NL LIEW's Blog: October 2009

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Villandry...the traditional French garden chateau

One cold and rainy spring morning in 2004, I arrived at the Chateau de Villandry with a busload of my coursemates on a cultural discovery trip organized by the university. We visited three chateaux over 2 days on the Loire Valley: the other 2 being the magnificent Chambord and the historical Amboise. I returned to Villandry again on 2007, unfortunately on another cold and even rainier morning... After 5 years of memory distilled by time, the only thing that sticks in my head about Villandry is the incredible neatness of the garden in a cold, wet and miserable morning as well as the violet flavoured sorbet ice-cream sold at the entrance...

Villandry did not start its life as a royal chateau like Chambord and Amboise but it does have an illustrous history- it was initially built over a 12th century medieval castle, finished in 1536 by Jean le Breton in the Rennaisance style (he was the finance minister to Francois I, king of France and owner of the Chambord and Amboise). The chateau changed ownership to the Marquis of Castellane in 1734 before being bought over by Dr. Joachim Carvallo in 1902. He spent his life restoring the gardens of the Villandry into its glory seen today according to the rigid style of the traditional French philosophy in gardening: perfect symetry. His work was among the first efforts in France to restore patrimonial heritage for the grand public.

Entrance to the chateau

The main entrance

The dressed dining table

View of the dining

details of the table setting

Fresh flowers dress the stairwell...

A beautifully harmonized posy of flower in the chamber

The 'royal' bed

Beautiful rich bordeaux velvet drapes

Relics of the previous owners: a coffer

Observe the symetry of the garden

The chapel at the other end of the garden shared by commoners of the village

Views of the garden...

still too early in spring to have any leaves...

The tulips start to show some colours...

My housemate Roman

Visit the chateau at this link:

http://www.chateauvillandry.com/sommaire.php3?lang=fr&HPSESSID=a90762ccb1538f877fd052c6a99b839e

Monday, 12 October 2009

Albi...the other 'rose' city of South of France

In France, Toulouse is often referred to as 'the rose-coloured city' because of its Languedoc-styled buildings built with bare red bricks. Well, not far away, there's another lesser known town but definitely NOT less charming one called Albi. Together with Montauban, these three cities make up the 3 known Languedoc-styled cities in the South of France.

I did not return to Malaysia on the summer of 2006 and so I had the opportunity to tour this part of the country with my sister's family. They lived at Blagnac (the site of the Airbus Industries) and I passed that summer with them in the region.

Albi is really a charming little town. The first thing that you will notice on arrival is the huge and tall tower of the Sainte-Cecile Cathedral. It looks more like a giant fortress than a church, with its tall and imposing walls in red bricks...instantly reminding me of the Indian fortresses in Rajasthan that I've seen on National Geographic. What is most quirky about the whole structure is not the imposing tower but the incredibly detailed and flamboyant gothic-detailed entrance of the cathedral. Another prominent feature of Albi is the existence of roman aquaducts - there are bridges that existed for a milenia and is still in use in this city. Since it was summer, a huge scaffolding was erected at the corner of the town square for animation but we did not stay for the evening so I didn't get to see any of it. The highlight of the visit was the tour of the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum that now occupies the once Palais de la Brebie, an episcopal palace still under renovation but its iconic classic French-styled garden is still well maintained. The museum houses over a thousand of Toulouse-Lautrec's original work and is the biggest collection of his works in the world (with that amount, it figures...). I understood straight away from this point onward as to why there aren't that many of his works at the d'Orsay in Paris, including some of his most iconic works on the nightlife of the Moulin Rouge. Toulouse-Lautrec is the father of modern poster graphics and his sketchy and highly 'cartoonistic' style attests to this. If one sees the old posters of everything from the famous 'Banana' chocolate powder to the traditional 'Cachou La Jeunie' sweets, one cannot but remarks the striking influence of his art to the evolution of advertisement art. The museum also houses some works from other masters like Gaugin.

After the museum, we went outside and made a tour of the famous garden of the palace but only from its enclosed walkway. The manicured garden is off-limit to visitors. From the walkway, one can also enjoy the incredibly panoramic view of the other side of the red city divided to two by the river Tarn. Boat cruise is possible to enjoy the scenery of the tarn but we were rushed for time and did not do that. After a coffee break, we went souvenir hunting at the town center - I bought a pin for my collection, a few expensive postcards but skip the violet sweets that this region is famous for (violet flowers in sugar confit)...

On the autoroute to Albi...

A Roman aquaduct

A riverine apartment in red bricks

Open air cafe in front of the Cathedral Sainte-Cecile

An alley, really charming...

Observe the detailing on the Gothic entrance of the cathedral.

Yes, the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum.

The manicured gardens of the Palais de la Brebie

Boat for the river cruise of the Tarn

A panoramic view of the other side of Albi from the terraced gardens of the Palais de la Brebie

At the terrace of the Palais de la Brebie. Notice the aquaducts at the distant.

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

Fleurs de printemps...an ode to Spring

Evoke Spring and the first thing that comes to mind is flowers, flowers and more flowers - they explode in myriad of colours like fireworks in daytime. My first reaction is of course to snap, snap and snap even more photos of everything in bloom that greets the changing of season...