Author: Heather Robinson

Texture hunt, part deux

The streets have been abandoned.

I mean as in they are truly, utterly, I could skip down them naked while playing a ukelele and no one would notice empty. Not that I plan on doing that mind you, it is simply far too hot and I would be afraid to sizzle the pads of my already blackened feet. 

We are in the midst midst of our third week of mid-90’s to 100°F temperatures with another in front of us just announced. It has been enough to silence even the most hardened locals who tried to blithely declare, “Mais, c’est ça l’été!” No, my friends, we usually get a week of this roasting oven in August. But this? C’est pas normale.  Even the scrappy cigale in our olive tree has barely enough energy to shake his belly into song.
When I do head out – early or late but never in-between and covered in a ridiculous hat – I can’t help but resee this little village under this clawing light that exaggerates light and dark, heightens surfaces and blurs the normally solid line between opaque and transparency. My neighbors old stone walls have bumped up into the surface of the moon or Mars. Like Ben, our wise Golden, I hopscotch from shade to shade all the way out to our garden, which, by the end of the day has baked, hard earth and wilted greens. I can hear it sigh with relief as the water comes rushing through to the roots.

It is a time for not too demanding manual tasks as the most basic intellectual pursuits escape me. Books tumble into my lap as I turn on my belly to nap. Ideas and words have locked themselves into the drawers of my desk, refusing to come out until the temps have cooled, making it impossible to write. Photos for posts have piled up, knocking at the computer screen for attention but I just stare at them, blinking.

I am not complaining, of course. Remi has been in the midst of photographing a really interesting project that I will share with you later on under blazing studio lights for the past two weeks, the dogs are forced to wear their fur coats which droop heavily after I hose them down and renovation work continues with the heave of new roof tiles and the churn of cement just down the street.

Perhaps this is more of a billet-doux in an apology form for not being more active here. I usually go quiet in the winter months; this is unexpected. But I find my brain as vide as the streets and there is a form of texture hunt going on inside – both within the walls of this closed up house and inside my rather empty noggin’. But I keep thinking back to my friend J recently admitting that she likes jet-lag as it takes her to this kind of dreamy place. And so it is all a question of perspective then, as it always is.

For I do find Provence incredibly beautiful even while she is sporting her most dashing summer clichés, presenting her best angles to the visitors who have come from the world over to admire her…I just feel not entirely a part of all the buzz but rather am floating along beside it. Perhaps that is not a bad thing after all…

Happy Summer Days everyone and Bon Weekend…

The Rencontres d’Arles International Photography Festival – 2015

Last Monday, I was fortunate enough to be invited for the opening day of the Rencontres d’Arles – an international photography festival that was founded in 1970 by photographer Lucien Clergue, author Michel Tournier and the amazing historian, Jean-Maurice Rouquette. After a few years of glorious beginnings – featuring such prestigious invited guests as Ansel Adams, Robert Doisneau, Ernst Haas, Imogen Cunningham and Brassaï – the festival quickly became incontournable and heralded as one of the most important in Europe. Featuring in large part new works, Les Rencontres now attracts photographers, gallerists, editors and photography lovers from all around the world.

One of the aspects that I had always appreciated about the Rencontres was that it was free! Well, at least it was for me during the nearly ten years that I was a proud resident of Arles. Now, that I live just outside in the tiny Provençal village, that is no longer the case. All the better then to be invited and try to see as much as possible for the opening. As I arrived in town, the line for tickets was already well out the door – a sight that will be common until the end of the festival’s run on September 20th.

This year, many of us who have followed the Rencontres for years were especially eager to see how the program would differ now that Sam Stourdzé, former director of the Musée de l’Élysée à Lausanne, has replaced François Hébel, who had been the festivals director since 2001. He gave an energetic welcoming speech, as did Arles’ Mayor and the French Minister of Culture who had descended from Paris especially for the occasion…
…but I have to admit that my focus did wander a bit. Have I mentioned recently that it has been hot here? 100° F and not a drop less meant that we were all more than willing to follow the officials…
…next door into the relative cool of the 15th century Fréres-Prêcheurs Church…
…where the English photographer Martin Parr – who was the Artistic Director of the Rencontres in 2004 – has collaborated with the excellent French musician Matthieu Chedid (who performs under the name “M”) on MMM.

Their work together was part of the “Résonances” category of this years festival where a photographer was grouped with someone of another field – in this case music. Martin Parr photographed M in concert  while Mathieu Chedid wrote a score for Mr. Parr’s collection of past works – both hoping to (I am so sorry but this is just how I have to say it) strike a chord in their viewers.
Despite his being acclaimed as one of our most successful contemporary photographers, I find my interest waning in Martin Parr’s work. However, I do feel that the collaboration was a successful one and that the series of “beaches” in the various niches of the church (complete with deck chairs) used the lieu in a way that is particular to the Rencontres’ tendency to create interesting contrasts. 
More to my taste was the winding helix of Olivier Roller‘s installation – fabricated with double-sided illuminated panels far more beautiful than you can see here – a part of his “Figures du Pouvoirs” or Figures of Influence series that was suspended in a darkened chapel of the Musée Reattu.

At the Reattu, the exhibition, called Daring Photography in English, celebrates the museums fifty years of collecting avant-garde works; a collection whose beginnings in 1965 would instigate the formation of Les Rencontres five years later.  And what a phenomenal collection it is. It became delightfully overwhelming to come across walls full of Man-Rays, Brassais, Edward Westons and Avedons, not to mention singular pieces that were breath-taking…

…such as this tragic portrait of Marilyn Monroe taken by Arnold Newman shortly before her death…
…or Rebellion Silence by Shirin Nashat, 1994. 
The moments wandering through the Reattu were most certainly some of my favorite of the day. Our past is our present and the selection of photography, curated by the new museum director Pascale Picard was simply stunning.

Not all of the showing spaces are so prestigious and I love that about Les Rencontres. Here, a group showing of up-and coming photographers whose work had been selected by Jean Paul Goude was displayed in the parking garage for Nord-Pinus Hotel.

Will you forgive me if I admit that the heat got to me? I have only this one image to share with you for a truly exceptional (absolutely the correct term) exhibition: The Spirit of the Tierra del Fuego People by Martin Gusinde. Mr. Gusinde travelled to the Tierra del Fuego region at the Southern tip of South America four times between 1918 and 1924 as both a missionary and an anthropologist in order to meet the last of the native peoples of the area, wishing both to document and become as immersed as possible in their vanishing society. The images are not only exceptionally beautiful but haunting. So much diversity has been lost. Didn’t I just say that our past is our present? And our future?
After resting woozily on a park bench, I made it out to the Pard des Ateliers, the former workshops for the SNCF trains and the future home to the Fondation Luma…but I am not ready to talk about that project just yet, even while I watched its construction continuing despite the crushing heat. 
Inside the Grand Hall, a catacomb of exhibition spaces have been divided into the enormous space. I found Markus Brunetti’s enormous images of cathedrales for Facades intensely soothing to take in, especially when given the proper time to do so rather than simply rushing from one to the next.
I also really enjoyed the storytelling behind Thierry Bouët’s Personal Affairs quite charming, in which he contacted people who had interesting items to sell on Le Bon Coin (France’s answer to Craigslist) in order to interview them and take their portraits.

Amongst this years Discovery Award nominees, I was out-right fascinated by the “moody sensitivity of adolescence”…
…depicted so astutely in the pieces by Delphine Chavet, someone whose work I will follow in the future as well as…

…the classicist meets pop self-portraits by Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop…

…whose technicolor representations of iconic African figures imbued with modern touches made me smile then think. 
Both of these artists were presented by exhibition curator and art critic Claire Jaquet and seemed absolutely pitch-perfect to me both in their ideas and execution for this new period for Les Rencontres.

And then there were moments like this…when I stumbled into a room where a hipster barber had just shaved off quite a bit of a young mans rather copious hair and beard. Why? I have no idea but there you have it.
By this point, I was sweating rather ungraciously. It is hot as Hades out at the Ateliers and I am just going to take a tiiiny moment out to ask the same question: why? A day pass to the Rencontres is 29 Euros. That is pretty much the price that nearly everyone is going to pay. Now, I know that it is incredibly expensive to pull this huge festival together but I also know that 96,000 people came in 2013 alone. You do the math. In most of the exhibition spaces, there is no air (not even a fan) and I only found one spot where water was available for free – one – and there is only rarely a place to sit down. It is kind of scandalous. I have a hard time imagining the elderly or young children making it through and isn’t the point that the Rencontres (which translates to English as “Encounters”) be accessible for the rendez-vous?
That said, let’s finish on a positive note. I did decide to keep going to the Magasin Électrique as there was one exhibition that I really did not want to miss. It is simply called Congo by two Magnum photographers whom I admire, Alex Majoli and Paolo Pellegrin. 
One could say that they form a duet as the photographs, taken in the country of the exhibitions name, are not labelled. I gave up trying to figure out whose I was looking at and instead fell into the play of light and shadows, the unsentimental representations of struggle and joy stripped of all predispositions.

My heart was there, transported. 
Les Rencontres d’Arles
Exhibitions July 6th to September 20th
Viewing hours depend on the space, roughly from 10am to 7:30pm
Pass for all exhibitions valid for the entire festival: 37 Euros
Day pass: 29 Euros
One entry per exhibition for the passes
Single exhibition prices starting at 3.50 Euros
Free for disabled persons, inhabitants of Arles and those under 18
In English: https://www.rencontres-arles.com
En Français: http://www.rencontres-arles.com/Home
* Note: There is much more to see at Les Rencontres, including the retrospective of Walker Evans that I will very much look forward to sharing with you later on this summer.

L’Hotel Particulier and the Baron de Chartrouse – Arles



Courtesy of L’Hotel Particulier

Fifteen years ago, an opportunity presented itself to Brigitte Pagés de Oliveira. She bought several buildings surrounding the 19th century Hôtel de Chartrouse in Arles with the intention of starting a maison d’hôtes. Two years later, she opened L’Hôtel Particulier with six rooms opening onto a massive garden. I remember well hearing the initial acclaims about this incredible property – unusually tucked into the unfashionable Roquette neighborhood – and so was delighted when it was the first hotel in the region to achieve a five-star rating in 2009.

I think what many people have responded to in the hotel is the ease with which Madame Pagés de L’Oliveira has made an elegant link to the property’s past. “I did not want to do a new decoration but rather put back what existed at that time,” she has said. And oh, what an exceptional possibility that entailed.

Courtesy of Arles Patrimoine
The Hôtel de la Chartrouse is one of the largest hôtel particuliers or private mansions amongst the 70 or so remaining in the center of Arles. It was also the last to be commissioned by une famille de notables. Guillaume Michel Jérôme Meiffren de Laugier, after being named Mayor of Arles in 1824, felt that he needed a home “worthy of his position.” 
Courtesy of Arles Patrimoine – Diagram of Western facade

Despite being a wealthy land-owner (and therefor someone who would normally have been a member of the chiffonistes or Arles’ pro-Royalist party), during the French Revolution he was a soldier in the Allobroges regiment of the Armée du Midi, which had been formed to keep the peace in large Provençal towns such as Marseille and Montpellier but especially Arles. However, he changed tactics by courting the rise of Emperor Napoleon, who in turn granted him the title of the Baron de Chartrouse in 1811. It was a title that he would continue to wear proudly even amidst periods of political turmoil during his six year-long tenure as mayor, then as Deputy of the Bouches-du-Rhône until 1834. His son Jules, who also became mayor during the Second Empire and held the office for ten years, did the same.
Courtesy of Arles Patrimoine – Facade of the original hôtel

The people of Arles have much reason to be grateful towards the Baron, even today. For while such prestigious visitors as King Henri IV had already strongly suggested that better care was to be taken of the vestiges of its numerous Roman monuments, it was the Baron de Chartrouse who, in 1825, finally put words into action. He formed Arles’ first Archeological Committee and ordered the clearing and refurbishment of both the Arena and the Antique Theatre. In the arena alone, a fortified “town within a town” had sprung up over the centuries and 212 houses and two churches had to be destroyed! So, it is thanks to him that we have these two beautiful monuments in their preserved state today, an enormous feat. He also brought about the construction of the municipal theatre and library as well as establishing the main road between Salon-de-Provence and Nimes – in so doing guarding Arles’ importance as commercial crossroads.

So yes, he most certainly deserved an exceptional home. The main building of the Hôtel de la Chartrouse was built in the strict Neo-Classical style that was heralded by the Parisian architects Percier and Fontaine at the time. One entered through a portail monumental on what was renamed the rue de la Chartrouse in 1830 and into an open garden doted with an 18th century pavilion. Today the main entry for L’Hotel Particulier is on the rue de la Monnaie in a similarly elegant building that was later constructed on the initial property holding. The leafy platane trees are still providing shade nearly two hundred years later for the guests of the hotel. The bassin that is the pool was designed exactly in the style of the period as well. While relaxing in this garden in the midst of the city, one can enjoy this beautiful space in utter privacy, just as the Baron had. For him, it most likely was a place of great importance as he was also a prominent botanist and ornithologist. Indeed, a rare example of the book that he created with the artist Coenraad Jacob Temmick sold for $12,260 at Christie’s in 2013.
Courtesy of L’Hotel Particulier
Due to Arles’ highly unusual and complex history during the French Revolution (to be reductive, it was largely a pro-Royalist stronghold), many of the finest hôtel particuliers were left largely intact – something practically unheard of in the South of France. Such was the case for the Hôtel de la Chartrouse and amazingly the salons, ornate stairwell and many of the rooms had kept their initial proportions and held elements of the original decor when Brigitte Pagés de Oliveira acquired the property in 2000. She did restore a few of the bedrooms that had been cut in two to their original size of 50 m2 (538 sq. feet) and created a style that, while eminently conscious of the hotel’s prestigious predecessor, is now uniquely her own. 
“And what does that entail?” you might ask. After all of this history aren’t you extremely curious to see what this property is like today? It is after all, one of the most beautiful hotels in all of Provence in my (slightly biased) opinion.
Well then, you are in for a treat. For today, I have the privilege of blogging in tandem with my wonderful friend, the absolutely amazing Ellie O’Connell Decret who charms so many of us across the world with her pitch-perfect taste at Have Some Decorum. And yes, our doing a duet was her idea. So are you ready to finally push open the entrance to L’Hotel Particulier? Yes? Then by all means click HERE and enjoy…
L’Hotel Particulier
4 rue de la Monnaie
13200 – Arles
Tel.: +33 (0)4 90 51 52 40
www.hotel-particulier.com
PS. I would be remiss if I didn’t add that it really was quite a risk on Brigitte Pagés de L’Oliveira’s part to open a luxury property in the Roquette neighborhood, no matter how fascinating the hôtel was and is. While one of the oldest neighborhoods in Arles (near the Rhone River, it was traditionally home to sailors and sea merchants), it was one that tourists never set foot into due to its reputation of being home to boisterous Roma families and drug-dealers. That is changing, in large part due to the success of the hotel. And while I am not a fan of gentrification, that there is now a string of thriving new restaurants on the nearby rue des Porcelets is by no means an accident, something that is a great boost to the local economy. It is a neighborhood that is on the move and if you would like to see more of it you can do so by clicking here, here and here.
If you enjoyed this post and happen to find yourself in Arles, I give 2-3 hour private guided walks for up to six people that covers the 2000 years of history and culture of this incredibly diverse town. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested at

ro*************@ya***.com











 for further details.
Thank you for being here and for those of you that are visiting from chez Ellie, bienvenue!

When in doubt…déco

Would you like proof of how brain-addled I am due to this heatwave or canicule? A little while ago while getting ready to take the puppers out for their brief evening walk, I grabbed a bit of sun cream to put on – one can never be too careful (especially as a blue-eyed redhead – second only after albinos in terms of tendency towards skin cancer). Well, it was only after I had rubbed a big swath all across my cheek that I thought, “The texture feels weird” then, “Wait, this smells minty!” Yes, my friends, I was anointing myself with toothpaste. Organic toothpaste albeit but nonetheless…
So, perhaps it is best to down-shift my expectations this evening and keep it rather simple on the blog with not too many words involved lest I need to string them together and be held accountable for it. But there are a few things around the house that I wanted to share, so why not just make it a more decor-oriented week, at Lost in Arles – pas de problème, non? 

While it is slightly mind-boggling (and we have already made it clear that my mind is indeed boggled) to think that we moved into this house in the country nearly a year ago, there are still plenty of things to be done and tweaked. After waiting to the point where we both became deranged by seeing too much of the necessary junk packed in next to the firewood and trunk o’tools under the pavilion, I put up a pair of cream curtains, only to find that it looked like they were sheets and we were about to put on a puppet show. Fortunately, it is les soldes and so I was able to score a pair and a half (the half will rest below the courtyard’s stone sink) in just the right shape of taupe for only 6 Euros each. Look past the cutie and you will see them in the photo above. Visual obstructions obscured!
Remi, for his part, found these smart tea-light holders at Casa (for my French friends here – it is where you go to get all your candles too, right?) for only 1.50 each. His is going to redo his rock arrangement at the base of the olive tree so that they fit right in and already, they look just lovely in the night.
But what about rethinking/the tinkering? As we were crazily restrictive when we first moved in about what “art” we would put up on the walls, there have been things that I have found myself missing. Namely, our antique batiks from Bali. This is what our first floor landing looked like when we first moved in. It has been home to a kind Buddha that we brought back from Phnom Penh since then but walking by one afternoon, I saw a nail in the wall at just the right height and thought to give a batik a try.
My first attempt, the oldest of our little collection, smelled still of its earthy vegetable dyes when I took it out of its wrapping. And yet, despite the helpful presence of a handsome doggy, it was too heavy, too  overwhelming.
I thought of another of the batik holders, a mischievous one – whose sculpted faces were still swathed in bubble-wrapped from the move (my doing) which lead me to set them free…
…and try the magical blue prancing stag batik. I dragged the bench at the end of the bed in order to put it up and thought, “Well that looks rather nice there. I have always wanted a tiny place to perch.”
Plus, the tones worked nicely with our 1940’s unfinished portrait – one who has always reminded me of my Mom and so is one of my favorites.
So Voila! A bit more interesting, non?
I don’t miss the bench and yes have already used it when I need a good solid think…as in it might come in handy right about now…
…because did I mention the heat? Some of you might have heard about it on the news. For you see, this is not just about me whining (or whinging if you prefer) but is a national crisis. During a canicule, the temperatures remain extremely high all the time, even at night so that the body has a hard time cooling down. It is especially dangerous for babies and the elderly. This is the worst canicule since 2003 when nearly 15,000 people passed away due to heat-related causes.
We are trying to be wise about it all. Ben has it figured out as you can see…

…even when he is in the garden, he knows to take cover.
Kipling, our rascal, loves his sun alas (he also like to remain touching his loved ones whenever possible). Has it had an effect on his thinking? You tell me…
Yes, that would be a corncob playing the role of evil alien. Oh, Kip. Well, at least I am not the only one…
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and for those that are celebrating in the States, Happy Fourth of July!

The magical courtyard at Hervé Baume – Avignon

I suppose that it should come as no surprise that one of France’s most reputed antiquaires and designers of garden furniture, Hervé Baume, should have a spectacular courtyard behind his boutique in Avignon……and yet as many times as I have wistfully peered in his showroom windows I had never discovered its existence.

 For that I have to give credit to my friend L, who, while I was doing a fair amount of shopping in my imagination, had stepped further along the sidewalk and said, “Oh, what is in here?” Now, I know as a travel writer it is my duty to be inquisitive but at times I am admittedly very timid about walking into anything that might be “Propriété Privée” – it is the American in me. However, as I was out and about with such an elegant personnage as L, I knew that no one would dare to say anything unkind to us and so I followed…

And found a secret corner of Provençal heaven.

Every element was just perfect. From the calade or cobble-stones to the gorgeous plantings in waist-high Anduze planters (more than I have ever seen at one time) and sky blue shutters rising above.
While the courtyard is quite vast (the entryway is high and wide enough to have accommodated even the most elegant of horse-drawn carriages), there are still numerous corners and decorative elements to discover. If “the eye has to travel” according to the fabulous Diana Vreeland, well, then mine went on a little journey…
…under the archway and up the sweeping stone staircase, an escalier d’honneur…
…with glimpses of the soft pastels of classical frescos above…

…coming back down to a mysterious oeil de bouef opening below…

…and even an artists atelier worthy of Picasso en face. 

But each detail only strengthened the whole…
…and the overall effect was that of a living, joy-filled garden…
…one where I could have made myself comfortable for a very long time indeed.
But the rest of the afternoon was calling. 
As I ducked back out into the bright sun, I noted the plaque by  the main entrance, naming this incredibly fine building the Hôtel Tonduty de Malijac. It turns out that this 16th century private mansion passed in the 17th century to Baron François Tonduty de Malijac, who was a Seigneur of Saint-Légier, a legal advisor, a dignitary for the University of Avignon and an astronomer formed by a Jesuit! In 1983, the building – for its facade, roof and yes, courtyard with its stairway – was declared a Monument Historique.
As we crossed back in front of the showroom, I realized that I really needed to share some of the goods on offer with my fellow antiques lovers out there. For you see it is les soldes and amazingly, everything was already marked at half off…

.Now, let’s see…and I apologize that these photos are not up to snuff. As I mentioned, the brightness of the outdoor light made for quite a contrast to the darkened interior…Ah yes, it was L who pointed out the giant and quite rare woven basket at 125 Euros. I appreciated the sea-shelled filled dome at a mere 30. 
Certainly, the gilt touched console was still not a bargain at 4000 but I could easily see the lamps in a beach house at 125 each, thought of a friend who would have swooned over the blue and white garden pot at 30 and was fascinated by the intricately etched smoke glass jar for 130. Below were tall crystal photophores for 120 and an ex-voto that I most certainly wouldn’t have been able to resist at 25.
 I don’t know whether it was a good thing or bad that the boutique was still closed for the afternoon break. As I passed by the entrance, I spied the owner himself seated just inside, chatting with a friend. He regarded my photo-taking with a supercilious eyebrow raised as if to say, “Well, who might you be, my dear girl?” Only an admirer of your magic, Mr. Baume. Only an admirer…
Hervé Baume
Antiques, Garden Furniture and Decorative Objects
19 Rue de la Petite Fusterie
84000 – Avignon
Tel.: +33 (0)4 90 86 37 66
http://www.herve-baume.com/
I honestly don’t know if the courtyard is open all of the time or if we just were lucky! But it truly is one of the prettiest that I have seen in Provence. You will find the entry to the left of the boutique. Perhaps you will let me know if you happen to pass by?
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