These last few days have surely been a case of pictures speak louder than words. I've seen a few adorable little Belgians cities and endless golden corn fields with poppies and other wildflowers scattered throughout, but those descriptions don't even begin to capture the whole magnificance of the scenery. In any case, here's a short transcription of all the places I've been:
Brugges in Belgium was a tourist magnet with beautiful canals, churches, cute cafes, waffles, Belgian lace, and chocolate everywhere. It was a simple enough day: we ambled around while our eyes (and noses) had a ball. We got stuck at one point in the central square when 4 young harpists who were touring with a musical group stopped to play; I refused to leave and just sat on the steps, listened to my favorite instrument and read Musicophilia. The evening was beautiful, but cold, and after dinner, we hurried back to our train to Lille.
The next day we went to Giverny, which since the beginning had been my one must-see destination. Giverny was amazing for me more for the association and the knowledge that my favorite childhood painter had lived there, painted there, and designed the gardens we walked through than for the place itself. Despite the mob of tourists (recurring theme), the area retained the spirit of Monet and the Impressionists. We crowded through Monet's old house and his beautiful lilly garden and then explored the galleries of wannabe Monets extending throughout the village and the few original and interesting galleries as well.
In the evening, mom left me to paint some of the corn fields and landscapes by the side of the road while she explored the riverside. Nothing came of my painting, for I was too distracted by images of Van Gogh's, Cezanne's and Pisarro's paintings of the same image to paint something that was my own and not a horrible caricature of theirs, not too mention the distracting random guy who stopped and watched me paint. It was a great time in any case, and in the evening, we went to nearby Roche-Guyon where we stumbled upon a beautiful chateau in the cliffs and then a restaurant called "Curiosites et Gourmandises." Curiosites and Gourmandises, despite its random location, ended up being the most fabulous food experience I had had in all of France. It was run by a group of young chefs (the oldest was 24) who had lots of time and energy on their hands and had fun exploring new and interesting food combinations. What resulted was the most beautifully presented, different, and delicious food I'd ever had and I was very sorry when I had finished it.
The next day (and yes, I had that many days off), it was rainy so we went to see the Matisse Museum which had been recommended to me by a woman I work with. The museum was in Matisse's dingy hometown, Cateau Cambresis. The museum, however, was beautifully set up and had a diverse collection of Matisse's works from throughout his lifetime as well as works by Chagall, Picasso, Derain, and Hebrin (a little known French painter with really cool modern works). The rest of the city, with the exclusion of a small, rundown chateau we found by the side of the road, was closed and dead so we went back to Lille.
For the 14 of Juillet, or Bastille day, Mamchik and I actually left France and visited Ghent (or Gand or Gent). Ghent was a weird city in a way because for being so small and insignificant, it had so many grandiose buildings. It turned out that up until the 15th century Ghent was one of the most important cities in Europe and was second only to Paris in size; the three big towers in the center that define the skyline as well as the beautiful city squares are all remnants from that time. Ghent is usually grouped together with Brugges as one of the two beautiful little canal-filled cities in northern Belgium, but in reality Ghent has a very different feel to it. It's significantly less catered to tourists and with its three big towers and castle in the center of the city, it has a much more monumental atmosphere. We started off by exploring one of the cathedrals, which due to poor architecture, was apparently always on the verge of falling down. After walking through the big squares of the city in the direction of the castle, we got sidetracked and stopped in a really cool design museum for a little over an hour. After lunch, we finally did make it to the medieval castle (which looked exactly like a Disney version of an enchanted castle) where we explored the knight's halls, the towers, the ramparts, and the many prisons and torture rooms, one of which was actually built to be a chapel. We finished off Ghent by having some coffee with chocolate by the canal and then walking to the park where there were some musicians and jugglers practicing for the upcoming festival.On a side note. . . I guess I have this strange tendency to assign potential uses to objects that I see and apparently this confused my mother; I would say that a sculpture of a pair of lovers that I really liked would be a perfect wedding present and my mom thought that I wanted to get married ASAP. I saw cute children's clothes or toys and said I would get those for future children, so I guess I spend my time waiting to have children. I guess while at the design museum, I was also placing things all over my imaginary house. Mamchik took me completely seriously up until I saw a homeless man with a dog, and said that "When I'm homeless, I'll have a dog." She looked at me surprised and asked if I planned on becoming homeless. Oh mamchik.
Sorry for the delays with the blogs! No excuses...I've just gotten lazy.
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