NEXT VACATION DESTINATION

I have found the next item I would like to cross off my bucket list... the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte.  The famed precursor to Versailles, the venue of the party that in fact placed the 'man in the iron mask', in the iron mask.  I was so excited to see the story on the 400th anniversary of the gardens on AD this morning, I was unaware it was so easily accessible to the public... 15 Euros?!  A real bargain, as long as you can make it to Franc,e that is. 

I have to say the story of the property is what movies are made of (in fact there are numerous movies).  The French finance minister under Louis XIV decided to not only build the most grand chateau in the land, but then to go ahead and throw the most over-the-top, elaborate, flashy party the land had ever seen, all in honor of the king.  That was his big mistake.  Show up Louis the fourteenth?  The king who quite literally thought he was the sun itself?  Big mistake.  Louis XIV was quite annoyed and being upstaged, and also quite convinced his finance minister was stealing money from him.  Luckily there was an easy fix for Louis... throw the finance minister in prison (and for extra effect put him in an iron mask) and hire all of his designers and architects to create an even better palace at Versailles.  Love.

And now I can wander the halls myself?  Sold.  There is nothing on earth like French Mansard architecture...or that gray French sky....

THE MET DOES IT AGAIN

The Met really is great at selecting artists to create unique and highly evocative/appropriate installations for their summer rooftop installation.  While I did not have the pleasure of visiting the rooftop this year (yes, I do die a little inside when saying this), the installation called Cloud City by Tomas Saraceno does look wonderful as always. 

Photos courtesy of the Met website (most of these are installation photos, but wow, pretty amazing stuff even before finished installed):

Ummm, love it.  What is better than one amazing view over Central Park, Upper East and West sides?  Many, many, many views all on one rooftop.  Forget the clouds, I love the greenery-framed architecture.  Love. 

To see all the installation photos and more visit the Met website here.

HAPPY SPRING

It is finally spring in the Intermountain West (just a bit late and yes, it will be summer tomorrow), and I thought I would post a photo I took way back in 1999 while living in Paris and visiting Versailles.  Somehow, this just screams spring to me.  I am happy to see the bright sky these days, of course wishing Versailles was still only an hour from my apartment.  Oh well, at least it was once.  I love Paris in the spring time.....

UTAH'S LITTLE EPCOT

Those of you from the West likely did not experience the joys of Epcot as a child. What kind of parent would take you all the way to Florida when there was a perfectly good Disneyland over in California. Well, let me tell you, there is a difference. As an East Coaster, Epcot was always an integral part of any Disney World (not Land) trip despite the strong yearning for the fun rides of the Magic Kingdom instead of the highly educational so-called 'rides' such as the Innoventions Pavilion (yes, they make up new words, this is not a typo) or the National Treasures show featuring many dead Presidents lecturing about America's past. Not exactly what a child's vacation dreams are made of. However, I can't be too harsh with Epcot, as I always loved the country pavilions. Even at a very young age the travel bug was in me. However, not all country pavilions were created equal and it was generally agreed upon in the oh, I would say, 4th grade, that Mexico and Norway were the best, as they had the coolest rides. No, make that the fact they had rides at all. Sure it's fun to walk around a fake bazaar in little Morocco, or the streets of some Bavarian village, but a ride was gold. And no, I did not brainwash all my friends into agreeing upon Norway...they have a great ride, full of trolls and fierce storms at sea.

Well, children of the West, you don't need to journey back east to experience Epcot...I found out last weekend that Salt Lake has their very own little Epcot-esque park, the International Peace Gardens. Even though it was over 90 degrees, I ventured out to this park last weekend... all for the sake of your entertainment, and maybe a bit of my own too.

The International Peace Gardens are nestled next to the Jordan River in the Jordan Park, and very well maintained. The Gardens opened in 1947 by a hopeful group of women, the Salt Lake Council of Women. They installed a plaque which reads: "America bids the world to be done with the instruments of war and in the spirit of these gardens to cultivate the arts of peace." It was a time a great optimism, we can't blame them for that. So basically, they wanted to create a lovely garden that would bring together the countries of the world...at least those countries that happened to have at least one immigrant in Utah. So these women poked around the state and found as many local immigrants as possible, and asked them to design some sort of pavilion embodying their culture. These women were obviously warm-hearted...even offering the Germans and Japanese their own pavilions. They were serious about being done with war and apparently any bad feelings about the war too.

So I thought we could take a quick tour and I could point out my very favorite pavilions.

Enter...and instead of Mickey, you have this lovely lady greeting you...likely the head Councilwoman....or is it just 'peace'?  Probably the head Councilwoman posing as 'peace'.

And of course there are many predictable pavilions, such as China:

 

Korea:

And Japan:

But wait, I don't remember seeing onion domes featured in Japanese design...

India: (doesn't look much like Ben Kingsley though)

Anyway, Asia, you did a great job at creating pleasant and fairly accurate visions of your countries.  Africa, I guess there were relatively few immigrants from your fair continent in those days, so the women decided to just give you one area all together.  You all get along pretty well and the cultures are all pretty much the same right?

However, I must say Europe takes the cake in my view.  Europe, you went all out.  And who can't love the perfect replica of the Eiffel Tower...Gustave, this must make you proud.

Actually, I think the bench seating one is meant to use when contemplating the tower is actually much for French than the tower....

If I just sit on the bench and not look at the piddly tower, I might just be able to feel a bit French.

And Wales...isn't that the Guinness logo?  Oh, no, that's right, the Guinness symbol faces the other way...this is the Irish national symbol, sorry.  But I guess there's not much difference, right?  And by the way, Pavilion is often meant to be more than one item.

Switzerland, you certainly pulled out the big guns...I guess in the 1940's there was a bit more money to go around than most of the other European nations.  Sorry, lets not talk about the war.  I must say this was one of my favorites.  The Matterhorn in some sort of odd material that was likely once strikingly white!  And the lovely Swiss chalet below....all to scale, well, better scale than the Eiffel Tower, but probably not quite accurate...

But one country and one coutry alone pulled out all the stops.  Italy.  What is there to say?  Really, what?

Is this Italian dirt? An Italian sand box? Contemporary art perhaps? Are you being funny? Mocking the gardens? For a country so rich in culture, well, I actually was not disappointed. I loved the Italy 'pavilion' and it brought back fond memories of the EU Czech-commissioned sculpture by David Cerny displayed in Brussels last year. So, I must show you just a bit of it.

Did anyone get a chance to see this is person? I would have loved to, but I think many of the sculptures spent their life covered in black cloth to prevent any more insult to national pride. So, now for the back-story. When the Czechs gained the EU presidency last year, the president commissioned a Czech artist to create a sculpture to commemorate the event. Cerny put forth a proposal where 27 artists each from one of the EU nations would create a piece of artwork that would epitomize their country's culture. Sounds pretty similar to the Peace Gardens, huh? Anyway, the whole thing was a hoax/standard contemporary art of sorts...Cerny had no intention of hiring other artists. He instead, simply did all the works himself. And every work just plain mocked the particular country. And then he hung them all in a very public EU building. There was so outrage, disdain, anger, and some threats. Its understandable. While I find the whole thing rather amusing, I have the benefit of not having my country mocked. Norway has yet to have any interest in joining the mess that is called the EU.   But Cerny was just having fun and being a contemporary artist...no need for death threats...

A quick taste:

Romania, Dracula's theme park:

France, on strike, no art today:

Bulgaria, the Turkish toilet (OK, so this is pretty offensive):

The Netherlands, underwater, only things left are the Islamic minarets:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Spain, covered in concrete and scaffolding:

 

And what did Cerny come up with for Italy?  Not dirt.  Just football:

Alas, I was unable to see the above works, so I must content myself with the Salt Lake Peace Gardens.  Have any of you locals had a chance to visit?  I highly recommend it!  See you next week!

GREETINGS FROM NORWAY: FACETS OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

I am trying...I am trying really hard to keep my Norway blogging to just one week. However, that seems to be an impossible task. We may be in the hinterlands again, but there is lots to cover. So today I will show you two extremely different buildings, and if anyone wants more, I will do another round of Norway pics next week...just let me know....or I may just decide to do it anyway.

1. NEW IN THE CITY

Oslo, founded in 1048 by the Viking King Harald III, is a beautiful city that was once even more beautiful, that is, before the Germans destroyed much of it during WWII. Of course, many of you saw the city's great sculpture park a few weeks ago. Oslo is the business center of Norway, and often named the most expensive city in the world...sometimes fighting it out with Tokyo and London, often winning. There is quite a bit of building happening, especially on the water. Numerous new luxury apartment buildings are going up, next to slick new offices. Needless to say, the world economic downturn has not touched this little country much.

One of the newest additions to the waterfront is the new opera house completed in 2008. Looking to Sydney for the WOW factor, Oslo put out the call for all architects to submit proposals. Unlike the Aussies who hired someone half a world away, Norway decided on the local firm of Snohetta (check out their great website: http://www.snoarc.no/). This was likely a good choice to keep controversy to a minimum. However, no one in Norway was too happy when the Norwegian architecture firm chose to clad much of the building in Italian marble instead of Norwegian granite! Although I must say I think the granite would have been too gray....the marble is beautiful. Shhhh...don't tell anyone in Norway.....

Not only is this a beautiful place to see the national opera and ballet companies, the space is what the architects call an 'open house'. This means its open to the public essentially all the time. Go have a coffee in the lobby, walk up the ramp to the rooftop and enjoy the view, or sit literally at the waters edge. There are also outdoor concerts on the roof and in a floating stage.... rock, jazz, Shakespeare....everything.

Anyway, I think the WOW factor is definitely there... hope it comes across in my photos!

These shots courtesy of the Opera House:

And these courtesy of my camera:

(The Guggenheim done Nordic style...indoors and in wood!)

There are numerous elements that have been comissioned by artists, such as the stage curtain by Pae White (an American) which was woven to look like crumpled foil.  This is ACTUALLY all MATTE COTTON...:

And the 'Other Wall' by Olafur Eliasson from Iceland.  This pierced and lit wall clads the services areas (such as the cool bathrooms...sorry no pics, you have to visit!) in the lobby:

Here you can see the colored lights to greater effect, thanks Papafrezzo:

And the sculpture (which many Norwegians don't particularly care for) just outside the Opera House by Monica Bonvicini.  Must be left-over annoyance from the whole Italian marble thing...I kind of like this too, looks to me like an iceberg....don't tell the Norwegians I like this one either please:

2. OLD IN THE COUNTRY

Well, anyone who likes country charm, step right up. This amazing house is located on a small island in the Oslo fjord, belongs to a good friend of the family's who also happens to be the Queen's gardener. Needless to say I had to include some photos of the garden. He is a genius with dirt and bulbs, that’s for sure. But not too bad on the interior either. The thing that always strikes me in Norway, is the effortless charm that so many houses are able to conjure.  Nothing looks staged or dressed, just casual, easy and simply oozing charm.  After visiting his house this time around, I had my very first desire to move far from any large city and find a quite spot with an old farmhouse and well, hire a great gardener. Please enjoy:

The main house:

The guesthouse:

The garage!:

The garden (of Eden):

The Interiors: There is no formal living room, just a very large dining room, a working kitchen, a fabulous library, and a small enclosed porch, perfect for four.

Upstairs, two charming bedrooms:

With equally charming views: