La Belle Epoque

Alphonse Mucha's paintings define, in my mind, the aesthetics of La Belle Epoque. Here, "The Precious Stones". 

La Belle Epoque was so named in retrospect to describe a kind of Golden Age that existed in Europe between the end of the Franco-Prussian War and the begiining of WWI (1871-1914). It was characterized by a flowering of arts of every kind, optimism and colonial expansion.It was the time of the Moulin Rouge and the Folies Bergère. The Eiffel Tower was built and Haussmann renovated Paris to turn it into one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Colette, Proust and Zola wrote of these times. The impressionists and Pre-Raphaelites painted while Debussy, Strauss and Ravel composed music.

I reiterate this for personal reasons, as the past week has brought this period back to my mind.

Next week begins the art workshop that has been in preparations for over a year. I am in charge of making all the practical arrangements. Each day we will visit somewhere near here and each day we will work in the atelier in response to what we have seen and done together. The participants arrive on Thursday afternoon. They are staying in a B&B in Noyers. On the first evening they will settle in, we will have introductions there at their lodgings and then, I had imagined, we would all go to our favorite local pizza restaurant together before wrapping up the evening.

Our used-to-be favorite local restaurant.

I was horrified to discover only a couple of weeks ago that the pizza restaurant is closing its doors permanently on September 15. The proprietors are moving to Morocco! As organizer of the art workshop, this was a distressing piece of news but I knew that at least I would be able to reserve dinner for us at the Vielle Tour, a slightly more upscale restaurant in town. I was really thrown off my game when a few days later I discovered that this restaurant is closed on Thursday evenings. What now?

James told me about a place that had just opened up while we were in California and he and Daniel were still here. It is called La Belle Epoque. It is not actually a restaurant per se, more a cultural center but there is an associated bistro. They offer courses in yoga, theater, sculpture and cooking. We stopped by earlier in the week to see what they are about, and if by any chance they served dinner.

Just opened in July, the building is at one end of town, outside the ramparts.

While we were poking about and reading the various announcements on the windows, the owner, Vianney, came out to see if he could help. He himself looks a little like Monet, a man of The Belle Epoque, with his long luxuriant beard. Vianney told us about the workshops that are offered and about the midday bistro and bar which are open during the summer. I told him we were about to welcome a group of American artists at our house for a workshop and have been looking for a place for dinner on the first evening. He immediately offered to open his place for us and to make a special meal exclusively for our group. We agreed to return the next morning to plan a menu together. He is a chef from Lyon who has only recently moved with his wife and two daughters to Noyers where, over the last year, he has been renovating the large building to create a home and public space for their new enterprise.

We had such a nice meeting and immediately felt very enamored with Vianney, his wife and the whole teaching team, who we were able to meet. The building is full of people who are full of enthusiasm. The place was buzzing and we began to buzz ourselves. It made me almost happy that the pizza place wasn’t available. He proposed such a lovely meal, to be served in a charming room at an extremely reasonable price. He was full of information about the local food and wines. He is warm and expressive. We feel as if we’ve made a very good new friend.

Vianney, native of Lyon, now living in Noyers, a town that attracts very interesting and creative people.

After our face to face conversation, he followed up with a beautifully formatted menu, sent through email to confirm our arrangement. I’m quite delighted and excited by this happy turn of events. He told us that he is inspired by the famous chefs of La Belle Epoque!

Our menu for Thursday evening.

Another fun thing I discovered durning this busy week was a couple of old postcards from the Noyers of 100 years ago. You can compare to see how much the town has remained the same. Only the people seem to have changed much.

Then...

Now...

Then...

Now...

To prepare my own self for the workshop with Gail Rieke, I have been making a few little objects to play around with during the time she will be here. I’ve had it in mind to work with garden plants and do a sort of natural history of our place. I did some cyanotypes, some eco dying and pressed some garden plowers. I found some little laminating pockets that can be sealed with an ordinary iron.

Various treatments of some of the garden plants.

I also made a simple little pamphlet of some of my prints onto rice paper and bound them with a stick taken from one of our apple trees. Rick split it down the middle for me, drilled six holes and I sewed it on with embroidery thread.

Little book bound together by means of a little tree branch.

Last but not nearly least, is a little video Rick made this week. We don’t have humming birds here in France, but we do have humming bird moths. They are very charming little creatures.

Next Sunday I will be in the middle of our workshop. I’ll report back here in two weeks. Meanwhile, enjoy the beginning of my favorite season!