Saturday in Roubaix

What a splendid Saturday I had today! I moseyed through museums all day! First, I headed out to a suburb of Lille called Roubaix (Roo-bay) where I had never been before. The train station itself was an enormous stone sight. The town is less crowded than Lille but has a similar style: multicolored houses squished all together, cobblestone sidewalks, etc… Before setting out, I researched the first museum I went to, The Piscine de Roubaix, and looked at the most renowned works. However, a colleague of mine, Stephanie Lodieu, had told me that the traveling exposition there this month was spectacular. Upon arriving, I was pleasantly surprised to know that students entered all museums free that day and they stayed upon through the night! This particular museum has a neat history; in the early nineteen hundreds it was constructed as a public pool and stayed that way until 1985 when it closed down and was changed to house these special collections. Everything the Piscine dates from the 19th and 20th centuries. The neat thing is that the current displays are set up around the pool.
I began by walking through the special exhibition though, which was a showcase by Agatha Ruiz de la Prada. She decided to make dozens of dresses out of everyday items and though none of the dresses are meant to actually be worn, they are fascinating to look at. She used all sorts of materials from grass, flowers, and ribbons, to birdcages, rags, and Styrofoam. I copied a few of the pictures onto here but there are so many unique ones. The ones I posted are made out of white and red roses, beanbag inner tubes, plastic, etc… Next, I toured through the permanent collection of the museum and loved nearly everything I saw! I must admit, the plaster statues blow me away; I don’t understand how so much detail can come from such raw, hard, rough, material. There was an enormous full-bodied statue of Handel, and one of Lully, a friend of Moliere’s who wrote ballet interludes for his plays. Since I love Rodin, I was determined to find the one original statue of his that they had. I finally did, and it was called A bust of Dalou whoever that is. I imagine it was someone important, but should look it up to see what the background is. It could very well have been Rodin’s chimneysweep for all I know. The bronze was very detailed and sculpted thinly; I wonder if he had to heat it to work it. Along with Rodin’s sculptures, there were two by Camille Claudel, who was a student of his. She had promising talent from the very beginning and eventually she and Rodin married. Though, with two passionate artists’ personalities, they were in constant rage with each other and quickly divorced. However, one of her best sculptures is of Auguste himself. In the collection of paintings, I learned that most of the works came from an era called Art Deco. This is when artists started using blunt geometric shapes and stopped toning down their colors so much. I thoroughly these. I could go on and on but I’ll never finish if I keep this pace. After a couple hours here, I went to another exhibit called the Marché des Modes. They had everything from leather leg warmers, to sparkling jewels, to enormous purses, and so on. I loved the lamp table-there were so many creative ones. Picture lamps, hat lamps, phone lamps, short lamps, you name it. It started to rain, but I could not be stopped. I saw a beautiful stone wonder at the end of the street and I just had to see what it was. I trekked closer and found it was the city hall; an enormous chateau is more like it. I wish my photo could capture the detail, but on the top, there are characters who appear to be mill workers. This makes sense seeing as Lille was a strictly industrial region until the late 20th century. Well, it got quite late and my stomach was rumbling so I made my way back to Lille and once in my neighborhood, chose a restaurant at random to eat at. It was a little French provincial place, dimly lit with red velvet chairs and nice music. I sat down and was instantly greeted by an older man named Laurent. He was fascinated with my being American and thus continued to pelt me with questions about where I was from (the state of the Jazz, he said right off). He was about to sit down and eat his dinner with me when the evening rush bega

n and he had to help wait tables. However, he chose me an absolutely delicious meal and stopped every time he passed to chat for a moment. He even brought me an “appetizer”-a piece of a pizza he had just made for his granddaughter. At the end, he brought my check, along with a short-stemmed wine glass. He joyfully said that I could not fully appreciate Lille without tasting the regional Cognac. Long story short, after several insists and several of my refusals and thank-you’s, he disappointedly left. However, before leaving he did say he hoped to see the American mademoiselle come in again often.
Tomorrow, Cédric Lepoutre, the dean’s assistant, is coming to get Kami and me from church and taking us to his home for the day. He hopes that it will be good weather and we can head to a village in Belgium called Tournée; apparently there is a neat cathedral there. I must learn to get to bed earlier! Bonne nuit…