Sunday 15. 02. 09 Yesterday went into Montpellier to get my urban fix. It was a beautiful sunny day and I took the noon bus. En route noticed that the landscape was alive again, with mimosas blooming everywhere. One of the advantages of bus travel is that you can see the landscape rather than concentrating on the road, altho you don’t get the smells that you discover riding on the scooter. Managed to to find a Moleskine notebook at the Fnac for my journal and then wandered over to the Musée Fabre for the Emile Nolde exhibition. An interesting show and I realised that I knew nothing of Nolde’s life or his early paintings which ranged from images from German mythology, peasant life, through to the night life of Berlin to religious paintings. My favourites were his seascapes. There was also a section devoted to his graphic work which included etchings, lithographs and woodcuts. He was extremely prolific and even survived the war under the Nazis painting watercolours (he was forbidden to paint in oil!). After this I went over to the old quarter of town to the vernissage of my friend from St Matieu Gérard Bru. Great show with over forty paintings. After all this culture, I caught the bus back to Clermont. Today I had a tasty lunch chez Giselle and Jonathan. Great food, good conversation and a wonderfully convivial atmosphere. C’était vraiment un bon week-end!
