Joan of Arc's Homeland: Domremy and Vaucouleurs

Joan of Arc’s Homeland: Domremy and Vaucouleurs
by Francois Hagnere 

Around Nancy in Lorraine, let us discover the homeland of Joan of Arc where her heroic epos began.

Domrémy was a border town in the Middle-Ages, surrounded by ramparts. As it became a “Royal Town” in 1365, it was governed in the name of the King of France by the Lord Robert de Baudricourt. This is when Joan of Arc, a young peasant aged 16, came and talked to this governor on  May 13, 1428 and stated she was the only person capable of delivering France from the British. Baudricourt just laughed and ordered the young girl be taken back to her father “with a good slap in her face”. However, Joan of Arc proclaiming her mission, gained the people little by little, to...

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Copyright ©2010 Michele Cameron Drew. All rights reserved.

The King of Lighthouses: Cordouan

by Francois Hagnere

For this French lighthouse, close to the Médoc coast, keywords are durability and decor. Columns, frontons, arched doorways and carved stone are an ode to the ocean.

The Cordouan lighthouse is located 7 kilometers at sea, on a rocky tableland, at the mouth of the Gironde river and faces the Atlantic ocean and the French coasts of Médoc and Charente-Maritime. It was listed a Historical Monument in 1862 at the same time as the cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris.

The Cordouan lighthouse, Atlantic Coast of France.

Image source : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Cordouan.jpg

The name would come from Cordoba, when in the Middle-Ages, the Spaniards installed commercial activities in the region and wished to protect their ships.

In the XIVth century, Edward, the Black Prince, Governor of the then British province of Guyenne, ordered the construction of a tower. A hermit was in charge of maintaining the fire on top. The edifice was soon abandoned and fell into disrepair. Two hundred years later, the hazards to navigation threatened the Bordeaux wine trade and the Maréchal de Matignon, in presence of the famous Montaigne decides to build a lighthouse.

Louis de Foix will be the engineer-architect of this « royal work » devoting his wealth and efforts over a period of 18 years followed by his ruined son. François Beuscher will fulfill the contract 27 years after its signature.

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The White House: A Highly Coveted Mansion

by Francois Hagnere

It was restored and expanded many times in its history and the Oval Office is redecorated each time a new President is elected. But why was this official residence called the White House?

It was only in 1901 that the Executive Mansion, as it was then called, received its final name: the “White House”, under Theodor Roosevelt. According to the legend, the name “White House” would come from “White Plantation House” where George Washington met his wife Martha in New Kent, Virginia. But in reality, it was painted white since the very beginning.

George Washington and his brother-in-arms, the French engineer Pierre Charles Lenfant (who gave the plan of Washington) made their decision about the location of the new

residence and James Hoban was chosen as an architect. Washington judged it too small however and Hoban expanded the house adding a reception hall, the present East Room, inspired by Mount Vernon. A portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart (1797) can be seen in this room used for press conferences, entertainment and ceremonies. The first President of the United States never occupied the house, he died one year earlier.

The work was performed between October 1792 and November 1800 by slaves, Scottish and Italian emmigrants in the neo-Palladian Style (currently known as Georgian Style in English-speaking countries). The first President to live in the White House was John Adams. It was very much damaged in 1812 as the British tried to recuperate their colonies.

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An Amazing Exhibition: Made in Chambord

by Francois Hagnere

In the majestic Château of Chambord in the French Loire Valley, discover an exceptional collection of eponymous objects.

As you enter the Royal Domain of Chambord in the heart of the French Loire Valley, you suddenly discover the stately silhouette of the Château de Chambord. François the First's exceptional estate is a pure gem of the French Renaissance. It appears in a wonderful setting with its grey slate roofs, its bastion towers, finely carved pinnacle turrets, and fireplaces (as many as days in a year) reminding us of an « art de vivre » when beauty had connections with utility.

The Château de Chambord - Photo Copyright: Wikipedia

The construction of the château began in 1519, in the early years of the Renaissance and is supposed to have been inspired by Italy. The great architect Viollet-le-Duc, however said that there was nothing italianate about Chambord in thought or form. The King in his passion spent a fortune on the château, even when money got rare, he always found a solution (if you see what I mean) for Chambord and the works

never stopped. François the First likes to entertain courtiers and dignitaries and goes hunting in his immense and deep forests abounding in game. Later Molière wrote here his « Monsieur de Pourceaugnac » within a few days. The play that at first Louis XIV did not appreciate, was saved by Lulli who simply jumped onto his harpsichord, thus making the king burst out laughing.

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Marseilles: Longchamp Palace to the Glory of Water

by Francois Hagnere

An extraordinary water tower and palace was built in the XIXth century in Marseilles to welcome water in the Mediterranean city with the new Provence canal.

Situated in the heart of Marseilles (France), at the top of the Longchamp Boulevard in prolongation of the world-famous Canebière, water was staged and honored in 1862 with the construction of the Longchamp Palace (Palais Longchamp in French). When the water of the Durance River entered the mediterranean city at the end of the XIXth Century, bringing fertility, fecondity and more hygiene, the architect of the Basilica of « Notre-Dame de la Garde » Henri Espérandieu (1829-1874) built an extraordinary water tower inaugurated in 1869 with fireworks and orchestras. A massive triumphal arch with in its center the allegoric group of the Durance River and all the symbols related to water and its benefits (namely wheat, vine, fishing) welcomes the river coming from the new Provence Canal. The palace with its colonnade and grotto is surrounded by exceptional gardens, cascades and fountains. The chariot drawn by Camargue bulls, the chubby-cheeked cherubs, the bas-reliefs with tritons are reminiscent of the Baroque Period. The Longchamp Palace is in the eclectic style so dear to artists of the late XIXth Century. Renowned French sculptors like Antoine Louis Barye (lions and tigers at the entrance) or Jules Cavelier (monumental fountain) worked here.

Two museums are housed on each wings of the water tower: the Museum of Fine Arts (whose hall of honor was decorated by Puvis de Chavannes - see my article: Male Nude by Puvis de Chavannes) presenting paintings, sculptures and drawings from the XVIth to the XIXth centuries with works by Perugino, Carrache, Tiepolo, Guercino, Philippe de Champaigne, Rubens, Corot, Courbet, Millet, Puget and Rodin, and the Natural History Museum.

Marseilles : Palais Longchamp. Copyright: photos-provence.fr

Marseilles, Palais Longchamp, the allegoric group of the Durance River and the statues of vine and wheat. Note the fisherman's net and fish on the column. The bulls from Camargue draw the chariot. Copyright: photos-provence.fr

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