When I had my marvelous mid-life crisis…a tale, that in hindsight is somewhat hilarious, but unfortunately a bit too involved to relate in a blog…but, when I had it, it was quite naturally assumed by all that we would pull up stakes and settle in Brittany. We had friends there, we greatly enjoyed our sojourns there, and being Celtic, I was very comfortable with the culture. I’d even selected a potential place…Port Launay in Finistère...
What a great place…stumbled upon it as a result of researching this plate...
…from the Henriot factory and beautifully painted with a design based on artwork…
…that was part of Hippolyte Lalaisse’s 1845-1846 documentation of the various traditional costumes worn in Brittany at that time; this happens to be the costume that was worn in Port Launay.
Port Launay is located on the river Aulne, and we would joke about this abandoned building…
…overlooking the river as being in our price range…but as it turned out, it is actually a town landmark and not available for purchase.
At one point, however, I did find a spot of land for sale…right on the crescent…not very large…essentially just a shack of a garage…but it was in Port Launay, right on the crescent, and a bargain to boot! This was years ago and at the time, someone in our household…hint, it wasn’t the cat…frowned on the idea…brandishing about terms like “floodplain” and other such nonsense. And that did, indeed, turn out to be nonsense, as the eventual canalization of the river has been successful…“so far” he likes to add.
But the nail in the coffin to yet another of my brilliant ideas…at least I thought they were brilliant…was that it would have been virtually impossible to live there without an automobile. Walking to get bread would have involved an hour+ excursion…and if you knew the paltry, counted-in-minutes longevity of a French baguette, coupled with what we had gone through crisscrossing the United States for years as exhibitors at antiques shows…you would immediately appreciate why I insisted on being able to function without a vehicle!
Fast-forward and years later, we spend a trial month in a friend’s fabulous apartment in the western suburbs of Paris…elegant, commodious, tranquil, and just seven minutes from “the city” by train…but those seven minutes somehow translated into light years away from my dream. Anyway, that pushed us over the edge…and that’s how we ended up in Paris instead of Brittany.
Ahhh…but once smitten, Brittany is in your soul, and thus, it is with you everywhere…even in Paris.
Some examples…
Crêpes are, arguably, the “national” dish of Brittany and there must be hundreds of crêperies in Paris…
…this one in the fourth arrondissement is reputedly among the best…although Breton friends have counseled us that none produce a product that is a patch to the true Breton version.
There are two distinct types; a galette is made with farine de blé noir…buckwheat flour…and served filled with an egg, meat, vegetables, etc. as a savory main dish. The dessert type is made with farine de froment, or wheat flour, and filled with fruit, caramel or chocolate sauce, ice cream, etc. Fresh off the griddle… which is called a galeitière in French or a bilig in Breton…they are also scrumptious with just a dollop of Breton butter and a little sprinkle of sugar. A brief pause for a crêpe in the middle of the afternoon is very relaxing…the word “desserts” is, after all, “stressed” spelled backwards.
Hidden in the back of a narrow private passage in the fifteenth arrondissement is the home and studio where Mathurin Méheut lived and worked. The structure was built to his specifications in 1924...
The original front gate to his house was white wrought iron and featured his distinctive “MM” signature, and over the front door was an arch with a wonderful seascape mosaic with hippocampes...French for seahorses…both, unfortunately, no longer there...
An example of an Henriot piece designed by Méheut; a charming octopus…a combination of words that I never thought I would write…
...forms the central motif of a piece from his 1920s Service La Mer.
This is the building in which the famous Breton writer and statesman, François-René de Châteaubriand (1768-1848), lived during the last ten years of his life…
Dating from 1715 and originally constructed for a foreign mission organization, the elegant building has door with carvings that represent the four corners of the world…a native warrior wearing a feathered headdress represents the Americas.
A statue of Châteaubriand accents a nearby square…
Another “Quimper-fix” in Paris is the HB-Henriot shop on rue Saint Martin...
When he did get to Quimper, Renaud was quite prolific and was responsible for the design of pieces displaying many different styles. His iconic sculptures continue to adorn the façade of the HB-Henriot factory…
...a petit breton...
...and a corresponding petite bretonne.
The multi-faceted Jean Moulin was an artist, government worker, and leader of La Résistance during World War II. Le Mémorial du Maréchal Leclerc de Hauteclocque et de la Libération de Paris - Musée Jean Moulin is located near the Montparnasse railway station and provides a moving documentation of Moulin’s life, including what it was like to be a résistant.
He is remembered in Quimper with this recently-erected statue near the juncture of the Steir and Odet rivers…
As an artist, he is remembered with this faïence tableau...
…consisting of thirty-five faïence tiles fired in 1932 at the Henriot factory. A pièce unique entitled Pietà aux Saintes Femmes, it is among the most expensive examples of Quimper pottery that we have ever seen and, luckily, since we couldn’t afford it, it is now part of the collection of Quimper’s Musée des Beaux-Arts, so at least we get to see it on a regular basis.
Quimper is among the towns originally served by the Paris-Orleans railway station...
…now revived as the Musée D’Orsay.
And the Breton writer, Emile Souvestre (1806-1854), is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in the twentieth arrondissement…
Souvestre was the father-in-law of Alfred Beau and the inspiration behind the creation by Beau of the Quimper faïence motifs known as Légendes bretonnes...
…this scene recalls an old Breton tale about a water fairy.
Marins Breton, a sculpture of a group of Breton fishermen by Henri Bouchard (1875-1960) was the original design source for this figural group produced at the Henriot factory in the later part of the 1920s…
There is a museum dedicated to Bouchard located in his former studio not far from the Bois de Boulogne.
In the same general quartier, or neighborhood, is Prunier...
…a restaurant that is world-renowned for its seafood. In the 1930s, it was one of the most popular places to dine and the décor was très élégants. During its heyday, the table wares that were used by the Prunier restaurant were designed by Mathurin Méheut and produced at various potteries, and in various countries…England, Germany, and in France. This ashtray is an example of a piece made in Quimper…
The old Prunier menus from that time period featured illustrations by René-Yves Creston…
…depicting sixteen different steps involved in the raising of oysters. No doubt a subtle method employed by the proprietor, Emile Prunier, to entice the patrons to order the oysters…
…priced at an outrageous eleven francs for an assiette de fruits de mer!!! Well, at least at that price you also received a glass of wine to go along with the oysters and other delights from the waters along the coast of Brittany!!
And all throughout Paris, there are images of Anne de Bretagne…
…depicted above on a plate produced at the Henriot factory after a design by Jacques Pohier (1871-1951). Sculptures of all of the French queens who reigned throughout history adorn the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris' sixth arrondisement...
…twice Queen of France, Anne has but one statue in the Jardin.
Last month, Paris celebrated la Nuit des Musées, a night when the museums offer free entrance and remain open until late…some until one in the morning…and each tries to outdo each other by putting the spotlight on a specific, spectacular item in their collection. At the Musée des Monnaies, médailles, et antiques, located within the Bibliothèque nationale de France-Richelieu, this portrait of Anne de Bretagne dated 1492-1495 was among the outstanding items…
There are many, many more reminders of Brittany here in Paris…but, just for fun…and to make your next trip to Paris more interesting…I think I’ll leave some for you to discover!
Note: I really, really, really appreciate all the supportive comments and e-mails received so far during my stint as guest blogger for the month of June. Your encouragement means a lot and provides great comfort…especially when struggling with trying to add italics or fighting the losing battle to insert photos where I want them to go! And while I do hope you will have comments for this blog entry as well as the entries that follow, I am reminded that Blogmistress Maggie has a treat in store for someone who writes a comment regarding the 50th entry to be posted on the blog…and this is entry number 49!
The prize is a grab-bag full of Quimper-related goodies and the lucky winner will be drawn 24 hours after the 50th blog is posted. Maggie sends along the following photographs and descriptions of the prizes...
A tin Quimper-motif tray that was purchased at the boutique of the Musée de la Faïence, a copy of Quimper Pottery by Bernard Jules Verlingue, and a copy of Faïence de Quimper, edition UHEL IZEL.
Plus, a couple of rare and hard to find Morlaix Galerie des Ventes catalogs...this one is from July 23, 1990 and a cheese dish with matching knife by Guy Trévoux...
...along with the original box for the Trévoux set and the other Morlaix Galerie des Ventes catalog...this one from April 24, 2000.
So get ready. If you want to be included in the drawing, you need to watch for the next blog entry and get in there and make a comment...buan…that’s Breton for quickly!
What a great place…stumbled upon it as a result of researching this plate...…from the Henriot factory and beautifully painted with a design based on artwork……that was part of Hippolyte Lalaisse’s 1845-1846 documentation of the various traditional costumes worn in Brittany at that time; this happens to be the costume that was worn in Port Launay.Port Launay is located on the river Aulne, and we would joke about this abandoned building…
…overlooking the river as being in our price range…but as it turned out, it is actually a town landmark and not available for purchase.At one point, however, I did find a spot of land for sale…right on the crescent…not very large…essentially just a shack of a garage…but it was in Port Launay, right on the crescent, and a bargain to boot! This was years ago and at the time, someone in our household…hint, it wasn’t the cat…frowned on the idea…brandishing about terms like “floodplain” and other such nonsense. And that did, indeed, turn out to be nonsense, as the eventual canalization of the river has been successful…“so far” he likes to add.
But the nail in the coffin to yet another of my brilliant ideas…at least I thought they were brilliant…was that it would have been virtually impossible to live there without an automobile. Walking to get bread would have involved an hour+ excursion…and if you knew the paltry, counted-in-minutes longevity of a French baguette, coupled with what we had gone through crisscrossing the United States for years as exhibitors at antiques shows…you would immediately appreciate why I insisted on being able to function without a vehicle!
Fast-forward and years later, we spend a trial month in a friend’s fabulous apartment in the western suburbs of Paris…elegant, commodious, tranquil, and just seven minutes from “the city” by train…but those seven minutes somehow translated into light years away from my dream. Anyway, that pushed us over the edge…and that’s how we ended up in Paris instead of Brittany.
Ahhh…but once smitten, Brittany is in your soul, and thus, it is with you everywhere…even in Paris.
Some examples…
Crêpes are, arguably, the “national” dish of Brittany and there must be hundreds of crêperies in Paris…
…this one in the fourth arrondissement is reputedly among the best…although Breton friends have counseled us that none produce a product that is a patch to the true Breton version.There are two distinct types; a galette is made with farine de blé noir…buckwheat flour…and served filled with an egg, meat, vegetables, etc. as a savory main dish. The dessert type is made with farine de froment, or wheat flour, and filled with fruit, caramel or chocolate sauce, ice cream, etc. Fresh off the griddle… which is called a galeitière in French or a bilig in Breton…they are also scrumptious with just a dollop of Breton butter and a little sprinkle of sugar. A brief pause for a crêpe in the middle of the afternoon is very relaxing…the word “desserts” is, after all, “stressed” spelled backwards.
Hidden in the back of a narrow private passage in the fifteenth arrondissement is the home and studio where Mathurin Méheut lived and worked. The structure was built to his specifications in 1924...
The original front gate to his house was white wrought iron and featured his distinctive “MM” signature, and over the front door was an arch with a wonderful seascape mosaic with hippocampes...French for seahorses…both, unfortunately, no longer there...An example of an Henriot piece designed by Méheut; a charming octopus…a combination of words that I never thought I would write…
...forms the central motif of a piece from his 1920s Service La Mer.This is the building in which the famous Breton writer and statesman, François-René de Châteaubriand (1768-1848), lived during the last ten years of his life…
Dating from 1715 and originally constructed for a foreign mission organization, the elegant building has door with carvings that represent the four corners of the world…a native warrior wearing a feathered headdress represents the Americas.A statue of Châteaubriand accents a nearby square…
Several street names evoke memories of Brittany…including rue de Bretagne, rue de Rennes, and Place Jacques Bonsergent. Bonsergent was a Breton from Malestroit who has the sad distinction of being honored as the first civilian executed by the occupying forces during World War II.
Rue Surcouf recalls the Breton corsair, Robert Surcouf (1773-1827)…
Rue Surcouf recalls the Breton corsair, Robert Surcouf (1773-1827)…
Another “Quimper-fix” in Paris is the HB-Henriot shop on rue Saint Martin...
Prior to his collaboration with the HB pottery in Quimper, Georges Renaud (1904-1994) sculpted in metal and part of his Parisian legacy is the renovation work done on the bronze light standards of the Pont Alexandre III bridge…
When he did get to Quimper, Renaud was quite prolific and was responsible for the design of pieces displaying many different styles. His iconic sculptures continue to adorn the façade of the HB-Henriot factory… ...a petit breton......and a corresponding petite bretonne.The multi-faceted Jean Moulin was an artist, government worker, and leader of La Résistance during World War II. Le Mémorial du Maréchal Leclerc de Hauteclocque et de la Libération de Paris - Musée Jean Moulin is located near the Montparnasse railway station and provides a moving documentation of Moulin’s life, including what it was like to be a résistant.
He is remembered in Quimper with this recently-erected statue near the juncture of the Steir and Odet rivers…
As an artist, he is remembered with this faïence tableau...…consisting of thirty-five faïence tiles fired in 1932 at the Henriot factory. A pièce unique entitled Pietà aux Saintes Femmes, it is among the most expensive examples of Quimper pottery that we have ever seen and, luckily, since we couldn’t afford it, it is now part of the collection of Quimper’s Musée des Beaux-Arts, so at least we get to see it on a regular basis.Quimper is among the towns originally served by the Paris-Orleans railway station...
…now revived as the Musée D’Orsay.And the Breton writer, Emile Souvestre (1806-1854), is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in the twentieth arrondissement…
Souvestre was the father-in-law of Alfred Beau and the inspiration behind the creation by Beau of the Quimper faïence motifs known as Légendes bretonnes... …this scene recalls an old Breton tale about a water fairy.Marins Breton, a sculpture of a group of Breton fishermen by Henri Bouchard (1875-1960) was the original design source for this figural group produced at the Henriot factory in the later part of the 1920s…
There is a museum dedicated to Bouchard located in his former studio not far from the Bois de Boulogne.In the same general quartier, or neighborhood, is Prunier...
…a restaurant that is world-renowned for its seafood. In the 1930s, it was one of the most popular places to dine and the décor was très élégants. During its heyday, the table wares that were used by the Prunier restaurant were designed by Mathurin Méheut and produced at various potteries, and in various countries…England, Germany, and in France. This ashtray is an example of a piece made in Quimper… The old Prunier menus from that time period featured illustrations by René-Yves Creston… …depicting sixteen different steps involved in the raising of oysters. No doubt a subtle method employed by the proprietor, Emile Prunier, to entice the patrons to order the oysters……priced at an outrageous eleven francs for an assiette de fruits de mer!!! Well, at least at that price you also received a glass of wine to go along with the oysters and other delights from the waters along the coast of Brittany!!And all throughout Paris, there are images of Anne de Bretagne…
…depicted above on a plate produced at the Henriot factory after a design by Jacques Pohier (1871-1951). Sculptures of all of the French queens who reigned throughout history adorn the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris' sixth arrondisement...…twice Queen of France, Anne has but one statue in the Jardin.Last month, Paris celebrated la Nuit des Musées, a night when the museums offer free entrance and remain open until late…some until one in the morning…and each tries to outdo each other by putting the spotlight on a specific, spectacular item in their collection. At the Musée des Monnaies, médailles, et antiques, located within the Bibliothèque nationale de France-Richelieu, this portrait of Anne de Bretagne dated 1492-1495 was among the outstanding items…
There are many, many more reminders of Brittany here in Paris…but, just for fun…and to make your next trip to Paris more interesting…I think I’ll leave some for you to discover!
Note: I really, really, really appreciate all the supportive comments and e-mails received so far during my stint as guest blogger for the month of June. Your encouragement means a lot and provides great comfort…especially when struggling with trying to add italics or fighting the losing battle to insert photos where I want them to go! And while I do hope you will have comments for this blog entry as well as the entries that follow, I am reminded that Blogmistress Maggie has a treat in store for someone who writes a comment regarding the 50th entry to be posted on the blog…and this is entry number 49!
The prize is a grab-bag full of Quimper-related goodies and the lucky winner will be drawn 24 hours after the 50th blog is posted. Maggie sends along the following photographs and descriptions of the prizes...
A tin Quimper-motif tray that was purchased at the boutique of the Musée de la Faïence, a copy of Quimper Pottery by Bernard Jules Verlingue, and a copy of Faïence de Quimper, edition UHEL IZEL. Plus, a couple of rare and hard to find Morlaix Galerie des Ventes catalogs...this one is from July 23, 1990 and a cheese dish with matching knife by Guy Trévoux... ...along with the original box for the Trévoux set and the other Morlaix Galerie des Ventes catalog...this one from April 24, 2000.So get ready. If you want to be included in the drawing, you need to watch for the next blog entry and get in there and make a comment...buan…that’s Breton for quickly!
Bon Chance!
Oustanding, you have surpassed yourself with this post!
ReplyDeleteThoroughly enjoyed your blog Adela, and as always, learned many interesting things.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing amalgamation of information linking Paris and Brittany - and, as usual, beautifully illustrated. The portrait of Anne of Brittany is great discovery!
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I loved your pics and interesting tale!!! You should write a book...HA HA HA! For those readers who don't already own a copy of Adela's book, it's a must have!
ReplyDeleteThe Legendes Bretonne mention in your blog certainly caught my eye. Millicent Mali will be one of the speakers during the Quimper Club's Meeting this fall in Dallas. Millie is going to explain the legends that are represented in Alf Beau's paintings. Good timing Adela!
Adela, another terrific post! As you know I'm a huge fan of Paris and live in envy of your new abode. Thanks for the photo of the legend of the water fairy and for the recommendation of Breizh Café and the museums. All have been added to my list of "Places to Visit" during my next time in Paris.
ReplyDeleteAdela, you always come up with such interesting stories! I love hearing about the Breton citizens who have made their place in the world, and how the French World has made a special place for honoring them. Just wonderful, the places and the people and the faience that goes with them!
ReplyDelete