Quatrième et ultime étape de mon périple dans l'Ouest pour retrouver des ami(e)s lointain(e)s il y a un bon mois déjà : ma sœur Dominique et son mari, à Alençon, aux confins de la Normandie et des Pays de Loire.
On passe une journée au Mans. Visite du Carré Plantagenêt, musée d'histoire de la ville.
calice en céramique (origine : Arezzo) - Le Mans, an 0
coupe en céramique (origine : Centre de Gaule), lion, cerf, etc - Le Mans, 100-150 apr. J-C.
flacon de bain en bronze - Yvré, I-IIème s.
tasse en céramique (origine : Allier) - -Le Mans, 50 apr. J-C.
inscription votive de Sextius Aemilianus Faustus (esclave affranchi) à Serona, déesse guérisseuse des eaux - Le Mans, IIe s.
compas et poids de fil à plomb en bronze en forme de gland - Le Mans, I-IIème s.
tête de porc, embouchure de récipient - I-IIIème s.
maquettes des thermes du Mans
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The 20th century without doubt was the century of the automobile and vehicles like the Ford Model T and the VW Beetle motorized millions of people all over the world. Consecutively also cities and landscapes changed significantly in order to accommodate automobile traffic. Naturally these changes to a great deal involved architects and urban planners who in manifold ways reacted to them.
The art historian Erik Wegerhoff took a different look at the relationship of architecture and automobile, namely from a creative and conflictual perspective: „Automobil und Architektur. Ein kreativer Konflikt“, published in 2023 by Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, looks into how the automobile stimulated architecture and architects on a creative level. Wegerhoff’s perspective ranges from the futurists of the early 20th century over Le Corbusier to the postmodernists and the deceleration of the late 1990s. The subdivision of the different chapters into the three blocks „accelerating“, „shifting“ and „decelerating“ already hints at Wegerhoff’s point that between the early speed enthusiasm of the Italian futurists and the focus on parking spaces and the late 1990s Slow Movement drastic changes have occurred in the relationship between the car and architecture and speed has become less and less important.
Along Le Corbusier’s obsession with the car and the transposition of movement into his architecture, Erich Mendelsohn’s designs for the passing-by motorist and Zumthor’s Therme Vals placed at the end of a winding road, the author describes the manifold touching points between the car, traffic and architecture. But Wegerhoff doesn’t solely focus on the surface of architecture and also taps into the sociocultural dimension of the topic, especially with regards to deceleration: speed bumps, slackening surfaces and the increasing focus on stationary traffic since the 1960s are the results of a refocusing on the demands of local residents, pedestrians and cyclists.
Owing to his unconventional perspective on the automobile’s influence on architecture, the essayistic style and the diverting amalgamation of cultural and architectural history, the book is a great read, also for a non-specialists.
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Les Mis Letters - 1.3.1 - The Year 1817
It’s the chapter that feels like the literary equivalent of “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” so I thought the best summary would be through song…
Restoration, monarchy, and the French Academy
The third book of Les Miserables starts with context
From gibbet to the guillotine, headlines lay the scene
Of 1817 and all that will come next.
Mathurin Bruneau (Not a Louis? Gotta go!)
Berri for Sicily fell, Brugiere is a hot sell
Napoleon is turning green; Louis, Number Eighteen
Picard at the Odeon until the curtain fell.
It’s book three of the novel
We just met Valjean, and now we’re moving on
It’s book three of the novel
Until we meet Fantine, it’s 1817.
Abbé Louis: Finance; Talleyran: Chambellan
Pellegrini, Bigottini, Potier, applause
Lord Byron, Saint-Simon, David d'Angers rock on!
Selves to Egypt goes, Colonel to Pasha.
Madame Saqui goes on tour; Prussians from the last war
Cardinal Fesch won’t give up yet, (a Bonaparte, I’ll bet)
Felicite de La Minais, another Bossuet
Fabvier in Lyon, Civil Code is going strong.
It’s book three of the novel
We just met Valjean, and now we’re moving on
It’s book three of the novel
Until we meet Fantine, it’s 1817.
Divorce gets the sack, Catholic church is coming back
Hotel de Cluny, La Harpe and Thermes
Riverside Conspiracy, Black Pin goes free
Cafe Lembin has their champ, Valois in the Bourbon camp.
Elba to St. Helena, everyone is telling ya
The Meduse quite a mess, Gericault a success
Steamboat (useless thing), fossils and piety
French Academy theme: Happy when you study.
It’s book three of the novel
We just met Valjean, and now we’re moving on
It’s book three of the novel
Until we meet Fantine, it’s 1817.
Paer plays L’Agnese for the Duke of Orleans
Loyson getting old, envy grows bold
Charles Dauton lost his head, Ourika is being read
Blue ribbons, big hems, powdered wigs are out again
Austerlitz is being changed, government is rearranged
Getting over awful weather in our new morocco leather!
No divorce, you’re stuck with me; traitors land on their feet
General Bourmont, Bonapartist? (or not?)
Pierre-Paul Royer-Collard wants baser to stay small
Gregoire wants in parliament, can’t the man just take a hint?
Two years from the Hundred Days, a few years from the new craze.
Flotsam floats confusedly, pell-mell through history
Parisians now take the stage, arranging a fine game.
Where’s Valjean? Who’s Fantine? Someone say before I scream!
It’s book three of the novel
We just met Valjean, and now we’re moving on
It’s book three of the novel
Back to Jean Valjean
As Victor Hugo tangents on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on…
…
A big thanks to The Siècle Podcast’s research that made this random idea possible:
http://thesiecle.com/supplemental11/
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