Bonni Brodnick Blog

No words are needed. Breath deep and enjoy . . . Photo Credit: Bonni Brodnick

The steps on the main cathedral were painted to welcome the jazz festival to town. Get a load of these kidders. Note the flashing lights on the breast. Loved how they are embracing the moment. Loved their sense of frivolity! Listening to outdoor music on the knoll in town. This is an ancient temple smack-dab in the middle of town, Some might call it a real traffic stopper. Though surrounded by a parking lot, I say "Bravo, Vienne" for preserving your town's antiquity for hundreds and thousands and millions of years.

I took a semester abroad to study art history, painting & drawing at the renowned Leo Marchutz School in Aix-en-Provence. The school today is thriving! Here I am with one of my former teachers, Alan Roberts, who holds a copy of my book, My Stroke in the Fast Lane: A Journey to Recovery. Several teachers lived at Château Noir, a frequently painted motif by Paul Cézanne. It's located just outside of Aix, on the Route du Tholonet. Even in the daylight, it's eerie and mysterious. Whenever there's a Cézanne exhibit, you'll find me staring at the painting, mesmerized, and remembering the wild dinner parties we had there. We'd drink lots of local red wine, roll up the rug, and dance the night away.

We spent the afternoon visiting the splendor of Château de Varennes, a vineyard in the family since the 16th century. The current family is the 15th generation of that lineage. Here is a photo of me with Monsieur Charvériat  in the tasting room.  This is a photo of the five wines they produce. We tried every single one of them. I am not showing the photo after that when I was trying to squeeze around a barrel with empty wine glasses on top. My pocketbook bumped into them, and they all hit the floor, shattering. I tried to cover up the faux pas  by gently kicking sawdust over them, but it was hard to hide the shards. Slightly embarrassing (to say the least). But what a landscape! "Stunnnnning!", as my mother would say.

These vibrant, geometric floor tiles are from the Palace of the Popes in Avignon. Approximately 120,000 of the original designs are from ... get this ... the 14th century! They were so hip back then, n'est-ce pas?  

 Viviers, a village in southern France that's perched above the Rhône River, is known for its narrow cobblestone streets and well-preserved medieval and Renaissance architecture. Can you imagine living in a house built in 1500 or earlier?  You know when you move into a place, and there are all these holes in the walls from previous tenants hanging stuff up? Imagine all the holes in these walls.