It was an Art-full Holiday

Here I am, in front of the wonderful, and wonderfully named, Palais des Beaux Arts (the Palace of Beautiful Art) in Lille.  The building itself is a work of art, and typical of what I would call the "wedding cake" school of architecture so prevelent in France.  In other words, elaborate and richly detailed.  None of that "clean lines" nonsense!

                    I know, I'm just a tiny figure, but the "star" of the photo is the building.

 The Palais des Beaux Arts had an enormous ceramic collection, and I especially liked these casks that had taps coming out of them.  No idea what they might have been used for.

We also enjoyed looking at the exhibition of the artwork of Hieronymus Bosch, who is a particularly favourite of Gorgeous Husband's.  Bosch loved to paint grotesque, over-the-top figures in heaven and hell situations.  For a fellow born around 1450, he had quite a warped imagination.  Also, we were amazed how close we could get to the actual work, as they were not roped off.  Bosch was a master of painting detail, so much so, that a fox no bigger than a grain of rice, still had a recognisable expression.

 We also discovered this upside-town house, which was an example of modern art.  Everything in the house was upside down, in that the plumbing and furniture was all on the ceiling.  You could go in and walk around, which we thought would be neat.  As it turns out, I could only stay in the house for a few minutes before I began to feel woozy.  Something about the slant of the floor, and seeing everything topsy turvey had an adverse affect on me and I had to get out of there right away.  It just brought home to me how much I rely on my sight to make sense of the world.

This jolly "cat on a bicycle" fellow was in another modern art gallery, that I forgot to check the name of.  They had a lot of papier mache figures and expensive handcrafts and paintings.  A feast for the eyes, if not the wallet.

This collection of psychedelic flowers is a sculpture close to the Eurostar train station.  Notice I am actually wearing a hat!  The weather was somewhat drizzly, not a proper rain, just a bit of a whimper with not enough energy to collect itself into actual rain drops.

We walked down this street one morning, and it seemed that there were lots of artists and craftspeople out with their wares, in addition to the cute little boutiques that were open.  This particular shop had a white cat outside that the owner had taught a trick.  If you walked up to the cat, held out your palm, and said "merci!" the cat would put its paw in your hand.  Ever so cute. You will appreciate this if you've ever tried to teach a cat anything.  They are not particularly good pupils!