Erotic gothic -les gargouilles of Suevres

The neighbouring village was very busy today, vide grenier is equal to 14 juillet in a small community. Looking for a parking space we turned behind the church I thought had nothing else to offer and was surprised to see a couple of gargoyles I missed before. One of them was on the ground, the other nearly destroyed, but the third was quite unusual.


Leaving the parking we saw the priest entering the church. I was very curious to ask him if this gargoyle has always decorated the church or this was the artistic freedom of a mason who did the restoration. Some of the gargoyles were clearly restored recently. My husband refused to assist and my French is not good enough to have an intelligent conversation. I guess I'll never know.
Quel cauchemar!

Les gargoyles de Blois

Les gargouilles Saint-Valerie-sur-Somme

Les gargouilles

The vacation in September didn't start very well. The weather is windy, the temperatures are low and the places are empty. I usually hate the crowds that flood France in summer, but it seems to be even worse without them. Being alone in a huge camping in a middle of French nowhere is a doubtless pleasure. Still this beautiful country is full of surprises that save me from boredom. Just look at these gargoyle in a small village Suevres. I have at least 20 different ones from the churches all over Picardie and Pay de Loire.






Here is the view from above that shows the actual purpose of these figures and explains why most of them have the mouths wide open- they served as water pipes.
The gargoyle of Chenonceau:

Justitie Palais

I have already mentioned the new court house in Antwerp, the one that has resemblance with nostalgic newspaper cones. This package was used by french fries sellers, was made of newspapers and became a symbol of good old days in Flanders. I don't know if I like Justitie Palais or not, in any case I always feel a slight discrepancy between design and function. In our post-modernistic times 100 hundred year old rules about design that should follow function are not meticulously observed anymore. It looks more like an airport or an exhibition center to me. A friend of mine who saw photos taken yesterday night thought that it is a train station. Some photos are here (not mine). I haven't done anything with my photos yet, not good at it)so I place them as they are.


on the opposite side of the square

The last stop of the tram is under the staircase of the building. It is quite windy on the stairs leading to the palace. Funny thought : it's good that the judges don't wear wigs in Belgium.




Femida
Antwerp at night


My tripod wouldn't turn the camera for making a vertical shot but I couldn't pass these
beautiful Art-Nouveau facades without taking some photos

Architectonic walls in Atomium

While finishing my essay about concrete I found out that there is an exhibition in Brussels, to be more precise in Atomium, this bizarre symbol of Belgian capital. Post war architectonic facades that I was looking for in my neighbourhood are the central subject of this exhibition.  The only wall I found was this, near the back door of the local primary school.

 

From the exhibition:

Konstantin Brodsky's building

Marcel Breuer, Torrington building, Nijvel

Strangely all of the 8  houses they feature are in Brussels or in Wallonia, French-speaking part of Belgium. 

De Stijl and its Maison d'Artiste, Den Haag , Gemeentemuseum

The exhibition in the Hague was very well scheduled. In December I tried to combine concrete and antique  doll houses/quilts- two very divergent interests. Coincidentally, the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague had the same combination of subjects for their exhibitions in December. The best of both worlds. First I was fascinated by the Art-Deco building that houses the museum, very Piet Mondrian colours accentuated the Mondrian dress, furniture of Piet Klaarhamer, and famous Maison d'Artist  by Theo Van Doesburg.  These accents of bold colours scattered around the museum were in full harmony with the interior of the building