Arles

Arles was an interesting trip. It was really overcast and kind of cold, but the amphitheater that we visited was really impressive and if I remember the lecture well enough, Brittany said it was the best preserved amphitheater in France. One of the coolest things about the lecture was learning that at one point a whole medieval village was house inside the amphitheater because when Arles lost its power with the loss of the church's presence in the city it had no real way of defending itself so everyone moved into to the amphitheater to try to keep safe.


Here is a shot form the bottom of the interior of the amphitheater , I really just like the patterns that all the arches make. they create a lot of really interesting shadows (though now that i've said that I realize that this particular image actually doesn't show the shadows that well as some of the other ones...oh well guess that's what happens when it is overcast.)







After spending about a half hour at the amphitheater, we went over to a cloister that I was really blown away by. I was the first one of the group to enter the cloister and it was so quite and serene. i see now why monks live there, it really is somewhat like what they portray in the movies which I thought was cool.
Inside the building there were a lot of old tapestries and some unexpected stain glass that unfortunately my pictures do not do justice to. THey are much more green and less yellow in real life which is why I liked them so much. Green is one of my favourite colours.


Here is another view of the cloister, I really love the vaulting that they used, it always looks cool, even if it's a pain in the butt to draw.

Last but not least a few of us had attempted to go visit the really old roman cemetery but unfortunately it was closed because of Frances strange obsession with their lunch hour. So instead we went and stopped to get some ice cream (which omg was good) to try to cheer ourselves up from being unable to look at what would have been very awesome sarcophagi and statuary.

Oh I guess I should also mention that Van Goh spent some time in Arles in a hospital when he was going crazy. That's sort of important.

Glanum, St. Remy, and St. Saturnin

We visited a really cool site near St. Remy called Glanum, which is an ancient Greco-Roman town. The whole thing is in ruins, but you can still see the remnants of all the buildings that used to be there and they even reconstructed one of the pillars to give visitors a sense of it's grandeur. I think it's one of my favourite sites that we went to because it reminded me of the Rome comic that I bought in Angouleme when I walked on the site the first time. It made me really happy.



Here are a few more images of the site itself. I do know the three columns in front of the very bright blue sky are a reconstruction, and not the actual pillars, but it's still really cool looking.














The first things that we saw when we got there are really the two most impressive and well-preserved structures, which are referred to as “les Antiques” triumphal arch celebrating Ceaser’s conquest of the Greeks and Gaul. I like this picture because I've been trained to take reference photos that portray depth of field and don't just show the structure, hence the tree in the foreground. Thank you Tom. Heck half my pictures are more for reference rather than to actually be touristy while I've been here.





Anyway....and the second is a mausoleum of sorts dating back to 30 BC. They are both very old and very well preserved. Which makes them very important indeed.









A few days later we went to St. Saturnin de les Apt which had this really cool old ruin of a medival chateau and an old unused church at the top of a large hill/small mountain that we hiked up to. It was very windy that day, so it was a little unnerving walking from where the chateau ruins were to were the church was, but still it was worth it. There was also a decent sized damn that was expanded from the original roman damn that you could still make out through the water.

I took so many pictures of this particular place because there is a scene in the pages that I was working on in Vis II and will be working on more in Senior that takes place in an old ruin and I really kind of liked the layout of the old chateau ruins so I might use that as reference.


This is a picture of the church. what I thought was cool was there was a path that went around the damn and led to the back of the church, which I think some of the other students didn't realize did that. There was also this random path that was blocked off that I wanted to follow because I am pretty sure that it lead down to the water in the damn, but by the time I had discovered I could walk around the whole thing it was getting too late and since I didn't have my phone with me to tell me what time it was, I didn't want to risk getting left behind.

Avignon; The Popes Palace

I was able to go on the trip to Avignon to see the Pope's Palace with the Travel Portfolio class twice while I've been here since I am, or rather was using the palace as reference for my pages in Visual Storytelling II. It was really impressive, if not as....High Gothic as I wanted it to be.

Regardless, I really thought that the general history behind why the pope moved there because of all the turmoil in Rome at the time and all the changes that had been made to it over the years because the Popes that lived there kept adding and changing things was really interesting. When we were able to actually go inside, I think the most interesting thing, and most disappointing thing is that during the revolution the palace was sacked and looted so none of the original furniture is still around.

Very inconvenient since I needed interior shots of what the rooms would be set up like for my comic. At least with the interiors I was still able to get a sense of just how big (or small in certain instances) that some of those rooms would be in a castle.

Oh also there were a few rooms with the frescos still on the wall, that unfortunately yet understandably so we could not take any pictures of, but it was really cool to see all the colours and patterns in the rooms like the popes bedroom and such.

On a side note, Avignon...is kind of ghetto, just saying. and the inner city has this large stone wall surrounding it which I find kind of cool. Had to protect the Pope and all that you know.

















Here is a shot from the very top of the Pope's Palace. There was a tower like structure at the top where an archer could have been situated and I wish I had had more time to stay up there and get some more photos for reference, but sadly I literally ran up to the top snapping pictures as I went and then bolted back down. I'll just have to steal photos from a few of the other students that had gone up there sooner and had more time to take photos.


Lastely, while not nearly as historically significant the rest of the things that we saw in Avignon, but just as cool is this graffitti of Bender and Zoidburg from Futurama that we saw near the parking lot where we parked the vans. I thought I would share this find.

Anguoleme

One of the whole reasons that I wanted to come to France was so that I could go to one of the worlds largest comic book festivals. And I got to say, despite all the craziness that has happened this last month (hence why I've not updated in forever) it was totally worth it. I bought way more BD than I probably should have, and my suitcase is going to way a ton when I head home in about 8 days, but that's the price to pay for beautifully coloured and overall great comics.

For the most part while we were there it was either snowing or raining, but the very last day I was actually able to get a few nice shots before it became over cast yet again. Oh, and my goodness the freakin stairs and hill there! I thought when I saw it that Lacoste would have prepared me for it, but no, that wasn't the case. Not to mention I fell in a hole from where a tile in the floor had been removed and bruised/scrapped up my knee; that was fun.... Anyway back tot he festival.

I meet a lot of really cool people. A couple of Italian guys that spoke English really well and ended up getting into a debate with Billy about politics. It was funny. I had them look at my work and gave them my contact information, whether or not I will here back from them is a whole nother matter, but one of the reasons that we were there was to try to network, so mission accomplished. I also got to meet Mobius which was a complete accident but totally awesome. We were walking past a table and noticed this really old gentleman signing books and upon doing a double take Billy and I both realized that was Mobius sitting there. If we had been a second sooner I might have gotten a drawing from him, but as it was he only had the energy to sign my book, which frankly was good enough for me.

I also meet Julien while I was on a tour at the game design school that was located in Angouleme. He's a grad game design student there, and his school was participating in the Global Game Jam, which I think SCAD was also taking part in at the time, and is why I was even there (even though I totally am not remotely involved in the game design department at SCAD)... He even has a few friends in the school with him that are going to GDC this year, so Jolie is hoping to meet up with them maybe and network a bit more. Anyway, Julien was kind enough to hang out with Jolie, Billy and I for the majority of the last day we were there, which was really fun. And now we are friends on Facebook. I'm going to try and learn French when I get back to the states so that I can try to communicate with Julien in his native language since he spent the entire time speaking to us in English. I feel it's only fair (plus if I ever make it back to Angouleme I will be able to communicate with the locals better.)

There was this really cool BD museum that had everything from Euro comics to American comics, to Manga in it which was really impressive to see all that in one place. I love that France treats comics better than the US does. I really wish that comics were taken seriously enough to have an entire musuem dedicated to the art form. Sadly I do not expect that to happen any time soon. What was also cool was there was all the murals that were around the town. I really wish that Savannah would let us paint on the side of some of those really ugly buildings around town. Heck in Anguleme, including the mural we are standing in front of they use an entire side fo the building as ad space. That's what that painting is, an ad for some comic artists BD. It's such a great way to advertise. Everyone sees it, even if they have no idea what it is for. So when they are going through a book stores comics section and they come across it, they'll be like "oh hey, i recognize this, cool!" I want to be able to do something like that.


While we were walking around we saw these people on stilts, which was really cool even if we didn't know what exactly they were for. I really like this pic mostly because how sad the man in the foreground does. Dude, you're at a comic book festival, cheer up.







One of the things that we were required to do while we were there was visit this animation school, a BD school, and some local BD and animation artists that lived and worked in Angouleme. It was really interesting to see how they set up thier schools and programs for artist. I can't emphasize enough how much more France gives a damn about comics than the states do. Going to see the studio a bunch of artists worked at made the majority of us want to move to France and just live here and do comics. The French government, provided you get accepted into their program pays for all of your schooling or for your apartment or studio depending on what program you were applying for. There were a couple of students actually seriously considering applying for a spot in the programs to see if they could work there for a year or so on their projects. I would love to be able to do that honestly, but the selection process is super intense and I don't think at this point I have the skill to get in. Would be a great experience though if I could.

Anyway there is so much more that I can say about Angouleme but for now I think this post is long enough. Maybe I'll come back to it after I get back to the states and have more time to really go over what I bought and why they are awesome.

Maison Basse, Fontaine de Vaucluse, and Pont Julien

In Treasures of Provence last week we went to visit Maison Basse, a very old French farmhouse that SCAD now owns and is renovating and I think they said they are going to turn it into a studio space or something like that. Which, I do not envy the students that would have to use that as their class space, the hike to place is fine, it's going back up the very steep hillside that sucks. I was dying after the walk back to the dorms that day.


I'm hoping to use the Maison Basse as one of my reference pieces for my final paper in Treasures class. I want to write a comparison of the accuracy of Beauty and the Beast (the Disney version, because it is my favorite) to actual provencial architecture and clothing. And carry that on to show how the accuracy of a film effects the believability of its storytelling. Hopefully I can find enough info on it to write 7-9 pages about it.




Here's a view of Lacoste from the Maison Basse, as you can see we really didn't go that far from the town. At one point someone had built a balcony attatched to the farmhouse so that they could look up at the chateau. Which we learned is a big 'no no'. Something about how you aren't supposed to look up at the castles because it was disrespectful or something like that. I imagine that the Marquise de Sade probably would have gotten off on the attention in some way...I mean come on, it's not as if he was a modest person to begin with (nor could you really see much other than the stone work of the chateau.)



I'm not sure if you can see it all that well but there are roman numerals on the wall where supposedly an ancient clock used to be. I'd believe it since parts of the farm house dates back to the Roman Empire (I think that's what our guide said anyway.)









On Tuesday, last week I became a stow-a-way on the Travel Portfolio classes bus, as I will be for every trip they take and the space is available, to go to a little village called Fontaine de Vaucluse. There were two main reasons that they were going to this particular village. 1) there is a spring that feeds the river that runs through the town that no one has found the bottom to yet (man or unmanned) and 2) because of the paper mill there. And no I don't mean like the smelly paper mill in Savannah, I mean one that actually produces the paper we as artists use.


This is part of the mill, unfortunately they weren't actually making any paper that day, but I believe we are supposed to go back to the town later this quarter and hopefully we will get to see the machines in action at that time. Over all though, even with nothing really happening it was just cool to be able to go in there and look around. The gift shop there was small but really cool because of all the different maps, cards, single sheets or even sketchbooks full of the paper they made there. I didn't buy anything this time, but I might next time.


Here is the spring that I was talking about. What you are looking at is the sources of the river. It really made me miss home because there are some beaches where the water is close to that color, though much much warmer than the spring is. It was really awesome to see the source so calm and beautiful and then suddenly there was a raging river pouring out of it. In fact the rapids are good enough for kayakers to train there (which we saw two guys doing just that.) I think they may even have smaller competitions held there, but I'm not sure.



Finally I took this as we were leaving the village. I really don't know much about the bridge other than it was really big and amazingly cool to see. I imagine it's Roman, since there are aqueducts and bridges all over Provence built by he Romans.






This is a short video I took of the source and the river it feeds.





Speaking of Bridges, on the way to and from Apt we pass this 3000 year old bridge called Pont Julien. This one I know for a fact is Roman built, and up until 10 or 20 years ago, they still let cars drive across it. They don't do that anymore, but you can still walk across it or bike across it (which I did).

Ocher Mines and Roussillon

Last Wednesday (I know, I'm behind) we went to the Ocher Mines near Roussillon with my Treasures of Provence class. It was a lot of fun, if very cold. We first took a tour of the area. The lady that gave us a tour was this short, but very pretty woman that spoke English very well. She only struggled to find the right word maybe three times. I'm still amazed how well the people her can speak both French and English. I guess that's what happens when they are taught a second or sometimes even third language at a young age.


Basically what the tour consisted of her taking us around to all the different areas that were involved in the process of making ocher. A basic run down of the process is that sand containing ocher is collected and run through different machines to separate it. The the ocher pigment is left in the sun and open air to dry before being made into bricks of ocher. All the bricks are collected and ground down into a fine powder, ready to be separated into jars and sold in store. I also learned that red ocher oxidized yellow ocher, because all ocher contains iron in it. So in order to get large quantities of red ocher, they force oxidation. Which is kinda cool imo.

Anyway, after the tour we got to watch a demo on mixing your own paints. And after she had explained to us the process then we got to actually make our own paints using the natural pigments. It was an amazing experience mixing your own watercolours. I use the red ocher, because that is one of my favourite colours, but really all the colours that she had available were mixed at one point and used by everyone.



The store there sold a whole lot of the pigments along with other cool natural pigmented art supplies, such as pastels. I didn't get any though because they were fairly expensive, and I don't really know how often I would use it. Oh, before we went to mix paints, we visited this small memorial dedicated to the workers that had died because of some kind of lung disease from breathing in all the ocher dust that a visiting artist had built as a permanent installation. It was sort of sad, but also an interesting display none-the-less.



After our tour, we drove to Roussillon, but only stayed for about 15 minutes before we had to drive back to Lacoste for lunch. I did get some cool photos during those 15 minutes though.

To Bonnieux!

I just got back from a 11 or 12 km hike (so a 6-7 miles). It was kind of intense since I'm not in the shape that I used to be, but it was totally worth it. My legs are just going to be sore tomorrow while we are in Apt. Which may be annoying.





Anyway, we travelled to Bonnieux, which is a bit larger of a town than Lacoste, just so we could see it and wander around. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I wanted to because we ended up stopping in this tiny little restaurant bar where we met this really interesting lady that spoke English really well because she lived in the US for about 19 years. We talked about where we were from and why we were there and she told us a bit about her self. There was also this man sitting with her that I am pretty sure didn't speak a word of English that kept repeating the names of the two dogs that were in the restaurant with us. One was names Boule and the other was named
Beethoven. But that was literally all he really said to us.








The owner of the store (which Beethoven is his dog; the little one in the chair) was really kind and attempted to speak English to us, so we left him a few euro tip for helping us. I ordered a really good cup of hot chocolate (because I don't drink coffee) and the four of us that found it plan on going back again once we get access to the bikes they have available here for the students.



Oh since I mentioned the dogs....It's really strange here to see all the dogs just wandering around without there owners and not wearing collars or leashes. Not to mention that they are all allowed in the buildings, whether they are restaurants or stores or whatever.




Back to Bonnieux; we had gone there yesterday in the rain and wind, up to a church at the top of the hill. It was really quite stunning since the man that gave us our tour had built a nativity seen along with a small town inside the church. I guess the church itself isn't used that much any more except on special occasions or something, but it was impressive. If small. Oh btw it was a Catholic church. There is a history between Bonnieux and Lacoste. Lacoste used to be heavily Protestant and Bonnieux was heavily Catholic and I can't remember suring what time period, but there was a lot of blood shed because the two religions could not get along with eachother (surprise surprise.)


Tom Also drew a picture for the guy since he was kind enough to let us see the church on his own time.