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| The Independent Traveler's Newsletter PAGE TWO |
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| The Independent Traveler's Newsletter PAGE TWO |
| ICI ET LÀ |
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in France or France-related events taking place in the United States & elsewhere between now and the publication of our next issue. In France. . . o A debate erupted at the end
of 2018 after an academic exhibition that proposed that the Cathars
never existed. A history professor at Paul-Valery University in
Montpellier, Alessia Trivellone, organized the exhibit and said,
"People imagine that these people died as heroes in defense of their
faith and against corrupt powers. They feel that the very idea of
going back to investigate this painful story is unbearable." She is one
of a growing number of early modern Europe scholars who are casting
doubt on the Cathars existence, and she has become the target of
critics along with other historians as only wanting to further their
careers. But, this debate and its backlash revealed
the lingering resentment in this part of southern France over Paris'
domination of the country's culture and economy. Wounds remain
from the 13th century crusade and slaughter of the Cathars and
the subsequent elimination of the language and culture in the region
and substitution of northern values. Trivellone went on to
say "“Myths are the very foundation of a social group or of a
civilization, a sometimes indispensable cement of societies. The
myth of the Cathars is even stronger because it allows people to
identify with the vanquished of history.” Now, some 800 years
later, the region of Languedoc-Roussillon and the
Midi-Pyrénées, an area about the size of Austria, has
been renamed Occitanie,
(pronounced oxy-ta-nee) paying homage to the language of 'langue d'oc' spoken in Cathar
territory before the purge. [source: Los
Angeles Times]
o We neglected to mention in our last issue that six specially trained rooks, members of the crow family that include carrion crows, jackdaws and ravens, are picking up cigarette butts and rubbish at the Puy du Fou park in the Vendée département of western France. Because they are especially intelligent and enjoy communicating with humans, they establish a relationship through play. The park visitors are careful to keep things clean, but the birds will show that nature can take care of the environment as well. The birds keep the park 'spruced up' and receive a tasty treat dispensed from a small box each time they deposit a cigarette but or small piece of rubbish. [source: AFP] o Bulgarian-American artist Christo, and his late French wife, Jeanne-Claude, once draped the Pont Neuf in Paris with his famous canvas art. Their dream was to do the same with the Arc de Triomphe, and the 83 year-old will do just that April 6 through 19, 2020. Entitled Projet Pour Paris, Place de l'Etoile-Charles de Gaulle it will be in conjunction with a retrospective of the artist's life in Paris at the Centre Pompidou. o Our good friends at Fromages.com told us about the winners for the Best Cheeses of 2019 selected by the jury at the annual Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris at the end of February. And, the winners were: the creamy Brillat-Savarin, the delicate Perail de Brebis, the elegant Ste Maure de Touraine, the nutty Pont l'Eveque, the powerful Epoisses, and the vigorous Roquefort. A champion cheese board to enjoy!  You
can visit their wonderful web site, peruse the vast selection of
luscious French cheese, and order online. Cheese is shipped
overnight by FedEx to arrive fresh at your next party or
gathering. Delivery to many countries of the world.
Information about Fromages.com can be found at https://www.fromages.com/en/
in English. Location: Marche de Gros Rochepinard, Avenue
Vatel, 37000 Tours, France. Phone: 33.2.47.56.17.17,
Email: info@fromages.com.
o
Normandy will be the
location of solemn commemorations, parades and fireworks in honor of
the valiant Allied forces who stormed its beaches on June 6,
1944. The annual D-Day Festival will commence on May 25 and
continue through June 16 with concerts, military processions, and
shows,
and on June 5th 300 paratroopers will drop from a fleet of 30 Dakota
airplanes (Douglas DC-3s) in the first mass airdrop since Operation
Overlord. For more information: www.normandie-tourisme.fr.
See page
four of this newsletter for a summary
of the events.
FRCE o May 18 is free Museum Night across France. Beginning at 6PM, visitors can avail themselves of tours, performances and more until midnight, all at no cost other than enduring the endless queues to enter each museum. More information at https://nuitdesmusees.culture.gouv.fr/. o 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci at his Loire Valley home, Château du Clos Lucé, as well as the 500th Anniversary of the French Renaissance and the birth of Catherine de Medici, in Florence, Italy. Visitors to the Loire will find this year-long celebration throughout the Loire Valley and a good time will be had by all. Details at https://www.vivadavinci2019.fr/. o The French Open will be played on the clay tennis courts of Stade Roland Garros in Paris from May 26 to June 9. For information visit https://www.rolandgarros.com. o 2019 is the 100th anniversary of the death of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and you are invited to his home in Essoyes (Champagne region) to see his house, garden, studio and original works. Dates and prices can be found at http://renoir-essoyes.fr/fr/accueil/. o The 50th anniversary of the first human to step on the Moon is an opportunity to study, present and celebrate the long history that links humans with this familiar celestial body through artwork and objects that embody the countless visions and emotions it has inspired. A five-part exhibition is a journey to the Moon through dimensions both real and imaginary. Each stage takes visitors on a voyage through time, revealing artistic creations from Antiquity to the modern day. At the Grand Palais, Galeries nationales from now through July 22, 2019. Information at https://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/moon o Artist Raoul Dufy was born in Le Havre, a place that inspired him throughout his life. He visited his native Normandy numerous times between 1926 and 1933 to paint seascapes, Le Havre's busy pier and scenes of the harbor. He once said, 'Woe to the man who lives in a climate far from the sea." An exhibit of his art will be presented at Le Havre's Musée d'Art Moderne André Malraux from May 3rd to November 3rd. Details at www.muma-lehavre.fr. o The FIFA Women's World Cup will be held in 9 venues throughout beautiful France from June 7 to July 7. : Rennes, Valenciennes, Grenoble, Lyon, Montpellier, Nice, Paris (Parc des Princes), Le Havre and Reims. There will be 52 matches, and ticket information can be found here. 
DID YOU
KNOW? It
is against the law to carry live snails on a high-speed train in France In the U.S. 
 o New Orleans, Louisiana's National WWII Museum hosts the exhibit The Memory of What I Cannot Say, the vivid abstract paintings of Guy de Montlaur (1918-1977), a veteran of the Free French Commandos who landed on Sword Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944 and went on to become an established painter. He served his country from 1938 until 1945. This exhibit is now through October 20, 2019. The museum is located at 945 Magazine Street in New Orleans. For further information: https://www.nationalWW2museum.org/. o The Boston Museum of Fine Arts
presents Toulouse-Lautrec
and the Stars of Paris through August 4, 2019. Focusing on
the stars and
denizens of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's bohemian cabaret world, this
exhibit offers a
guided tour of fin-de-siècle
Paris at night, bringing a group of its legendary protagonists to
life. For more information visit https://www.mfa.org.
THE
BOOKSHELF. . . The
Little(r) Museums of Paris
by Emma Jacobs
We especially enjoyed reading about the
Musée Carnavalet,
once the Hôtel Carnavalet and occupied by one Marquise de
Sévigné whose husband died years before in a duel over another woman! Or, the Musée de la
Préfecture de Police, filled with information and
collections about assassins, thieves and spies, it also exhibits
(behind glass) projectiles thrown at police honoring the venerable
French tradition of street protests. One mustn't miss the Musée de la Contrefaçon (the Museum of
Counterfeiting) which covers everything from faux designer products
such
as handbags and shoes to unexpected fakes such as Tabasco sauce,
dictionaries and vacuum cleaners. The dangers of counterfeit
products are also presented such as headphones that might explode, and,
of course, counterfeit currency is also on display. Then, on a more serious note, the
Musée
de Cluny - Musée national du Moyen Âge, Galerie-Musée
Baccarat, and Musée
Yves Saint Laurent, and so many others are also described in a
way to encourage you to visit. The author has a fine but subtle sense
of humor which makes this not only a guide book but an enjoyable read
at any time. Her illustrations are light and lovely, and she
provides addresses, opening hours, admission prices and the nearest
Métro. We hope you will find this new book not only
informative and entertaining but very useful during your next stay in
Paris.
Emma
Jacobs is a multimedia journalist and illustrator and has reported for
NPR and PRI's This book will not be
available until June
4th, but you can pre-order now by clicking here. A Hidden Gem in the French Countryside: Toul   Occasionally we come upon
a church or cathedral under renovation, and we donate a small amount of
euros to the cause as we know that a huge amount of money will be
needed no matter how small or large the project. That was the
case when we visited Toul last year. This little commune in the
Meurthe-et-Moselle département
of Lorraine (in the region now known as Grand
Est) is home to a magnificent cathedral ~ something that came as
quite a surprise as we were simply looking for a place to stop for
lunch! Right across from the cathedral, under extensive
renovation, we enjoyed a light meal all the while enjoying the beauty
of
this magnificent building.Toul is a commune in Lorraine located between Commercy and Nancy. The Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toul is of Gothic, Late Gothic (also known as Flamboyant) and Renaissance architecture. Ground was broken for it in the 4th century (the year of 365 to be exact), opened in 1210, and it was completed in the 16th century. But, there is more to Toul than we previously knew. It was the base for American forces in both the first and second World Wars. Toul was the primary base of the Air Service, United States Army, a predecessor to the US Air Force during World War I. It was the base for many of the 45 wartime squadrons of the First Army Air Service. Two major operations were launched from here: the St Mihiel Offensive and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, both in September of 1918. In World War II, the American 358th Fighter Group used Toul-Croix de Metz airfield in the fall of 1944 and spring of 1945. Toul-Rosiers Air Base was an American NATO air base in the 1950s and 1960s. You may have heard of the 94th Aero Squadron, a US Army unit that fought on the Western Front in WWII. It was one of the first American pursuit squadrons to reach the Western Front and see combat, and became one of the most famous. It was based in Toul. Perhaps the most striking feature of Toul are the impressive stone ramparts, the work of Vauban, Louis XIV's military engineer. He designed a new enclosure in 1698 and it was built over the next two years. Several of Vauban's fortifications in France are listed as a combined UNESCO World Heritage Site, although Toul's have not yet been included. It is believe there was a fortified town here since the earliest recorded history. .  
Aerial view of
Toul
Cathédrale Saint-Étienne's Pipe
Organ
Façade of the
Cathedral
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