Si j'étais un musée : Musée d'Orsay - Paris

Deuxième étape de mon périple dans les musées parisiens (au cas où vous souhaiteriez me surveiller un peu !) : le Musée d’Orsay.

Point besoin de milliers de mots pour expliquer pourquoi j’aime ce musée (outre son histoire), des noms : Delacroix, Sisley, Corot, Constable, Diaz de la Pena, Fantin-Latour, Doré, etc. Cela vous parle ? A moi aussi.

Situé le long de la seine, face au jardin des Tuileries (ah, mes canards !), le musée était à l’origine la gare d’Orsay, construite pour l’exposition universelle de 1900.

Déambuler entre ces sculptures, ces tableaux et ces photographies me remplit de joie à chaque visite. Je ne me lasse pas de revoir les mêmes peintures et photographies.

Je suis à chaque fois impressionnée par les photographies de Thiollier, par exemple et cette ressemblance troublante avec Friedrich.

Malgré le nombre important de visiteurs, j’ai toujours l’impression d’être seule au milieu des œuvres et je me dis souvent que j’ai une chance folle de pouvoir les admirer en détail. Le ressenti est quasi identique à chaque fois : un apaisement.

Il y a, évidemment, des peintures qui me touchent plus personnellement (et dont les raisons resteront à ma discrétion), mais rien ne m’empêche de vous les montrer ! En l'occurence, une....

N’hésitez pas à faire un petit tour à Orsay, à vous asseoir sur un banc dans le hall central pour admirer une statue ou juste le va-et-vient des visiteurs, et à déjeuner au restaurant (même bondé, la vue et le lieu valent l’attente !). N’oubliez pas d’acheter votre billet à l’avance pour éviter la file aux caisses et pouvoir, alors, profiter de la journée complète.

Should I vote ? Some asked

I was not going to talk about that but one of my (few) readers asked me, due to my post on photographers of war, my opinion upon the French policy in the Middle East and whether I will vote or not.

Let’s be clear ! I don’t care about Policy, Politics and elections in general. Not that I am not interested in (although…), but I don’t think that it would change a damn thing. Whoever I would vote for, I truly believe that he/she won’t do all he/she promises. I do understand that politics leaders cannot run the country on an ideal and might be forced to program laws and rules to maintain the balance of the economy (international economy) but I am too idealist to believe in them anymore.

I’ve seen a few elections and Presidential too which made me really regret my vote. Nevertheless, I read all programs of any group or party. I have to because it is the privilege of democracy, being able to choose.

2012 is a major election year in France. First of all, presidential election is due late april / early may. Our actual president is running for a second mandate and a few candidates declared themselves for the job. It might be very motivating to get this job due to the amount of people announcements.

The second election is due in June to select by ballot the Deputies. Again, it is going to be hectic. The battle already begun!

So, basically, I am supposed to vote to both elections. Presidential first round is today and I know whom I am going to vote for : no one ! Not that I have no clue about my political tendency but I don’t have a real enthusiasm for a candidate, especially from my own convictions.

I am not fond of politic and power in general. I don’t see a point about supremacy of any kind. I believe in individuals, freedom, fraternity, not equality.  We are not equal to each others. That is a fact that everyone can understand. The French constitution and motto says “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”. There are three of the most significant words in the world (along with love, etc.) but it is not true for everyone.

My ideal line is quite far away from that Egalité thing. But I do think that we should be equals to education, work, way of living and freedom. I guess that the word I like the most is Liberté (Freedom). I request Liberty of action, thinking and acting. I do think that the most valuable skill we have is this ability to be independent and to keep on being self-governing.

Indeed, a country needs rules, authority and major influence on people but lately France has become rather radical in the freedom of opinion and expression. A few years ago, we had this liberty of speaking with our own words, rude or not, inconvenient or not, offending or not, but we could express ourselves and freely gave ours opinions. Nowadays, it is not infrequent to be judge about that kind of attitude.

I was discussing with a few colleagues and, after being asked the presidential election and the fact for voting, I said “No, I am going to vote for a party despite I don’t like the candidate. I won’t vote unless the blank vote is admitted and counted”. I guess that one of the men faint of horror and told me that I was “not a good citizen and a democratic person”. I answered back that voting is a right not a duty and I still have my freedom of thinking and acting.

The Presidential election is a bit harsh here and the two main parties are just trying to influence people to vote. TV shows are all about politics and it is quite boring to watch at the TV programs. Last Sunday, it was an eight hours live shows full of “Live Meeting”, “Live comments”, “Live interviews”.

Hello ? Are we all supposed to act like our fellow citizen ? Are we required to attend to all meetings conventions and to be passionate ?

Consequently, I guess that I am entering into four months and half of mutes and seclusion from the Medias, four months avoiding articles in magazines, newspapers and on Internet, pretending that only Art, Music, Cinema, Literature and Sports matter. Thinking about photography, writing a novel, listening to new bands, going to movies and enjoying reading a book are things I am going to do until late June.

Who cares about my vote ? Really care I mean. My grandmothers would have been very angry at me if they were still alive, but I often talked about that matter with them both and they agreed that whoever is in charge, nothing really changes.

Be a good citizen, go and vote. Be assured that you do the right choice for your own conscience and be satisfied to act properly. I already did my choice years ago.

I, I do not vote. 

United we (should) stand

Since yesterday, I’ve been quite irritated by some comments on TV or radio shows. I don’t have to explain what happened since last Monday in Toulouse and the 7 killed by a young man whom referred himself to terrorism and Al-Qaida. He killed 7 people (3 children included), cold-blooded, without no remorse (why should he have remorse for, knowing that he was convinced by his deeds?) and resisted for more than 30 hours to police forces.

Police Forces…. Not the basic police forces ! An Elite Unit calls RAID (Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence), of the French National Police. It is one of the 3 Elite Units in France and obviously one of the most competent and secret. Anyhow, and since I’ve been a little girl, this Unit is respected and its work is definitely not a piece of cake.

Their first job is to open a dialogue with the suspect and try out to make him (her?) surrender without any violence. Most of the time, I assume they perform in that case, but last Thursday, march  22th, they had to give the assault against this young man (23), whom didn’t want to give up and aggressed them back when they entered in the flat.

On the whole following afternoon, the Unit was acclaimed for its cold-blooded action and the fact that, despite the death of the killer and the absence of trial for hurt families, the situation was back under control and that it would have any more killing.

But, yesterday evening, some tweets popped up and some radios or TV shows entered into a kind of trial of “what did the RAID do wrong ?”. This morning (Friday, march 23th), a tweet really bothered me. I was quite angry when I read that. This was a development about the measures the RAID should have done and it was quite insulting for them.

Tweetos didn’t insult them directly but pointed out the “so-called” negligence they might have done. This is obviously a wrong process toward this Police Unit.

Of course, I would have preferred that the killer would have been arrested and judged for the murders he committed, to give the families to ability to mourn their beloved ones and to show others supposed terrorists that France won’t let unpunished those who kill innocents people in the name of God (or you name it).

I am not into revenge against a community, a religion or a race (even though this word seems to be forbidden lately in French language, it is not an insulting expression, for God’s Sake !).  I’ve been raised up with the French motto “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” (Freedom, Equality and Fraternity) in mind and the fact that we are all human beings.

Moreover, a religion does not define a person. I am a catholic and if you ever learn History a bit, Catholics had done such horrible acts those past 2 000 years. Am I responsible for any of them ? No, I am NOT ! So are the Muslims whom pray Allah daily nowadays in harmony with others religions ! So are the Jews, Buddhists, etc !

Anyhow, I guess that killing a person is not the first and main idea which came into mind of the RAID Commander in Chief. He might have hoped to solve the case without any hurt for his men and for the killer, knowing that putting him on trial would have been the best solution for anyone.

So, yes, a RAID sniper killed him. He protected his colleagues and it might have been the best solution. Of course, some might think that a pepper spray should have been an easier solution to make the killer capitulate. Albeit….

People should put themselves into the Police Unit situation and think twice before tweeting or questioning. Of course, the freedom of the press and their questions are legitimate and asking for answers is too, but is it necessary to give advices after the fight?

In front of fragile and war situations (it was a kind of war within a city !), none can say what they would say or do. You have to be IN those circumstances to know exactly how to react. The “I would have done that” are not an option for those kind of events.

In front of a determinate young man, strongly armed and fearless to die, there is no other way to solve that. You kill or you die.

It is tragic for families and I do sincerely pray for them and their beloved ones who died under the fanatic vision of a man.

So, to quote the famous US sentence : United We Stand.

We really should and stop the polemics !

Belcastel, Aveyron, France... The place I could have lived !

Belcastel is a small village in Aveyron, southern France. This medieval village is well-knonw for its cobbled streets and lauze-roofed (stone tiled) houses. The Castle is situated on the steep North Bank of the Aveyron River. Several building and the 15e century Church are on the south side of the River and the lovely bridge is connecting the 2 sides. It is known as one of the most beautiful village of France...

One on my favourite indeed. I visited it a few times and each time, I am in love with it even more..

I decided to situate one of the chapter of my book there, because it's beautiful, aged and so full of History..