Château de la Roche Courbon, France

Château de la Roche-Courbon

You wouldn’t believe how many fairly-tale castles there are in France. They’re almost as common as rest stops on an average US highway. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but I’m fairly certain you could find at least one within 20 miles of wherever you happen to be in France.

I had the chance to explore the Château de la Roche-Courbon recently, and although it’s certainly not the most famous or well known château in France (those titles are reserved for the huge castles of the famous Loire valley), it was magical nonetheless, with a dry moat, sculpted gardens and rounded turrets.

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The Walled City of Brouage in France - French Californian

The Walled Citadel of Brouage, France

(The image above is available as a print! Buy here.)

 

Last weekend was a whirlwind adventure to the region of Poitou-Charentes. I was there primarily for the wedding of two of my closest friends, but since we had a couple extra days, we spent them exploring the surrounding area with a rental car. One of the places we explored was the walled city of Brouage.

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Exploring Heidelberg, Germany - by French Californian

Exploring Heidelberg, Germany

 

Last year, my friend Katie and I took a 5-day jaunt through Germany’s Black Forest region, visiting three towns: Freiburg, Heidelberg, and Tübingen. Here is an account of what we did while in Heidelberg.

Heidelberg is famous for its charming Old Town, dense forest and imposing red-toned castle. Much like Freiburg, exploring Heidelberg was like walking straight into a fairy tale or Romantic painting. Most of the little streets in the Old Town led straight to a wall of trees of the famous Black Forest, a region which inspired some of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales.

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The Santa Barbara Mission by French Californian

Discovering California History at the Santa Barbara Mission

 

On my last trip to California, my Mom had the fabulous idea to visit Santa Barbara for a few days. I’ve visited many times, since it’s only about 3 hours away from my hometown, but the only things I remember about Santa Barbara are the zoo – which, if I remember correctly, was famous for its giraffe with a crooked neck – the beach, and shopping on State Street. For this trip, since we’re all a bit more grown up, we decided to check out what else the city has to offer, so we headed to the Santa Barbara Mission.

The only knowledge I had about Missions in California came from a school project I did in 3rd or 4th grade, so I was long overdue for a refresher. The Missions are some of the oldest structures along the California coastline, built by a Spanish order of Franciscan friars in an effort to spread Christianity to the Native Americans. There are 21 of them, and the Santa Barbra Mission was established in 1786, although after a major earthquake in 1812, it had to be rebuilt.

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Revisiting the Louvre with Localers in Paris

Revisiting the Louvre with Museums by Localers

I have a kind of love-hate relationship with the Louvre. I love that it houses some of the greatest works of art and most precious bits of history in the world, but I hate how damn huge it is. On one hand, I love the idea of getting lost in a labyrinth of culture, but on the other, my feet and brain start to become fatigued after hours of slow-walking and observing. Appreciating art is hard work!

Despite having visited the Louvre more than 10 times, I realized I know very little about it. I had a vague idea that the Louvre started out as a much smaller military fortress, and that the Mona Lisa is WAY smaller than you’d expect, but honestly – that’s not much. Anybody could know those trivia facts with a quick peek inside the informational booklet.

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Art Lesson: Cecilia Beaux

Before I start, I would like to point out that art movements don’t always fit into neat little boxes: Rather, they fade subtly from one to the other, the new styles often retaining characteristics of the old.  Generally, the formal Impressionist activity occurred around the 1870s-1880s, but some of the artists involved continued to develop their styles in later years.  Gauguin and Cézanne are the first to come to mind, giving foundation to the new “style” or tendency called Post-Impressionism … but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Cecilia Beaux doesn’t snugly fit into the Impressionist category as most people think of it; There are no countryside landscapes or city scenes of modern life, but I saw her work in an exhibition on American Impressionism, so that’s gotta mean something.  In addition, she visited Europe numerous times for artistic training, especially Paris, which was considered the center of the art world at the time, and certainly the epicenter of Impressionism.  Certainly, the visible brushstrokes and occasional departure from rigid composition denote the famous French style, but the subject matter – portraits – is rooted in traditional, formal art of the Academy.

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