Dog days of summer

Hot summer days and nights make me incredibly lazy. The garden has gone untidy and tired and the same seems to have happened to me. Even if there is plenty of action in town, I myself have slowed way down.

In the village the yearly Medieval festival was celebrated at the turning of the calendar. We woke up on Saturday morning to our sleepy village filled with huge crowds of celebrants dressed in costume.

Of course our site is well-suited to reenactments from the days of knights and ladies.

Emily and her family stayed with us during the festival. It was the first time Quinn had been here for it and he found it all very fascinating. I suppose it was like a story book come to life for him. He called me to the window one day and pointed across to the castle where the young student who gives guided tours in the afternoon was sitting on a folding chair waiting for clients. "Look! There's the princess," he said with great enthusiasm.

I love the beautiful Percheron horses who gave cart rides through town. They're massively large and strong. They seem so noble to me.

Quinn took a pony ride which was a bit tame for him, as he has become quite a competent horseback rider. Still, any chance to get on a horse is a pleasure for him.

This month we're been able to welcome friends and family who are staying with us for extended visits. James and Adric, who are on their way back to California for the foreseeable future, have stopped off for a long French visit before their departure. It is such a pleasure to have them around.

Philippine, the youngest daughter of the neighbors at our old moulin came along for a few days to brush up on her English language skills. And our friend David, from California, has just sold his house in France and stopped off to visit for a week or so before heading back home. Meanwhile, we shuffle rooms around a little to accommodate clients as well, making for a very lively atmosphere.

One recent day we took a lunch and our kayaks and went into our nearest big town, La Ferté-Bernard, where they have a very nice picnic area.

We chose a spot between the river and lake, near the boat launch.

We took turns in the boats, read, snoozed, ate and worked the crossword puzzle.

The weather was just right, the park was sparsely populated and we had no obligations whatsoever.

It made for an exquisitely relaxing and enjoyable afternoon.

Week 11: Workshop, Festival and a Glowing Landscape

Hollyhocks in the summer garden

This very busy week began with Atelier Conti donating an etching course to Montmirail's Medieval Celebration. This year, on week days before the actual weekend festival, there were five workshops offered, a different craft activity each day. We took Monday. Samuel asked me several months ago if I would be willing to do it and I can hardly ever say "no" when Samuel asks. He devotes so much of his time to Montmirail, where, incidentally, he no longer even lives. His efforts (with a very small band of helpers) have elevated the festival into a major summer event in the area and I believe that ticket sales for this one weekend must finance most of the rest of the year's activities in the village. He is tireless in his commitment, besides being a charming, soft-spoken guy, and so when he asks for something from me, I try to accommodate him - even if my inclination is to resist, as it often is. So he stretches me.

I told Samuel that we could allow eight people maximum in a course here, as we have no more stools than that, and eight is already slightly unwieldy. I left him and his staff to disseminate publicity to attract participants and the tourist office to collect the registrations. I didn't know until just a few days before the class, that it was fully booked. Since I would have to give the course in French I must prepare the lesson very carefully and be quite organized in the way things would go. I don't think in French, so it means I have to do all the thinking in advance and translate it! When the time came for people to arrive, I felt pretty solid about how I would handle it, as it was all down in my mind in a most methodical way. I had chosen a project (we would make a family coat-of -arms, un blason) and I would take the participants through all that was required step-by-step. We would work together and follow each activity simultaneously. Normally I allow workshop participants to pace themselves, but in this case we only had two hours and no one in the course knew the first thing about etching.

Unfortunately Murphy's Law took over from the get-go. Apparently there was contradictory information published. One place announced a start time of 3pm (which was what I was planning for) and another for 4pm. Only half my confirmed students arrived on time. My program was timed down to the minute, so immediately I was in improvisational mode and the students were all décalé (out of sync...sometimes the French language just expresses it best). Some embraced the project as presented, some just improvised.

Several people who had not signed up arrived and told me there was no announcement that registration was required, and would not accept my explanation that all the spaces were taken. One woman simply sat down, uninvited, in a late student's empty seat and began working. Another, with her 2 year old child in tow, always a bit underfoot, just stayed and watched until I relented and handed her a plate to work on. 

Just as I had things settled down and rolling forward,  about eight children, and their parents poured into the studio. They insisted that they had read there was to be a children's class of some sort. They didn't even know what the purported course was supposed to be about. Where had they gotten this idea? I put this question to Samuel, who had shown up to take photos along with a journalist and the village historian. He had no idea. Perhaps we need a village proofreader? Some neighbors, seeing our doors standing open, chose this moment to arrive and engage Rick in a long discussion about art and printmaking, in effect getting their own mini course in the other room while I was trying to direct my assigned students in the tasks I had planned out for them. 

In the end etching won the day and everyone, with the exception of the woman who had not signed up in the first place, created beautiful images and were very happy with the process and their results. It didn't exactly go like clockwork, but it did go. I simply surrendered to the chaos and was amazed and relieved that it turned out so well. In the end I think we created a couple of etching converts.

students discovering dry point--look how concentrated they appear

students inking and printing their plates as Samuel, in red, looks on

some results

***

We had a lovely couple from Australia staying with us during the beginning of the week. Lindsay and Peter have been traveling around Europe. Peter is a watercolor student of a woman artist I've met over the internet and she wrote me that she was sending Peter to have a look around for her. It is particularly nice for us when our clients spend a few nights here. It gives us the opportunity to get to know them a little bit. They become friends.

Australians have a world reputation for being easy-going, friendly and active. Lindsay and Peter certainly lived up to their national character. We had a great time with them. They took Rick's tour of the Perche and sat in on my etching course which they characterized as a bit like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. (Of course this was from my own point of view, which they related to as they watched. I don't think the participants experienced the class as at all crazy. They were very focused on their tasks.) Lindsay and Peter had been to London, and the South of France and were on their way to Paris, so they appreciated a little country break. They enjoyed a rambling walk in the woods. It is winter where they come from. We "met" the rest of their family over meal-time conversations.

Peter and Lindsay from Brisbane

***

I had a little bit of time in the studio for myself and continued experimenting with my new color etching technique. I'm not quite there, but I made some progress.

Village Scene

 Lunch at Marc's

***

Rick reminded me that I forgot to tell a good story from last week. Even though we haven't seen Quinn all of this week, I have to go back and relate a little moment from one of the last times we did see him.  He turned a year and a half at the end of July and is beginning to communicate in a wonderful way (in three languages!). When we took him into a church recently he saw a crucifix. Jesus was portrayed with eyes closed, arms outstretched and head slumped over onto one shoulder. Quinn contemplated the image for a few minutes and said "dodo" (nighnigh).

***

Dawn on festival day

Montmirail is a very quiet little village, which people who live here like just that way. Thus it is that we have to collectively grit our teeth just a little when once a year 3000 people flood the tiny streets and turn our sleepy town into a 48 hour reenactment of the Middle Ages, albeit with amplified music, something the Middle Ages did quite well without.

Saturday morning dawned idyllic, promising weather neither too sweltering, like the first year we were here, nor rainy like the succeeding two. At the Maison, we were full with exhibitors, a journalist and another couple who had come all the way from Australia to attend! Apparently they are Medieval buffs who celebrate their own festival at home and like to see how others do it. Australia was well represented this week at Maison Conti.

It's difficult to recreate the Middle Ages in our time and place, even when our place is a village scarcely changed since. I don't think we can really imagine how differently people during that epoch of history experienced reality. They lived in a world without electric light, without clocks, or easy communication. A  typical medieval peasant had little experience beyond his own village for his entire rather short life. The bells of the church defined his daily routine and his seasons were governed by nature. Church doctrine, interpreted for him by a priest, defined his views of life and death. Of course he neither read nor wrote and couldn't have gotten information in written form anyway. There was little scope for individual thought. It was commerce, the ability to make and sell things, that released him from slave-like feudal commitment to an overlord. That was one of the most significant corners western culture ever turned. I suppose it's appropriate then that the fete gives so much space to vendors.

Most of the commerce represented authentic Medieval crafts and often the artisans gave fascinating demonstrations. These are folks whose job is to travel from fair to fair. Other stands offered things never seen in the Middle Ages but which were at least finely crafted handmade items. There was one rogue seller who seemed not to have been properly vetted. A rotund man installed himself right outside our gates on Saturday afternoon, set up a boom-box on a wooden folding chair and proceeded to demonstrate the making of brightly colored plastic rope while his CD looped a French song from the 40's about a little fat man. His repetitive music was in direct competition with the Medieval pipes and drums being played over the loudspeakers (which were attached to our house, just outside our windows). The man was dressed in a floppy red hat and did a touch-shuffle, touch-shuffle step in time to his anachronistic music as he wound his plastic rope. None of us could quite understand where he had come from, but his indomitable spirit kept him touch-shuffling long after most of the other vendors had shut down for the night.

Images from the festival:

model castle maker

 

sausages anyone?

Place du Château, products of every description

 

stone cutting

 black-smithy

armor maker

 

 medieval costumes

 juggler and musicians

 (my favorite) stained-glass artisan showing how shapes were "cut" using a heated tool to crack the glass

The most anticipated part of the festival is the "Embrasement du Château" (the illumination of the castle), basically fireworks, which are arranged to look as if the castle is under attack. It is one of the most beautiful, and definitely the closest display I've ever witnessed. It goes on for about 15 minutes with wonderfully atmospheric music and a short narration to accompany the booms and flashes.

 

***

Village calm has been reestablished in Montmirail. All the tourists have gone back home. We anticipate another busy week of full rooms and happy vacationers from around the globe. France, Canada, England and the U.S. will all be represented.

Golden glowing sunset over the castle of Montmirail

Week 4: The World and the World Cup

Ordering Lunch

France, England, Belgium and Germany were represented at the Maison Conti this week. I love the smallness of the European continent. One has the opportunity to be exposed to plenty of different languages and cultural points of view. The distance between San Francisco and Kansas City, to put it in perspective, is about the same as between Paris and Moscow. In the United States we're surrounded by ourselves while in Europe one rubs elbows with all the neighbors. Belgians and Germans often speak multiple languages, and enjoy vacationing in France. Our location is ideal for tourists on their way to Brittany, a favored destination, so we often get stop-overs. This week a Belgian couple, on their way home from the coast, just happened upon our village, parked in front of the house and decided to stay. We often get the opportunity to have long and interesting conversations with our clients, and so we get a picture of the lives of so many different people. The Belgian man is a surgeon and his wife an artist. Their children live far and wide. They enjoyed the studio and imagined coming back for a course. They encouraged us to stop by if we are ever in the Ardennes. If we were to visit all the places we have been invited by former clients, we could have a very extended vacation ourselves! It's really lovely how many of our guests seem more like friends by the time they depart.

***

I can't say that I've noticed much World Cup fever in the village, although Patrice did mention he'd watched the tie between the U.S. and English teams. The French team isn't doing as well as hoped, but it is making some waves! Today the team went on strike in protest of the decision to dismiss one of their teammates for insubordination towards the coach. That's almost unheard of! The French are expert protesters and readily take to the streets when they have grievances. I guess the footballers feel they have the same rights, even in the middle of a tournament! Apparently the French public isn't so interested in the games this year. Of course, if their team were winning it would be a different story. But why waste the emotional energy if the performance is mediocre? I happened to be in Paris ten years ago on the night the French won the European Cup, and I can assure you they are quite capable of unbridled enthusiasm when there's good cause for celebration. I'm not sure if the public is on the players' side in this disagreement or not, but "shocking" was the word used to describe the events on CNN and the BBC.

The British team isn't performing to expectation either. I heard on the radio that the British are considered to be both the best fans in the world and also the most unrealistic about their team's chances. Speaking of British sporting events, I have always loved the comment made by John Cleese when comparing the U.S. to England: "When we hold a World Championship for a particular sport, we generally invite teams from other countries." He was, of course, making fun of our World Series in baseball. World? We've spent several evenings watching the French coverage of the World Cup. I've been enjoying it quite a lot. I'm not usually much of a sports fan, but I've been swept up and it is thrilling to see so many countries playing the same sport in the same location.

***

Our area is particularly well-known for its small organic farms and producers of gourmet products. Within walking distance of our house in one direction we have a farm where they make artisanal goat cheeses in many beautiful shapes and delicious flavors. In the other there is a foie gras producer who makes duck and pork products and gives cooking courses. Sophie, with her husband owns the Enterprise Meulemans. Her mother is quite a talented artist. As a gift, she gave her mother, Sylvie, a course at Atelier Conti. Sylvie spent two afternoons with me and took to etching like a duck to water. She dove right in and started carving away on her zinc plates without a second thought. She was quite brave about dry point, in which no acid or varnishes are used and no preliminary drawing; one just marks on a plate directly with tools as if the surface were a piece of blank paper. Sophie created several nice landscapes.

During the final hours of the second day, I gave her a quick introduction to aquatint and she was able to create this charming little seascape in a very short time.

I inked her plate à la poupée so that she could imagine it in color as well. She was very pleased with her results and so was I.

While she was working I did a bit of experimentation myself. I so rarely work in dry point but I very much enjoyed how direct it can be. I've always loved working with sandpaper, which can be posed on top of the plate and then run through the press to gouge the texture onto the surface. The plate is then inked and voila! I created both the cat and the nude simply by cutting out shapes with sandpaper and impressing them into the zinc.

***

Once a year the Monsmirabilis (marvelous mountain) Association hosts Chevalets dans la Cité (easels in the city). Artists from far and wide come to town to spend a day painting or drawing a scene of our picturesque village. In the late afternoon there is a gathering at the Salle des Fêtes and a panel of judges chooses winners in various categories. The first year we arrived, I was asked to be a judge because I am one of a few other artists who are actual residents. This last Sunday marked my third year on the panel. The day was quite cold, glacial, as Mme Guedet the bouglanger put it, so not very conducive to painting in plein air. Despite that, the quality of the art was higher than usual. I really enjoyed myself. For one thing I talked Rick into accompanying me and that always makes everything more fun. While we were waiting for all the art works to be mounted, Pierre and Odile showed us a book of photographs of the village from the early part of the last century and gave us a commentary about what has changed. Odile pointed out her grandfather and father on one of the pages. Her grandfather was the blacksmith, a tall, burly man. There was a photo of him in front of the old forge from 1917. Pierre and Odile and their son Michel are the backbone of the association. The heart and engine is Samuel, but he wasn't there. It's the first time I haven't seen him at a Monsmirabilis event. Of course, he and his wife no longer even live in town, so I am sure he is trying to encourage others to step into his very large shoes.

Samuel was one of the first people we met when we moved to town. At that time, he ran the local epicerie and, with his wife Celine and three young cherub-faced children, lived next door to the shop. He is French Canadian and so bilingual. He talks to me in French but often writes me emails in English, and is the person I go to with any questions I have. He is extremely patient and generous. Samuel is a very bright and energetic guy and so he sold the grocery business and took a job as a computer programmer in Le Mans. He moved with his family to a town a bit closer to his new employer. This was a huge loss to our village, since he is the main organizer of all the events Monsmirabilis sponsors, but most especially the Medieval Fair in early August. Even though he's been gone from town for almost two years now, he's still the president of the association and the motivating force behind the numerous local activities. Pierre, Odile and Michel with the help of a very few others, do most of the work. I was asked this year, much to my great surprise, to be on the board. I don't often feel as if I have much to contribute, but I'm warming up to it. It's a friendly, lively town and it makes it feel more like home to participate in some of the activities!

Postcard advertisement for the etching class in August, made by Samuel.