Art and Wine in Provence

If you are in the Luberon Valley in Provence and tire of the myriad hill towns and lavender fields (I know, it's hard to get tired of that, but just try and use your imagination), there is an exciting new and relatively unknown art project going on in the region of Aix-en-Provence at a property called Chateau La Coste.

It is, first and foremost, a 250 acre winery tucked in between forests of oaks, fields of almonds and wildflowers. But in 2004, an idea was born to create a place where art, architecture and landscape came together. Artists and architects from all over the world were invited to visit Chateau La Coste and  then encouraged to choose a place that "spoke directly to them" where they could create something that would live there.

The list of names who finally participated is impressive: Tadao Ando built the Arts Centre and welcoming point for visitors. Jean Nouvel designed the wine making cellar and Gehry and Partners built the music pavilion. Artists whose sculptures are dotted around the landscape include Richard Serra, Alexander Calder, Paul Matisse and a surprise entry from Michael Stipe of REM fame!

It is a wonderful project and definitely worth scoping out. The best thing is it really jolts your point of reference because for most of us, Provence is all about ancient hill towns, fields of lavender and poppies, and men in berets playing boules under huge plane trees. But suddenly, this image is disrupted with a more contemporary version of Provence today.

There is a mapped walk you can do to see each piece in its environment. And at the end of a couple of hours of wandering, you return to Ando's streamlined building to eat a heavenly lunch overlooking the vineyards.

To set the scene

Rolling hills of vines, olives and oaks

The clean lines of Tadao Ando's Welcome building

Louise Bourgeois

Alexander Calder

More Tadao Ando

Richard Serra

Liam Gillick

Tom Shannon

Chapel: Tadao Ando, Croix: Jean-Michel Othoniel

View from inside the chapel

Michael Stipe

Traveling

In Provence for a few days to eat, explore and relax. Staying at this heavenly place above! More pics upon my return.

image: pavillon galon

French Invasion

Good Golly Miss Molly. I'm back in New York to find that the Frogs have followed me! According to the NY Times and Vanity Fair, Parisian nightlife is not enough for the fickle French youth. So they have crossed the pond to infiltrate our nightlife scene!

Now I'm no longer a night owl, preferring a book in bed to dancing on the bar. So I have to rely on the anesthetist's hip 20-something friends (don't ask how that works given he is old enough to be their father) to fill me in on what's hot. According to one very lovely and very talented young Austrian photographer, New York's nightlife is one of the most boring in the world and Paris is the best! Mickey Boardman, editorial director of the offbeat Paper Magazine seems inclined to agree. "Night-life in New York is so sanitized these days. We long for French things." Who would have thought? So perhaps that is why the Frogs are here. To show us how it's done?

Whatever the reason, the uber cool and French-inclined are somehow getting past the notoriously difficult velvet rope scenario to be as dirty and French as you like in super exclusive Parisian-style hot spots around town. There's Le Bain on the roof of the Standard Hotel in Meatpacking, which has to - ironically - have one of the best views of Manhattan. They run an aptly named Sunday party called 'Nouveau York.' And nightclub impresario Andre Saraiva, has just opened the NY outpost of his incredibly elite and successful Le Baron franchise. Saraiva chose the grungy area of Chinatown for his location because of its mix of bohemians and immigrants. And that really sums up the crowds at these places. If you're not an artist, muso or rebel, you better make damn sure you look and sound like Jane Birkin or are  hanging off the arm of a Serge Gainsbourg lookalike. Because a business suit and formidable bank account just won't cut it here. It's all about the smokey eye, the casually held gitane and a large dose of french insouciance. In the words of Monsieur Saraiva, "Let's smoke cigarettes and get naked."

image: vanity fair, last fm

Scenes from Brittany: Interior

When you move away from the coast of South Brittany, you find stones everywhere. Stone buildings, stone villages, stone walls and stone configurations. The town of Carnac is famous for its 6000 year old stone alignments. And after all this time, still no-one really knows why they are there or what they represent. There have been theories ranging from the stones really being Roman legionaries, to magical stones to Celtic temples and some form of weather or time predictor. But what is known is they were placed here during the Neolithic era, between the fifth and third millenia, B.C.  There are thousands of them, forming soldierly lines throughout the landscape. Some of the stones are as high as 6 metres. And most of them seem to be sculpted into tall oval shapes. Today, the sheep and cattle graze in between them, as scientists still work on their theories.

The landscape around Carnac is lovely and rural, with wonderful old villages suddenly popping up, or an old abbey or little place of worship in the middle of nowhere. It's definitely worth hiring a car to drive around.

Scenes from Brittany: Coastline

Before I return to all things New York, I wanted to share some photos from my 2 day sojourn in South Brittany.
I stayed at this charming hotel found on Mr and Mrs Smith and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to explore this part of Bretagne. This area is of course known for its beautiful beaches and wild coastline, picturesque ports and oyster farms. But it is also historically very important because of the thousands of mysterious stones that were lined up perpendicular to the sea. I will show you those in a later post. For now, enjoy the coastline and the architecture.