A bit of culture and partying around Grasse

After scarcely any rest after my return from the land of Jutes, it was time to get active again, as this Saturday was the Journées européennes du patrimoine. It’s the day when rather a large number of public buildings and institutions open their doors to the public.

Since we were invited to a party near Grasse for the evening, we decided to go to Grasse for the day. After some quick investigation on the internet, we eventually decided to go Villa Fragonard. This is where the 18th century painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard found shelter after he lost his posh customers to the, er, Guillotine (dangerous times, the end of the 18th century in France…).

Today it houses a bunch of paintings from this apparently rather famous painter (I had naturally never heard of him). Supposedly he had quite a profound influence on the impressionists - personally I didn’t find his art particularly evocative. The nicest thing about the villa was the ornate staircase in the entry hall, if you ask me.... (we also later found out that the museum is open all year around, and can be visited for free!)

After the less-than-overwhelming museum visit, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Grasse. It’s true that we’ve been here before quite a few times, but we’ve never really had a proper stroll around the old town before. And we came to the conclusion that it’s pretty nice actually – and a lot more spread out than we’d realized. It’s touristy, sure, but the old town is big enough to have retained some of its authenticity. I suppose a lot of the tourists only make it to the Fragonard perfumery (yes, it was named after the painter) which Grasse is mostly famous for.

After our exploration of Grasse it was time to make our way to the party, which was taking place at Maité’s place, at a village just down the road from Grasse called Plascassier. Maité is a Spanish teacher colleague of Mathilde’s from CIV, and a really cool lady. The party turned out to be quite an international affair, with Marie’s Mexican boyfriend and a couple of Australian friends of Maitee joining the fun (I’m used to being the only foreigner in a lot of the soirees we are invited to here – apart from when my parents invite us over of course!). Which is great, since I kind of miss the cosmopolitan spirit of the South-east of England sometimes… (I suppose it’s what I miss the most from England, actually, apart from maybe the English sense of humor and the pubs!).

Apart from the usual activities (drinking, eating, socializing with nice people, drinking and eating some more), Jay Jay, Marie’s girlfriend also showed us some of pretty amazing whale pictures he’s taken during some of his “business trips” (he’s a marine biologist) with Marie’s “photographer’s wet dream toy” (the Canon EOS5D Mark II) and a rather impressive 100-400mm Canon lens. Good fun listening to the Australian chaps’ adventures cycling around Europe as well.

All in all, great party, then!