Désirs & Volupté

We were trundling along through the Paris metro with our luggage when we noticed several beautiful posters advertising an exhibit of Aesthetic Movement artworks from England, at the Jacquemart-Andre Museum.  So we went! This photo is a segment of  Les Roses d'Heliogabale, 1888, by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.  That's one of the joys of Paris - wonderful exhibits like this one, which included almost fifty romantic paintings from the Victorian era, all in one place. Exhibit continues until January 20 2014.

FRENCH CHATEAU GATES

Nothing says France more than blue and gold!  These gates have been witness to many processions over several hundred years, and have served the purpose of displaying power and elegance. 

FRENCH SHOES

These shoes are an amazing work of art.  They were featured in a Lyon shoe shop and cost the earth, but then, they must have taken incredible skill to fashion!

MAISON D'ECLUSIER

Every canal has its own distinctive style of lockkeeper's' houses.  We've learned from the lock keepers (eclusiers) that in the old days, every lockkeeper was assigned one of  these homes as part of the job. Nowadays, very few seem to live in these houses and instead they serve as mustering points for a succession of shift lockkeepers.  We've met many lovely university students who get lockkeeping jobs over the summer. And sometimes, to raise additional revenue, the French authorities rent these houses as lovely holiday homes.  A nice way to spend the summer, out with a book and a glass of wine, watching the barges and boats cruise through the lock in one's front garden.  

NOOIT VOLMAAKT IN THE 50'S

Thanks to the Internet, we were contacted by a Dutch man who had been searching for the barge he grew up on.  And here's an old  photo he sent us of him with his father beside Nooit Volmaakt.  He told us that he and his sister lived on the barge with their parents in Holland, while plying the canals transporting goods.  His whole family slept in the aft cabin, behind some wooden Dutch doors in the large bed below the wheelhouse. Some day we hope to take Nooit Volmaakt up to Holland, where we'll be sure to call him to give him a tour of his former home and a little cruise along the waterways, for old time's sake!