Collioure: Sunny Monday Blair PESSEMIER Oil on linen 10.5 x 16 inches SOLD
Collioure: Market Blair PESSEMIER Oil on linen 10.5 x 16 inches
Collioure: Donkeys Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Oil on linen 10.5 x 16 inches
ARTNOTES: Donkey News
It took
almost nine hours, in our rental
car (a Peugot 508SW that had just 5 kilometers on the odometer) to arrive at our
holiday destination. Blair and I and Harika are spending Christmas
and New Years in Collioure, a small (former) fishing village on the
Mediterranean, very close to the coast of Spain.
This
trip is, of course, a painting vacation – it is fifteen degrees warmer here, and
we’ve actually seen the sun for some of the hours we’ve been here. This morning we went to the market, where
Blair painted a terrific scene.
Our
house is large enough we can have a studio room, as well as our bedroom, large
kitchen with table, and living/dining room.
The only drawback is its terrazzo floors, so we brought carpets from
Paris to keep our tootsies (and Harika’s) warm.
For
more than 50 years I spent every Christmas in my birthplace of Winsted,
Connecticut with my family. The last 30
Christmases Blair spent there, too, with a visit to Virginia to visit his Mom,
too. Now that my mother has passed away,
my father doesn’t feel like celebrating and my sisters both have their own
families (Blair’s mother died this year, too) .
So it is up to Blair and I and Harika to forge a new
tradition.
As
soon as we got here I saw the advertisement for a Christmas fair. We settled into our house, got Harika
situated, and walked downtown to check out the festivities.
We
should have been hip to the magnitude of the production: we saw donkeys, in hats, carrying children
around the town. We climbed the old
Catalan/Moorish fort on the bay, and behold:
there were camels, donkeys, sheep and geese (the latter two under the
supervision of a farm dog). Hark, there
were angels “on high”, or at least on stilts, casting snowflakes and golden
glitter on the crowd. Wise and strong men lifted children onto the
backs of the camels, bedecked in jewels, for spin around the interior courtyard
of the 13th century stone structure.
The scene was, in fact, how it might have taken place seven or eight
hundred years ago. Tears of joy and wonder filled my eyes as I
sipped hot wine.
Christmas music played, and patterned light fell against the
stones. We walked along the ramparts and
watched the moon rise on the water.
Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything finer or a better way to hail in
the holiday season.
Our
landlady set up a little electric (fiber optic) Christmas tree for us, and Blair
is sending out cards. I brought my
collection of Motown Christmas music.
Maybe we’ll get a wreath for the rental car.
I have no wifi here, and there isn’t a starbucks or mcdo’s for
miles around, so my electronic communication may be spotty. I have hopes for the library.
Collioure’s population is only 2,763 people. Maybe 10% of them were present on Saturday
night; plus people from neighboring towns.
I thought, why don’t more places do this?
If I were king, or just a city mayor, I certainly would.
Collioure: Footbridge Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Oil on linen 10.5 x 16 inches SOLD
Collioure: Boat Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Oil on linen 5 x 10 inches
