NEIGHBORING TOWNS-TWO DIFFERENT "FLAVORS"

MONTPELLIER

The capital of Languedoc-Roussillon, the ancient university city of Montpellier is renowned for its medical school founded in the 13th century. Nostradamus qualified as a doctor here, and Rabelais studied at the school. Petrarch came to Montpellier in 1317 and stayed for 7 years.

I travelled to Montpellier many times. I had a lot of visitors while I was in Pezenas, and Montpellier was the closest airport, and train station to my town (45 minutes). Montpellier is a bustling metropolis with a population of 390,000, and one of southern France's fastest growing cities. There are several high-tech corporations in the city. Even though the city is big, the core of the city has beautiful beaux arts buildings, tree-flanked promenades,broad avenues, and historic monuments.

 

The expansive place de la Comedie is the living room of Montpellier where you can admire the Opera, the 18th century "Fountain of the Three Graces", and have a coffee in a sidewalk cafe. This is also the area where you can catch the monorail which takes you to the outposts of Montpellier.

------MUSEE FABRE------ One of France's great provincial art galleries occupies the former Hotel de Massilian, where our friend Moliere once played for a season. The collection originated when Napoleon sent Montpellier an exhibition of the Academie Royale in 1803. Francois Xavier Fabre (1766-1837)was a Montpellier painter. He was a pupil of Jacques Louis David. He married a wealthy countess in 1824 when she died he inherited her fortune, and started an art school.

Jan Steen 1626 - 1679) Dutch painter, well to do, Catholic family. His paintings were of daily life, which was his main pictorial theme. He was very prolific and painted 800 paintings in his lifetime.

 

Jean-Antoine Houdan (1741-1828). French sculptor. Some of his sculptures were used as models for US postage stamps.

 

----------HOTEL SABATIER D'ESPEYRAN--------A hotel dedicated to the decorative arts. The historic residence enables visitors to discover the backdrops to bourgeois and aristocratic society life during the 18th and 19th centuries. Great collection of furniture, and a ceramics collection and examples of silverwork. The hotel town house build in 1874-75 for Count Charles Despous de Paul, a member of Montpellier's high society, was bequeathed by his descendants, the Sabatier d'Esperan family, to Montpellier in 1967.

 

COLLIOURE A taste of Spain in France

A beautiful port town established by the Greeks in 6000BC and later owned by the kings of Majorca. Collioure is best know as the home of a colony of artists, including Derain,Dufy, Picasso, and Matisse. The town attracts artists from all over the world.

The Eglise de Notre-Dame-des-Anges is half lighthouse, half church, inside there is a floor to ceiling altarpiece dripping with gold.

The tourist department issues a map to show how the beautiful port,mountains and town reflect the paintings of the various artists who lived and painted there. Every vista in the town reminds one of a beautiful painting by Matisse or Derain

WHICH ONE IS THE OIL PAINTING??

 

The Museum of Modern Art. Collioure's artistic adventure really dates from 1905 with the coming of Matisse. At the time the Fauvist movement had started to make progress and the duo Matisse-Derain in Collioue became an essential step in the career of these two artists. This town became a stop off point for other artists for the duration of the 20th century.

Emmanuelle Jude The Bathers exhibit was in the museum.

I went to a wedding while I was in Collioure.