LIPS

Exuberant, extravagant, and automated are the works of the very popular French contemporary artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) at the Fontaine Stravinsky. She and her life partner and Swiss sculpteur, Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), collaborated to create 16 mechanical water pieces in a large basin adjacent to the Centre Pompidou in Paris' Beaubourg neighborhood. 

The works completed in 1983 were totally renovated in 2023 after several years during which the fountains no longer worked. Today they swirl and spout water anew with their original and full vibrancy.

Above are the pieces La Bouche and L'Oiseau de Feu with La Mort in the background.

Expression

du bout des lèvres:  lip service, that is to say comments made without conviction or without sincerity

©2025 P. B. Lecron

KERMIT THE FROG EN BERNE

That was the week that was. . .

 For a few days this temporary conceptual art piece anchored on the Place Vendôme has been the talk of the town, not so much for it's artistic value, but for its worth as an obvious social statement regarding the budgetary cuts for the United States' educational television station, PBS. In the past PBS aired The Muppet Show, starring the puppet Kermit the Frog.

Installation of a giant inflatable Kermit the Frog is the work of American artist Alex Da Corte coinciding

with the private and for-profit contemporary art fair in Paris, Art Basel.

The accompanying interpretative panel explains that Da Corte's work evokes a mishap at the Macy's

1991 Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City in which a huge helium-filled ballon in the form of Kermit was punctured when it snagged on a tree branch. Kermit's deflated head and drooping body somewhat saddened parade morale. 

As the panel explains, "Da Corte's Kermit appears suspended in a never-ending moment of defeat. Between humor and melancholy, the piece embodies the artist's interest in how cultural icons absorb and reveal our collective anxieties."

Expression

en berne: at half-mast or half-staff as in the position of a flag to symbolize mourning, distress, or respect; humoristically--in a position lower than normal

©2025 P. B. Lecron

BISTROMANIA

Avant l'ouverture

 Out and about before opening time. 

©2025 P. B. Lecron

AN OCTOBER MORNING

 From the heart of Beaujolais vineyards in the village of Pommiers.

©2025 P. B. Lecron

A WINEGROWER'S SHELTER

 Une cadole--a stone hut long-used by winegrowers in the Burgundy vineyards to store

tools as well as to take shelter in during bad weather. These two are in the village of Marcy in the 

Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. Be on the lookout for them if travelling along a route de vins de

Bourgogne.

Vocabulary

un viticulteur:  a winegrower

un vigneron: a winegrower involved in the entire process of making the wine; from maintaining the grapevines to bottling the wine and marketing it

©2025 P. B. Lecron

BEFORE AND AFTER

Avant et après

Chestnuts or châtaignes are easy to identify because of the prickly and dense spines 

of their outer shells. Delicious roasted or puréed as savory side dishes or 

transformed into a sweet crème for desserts.

©2025 P. B. Lecron

 

FOR THE LOVE OF VERSAILLES

Unattractive utility boxes in Versailles are more often than not turned into decorative

pieces, often with historical references, thanks to the masterful works of staff and students

of l'École Supérior d'Art Mural et Décoratif de Versailles.