Cannes is more than a Festival

La Croisette

The 65th International Cannes film festival is coming to an end (May 17-27).  For ten days in May,  the world cinema industry directs its attention on this little town on the French Riviera. Since it was founded in 1947,  Cannes's festival has developed into the most important film market in the world. Film distributors, producers, directors, actors, writers, critics, publicists from around the world meet to discover the newest feature films and documentaries. Cannes is synonymous with glamour and star power.  Tomorrow, it will culminate in a closing ceremony to be attended by a glamourous audience of stars and celebrities where prizes will be awarded by a prestigious jury including the Palme d'Or for "Best Picture"  for Feature Film and for Short Film, along with prizes for Best Actor and Actress, Best Screenplay and Best director.

Forville Market

But  Cannes (Kahn) is more than just a festival.  When all the glitz and glam leave, Cannes remains a pleasant resort on the French Riviera.  It is situated along a protected bay "rade de Cannes" .  Its palm fringed waterfront promenade "la Croisette" is the town main attraction.  Lined with luxurious "Belle Epoch" palace hotels,  sand beaches, sunny cafe terraces, restaurants and luxury boutiques, this is the place to gawk and be "seen".  Blessed with mild weather, year  around , Cannes is fun to explore .  Its picturesque old town "Le Suquet" offers  an array of atmospheric restaurants and art galleries; luxury shopping is to be had along the  Croisette and its adjacent rue d'Antibes; and for local flavor visit the colorful  Forville market.  In addition, Cannes can be used as a base to discover the other resort towns along the Mediterranean Sea--Nice, Antibes and Monte Carlo and in season, even St. Tropez is only a ferry ride away.  To escape the glamour of the Riviera, head to the Lerins islands- Ste Marguerite and Ste. Honorat- two tranquil and traffic-free  pine and eucalyptus scented refuges just a short boat ride from Cannes.  Similarly, the hilly backcountry  with picturesque villages like artsy St. Paul de Vence, Mougins and Biot are only just a short drive away and fun to explore. Beware of the summer crowd in July and August.

La Nuit des Musees-- Night at the Museum

Saturday May 19, 4000 cultural institutions in 40 countries across Europe are participating in the 8^th annual European Night at the Museums.  From 6 pm until past midnight, museums and cultural institutions will stay open in an "orgiastic" celebrations of art and culture.  Entry to permanent museum collections are free as well as access to many stage concerts, performances, and special exhibits.  Paris alone offer 179 museum/cultural offerings on this night ranging from classical, modern and contemporary art, archeology, decorative arts, science, technology, Jewish Heritage, military history, numismatic, and more.  Making a choice can be tough.  Here is a selection of special exhibits:

• Musee du Luxembourg - Exhibit Cima da Conegliano- Renaissance Venetian master (April 15-July 15)

• Orsay Museum- Degas and the Nude (March 13 to July 1)
• Galleries Nationales du Grand Palais

1. -- Helmut Newton Exhibit- more than 200 photographs of late Vogue photo journalist are on display till July 30.
2. -- Monumenta 2012 - French artist Daniel Buren has dressed up the large space of the Grand Palais in gigantic kaleidoscope of colors. (on display from May 10-June 4)

•  Musee Carnavalet-- Eugene Atget-- A photo exhibit of old Paris in the early 20th century (April 25- July 29)  
• Musee d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaisme (Jewish Museum) - Jews and Orientalism or the depiction by 19th century painters like Delacroix, Chasseriau, Gustave Moreau and others of Jews living in the Orient. (March 7-July 8)

Degas and the Nude- Orsay Museum

Helmut Newton- Grand Palais

Eugene Atget- Musee Carnavale

Cima de Conegliano
Musee du Luxembourg

Jews and Orientalism-
Musee d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaism

The Greening of Paris

Paris Tourist Office-
Photo: Marc Bertrand

Since his election as mayor of Paris in 2001,  Bertrand Delanoe has set out to make Paris a greener city. Although Paris can pride itself to have an extensive and efficient metro and bus network, the City of Light is  said to have some of the worst traffic jams in Europe and horrendous air quality. To alleviate congestion and diminish the level of air pollution the city of Paris has instituted a number of innovative programs. First in 2007,  the bike share rental program "Velib" was introduced . Parisians and visitors alike have access to more than 20,000 bikes located at 1800 velib parking stations around the city spaced 300 meters from each other. Parisians can buy a yearly or monthly subscription; short term usage options useful for visitors are also available for 1.70 euros for 1 day ticket or 8 euros for seven consecutive days. The first 30 minutes of each usage are free and trips longer than 30 minutes incur small additional usage charges. Since its inception, the velib has experienced much success and has been copied by other French cities as well as other European capitals.  A similar program is coming soon to New York city.

Autolib-Mairie de Paris

Spurred by Velib's success , the city of Paris introduced this past autumn a car sharing program, Autolib.  It consists of 3,000 blue bubble-shaped, battery- powered cars stationed at 1,000 self-service hire points across the city and its suburbs. A driver needs to first subscribe to the program by providing proof of identity (identification card or valid passport), valid driver's license, and a credit card to use as guarantee. The driver can pick one of three rental options-- a yearly subscription, a 7 day usage plan or a just a day discovery pass.  After these initial formalities, the driver is issued a badge and is able to pick a car in a predetermined location. After usage, the car is returned to a convenient Autolib location. Driver pay for the time used, in half-hours units.  One year premium subscription costs 144 euros, 7 day usage : 15 euros and 24 hour Discovery pass: 10 euros.   For Parisians who have given up owning a car in Paris due to awful traffic congestion, the lack of parking spaces and the high insurance costs, Autolib can be an economical and convenient mode of transportation around town.  Its proponents hope that a wide usage of the auto-sharing program will help reduce pollution and cut traffic.

Thirdly, an old public transport system -- the tramway line--has reappeared in Paris in 2006.  The T3 line runs along the boulevards that encircle Paris and which are named after Napoleon's Marshals (Marechaux) linking the 15th, 14th and 13th arrondissements. Extensions are planned linking Porte de Charenton (12th) and eventually Porte de la Chapelle (18th).  These modern street cars run noiselessly and are pollution free and actually carry 100,000 passengers a day.

 

Tramway-Paris Tourist Office
Photograph: Marc Bertrand

The Mont Saint Michel's Restoration

The Mont St. Michel

 The Mont Saint Michel, France's treasured landmark is undergoing rehabilitation of its maritime landscape and ecosystem. In 1884, the great novelist and cultural preservationist, Victor Hugo said in his appeal for the protection of the Mont Saint Michel.  "Le Mont Saint Michel is to France what the great pyramid is to Egypt. It must be protected from any damage. The Mont St.  Michel must remain an island. This combined work of art and nature must be conserved at all costs."

The Benedictine abbey of the Mont St Michel  sits a top a rocky islet about 1 km from the north coast of France at the mouth of the Couesnon River in Normandy.  It  has been a revered pilgrimage site since the early Middle Ages. Listed as a Unesco World Heritage site since 1979, the Mont Saint Michel draws 2.5 million visitors each year who come to admire the unique beauty of the site --its architectural awesomeness and exceptional harmony with he bay. 


This unique environment has been under threat as little by little  the sea is receding and land and salt marshes are taking over rendering the rock abbey irremediably landlocked.   A program of restoration of the bay is underway and will be completed in 2015. Part of the rehabilitation program was the construction of a new dam at the mouth of the Couesnon river, two miles from the Mont Saint Michel that helps push sediments back out to sea and restore the maritime character of the abbey. Since the completion of the dam in 2009,  once or twice a day, through a series of "flushing" actions, the dam gradually sweeps away the silt and sand between the Mont and the "continent". 


 Additionally, in order to protect and enhance the natural setting, cars are no longer allowed to drive up and to park at the foot of the ramparts. Instead, a new car park located 2.5 km away from the Mont Saint Michel has opened on April 28, 2012 and visitors will now approach the island either on foot along a pleasant promenade or aboard shuttle busses called "passeurs"  or picturesque horse drawn carriages called "maringotes". 


 The third stage of the restoration started in 2011 involves the construction of a new and more discreet causeway built slightly offset to the east.  It will be extended by a pedestrian footbridge over the final part of the route before reaching the ramparts. The footbridge will allow the water to ciculate freely around the mount again. After the completion of the new causeway in 2014, the 19th century road will be destroyed and the Mont Saint Michel will recover its natural maritime environment to be once again an island. 

Round One of the French Presidential Elections

Today I get to cast my vote for the French presidential elections. As an expatriate in the Americas I'll vote  the day before the mainland like those living in the overseas territories. This is an election in two stages. The first round held this weekend is to determine the top two candidates. There are 10 candidates to choose from ranging from the incumbent president Nicholas Sarkozy to the socialist candidate and strong contender Francois Hollande. Among the other eight presidential hopefuls are the centrist Francois Bayrou who calls for national unity as the key to get France back on track; the ecologist Eva Joly from the Green Party; Jean Luc Melenchon of the communist party and Marine le Pen leader of the far right Front National, the party known for its anti immigrant stand. Theoratically, a candidate can win at the first round provided he/she garners an absolute majority of the votes that is more than 50% . This has not happened since the inception of the 5th republic in 1958. More likely in two weeks on May 6 we will be back at the voting booth to decide who will be president . The polls predict that the choice will be between Sarkozy and Hollande. So for the next two weeks the debates between these two candidates will take place and hopefully they will argue over the real issues dear to the French electorate such as  high unemployment, education, health, the national debt and how to cut the deficit, the consumer's purchasing power, immigration, security--  more or less the same concerns that Americans voters will ponder at the November US presidential elections. Comme quoi le monde est petit et nous sommes tous dans le meme bain. Stay tune.

The Birthday of a Genius- Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Five hundred sixty years ago (April 15, 1452) a genius was born and his name was Leonardo. He was born in the little Tuscan village of Vinci, the illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant girl. A painter, architect, inventor, engineer, mathematician and scientist his genius lives on undiminished today. He is believed to have conceived a flying machine, armored car, a calculator, the parachute . After a long career at the service of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan he went to serve the Republic of Venice as well as Cesare Borgia as a military engineer.

 Leonardo came to France in 1515 at the the invitation of king Francois I and settled at Manor of Clos Luce in Amboise where he lived for three years till his death in 1519. The Clos Luce is a museum today with 40 models of the various machines designed by Leonardo. http://vinci-closluce.com  

Virgin and Child with St. Anne

Restoration of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne 
When Leonardo da Vinci came to France he brought with him three of his most important works Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and the Saint John the Baptist. Thèse masterpieces are part of the Louvre's permanent collection. A special exhibit featuring the restoration of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne highlights the painter' s mastery of light . The restoration took 18 months to complete and has brought back the intense luminosity and vibrant browns and lapis lazuli hues used by the master. Saint Anne, Leonardo da Vinci's Ultimate Masterpiece is on view from March 29 to June 25.

Also on display is a restored copy of the Mona Lisa on loan from the Prado Museum.  It is believed to have been executed simultaneously to the original Gioconda by a pupil of Leonardo in his workshop.
 http://www.louvre.fr/en/expositions/saint-anne-leonardo-da-vinci

Paris Marathon- A Race to Remember

Paris Marathon

Every city worth its salt stages a marathon race. In fact there are some 800 official marathon organized worldwide. Boston is the oldest, New York City the largest and let me venture to say Paris has probably the most scenic urban course run. This Sunday April 15, the 36th edition of the modern version of the international Paris marathon will be run. Some 40,000 participants from 109 countries are expected to take part in the race. The 42 km ( 26 miles) route will take runners past some of of the City of Light most iconic landmarks. The race starts on the famous of the avenue of the Champs Elysées, cross the Place de la Concorde, along the Seine River, past the Louvre museum and City Hall, the shady lanes of Vincennes woods, past the Gare de Lyon and the Bastille column, majestic Notre Dame Cathedral , Orsay museum and of course the Eiffel tower.  Finally after crossing the large expanse of the Bois de Boulogne, the race ends on swanky Avenue Foch, a few steps from the Arc de Triomphe.  Along the route, racers will be cheered by hundred of thousands of spectators and various bands will provide entertainment at the different milestones of the run. To view the course of the race follow this link.
http://www.parismarathon.com/marathon/2012/docs/Parcours2012.pdf