Al’écoute 2001/2002 inside out 5 – Programnr: 11134tv 5

FRANCE INSIDE OUT 5 - PARIS Sändningsdatum: 19/5 2002 i SVT2

Presenters: Peter Lowe and Wendy Robbins

Dialogue

David I’ve been living in Paris for the past 15 years and still haven’t tired of its charms. But I must say I haven’t thought of getting around the place by bike, which is what I’ll be doing when I discover that the best way to visit the city is on 2 wheels with a friend.

I’ll also be getting the inside track of how to stay ahead of the pack when it comes to leading a fashionable lifestyle.

Wendy I’ve been to Paris before but never the countryside around it. There are dozens of fascinating villages and castles hidden away in the forests and farmland around the capital.

I’ll be exploring Vaux-le-Vicomte - a chateau with a tragic past, so beautiful it was the inspiration for Versailles.

And I’ll be visiting the little riverside village of Auvers where Van Gogh painted some of his greatest work.

David Paris is synonymous with traffic jams, impatient drivers and blaring horns, so who’d have thought that the humble bicycle would be taking off in a big way? With more and more Parisians taking to two wheels to beat the traffic, new cycle lanes are being created. Which is good news for any visitor wanting to take alternative transport around the sights.

A bike is a really efficient way of getting around Paris, according to Christiane at least. She says I’ll be so busy looking at the sights that I won’t notice the kilometres going by. How many are we doing again? Christiane Ober Oh barely 20kms. David Barely 20! Well, I hope it doesn’t rain. David Christiane has promised me romance, in the form of a guided tour of the city’s most romantic spots. And how could I refuse.

Paris isn’t often thought of as a green city, yet it’s home to over a dozen parks, and the Parisians are very fond of them. The is the city’s answer to Hampstead Heath. This is where you come to get a different perspective on the place and see Parisians at rest and at play.

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Cycling isn’t really allowed but, as Christiane points out, what could be more romantic than the danger of getting caught?

David Phew! Christiane And this is the temple of love. David I see that the young lovers have covered the Temple of Love with Graffiti. Christiane Ah yes - that’s modern love. David Yeah! Christiane So here we are in the Parc de Buttes Chaumont meaning in English the bold mount, since there were stone quarries and nothing was to be built here….. Napoleon the third wanted to make out of Paris a green city. And the idea, the model was a landscape park, what we call a romantic park but, of course, with this temple dedicated to love it’s more known as the temple of “Sybille”. Sybille was one of the priestesses of Apollo - not the rocket, of course, it’s a god of love and beauty and er young couples in the tradition used to come and consult the Omens. What was laying ahead for their future. So it’s a very powerful place. David And do lovers still come here? Christiane Yeah, sure. David Well I can see they do actually…. Momo Chamcy (?) Leon et Sandrine, 24th Sept 1999. It’s quite sweet!

You can even see Sacre Coeur from here. But it’s time to move on and Christiane reckons I’m ready to grapple with the Parisian traffic. I’m not so sure. But she does take me to one of the city’s quieter backwaters, the picturesque Marais, built on swamp land in the 17th century. The arcades in the used to be popular for duels. These days you’re more likely to be serenaded than shot.

Some of the back streets in have little or no traffic at all. Cycling around here is like going back in time.

Christiane So that’s one of my favourite spots in Paris, it’s called St Catherine’s square and we are here in the Marais. It’s dedicated to the Patron Saints of Spinsters - her story has it that she was living in the 4th century and was to marry the Emperor himself. But she refused because she was already married to God - so there was a tradition in the 19th century where the maiden, maids when they got to the age of 25 they were supposed to be old already. And they had a procession where they crowned the Saint. And it was a little bit sad because it was their last call, it was their last chance to find a husband. David So what did they call the leftovers.

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Christiane They called them the “Catherine-ettes. It was kind of an honour, you know. David An honour. Christiane A said honour actually. David They got the booby prize. Christiane What’s the “Booby Prize”?

David Cemeteries have never seemed like the obvious choice for a romantic tryst to me, but Pere Lachaise is pretty special, even in the rain. It’s list of resting luminaries reads like some necrophiliac “Who’s Who”: Bizet, Chopin, Edith Piaf and Sarah Bernhardt are all here. Yves Montand and Simone Signoret are even buried in the same tomb. But it’s the love story of a much older couple that Christiane wants to tell me about.

Christiane Here we are in front of Abelard and Heloise’s tomb. They were living in the 12th century both of them and when they met he was in his 40s and she was in her 20s. And the story has it that she was his student and she was ??? teacher and what shouldn’t have happened and she got pregnant and as a punishment her adopted father sent men to castrate him … so, they were forced to live separately for the rest of their lives. He in an abbey and she in a convent. But they continued writing passionate love letters to each other and that’s how we know them. So in the 19th century when they opened this cemetery they put their remains together for the first time in the ultimate romantic tomb. David That’s a pretty sad story, even in the rain. I think we should go now.

Vaux-le-Vicomte Story

Wendy I’m driving south of Paris and I’m on my way to meet Count Patrice de Vogüé. He’s the owner of a Chateau who’s history is laced with ambition, jealousy and betrayal. And it also happens to be one of the most beautiful chateaux in France.

Vaux-Le-Vicomte has been in the Count’s family since 1875 when his great-grandfather fell in love with it, bought it and started the long process of restoration.

Count The house is sound now. I have a little roofing to do every year, but that’s all. Wendy That’s all! Count Come in. Wendy Thank you.

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This jewel of 17th Century design was built for Nicholas Fouquet. He was a real character, a man of great style and taste and he hired the most talented artists of the age.

Wendy So where are we off to now? Count We’re going to la Chambre des Muses, Room of the Muses. Wendy Room of Inspiration. Count Yes exactly. Wendy And why is this room important? Count It’s one of the most beautiful rooms of the house. It has a decor that you can see there, painted by Le Brun, one of his best paintings here.

Count It’s also a room, where Molière came here, “L’école des Maris”, (?) in July 61 for a few guests among which, the Queen of England.

Here we are in the Games Room, as you can see it’s a very small room but it’s a magnificent one. With that woman on the ceiling painted by Le Brun, it’s asleep. Wendy It’s beautiful.

Count In this small room time has passed now as you can see there are pictures of the family. There’s one which is amusing - my great grandfather, the man who saved Vaux, welcoming his grandson, my father, as a baby, in the carriage.

Count In the 17th century there were no dining rooms, people had their meals brought where they were. And it is probably here that for the first time Fouquet invented, or decided to have a room where he would eat - a dining room. Here it is. And the food was brought from the far away kitchen in the basement, on heated trays and served here. Wendy So was this one of the first dining rooms in France? Count I believe so. Wendy The gardens, were also a first. Their creator, Andre Le Notre, was barely known when Fouquet hired him. But his achievement was such a triumph that Louis XIV invited him to design the gardens at Versailles.

Today’s head gardener, has a hard act to follow! He tells me Le Notre was an architect and a mathematician, which helps to explain the brilliant optical illusion at play in these gardens - so subtle I hadn’t even spotted it.

Wendy and Gardener

Patrick Alors là nous nous trouvons à un endroit central des jardins. Central sur le plan mais en fait d’une manière d’illusion, le centre des jardins était plutôt la gerbe d’eau que l’on voit au loin.

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Et là maintenant nous sommes derrière le grand miroir carré, sur lequel nous avions tout à l’heure l’impression qu’ étaient posées les grottes. Et on découvre finalement que les grottes sont encore trois cents mètres plus loin. C’est ici vraiment qu’on peut admirer le plus bel artifice et le plus grandiose des artifices utilisé par Le Nôtre dans ce jardin”

Wendy In the 17th century it was difficult to get a steady supply of water - so fountains were the ultimate in luxury.

The gardens had an ingenious system of reservoirs to feed the fountains - and it still operates today.

There are no pumps - just gravity - marshalling the water into play and adding the final sparkling touches to the chateau Nicholas Fouquet had always dreamed of.

Every weekend throughout the Summer Vaux-Le-Vicomte pays tribute to its creator. More than 2000 candles are lit in every room and in the gardens to honour Nicholas Fouquet the man who took the art of living to the limit, but who died without ever being able to enjoy his masterpiece.

His beautiful chateau was to be his undoing. When it was almost finished, Fouquet - by now at the height of his career as Finance Minister - decided to invite his king - Louis XIV - to a sumptuous opening banquet. It was to be the most glorious night of his life.

Count The 17th August 1661, the King arrived here on horseback and all the court, let’s say two or three hundred people in carriages. And people are amazed, they’ve never seen such a beautiful new house, huge gardens, waterfalls, jets of water spouting everywhere. They’re absolutely amazed - and even to (?) the King, he’s never seen anything so luxurious. And he has a doubt, is that built with my money? Well, his doubt is already very strong because he has already decided that his financial minister, Fouquet, the host of that evening is going to be arrested, tried and condemned to death. But on the other hand, Fouquet is delighted, the evening is beautiful, everything is working marvellously, he thinks that he is going to be the Prime Minister. A few years later Voltaire wrote: “At 6 o’clock in the afternoon Nicholas Fouquet was King of France - at 2 in the morning he was nobody anymore.”

Wendy Now living with the history of this place, what are your thoughts and feelings about Nicholas Fouquet?

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Count I think he was unjustly condemned. But Fouquet is the principal actor of this place, every day and every night, the place is still his place. And I think that he would like the way the house is kept in memory of him. Wendy Do you think he would like to see it like this, all lit up? Count I meet his ghost sometimes - he never say anything wrong about what we were doing.

David What does Paris mean to you? Christain Dior, Yves Saint Laurent? Well there’s a new cutting edge of contemporary cool emerging here and it has as much to do with design, food and lifestyle as it has to do with clothes. The Parisians call it being “branché”.

“Être Branche” Story

Man Je crois être branché c’est, c’est déjà aimer les vêtements, aimer les marques et les consommer”. Lady C’est quelqu’un qui achète plusieurs choses, plusieurs marques et même qui achète des choses même aux puces, des choses en vintage pour se faire en fait, sa propre, pour son propre look”. Man Connaître les meilleurs endroits où il faut sortir, les dernières petites fêtes à la mode où il faut se montrer”. Lady C’est quelqu’un qui ne suit pas, mais plutôt quelqu’un qui anticipe, quelqu’un qui a suffisamment de sensibilité, de personnalité ou de créativité pour détecter le truc qui demain fera fureur ou pour générer le truc qui demain fera fureur”.

David ”Branché” literally means “plugged in” and there’s a lot of homework to be done before you can get hip with what’s hot and what’s not. Step in Aurore Daerden, fashion consultant and walking embodiment of “branchitude”. We’ve come to clothes shop “Anoushka”, where you have to have an appointment to even get through the door, so I’m feeling pretty cool already.

David Tu es sur que l’on est dans le bon endroit? Aurore Ça j’en suis sûre! David Parce que…Tu préfères le bleu ou le doré? Aurore Le bleu mais pour toi c’est mieux si on va par là-bas.

David Aurore believes you don’t have to spend a fortune on the latest trends to be of the moment - just as well, because this place specialises in vintage originals from the 20s to the 70s. Most of the clothes here aren’t even for sale. It’s where top designers come to search for inspiration, and Aurore is after something to fit a gangly Englishman. She has a private fashion show in mind.

David trying on clothes

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David Qu’est-ce que tu en penses? Aurore Pas du tout David Ça marche non plus non? Aurore Non ça marche non plus David Pourtant c’est mon couleur non? Aurore Oui mais c’est pas la taille! David Ça fait un peu trop Cage aux Folles non? David: Ça c’est pas mal non? Aurore Cette fois-ci on y est. Juste la veste David Ah oui!

David Next stop is “Colette”, possibly the most branché boutique in town.

Colettes is the ultimate lifestyle store, selling the wannabe fashion victim more stuff than they could ever believe they needed or wanted.

If you can’t afford the original you can always buy this one.

It’s not just about the shoes you wear on your feet or the decor you have in your house or even the music you plug in to: in fact, it’s about the whole gamut of gizmos, gadgets and goldfish bowls.

Colette also has a café favoured by Paris’s most fashionable food lovers, but it’s the latest drinking trend that Aurore wants to show me. The place certainly seems popular - we can barely find a seat.

David Qu’est-ce qu’il y a à boire? Aurore De ;’eau, de l’eau de l’eau et encore de l’eau. David Y’en a combien? Aurore Une petite centaine David Une petite centaine d’eau! C’est branché de boire de l’eau? Aurore C’est branché oui, c’est healthy de boire de l’eau…. David Moi je vais prendre la Rosée de la reine. Pure et légère, des coordonnées bio-électroniques. Aurore Moi ça sera celle-là. La bouteille rouge pas la belle Le Ty Nant David Moi je prends la Rosée de le reine Aurore Ok..

David So the bottle is red but the water’s Welsh and - whether it comes from California, Italy of Wales, I suspect it will all taste the same to me.

David Cheers Aurore Mais on peut pas faire ça si? En France pas vraiment…

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David All that water has taken the edge off my appetite, and Aurore has promised to take me to her favourite restaurant of the moment for a big night out.

This is the “Passage Brady” - a surprising slice of India under neon lights which is home to hairdressers and restaurants in equal measure. The French have always been so proud of their own cuisine that foreign food never really seemed to get a look in, unless you count couscous that is. But tastes have grown more exotic and Asian cuisine is currently all the rage in Paris, though this place has more than a whiff of authenticity about it.

David and Aurore at the indian restaurant

David Pourquoi tu m’a emmené dans un restaurant Indien? Tu sais on a beaucoup de restaurants indiens en Angleterre, c’est branché? En France? Aurore Ici c’est un retour à cet état d’esprit. Cet état d’esprit super coloré, avec super positif tu vois. Pour le moment c’est fini le minimaliste et on revient à ces trop chargés, trop colorés, les mythes surexposés…donc pourquoi le Passage Brady et ses indiens qui marchent de partout, ces couleurs, ces trucs qui ne vont pas du tout ensemble mais qui ont quand même…Tu vois en fait… limite tout est moche mais l’ensemble est assez joli à l’œil.

David Et tu crois à ce Paris? C’est branché en ce moment? Aurore Paris est assez branché pour le moment Oui. Avant c’était plutôt l’Angleterre, l’Italie et maintenant la France ainsi que la Belgique qui redevient assez branchée. David Oui et tu vis, parce que j’ai l’impression que tu vis ce qui est IN, c’est pas juste quelque chose externe à toi? Aurore Ah! Non je suis totalement…j’espère totalement IN. Parce que, oui, il faut vraiment le vivre à cent pour cent, il faut pas juste faire ça pour son boulot. David Pour toi, si je te dis que tu es branchée, c’est un compliment? Aurore Je te dis merci beaucoup.

David So, there you have it. If you want your curry cool, come to Paris.

Van Gogh Story

Wendy I’m travelling north of Paris to the valley of the river Oise - and I’m heading for a place that’s been the favourite haunt of artists and art lovers for over a hundred years.

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Van Gogh called France “the land of Paintings” - the village of Auvers had much to inspire him.

Van Gogh spent his last days at Auvers and did some of his greatest work here. (To camera) He simply fell in love with the place and he wasn’t the only one, it was also an inspiration for Daubigny, Cezanne, Pisarro and it’s lovely just to wander around and discover the scenes they painted.

Van Gogh came to live here in 1890. He so loved its simplicity and rural charms that he painted 70 canvases in 70 days!

This is an incredible place - there’s hardly a building, street or square in Auvers that hasn’t been painted by either Van Gogh or some other famous artist! It’s like walking around an art gallery!

Wendy Not surprisingly many of today’s residents are also artists. Michel Charpentier is a sculpto whose grandfather knew Van Gogh.

Michel Van Gogh c’est d’abord, un dessinateur. Il a toujours dessiné. Ensuite il est devenu un coloriste mais il a dessiné avec de la couleur et ses toiles c’est ça qui était assez extraordinaire, il dessine ton sur ton, il met des verts Véronèse, des verts Suruliom, il joue, il joue avec la couleur mais sur du dessin. Et le tout il mélangeait avec une passion et c’est ça, c’est ça la force de Van Gogh, c’est la passion qui met avec le trait et avec la couleur. ….Mon grand-père qui avait une fortune un jour a vu Van Gogh arriver et van Gogh lui a demandé s’il voulait acheter quelques toiles, il lui a proposé quelques toiles, il en a pas voulu, il disait que c’était trop chromo, trop coloré, trop fort, parce qu’à l’époque on peignait avec des couleurs à base de bitume, sauf Van Gogh qui peignait avec des couleurs qui sortaient du tube, des couleurs naturelles”.

Wendy This is where Van Gogh lived in Auvers - the Auberge Ravoux - humble lodgings paid for by his brother. His old room has been preserved at the inn.

His patron was Dr Gachet, one of the few people who encouraged him and bought his work. And this was the house in which Mademoiselle Gachet, the doctor’s daughter - posed for him.

Michel: les toiles qui l’a peint du Melle Gachet au piano, c’est une histoire d’amour. Il était amoureux, elle était là, elle posait, les touches sont d’une telle sensibilité, on sent, on sent qui se dégage quelque chose qu’on ne voit pas même. Il se dégage une quelque chose, une sensation, on se dit “Qu’est-ce qu’il aimait! Qu’est-ce qu’il était amoureux”. C’est une grande histoire d’amour.”

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Wendy Van Gogh died in Auvers from a gunshot wound. He was only 37.

Like most people, Michel Charpentier believes it was suicide - the natural conclusion - he feels - to a tragic an tormented life.

Michel Van Gogh courait à la mort. Van Gogh, tout était contre lui, Gachet, son frère, les gens d’Auvers, la peinture, la peinture, je ne sais pas se qu’il pouvait faire après “les corbeaux”, après “Les corbeaux dans les champs”. Il était… Tout le poussait à la mort, la perfection..Je crois que la perfection, c’est la mort, moi je crois.”

Wendy Van Gogh died penniless and unrecognised. His simple grave - at Auvers’ little cemetery - is right next to the cornfields his paintings made famous.

Today the artists of Auvers don’t have it quite so hard. Their patron is the French government, who subsidise studios here so the artistic tradition of Auvers can continue to flourish. It’s a real coup for artists to get this opportunity.

Wendy Photographer, Olivier Verley is making quite a name for himself. Following in the footsteps of the great painters of the past, he takes his inspiration from this unique landscape, and makes it the heart of his work.

Wendy and photographer (Oliver Verley)

Olivier J’appartiens à cette école du paysage qui est un peu une sorte de photographie qui respecte une tradition, qui respecte la terre, qui respecte les éléments. J’aime pas trop la manière dont on triture aujourd’hui les images par exemple. Je reste dans une ..un certain classicisme si l’on peut dire.

Olivier C’est évidemment lorsqu’il se passe quelque chose dans le ciel que moi j’aime mettre le nez dehors. Parce que c’est le ciel qui sculpte le paysage véritablement. C’est lui qui décide de se qui se passe sur la terre. De quelle manière les lumières vont s’organiser sur le sol. C’est le ciel qui est un artiste naturel.”

C’est vrai qu’il y a ici sur ce plateau, à Auvers sur Oise, une lumière particulière. Et c’est sans doute la même qui a attiré les peintres. La même qui attire aujourd’hui d’autres peintres encore, d’autres photographes et qui attireront encore par la suite toutes sortes d’amoureux de la terre. Je ne serais pas dire exactement quelle est la nature de cette lumière. Seulement je vis ici et le fait de vivre ici me donne envie d’aimer l’endroit

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où je suis”.

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