Le froid est pas trop fort? Ici ça a bien remonté ces deux derniers jours. Donc, ça doit aller mieux chez toi?)
Pas du tout. Même que nous avons eu des vents à écorné les boeufs 😉 et des températures frôlant le 10 degrés C… Pas mal est fondu (mais je ne m’excite pas, on est juste le 16 février)…
Vieille expression de mes parents ça, des vents à écorner les boeufs. Génial.
Mais oui, à chaque jour suffit sa peine, on n’est qu’à la mi-Février. Bon ouiquande “Camille”… 😉
Oui, ma famille aussi. 😉
Bon ouiquande! LOL
🤗
Walking with you through this post of these three cities is a great way to enjoy the morning with a hot cup of coffee and artistic thoughts 🙂 In the two photos of the statue (the opening shot and the last shot from a different perspective), I enjoyed thinking about: “tomb or treasure, that I speak or remain silent. Friend do not enter without desire.” And then the finale was a brilliant idea: the closed-eyes picture. The beauty of viewing art is it provides a point of creativity for us, the viewer, as well. At some point in time, I am sure I will be taking a photo and thinking back to the ‘closed eyes’ idea and I’ll go off on a tangent of it because of its impact 🙂
Thank you Dalo. Glad you enjoyed the walk. Those words above the Trocadéro are magic. So was the closed eyes photo. A stroke of genius. Art (Beauty) eventually defeats evil. (Let’s just make it quick, shall we?) 😉
Be good.