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« La Bella Figura | Main | A trip to France: Chartres » May 23, 2006A trip to FranceAfter a long week of exams and finally finishing up my second year of university in Rome, I packed some sweaters and headed to the cold and windy coast of northern France. This area, Brittany and Normandy, is nowhere near the image that most foreigners have of a chic and stylish France (I was also guilty of considering the whole country to be like Paris). Instead, the area resembles the Irish countryside… wrought with baguettes.
The cheese and butter from Normandy is world famous. I had forgotten how good a piece of bread smothered in butter could be – Italians use their bread to sop up pasta sauce and salted butter is not common. The cheese, quite frankly, stinks. But it tastes so good.
The most famous attraction of Normandy is Mont St. Michel. Rising up out of the marshland, it has been a common place for religious pilgrims for hundreds of years. These days, you can park your car at the bottom and walk around the island. In the past, pilgrims would have to outrun the 1 meter/second rising tide to get to the Mont St. Michel before it became surrounded by water. Needless to say, many died trying to get here. Now, visitors have to keep an eye on which parking lot they left their cars in, as some do get flooded. This is not the only attraction in northern France. There are numerous gothic cathedrals with stained-glass windows, statues of monsters carved into rock by a potentially crazy priest, and “singing rocks,” all to be mentioned in upcoming blog posts. Posted by Kelsea CommentsKelsea, wish I were there! A movie was actually made at Mont St. Michel -- Mindwalk, starring Liv Ullman, Sam Waterston and John Heard. (IMDB link, IMDB comments link). The photography is stunning, of course, but don't see the movie when you're in the mood for comedy or an action flick! Here's the top of Vincent Canby's 1992 NYT review: Engaging in Conversation on the Normandy Coast: Published: April 8, 1992 In Bernt Capra's "Mindwalk," opening today at the Film Forum, an alienated scientist (Liv Ullmann), a losing candidate for the United States Presidency (Sam Waterston), and an American poet (John Heard) who lives in self-imposed exile in France meet by chance at Mont-St.-Michel and spend the day walking and talking. Though not exactly spontaneous and seldom witty, it is good serious talk, a sort of feature-length op-ed piece. The source material is "The Turning Point" by the director's brother, Fritjof Capra, a physicist and the author of the best seller "The Tao of Physics," which finds links between science and religious mysticism. (The Austrian-born Capra brothers are no relation to Frank Capra.) It is Fritjof Capra's point that the Earth can be saved only by a radical rethinking of priorities. Because the universe and everything within it function according to a single system of interdependencies, he believes, a holistic approach is needed to solve all problems, from famine, overpopulation and global warming to the tired businessman's heart attack. Mont-St.-Michel, a mile off the Normandy coast, is as apt a locale for the Capra brothers today as it was for Henry Adams in 1904. That was when Adams privately published his first edition of "Mont-St.-Michel and Chartres," a meditation upon the 13th century, when, as he saw it, the worship of the Virgin Mary briefly gave a transcendent unity and coherence to French life. The ancient Benedictine abbey, founded in the eighth century, is a spectacular setting, though "Mindwalk" is less interested in scenery than in delivering ideas as efficiently and conversationally as possible. Miss Ullmann's scientist must do most of the talking while she leads the two men around the island, gently lecturing them on Descartes, Newton and the outmodedness of the mechanistic approach to science. ... Posted by: sheila at May 23, 2006 11:46 PM Hello, I leave you an English comment although I is not very strong and you can the voirt if my message wants nothing to say!! I wanted to make a remark on what you say, all France east cannot chic and be stylish but one is not either of the bumpkins or countrymen, certainly it y' has farmers but it y' has well also many people and stylishs, to see the majority then do not be unjust with France. Kisses of France a JEAN reader Posted by: Jean at May 25, 2006 11:58 AM Hi Kelsea: Posted by: Arthur at May 25, 2006 5:18 PM |
Kelsea Brennan-Wessels is a sophomore at The American University of Rome |
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Comments
Kelsea, wish I were there!
A movie was actually made at Mont St. Michel -- Mindwalk, starring Liv Ullman, Sam Waterston and John Heard. (IMDB link, IMDB comments link). The photography is stunning, of course, but don't see the movie when you're in the mood for comedy or an action flick!
Here's the top of Vincent Canby's 1992 NYT review:
Published: April 8, 1992
In Bernt Capra's "Mindwalk," opening today at the Film Forum, an alienated scientist (Liv Ullmann), a losing candidate for the United States Presidency (Sam Waterston), and an American poet (John Heard) who lives in self-imposed exile in France meet by chance at Mont-St.-Michel and spend the day walking and talking.
Though not exactly spontaneous and seldom witty, it is good serious talk, a sort of feature-length op-ed piece. The source material is "The Turning Point" by the director's brother, Fritjof Capra, a physicist and the author of the best seller "The Tao of Physics," which finds links between science and religious mysticism. (The Austrian-born Capra brothers are no relation to Frank Capra.)
It is Fritjof Capra's point that the Earth can be saved only by a radical rethinking of priorities. Because the universe and everything within it function according to a single system of interdependencies, he believes, a holistic approach is needed to solve all problems, from famine, overpopulation and global warming to the tired businessman's heart attack.
Mont-St.-Michel, a mile off the Normandy coast, is as apt a locale for the Capra brothers today as it was for Henry Adams in 1904. That was when Adams privately published his first edition of "Mont-St.-Michel and Chartres," a meditation upon the 13th century, when, as he saw it, the worship of the Virgin Mary briefly gave a transcendent unity and coherence to French life.
The ancient Benedictine abbey, founded in the eighth century, is a spectacular setting, though "Mindwalk" is less interested in scenery than in delivering ideas as efficiently and conversationally as possible. Miss Ullmann's scientist must do most of the talking while she leads the two men around the island, gently lecturing them on Descartes, Newton and the outmodedness of the mechanistic approach to science. ...
Posted by: sheila | May 23, 2006 11:46 PM
Hello, I leave you an English comment although I is not very strong and you can the voirt if my message wants nothing to say!! I wanted to make a remark on what you say, all France east cannot chic and be stylish but one is not either of the bumpkins or countrymen, certainly it y' has farmers but it y' has well also many people and stylishs, to see the majority then do not be unjust with France. Kisses of France a JEAN reader
Posted by: Jean | May 25, 2006 11:58 AM
Hi Kelsea:
It's been a long time since I sent anything to your site. This place, Mont St Michel, has long seemed a favorite place of mine, even though I've never been there. Having been Englophiles since back in 1977, our trips abroad have been to the many friends we've made around Sheffield, up near Manchester, and to exploring the U.K. We'be only been to France once, and that to Paris, and a little village east of Paris, St. Simeon, but your descriptions and your writings are marvelous, unsophisticated (and by that I mean unpretentious, down-home, and charmingly inviting). Makes me want to jump on the next plane! You do write so well, but I'm sure lots of folks tell you that! Stay well...
Art
Posted by: Arthur | May 25, 2006 5:18 PM