Seriously, it really indicates how tiny the town is. I couldn’t believe it when we arrived at the town’s train station, it looked like a bus stop.
Seeing no taxi stand, we were about to panic. Then we noticed a map on the “bus stand”. Dude, Ronchamp is not just tiny … it’s microscopic! I think there’s only five streets here or something. We arrived at the cathedral after a good 15 minutes walk uphill.
We’ve learnt from the Paris Notre-Dame that even famous historical churches are still used for Sunday services. We timed ourselves so that it will be a Sunday when we visited the Notre-Dame du Haut. You will notice that there are chairs outside the building for Sunday morning mass. So rest assured, 50 years after completion the space outside is still used as designed and intended by the architect. A good hindsight, considering houses are renovated immediately upon purchase these days.
It is immaculate. For those who say that modernism is devoid of any humanistic values or spirituality must see this building in person. The moment you step inside, you’re wrapped in an intense microcosm, best described by the architect himself as, “a place of peace, prayer and silence.” Inside, you hear a constant and rather loud bellowing noise, in the dark space lit by poetry in windows, the church has a real and tangible feeling of calmness, solitude and sovereignty.
Too bad we are not allowed to take pictures inside the church.
Lunch in front of the Notre-Dame…
Is this safe?? BCA ????
Architects who’ve never been here, put this on your next travel itinerary !!
A few people have requested about getting original copies of our photos. Thus, on our way to Ronchamp, we have officially drafted the official code of conduct in dealing with our material. The Code of Ronchamp is …
1) Thou shalt not give away copies of originals, digital or analog.
2) With the exception of popular landmarks, (e.g. Eiffel Tower), landscape, and non-architectural items, any publication or distribution must be limited to the maximum
of 240 x 180 pixels at 72 DPI.
3) Thou shalt take all necessary steps to prevent the violation of the first two codes of conduct.
The Église Saint-Pierre is the only building that was never finished after Le Corbusier’s death. In fact, it was pretty much left just half constructed, with exposed steel bars – for 20 odd years. After 25 years of effort by one of his former students, that one unfinished building is now finally getting completed.
When the church is finished, it will be the third religious building built by Le Corbusier. The other two are the Convent of La Tourette and Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp. This is a really big deal because the town of Firminy-Vert will then officially exceed Chandigarh in having the highest concentration of Le Corbusien work. As a university student, my father visited Chandigarh and got deeply inspired there. So to see Firminy-Vert means a lot to me.
Eglise Saint Pierre. Can’t get in because it is a construction site.
Maison de la Culture. The interior is quite small in reality. The angled wall must have really exaggerated its size.
Unité d’Habitation. The last of five Unités. This is the biggest of them all, with 400 individual homes because all the apartments are single storey.
Despite our limited budget, we decided to make an exception for this city to splurge a little on dinner! I noticed a rather nice restaurant next to the laundrymart, so we dropped in.
Man, I wish I have a “Gastronomique Encyclopaedia” or something. My limited stomach vocabulary could only recognise two items, “degustation” and ” foie gras”. Since it was only €25, I decided to go for it.
Now, you have to understand that Jeff is a vegetarian (only food that does not involve killing).
Talking to the waitress in a mix of broken French and English, we finally managed to communicate that Jeff cannot have “meat”, she repeatedly pointed to foie gras on the menu and said “no meat no meat”. Jeff, being a bit of a kiasu (a “low risk-er” for you aussies) decides to follow the advice of the waitress, and ordered the same dish as me.
Besides that one-off incident, I have a very good impression of this city. Full of life and character, must return! But next time, with my Gastronomique Encyclopaedia !!!
Typical Lyon street, lined with restaurants.
Art class at the square, most of the kids look like they don’t want to be there though …
Castle like church on the hill
Wish I could use one of these without looking like a snail …
I don’t know what to say, so overcomed by the fact that we’re here. I’ve cited this building in at least ten essays. Both me and Jeff took about 450+ photos and videos.
They turned the lower floors into offices which felt really strange – having only seen photos of this masterpiece empty. The toilets are actually working and allowed for public use !!!
Jeff did his business and flushed in Villa Savoye!
The La Défense Grand Arche is on the other end of the axis to the Arc du Triomphe (which then becomes the Champ du Élysées).
The CINT next to it is dirtier than it looks in photos. I thought it was the office for some French government ministry, it’s actually a really nice shopping mall with Hilton in it!
Also there’s this really weird metal panel which has TONS of graffiti and poster goo leftover on it SMACK right in the middle of the axis, in front of the Grand Arche. I looked closely and noticed it’s suppose to be some mural about the building, but why they don’t clean it? Thus, I decided to contribute.
By the way, the hotel owner at La Défense was really helpful AND funny. He’s like one of those nutty professors.
June 17, 2005 at 3:42 pm · Filed under Culture, France
My 23th Birthday at the Moulin Rouge!
Thanks again for those who wished me, I had a blast at the most famous cabaret in the world. We nearly didn’t get there on time, the haircut took too long. Pity we couldn’t take photos inside.
As for the cabaret girls ….
It’s actually 9:30pm when I took this photo, the sun sets around 10:30pm during summer.
After reviewing my pictures, it’s time to do something about my Tadao Ando hair (thanks Ryan). So I went for a haircut + colour!! ON the Champ De Elysees!!!
You would expect the hairdressers to know English but sign language worked really well. With lots of pointing at hair styling catalogues too.
I love Jean Nouvel’s work. Jeff finds it interesting, not necessarily “good”.
You really have to be there to appreciate the detail, especially in the windows. Each individual “hole” has its own aperture, I observed that they are all at different configurations, maybe they are micro managed by computers?
The Versailles Palace is located pretty far off from Paris itself, not to mention our hostel. Halfway we got confused with the platform signs and nearly got to the point of complete panic. The moment we figured our metro map out, our train flew past us. Took us a good run to the other end of the platform. I think this was the point where I hurt my right knee.
After all that chaos, we still did not manage to go in the palace (closed on Mondays). By the way, the gardens are HUGE, maybe 3-4 kilometres long !!
Within seconds, he was doing this Muppet performance that was really really good. When he finished, he collected basking tips using the same Muppet sock!!
Wish I could tape more but we needed the memory for the rest of the day …
June 16, 2005 at 12:19 pm · Filed under Food, France
This is a special blog entry to show what I normally eat in the hostel.
There’s no way I can afford to eat out the whole time. To start with, in Paris we didn’t come across any supermarkets as we travelled between the landmarks. By the time we got back, the only thing open is an “Oriental” across the road. Or we think it’s one as the sign only says “Exotiques”, which judging from what they offered means pretty much anything non-Occidental.
My dinner bowl consisted of instant Vietnamese beef noodle soup, Moroccan baked beans, Turkish beef + poultry sausage of some sort, and Yeo’s soya bean milk. How’s that for variety in your diet !!
