Cork, Ireland

Looking up our street. Our house is the dark blue on the left.

Cork is the second city in Ireland but to us it is a cozy, small city where everything is relaxed and easy.  Kind of hi-tech, kind of outdoorsy, lots of good food.  Dozens of music venues.

We are staying in the area near the Shandon bells, overlooking the River Lee and downtown.  Our street is called Roman Street but we do not know why--not even an outpost of the Roman empire. Here as elsewhere, houses are snugged together and painted bright colors.  This is our first try at a hostel--it is working out well though we have not made friends with the 20-something Russian guys who are the only other guests we have met.  Neither language or sports in common.

We have used our time here to wander a bit, veg a bit and take care of various chores.  Tomorrow we are taking a bus, then a ferry to Cape Clear Island for a week's stay in one of the premier birdwatching areas.  And they have standing stones and dolmens.  And a pub-cafe-grocery business. They have everything there!

We continually comment on how different it is here than our two most recent countries.  This feels more like Burlington, VT  or Missoula, MT than anywhere else so far.  One of the pleasures of Europe--noticeable cultural and language differences within a day of travel.  So we are entering a new cultural area--what fun.

On our street.

The Four Liars Cafe, our lunch spot.

It is hilly and has many streets that are only steps.

Everything is first in Gaelic, then English.  We hear Gaelic in the grocery store and on the bus.

Entering Ireland on the ferry from France.  This village is about 30 minutes by ferry from Cork but is the first place we saw.

Paris street signs that make us smile

Eyes wide open for altered street signs--we found a few in Paris as we wandered Saint-Germain-Des-Pres area on the Left Bank.  

Sign near Bonaparte Street

We never figured out the meaning of this one.  Is the man conducting the numbers like an orchestra?
Is he fenced in by numbers?

This is more like the ones we saw in Italy but may be a different artist.

We loved finding these signs in many places in Italy.  We had more time to follow up and look around. Thus, we learned that most were done by Clet Abraham, a graffitisti who lives in Florence.

Click here to go to our blog post showing signs in Italy that made us smile.  We are in Brittany now which is beautiful.  But all the street signs are just signs.  Oh well!

In Paris, Sacre Coeur, and the 1870s

We've arrived in Paris. How beautiful it is now, in April!

On the grounds of the Grand Palais

Our first project in Paris was to see the Velasquez exhibit at the Grand Palais on Monday morning, but there was a 2-hour wait to get in. Silly us, not buying tickets ahead!

Figure on Grand Palais, Paris

So we went over to the Grand Palais coffee shop (not connected) and used my phone to sign up for Velasquez on Wednesday, while we had a darling lunch, what in Rome we would call "antipasti" but which here are called "entrees."

We got a French cheese sampler with rounds of bread, and samoussa which were three little fried pockets with cheese and sausage inside. A house white and a house red. We waited rather a while for the service, but hey, it took all that time and more to sign up for the tickets - setting up an account with full info and password, confirming, confirming again, selecting the tickets, confirming again, paying by credit card, confirming and confirming, and saving the image to the phone.

Eventually it worked, and our food came, and we ate with pleasure, and then I went over to the Petit Palais for a different show while Julianne sat in a pretty little park, but the Petit Palais was closed.

Petit Palais, closed

I bought a map of Paris and we sat in the park and figured we'd go to Sacre Coeur, which neither of us had seen  After a few false starts as to direction, we got to the right bus stop and the right bus, and up the hill we went, up and up and up.

The day got a whole lot better. Especially as our bus passed Gare St. Lazare, which I actually remembered (never having seen it before) as the locale of a painting by - who? Renoir? no, by Manet - of a woman and child surrounded by the fog of the steam engine on a walk above the tracks. A statement about modernity, there in 1873. I remembered the painting, sort of. Turned out my memory wasn't quite precise, for you can hardly see the station. So how did I place it correctly? Ah, memory is a marvellous trickster! The painting itself is in the National Gallery in DC, but I don't recall seeing it there.

The Railway by Manet

Well, never mind. We got to the top of the bus route, got another bus, got to the top of that route, and there was Sacre Coeur in its glory.

Sacre Coeur from the southeast

Really worth the trip. From the plaza, this view:

From the steps of Sacre Coeur

Facing the city, King Saint Louis

Griffin downspout

Now it turns out there was a tremendous amount of political turmoil surrounding the creation of the basilica. The French Revolution (1793), and rise of Napoleon, the re-establishment of a monarchy, the secular/democratic uprisings of 1848 all over Europe, the establishment of the 3rd Republic in 1870 and the loss of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 - France had been through a lot. 

The basilica would never have been built if France had won the Franco-Prussian War. Seems the fearful situation France found itself in made many people wish for a safe haven, and they turned to old verities. Construction was authorized in 1873, the year of Manet's painting (above).

Discussing the war in a French cafe, 1870
from Wikipedia article on Franco-Prussian War

Wikipedia has a good outline of the controversy between the progressive secularist communards and conservative religious royalists. See the article on Sacre-Coeur, scrolling down to "Basilique of the Sacre Coeur." Perhaps the article supports the religious fervor of the conservatives, but of course it was only a moment in French history, which is resolutely secular these days. Church-minded people all over France contributed to the start of the work, but public money was used to finish it. The cornerstone was laid in 1875, and it was essentially completed in 1897.

The basilica is white. Why is that? Because, it turns out, it's made of travertine, which exudes calcite, which flaking away removes the pollution. Mainly. A bit of pollution helps work out the wonderful carving in this detail near the main entry. It's actually carved in 3-dimensions:

We went inside, which is quite grand, but there were 3 or 4 eagle-eyed guards spoiling the atmosphere by hissing No Photo!, so no photos.

However, after that we went around behind the church to where there are a thousand-million tourist shops and hawkers, and had coffee in a so-called Irish bar. Along came a guy selling the experience of supporting a parrot on your shoulder, and I got this shot of a redhead with parrot:

A very nice finish to our time at Sacre Coeur. We took the funicular down the hill, got a bus through Montmartre neighborhood (8 or 9 sex shops per block), and came home uplifted.

by Nancy

French meal at a local restaurant in Marseille

Different country, different food.  And all so good.  These wandering Americans--us-- think we may have wandered early into heaven.

France and Italy are so close and both are places that take food seriously.  We have been so enchanted discovering Italian food but now we have moved to an area which approaches it differently.  Another approach to savor--what could be bad?

In Italy the perfect ingredient from the local soil is presented simply.  Emphasis is on the local cuisine so eating Tuscan food in Rome is eating foreign food. Each meal is several courses presented in succession.  Each dish has a few simple but perfectly prepared ingredients.  Roman cacio e pepe--pasta, cheese and black pepper.  The ideal restaurant is a family business with several generations working together making food for the people who live within a few blocks. It took us awhile to figure out how to order and taste but we got better and even learned a bit how to make things. We had a steep learning curve because we were aware of Italian-American food which is also good but culturally American.  We had to unlearn and then learn anew.  What fun!

Now we can re-learn the French approach.  We have been here before so we have more to build on. And we grew up watching Julia Child on public television.  We speak more French.  We will not starve.

Tonight we had dinner in what might be the French ideal restaurant.  O'bidul (pictured above) is a tiny restaurant at the end of our block.  The name means "a tiny thing" or a "gadget." The owner and the diners at the next table worked out what English words might work. It meets my fantasy of the ideal anyway and is what I search for.  In this case, one young man has created his dream restaurant which holds just a few people.  He offers two entrees (appetizer) and two plats (entree or main course in American). Wine, desert and coffee.  He chooses food each day that is local, seasonal and works together.

Menu of the day

Some food writers speak of Marseille as an emerging food scene.  Paris remains the center of the French food world of course, but real estate prices are so high that new folks have a hard time breaking in with their little start-ups.  Paris offers various versions of "house cafes" such as New York and San Francisco are experimenting with. Maybe I can report back next week.  But here, ordinary people can afford start-ups and ordinary people can afford to eat in them. Just walking around our block we find about 10 little local places for food and wine including our little restaurant--O'bidul. We might have entered a Trip-Advisor-free zone. We are in an area of Marseille near the Place du Rome (it helps since we miss Rome).  Our closest metro is Cours Julien.  So we do not know what would be on offer in another area of town. I can't riff on Marseille's food scene but it has its share of Michelin stars and tourist restaurants in the Vieux Port.  What a great life it would be to have a chance to try more.  Our lunches and dinner so far are great.  Marseille obviously needs more time than we have planned for exploration.

Chef/owner Fabrice

Back to O'bidul.  The chef/owner, Bazin Fabrice, opened his place about two years ago. He is from Marseille.  He is from another section of town but likes this area for his restaurant.  Our French and his English do not rise to us understanding the reason.  He buys food in the morning markets, serves lunch and dinner to about 35 people per day.  He is always fully booked but we were able to get a booking for the next evening.  He seems to do everything himself--cooking, serving, clearing tables. He is a genial guy and very pleased to greet and feed his customers. 

We ordered one of each entree and plat with house white wine.  Cold salmon mixed with parsley and tomatos; warm cheese in pastry --both with a small salad of bitter greens.  Each plate had a mix of flavors including bitter, sweet, tangy with chives or other seasonings to enhance the mix.  Our palates are adjusted to Italian wherein each flavor is presented separately and sequentially.  This is great too.

Entrees.

The plats were red fish with bok choi and duck breast with grilled onion.  Both came with bulgar mixed with cheese.  The mix of flavors and textures within the plat was delicious.  Our mouths were singing.

Plat with photo of our friends who had planned to join us
but had to cancel because of illness.  We thought of them during dinner.

The house white wine was a rich combination of mildly sweet with a mild bitter undertone.  Not much of the acid in the back of the mouth that I love so much but I thoroughly enjoyed the wine.  He has bottles of wine too but we did not know much about any of them and decided to trust the judgement of the house as to what would go with the food.  Good choice.  It all worked.

How does this happen? We were too full for dessert again.  Really?  They offered a cheese plate, chocolate mousse or pineapple in brown sugar with nuts.  I wanted to ask the neighboring table for just a taste but managed to be a little socially appropriate. I also did not take a picture of their dessert. 

Too full for dessert again.

A common complaint about French cuisine is the cost.  No complaint here.  Dinner with wine--49 Euros.  That is about what we paid in Italy usually too.  It causes us to wonder about the economies of the areas and how such businesses survive and thrive.  But we would have to live here for a long time and really learn how to speak so we are resigned to wondering and appreciating.

Out the door and turn toward home--the local jazz club beckons.  But for us, another night for jazz. Off home.

Jazz Club on Dieude Street--our street.

Text by Julianne.

Photos by both.

Eating and drinking--ahhh!

Marseille in a Nutshell

We are only in Marseille for 3 days, but not surprisingly, there's a lot to say about it.

First, the spelling of the name. I always thought it was Marseilles. I've been calling it Marseilles for years! But even though Google will respond to that spelling, it turns out to be wrong. I think I got to adding the -s because of the Marseillaise (click on the title to hear the song). That song became the national anthem of France when volunteer soldiers from Marseille sang it as they entered Paris in 1792, during the Revolution. It's definitely a bloody song, but very thrilling.

And a little surprising, too. Marseille refused to come under the rule of Paris for hundreds of years, and here it is providing the national anthem? Wonders never cease.

I found a map of Marseille in Wikipedia, dated 1575, when it was so small it could be surrounded by a single wall, and only existed on the west side of the inlet now called the Vieux Port. It was "-s free" even then.

Marseille in 1575, from Wikipedia

It was about a hundred years after this map that Marseille was finally forced into France for good. After many years of independence, followed by uprisings, squashings by various would-be rulers, followed by more uprisings, Louis XIV at the head of his army had a go at it, and that was that. He built two forts, Saint-Jean and Saint-Nicholas, one on either side of the entrance to the Vieux Port waterway. The cannons pointed in toward the city - making plain who was the enemy. These forts are still there and are in use. Not as forts, of course.

Today's Vieux Port, Marseille, from the inland end.

The Fort Saint-Jean is the location of MUCEM, the Museum of European and Mediterranean Culture. It was my first tourist activity here (Julianne took a train tour of the city instead). The museum is tucked into the fort in an odd way, and also uses a couple other buildings, an old port building called J4, and a new building called Villa Mediterranee. They comport oddly, but entertainingly.

Entry to MUCEM through Fort Saint-Jean

Fort Saint-Jean is behind me. Far left, out of view, an overhead walkway to J4, which is clad in a lacy metal veil.
Near left, the Villa Mediterranee, with ships behind it. Center in the background, Cathedral la Major.
Foreground, part of Fort Saint-Jean landscaped for a park.
Right, some building perhaps from the 1960s?

A few details from the various buildings of MUCEM:

Dead end.

Outdoor sculpture, detail

Metal trellis within Fort Saint-Jean

Rooftop deck of J4

Below, how the building sits into its setting. I'm on land. The point of building on the left is the park visible in the panorama above. The walkway goes between the fort and J4 with its metal veil as above. The Villa Mediterranee is out of sight to the right.

There is basically no art collection to be seen in MUCEM. The buildings are the exhibit, I think.

They did have a video, though, and it was wonderful. The history of the Mediterranean Basin in 4 films over 45 minutes, from geological beginnings up to the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI. Really worth seeing, and a lot about the Ottomans in the Mediterranean, including the actions of sultans whose period we are reading about in some mystery novels. How interesting that reference point made the film!

We have a perfectly grand place to stay in. This is because our dear friends Raleigh and Scott were supposed to join us here, but sickness kept them away. The place is great, but we miss them.

French Provincial chairs, ice cream colors

Orchid, print of George Grosz drawings
We were surprised to see him here!
I've always thought of him as Mr. Anti.
There were good reasons at the time.

The dining room. Such consistency in
color palette.

We've done some things besides MUCEM. Took a tram out to the end of its line, through what had been the medieval part of town, which was flattened by the Nazis trying to dislodge the Resistance. Now the buildings are very new and some are nifty. Walked from our apartment on rue Dieude over to the Vieux Port; went to a grocery; strolled our neighborhood. Some pictures:

Square near Tourist Info, Chamber of Commerce in background

Carrousel horse

Not a carrousel horse

Pierre Puget, painter, sculptor, architect
1620-1694
Not the one who named Puget Sound

Above our street.
This picture and the next by Julianne.

After the protest march, rue de Rome near our place

These are anti-austerity protesters.
Austerity is a major source of unhappiness now.

Also protesters, near City Hall.
The paper reported 7,000 marchers, but we didn't see most of them

Cardboard mountain for kids to play with

Notre Dame de la Garde, from the Vieux Port
Picture by Julianne

Our other adventures include supper at the neighborhood gourmet restaurant, truly just around the corner - Julianne is doing a separate posting on it. And a boat trip out to some islands, the Archipel du Frioul. More on that to come. And then we'll be gone, on to Paris.

by Nancy, with 3 pictures by Julianne

Archeology of Aventine Hill

Servian wall in Aventine area, Rome.  Built 4th C. BC to protect against Gaul/Celt invasions.  Each long block is about 18" long.  Made of the local volcanic stone before fired bricks and cement were invented.

Archeology of Aventine Hill: seminar and walking tour
Worlds opening yet again in many and unexpected ways.

The heart of the Roman Empire.  I have traveled around the edges from the Jordanian and Syrian cities of the decapolis to the remote trading posts in the Tunisian desert or Londinium.  Now, I have managed to reach the center only to find that the Republic and Empire have been overlaid by so many other eras and uses that confusion abounds when trying to sort out my thoughts.  Sigh.

But that is the joy of retirement and the leisure to wander.  My luck is to have access to some of the best in current archeology in Rome.  A couple of weeks ago, I was privileged to participate in a seminar and walking tour specializing in an area of Rome but which was less-renowned but always within the walls.  That and a few other opportunities have helped me grasp some of the complexity of this city which has been central to western civilization for so many centuries.

The American Academy in Rome (AAR) sponsored a seminar bringing together archeological knowledge with a broader interest in the relationship between the built environment and historical social process.  This event had a star-studded cast as far as I am concerned: superintendent of the National Museum of Rome, superintendent of archeology of Lazio and Etruria, professors of medieval archeology, roman archeology and much, much more.  Be still my heart. All I had to do was show up.

The seminar, on March 24, included presentations on specific areas of Aventine Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome, just SW of Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, the true heart of historical Rome. Aventine is a Rome neighborhood now of upscale housing and religious communities.  In the past it was suburban or farmland, but within the defined area of the city at least from the 4th C. BC.

In addition to superb consolidation of previous information, recent research was explored and fitted within the framework of the area. Lisa Mignone, previously a fellow of AAR and one of the early speakers, set the stage for the discussion which looked at Aventine in a structural mode as a rural/suburban area which functioned to provide stability to the city of Rome and the Roman Republic.  Several participants spoke to me as if this is a somewhat new direction in thinking for Roman Archeology, which has been in a collection and salvage mode for a very long time, for obvious reasons.  It appears that one of the gifts that AAR brings is pulling together strands of thought from varying disciplines and in this case enlarging the frame of the discussion.

Roman archeology is coping with the continued difficulty of making sense of what is already collected, salvaging what is being disrupted, and relating what is known to the on-going life of the city.  In addition to the presenters and partners already mentioned, the Stalker Collective, a group of Roman architects and urbanists interested in the intersections of urban life, participated in the seminar and led a walking tour the following day to key sites discussed. Lorenzo Romito, one of the key Stalker participants, kindly watched out for me and translated for me quite often.  Read more about the Stalker Collective here and here.  The mix is totally counter-intuitive and just fascinating. The AAR is to be congratulated for participating in bringing these sets of people together.  I hope I will be able to follow the thought which comes out of the junction but it will likely be fairly local to Rome and mostly in Italian.  My loss.

I have had the privilege to participate in two other excellent archeological seminars since arriving. One, also at the American Academy, pulled together excavations which reached as far back as Iron-Age farming and irrigation in an area where a new Metro Line C station is being built near San Giovanni Laterano. Later, another at the British School of Rome discussed their ongoing exploration of the Adriatic during the Dark Ages and Medieval Era.

Since I haven't remained in academia and was only peripherally connected to archeology anyway, I am having such a good time opening doors to new areas.  Here, a term used in the discussions is "wormhole." I am not sure if it has widespread academic usage but it seems so.  However, it is a handy term to state that we are looking down through the earth in a hole and have only bits of knowledge from that spot.  We pull together the information from multiple wormholes to try to make some sense of the eras we are learning about.

Our Aventine Hill walking adventure explored several wormholes with specific information and insights on key areas and eras. An overall theme is of the Aventine area as a rural area within the walls of one of the densest cities known on earth during the era of the Roman Empire.

Pilgrims during the Dark Ages--Arch of San Lazzaro
We started in the Dark Ages/Medieval Period.  This is the period between about 500-1200 AD. Much can be written or discussed about the names of these times but it is way too much for this blog.  Just go with these terms for now.  The Arch of San Lazzaro, our meeting point, was also the meeting point for Christian pilgrims who were leaving the safety of the city walls for the pilgrimage to St. Paul Outside the Walls, where St. Paul is buried. The arch is now a remnant outside an upscale restaurant beside a busy street.  Our bus goes there so I have become interested in this fragment which looks so minor now but was a major transition from safety to danger for pilgrims in the past.

The arch which remains was attached to the chapel and hospital of San Lazzaro, the hospital for lepers.  Pilgrims typically donated to the hospital prior to their journey to St. Paul several miles south.  The hospital was demolished in the 19 C to build the big road now there.  But, the arch we see is actually a left-over from an earlier structure, the giant warehouse used when Rome was an empire importing tons of grain through the ports at Testaccio.  It was constructed after fired brick and cement replaced tufa stone as the predominant building material--about 2nd C. BC. Other remnants of the warehouses are found around Testaccio.  I just love that so many things we see are reuses of many prior functions: warehouse, hospital, upscale restaurant and my bus stop.

Arch of San Lazzaro

San Saba Church
Other medieval stops along our tour included San Saba Church and the upper levels of Santa Prisca Church and Santa Sabina Church.  Aventine is good for remains of this period since it was not a prized area during the Renaissance and Baroque periods so the earlier forms and art remain.  Most of Rome was so remodeled during the Renaissance and Baroque that you can barely discern the medieval city.  I love the visuals of the medieval period so I delight in the Aventine area which still has many remnants.

This church was built by refugees from the Bethlehem area, able to found a community since the area was lightly used when they arrived to seek refuge.  Although it was founded in 645, it was remodeled in the 12th C so the frescoes are from that period.  I am unclear about the mosaics which may have been from the earlier period.  The relic of San Saba is only a small part of the burial; the remains of Mar (Saint) Saba were taken back to the monastery near Bethlehem where the original refugees came from and which remains an active monastic community.

San Saba Church with mosaics and frescos.
Founded in 645 by Palestinian Christian refugees.

Severan Wall-- built during 4th C. BC.
Several stops included the Severan wall which was built around Rome in the 4th C. BC when Rome and other parts of Italy were invaded by the Celts/Gauls coming in from the area that is now France. The earliest building material for the walls is the yellowish volcanic stone called "tuff"--see the top photo in the blog.  The walls were repaired and maintained using smaller blocks of limestone and mortar as in these photos.  In the Middle Ages, local farmers cut the stone and built houses within the wall.

Severan wall.as repaired in 1 C. BC

Severan wall showing where
a Medieval house had been built into the wall.

Severan wall detail: channel is house foundation.

Mausoleo di Cilone
The Mausoleo di Cilone (Mausoleum of the Cilone family) was another wormhole in a section of Aventine which has remained like a country meadow for much or all of its history.  The Mausoleo is under continued excavation, no public access.  Lights and access for us though.  These photos show our arrival and the interior of the site.  It was the grave of a family for centuries.  During the Middle Ages it was used for storage for agricultural products of the surrounding area and has remained undisturbed by modern building, unlike most of Aventine.

Santa Prisca Parish Church
The Santa Prisca Church wormhole, our next area, by contrast was relatively heavily used at least from the 1 C. AD.  Since it was well within the Severan wall and looks out toward Palatine Hill, the probability is that the area was used beginning in the early Iron Age for farming and housing but the evidence has not emerged.  Exploration is ongoing in several areas. The archeological sites are so dense and of such quality that it is clear that the area will offer much more over time.

Sta. Prisca, the current Catholic parish church, was a Christian monastic church from at least the 5 C. AD. It was previously a Mithraeum (place of worship for the cult of Mithras) during the Roman Imperial Era (Julius Caesar and later), and before that it appears to have been a temple for Diana (or Artemis to the Greeks), possibly during the republic and imperial eras.  We had an opportunity to don hard hats and go in small groups to several places in the general location.  I visited only 2 which I show below.  First I show the Mithraeum below the Medieval Church both of which are directly below the current parish church.

Entrance to excavations at Santa Prisca Church

Altar of Mithraeum with partial figure of Mithras.
Usually Mithras was shown sacrificing a bull.

Probably Egytpian ceramic bowl from Imperial Era.
Embedded in stone, entrance to both Mithraeum and Medieval church.

Earliest foundations prior to use as Mithraeum

Detail of foundation showing stone used after about 100 BC.

Christian frescos just above Mithraeum level

Christian frescos; area remains a consecrated chapel.

An Imperial-Era Dwelling Near Santa Prisca
The following set of photos show a Roman house from the Republican Era.  Unfortunately, no one was there to tell me in English what we were looking at but the frescos on wall and ceiling are remarkably well-preserved.  Access is limited but we were able to visit as conference participants.

General Views of Aventine Neighborhood
A few parting shots of our group which shows the lovely Aventine Hill neighborhood.

Have I mentioned that it was really raining!

A Renaissance gate.
Although the area was not preferred at that time,
some families lived in the area.

The Aurelian wall.
Built under Marcus Aurelius in 276 AD it also winds through the Aventine.

Text and photos by Julianne.