8 days to go: things to see

Phew, what a day it's been! It was a wonderful family day...but it certainly didn't feel right minus a member. Jesse, we missed you so much. We especially hope you eventually get enough internet bandwidth to see William's recitation video from yesterday. He's so excited for you to view it!

This morning we went back to Chapelle Jeanne-d'Arc. From what I've been able to make out, the neogothic chapel was constructed by/for a female religious order in the late 1800s as part of a school complex for impoverished girls. It was actively used as a place of worship and education for many years, but by the 1970s the religious order was gone, the school was closed, and the buildings were abandoned. The municipality bought the chapel, and in the late 1980s it was formally deconsecrated and given over to cultural uses, especially modern art expositions for the last decade or so. While the story is sad in some ways, it's wonderful that the building has been so beautifully maintained, and it seems clear that the solo exhibitions / installations (just two or three per year) are meant to make the most of the history, art, and location.

The current one—open since June and closing tomorrow—is beyond minimal yet super neat. It is simply entitled Les choses voient, i.e., Things to see.

The beautiful chapel holds a single, white, 3 meter cube. One enters it to see nothing but a tiny, 1 cm hole in the center top. It appears totally black inside initially, but after a few minutes of adjustment one begins to discern a bit of light on the walls. With a few more minutes, one recognizes that the beautiful stained glass windows are projected on the interior walls, upside down and backwards. Even the lamb of God imagery of the vaulted ceiling above the cube can eventually be made out, barely, projected on the ground. A camera obscura. Given that the chapel footprint is the traditional cross shaped floor plan, it feels almost like the chapel has been folded up, boxlike, and contained/replicated inside the cube. So cool. (Last Tuesday it was definitely interesting to be in there with a dozen munchkins!)

The rose window in the chapel is especially magnificent. Josiah's looking at it here through the miniature camera obscura I made on Tuesday. Fun!

We also went down to the catacombs beneath the chapel to see a slide show of photographs

taken around Thouars by the artist who did the upstairs installation.

Before leaving, I asked the boys for one more photo by the front door, because I can't get enough of the amazing sculptural relief above: Jesus blessing the little children. I'm in love with it. Also: You can see that Teddy made the rounds with us most of today. Maybe an added measure of comfort because you're gone? Josiah hasn't really brought Teddy out of his bedroom for a few years. Whatever the reason, I won't complain about our 8-year-old still being soft hearted enough to snuggle his ted!

Having had our fill of art in the morning, we enjoyed the pleasures of home for the afternoon. I made baked, glazed chocolate doughnuts that were a major hit with the boys. Although you totally missed out, you'll be relieved to know that I'm finally hitting my baking stride here. 

Oh hey! I got pansies, finally, to replace the geraniums destroyed in the hail. They brighten the place up considerably.

There also was soccer ball kicking this afternoon, we hid this scary dude (below) for one another to find outdoors, and we played a game of Settlers of Catan.



By 6 p.m. it seemed that the day was winding down nicely. But then, as I was beginning to cook dinner (curried chicken, yum!), our ears perked up. What was that? We heard and responded to the irresistible call of...accordion music! I turned off all of the burners and we scurried around the corner to find men playing music in full old-school Thouars costume, a clown dude on stilts making balloon animals, and games set up. How had we missed this?! It was clear that things were wrapping up by the time we arrived on the scene but we enjoyed for 30 minutes or so.

Upon returning home, I got dinner re-started and was elbow deep in deboning chicken thighs when what do you know? More music started up, brassy and trumpety this time. Off we went again! Unfortunately the brief fanfare was over by the time we got back around the corner. A Saturday evening mass was beginning at St. Medard, and it seems a contingent of horn players was part of it. They had played in the square first and were lined up to enter when we arrived. We watched them process inside before heading home. 

With trepidation I turned on the burners once more and this time was able to complete the job...although dinner was a whole lot later than I'd intended! But certainly no complaints.  :)  What a lot of "les choses voient" for one day!