Tremblant, au printemps!

Profitons de notre « visite trimestrielle » dans le « haut du pays » (entendons-nous : Ottawa et Mont-Laurier!) pour faire un peu de ski. Quand on n’a, à proximité de Toronto, que la colline de Blue Mountain à se « mettre sous la dent », ou plutôt sous les pieds, on ne rate pas l’occasion de faire un saut à Tremblant si on est dans le coin! Seul ski de l’année hélas!

En matinée brouillard au sommet. L’ami André, confortablement installé à Tremblant il y a déjà une bonne dizaine d’années sur les bords du lac Ouimet, se joint à nous. Quelques descentes du côté Sud, question de se faire les jambes. Cynthia prend sa leçon – bien sûr l’avis d’un « expert » vaut toujours mieux que celle d’un partenaire jugé par trop impatient! En profitons, André et moi, pour aller du côté Nord – beaucoup mieux, la Lowell Thomas en particulier. Granuleuse mais en abondance.

Le soleil, de la partie en après-midi. Ski de printemps à son meilleur. Quelques bonnes descentes, toujours du côté Nord, avant d’aller rejoindre Cynthia au bas de la pente, en empruntant la Nansen, longue et lente qui longe la montagne, plus par curiosité je dois avouer, la piste étant celle où la semaine précédente l’actrice Natasha Richardson s’est infligée un traumatisme crânien fatal dans un accident difficile à comprendre tellement la pente est douce…

Le Mont-Tremblant a évidemment bien changé, depuis le temps où j’y skiais dans les années soixante, pour le mieux à bien des égards – entretien des pistes; remontées mécaniques; etc. – mais au prix d’une commercialisation qui en a réduit le charme rustique des années passées. Ce qui inquiète cependant, c’est que, le centre de ski étant engagé sur cette voie, il semble que les nouveaux propriétaires – Fortress Investments, un groupe d’investissement privé a acheté et privatisé Intrawest – ne s’intéressent maintenant qu’à exploiter le centre, sans y investir davantage dans l'entretien et le développement. Question probablement d’en tirer le plus de profits, avant de revendre au plus offrant dans quelques années; stratégie de sortie typique…

Les terrasses du « village » en bas de pente sont bien remplies, de skieurs et de flâneurs, occupés à boire et à prendre les derniers rayons chauds d’un soleil sur son déclin. Terrasses trop remplies – optons pour un retour chez André, pour jouir tout autant du soleil mais sur sa terrasse, surplombant le lac, tout en dégustant un blanc bien rafraîchissant… Prélude à un bon dîner – une bavette accompagnée d’un excellent rouge espagnol – pas suffisamment corsé cependant au goût de notre hôte – avant de nous retirer pour une bonne nuit de sommeil, dans le calme laurentien!

Réveil matinal, agrémenté par la visite dans la salle de bain de la chienne Cléo, un jeune Labrador plein de vitalité! Copieux déjeuner, et puis en route pour Mont-Laurier.

Barcelona, Barcelona!

For more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bourlingue/sets/72157616363827182/

Barcelona invokes two things for me: Gaudi and the Spanish Civil war. Both phenomena are well known to most, and certainly have captivated my interest for long.

Gaudi, because of his extravagant architecture and extraordinary realisation; he has fascinated the rest of the world, at different times and for different reasons, the Japanese in particular in the 60’s and later on (see the 2 “witness” films that Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara shot, the first, a 16mm amateurish film he did while visiting with his artist father – some scenes at Salvador Dali’s home are particularly taking – the second some 25 years later, retracing his steps http://www.criterion.com/films/536 )

The Civil War, because of the heroism shown by the Republicans, the legitimate “owners” at the time of the “right to rule”, in fighting Franco, the usurper, and his fascist allies, Germany and Italy; for the sympathy they aroused abroad and the support of the “International Brigades” who fought side-by-side with them, to their final defeat. Barcelona captures best the spirit of this unequal fight (this is when and where Bethune came to introduce to the world the idea of taking blood to the wounded right to the front, in a delivery truck.)

This time around in Spain, and for the first time in Barcelona, the history of Barcelona itself is bringing something new. Both fascinations acquired a new dimension, that of history. For Gaudi, it is “Modernista”, this artistic and intellectual movement at the end of the 19th, beginning of 20th century, of which he was very much a part, that was the response to the industrial ascendance of the city, and the long suppression of Catalonia’s culture (http://everything2.com/title/modernista). For the Civil War, it is the political history, marked by an incredible exuberance in social and economic ideas that preceded and indeed led to the war – thanks to a (rush) visit to the “Museu d’Història de Catalunya” (http://www.en.mhcat.net/) nearby in La Barceloneta district.

A quick note on local restaurants. Two examples that illustrate Barcelona’s emergence as a gastronomic destination, which we sampled and highly recommend: Comerç, 24 (http://www.comerc24.com/) with its avant-garde chef, Carles Abellan, a follower of Ferran Adrià, chef of the legendary El Bulli, (rated as “the best restaurant in the world” in 2006 and 2007 by some 500 international critics! Outside of town and no temptation: it is closed for the season); and Cinc Sentits, with its new Catalan cuisine and tasting menu, run by Catalan-Torontonian siblings, the talented chef Jordi Artal, and his sommelier sister Amèlia (http://www.cincsentits.com/en/index.htm) . For something truly of the Catalan tradition, we went to Set Portes in La Barceloneta, where we could not resist, for a last meal in Barcelona, the tasty and melting-in-your-mouth suckling pig! (http://www.7portes.com/castellano/index.htm)

Local wine indulgence: Gran Vina Sol, Miguel Torres, a Chardonnay, (http://www.torres.es/eng/asp/nv_ficha.asp?Cod=21&Ficha=Producto)
and La Calma, a Chenin Blanc, (http://smswine.com/pdf/press/lacalma.pdf)
both from the Catalan wine region, Penedès.

La Casa Batllo

La Casa Batllo (the Catalans say “Batdjio”)

For more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bourlingue/sets/72157616363827182/

Took an hour at the end of the day (one of the good things in Spain is that museums and other attractions tend to stay open late) to go and visit this remarkable accomplishment by Gaudi. A private home remodelled for its new owner, textile industrialist Batllo, in the first decade of the 20th century (between 1903 and 1905 to be exact). Never seen anything like this: all in curves, the sea being the inspiration behind every bit of design: the stairways, the walls and ceilings, the windows (even their handles) and, most stunningly, the facade and the roof. It is soft architecture, where there is not a single straight line, except perhaps the floor which is levelled. It’s a building that wants to tell a story, that of the sea, that of St-George, the patron saint of Barcelona, slaying the dragon.

You can easily take the hour and more if you can, helped with the audio-guide that comes with the price of the entry ticket (Euro 16.50), meandering in the house, and going from one unique room to the other, from one floor to the other via the stairwell of a central atrium with walls covered of undulating blue ceramic. Until one reaches the roof which in itself is fascinating where chimneys –or are they rather ventilators – all covered with ceramic of a myriad of color are turned into a bunch of medieval chevaliers – they could have inspired the makers of The Lord of Ring movie – and an add-on “bump” at the front that looks like the trunk part of the body of a dragon, with scales and spine made of ceramic, right on top of the facade. Fascinating! Must have taken a lot of courage and desire to be different on the part of the owner to accept such an unconventional and unorthodox construction – to his benefit as he is likely remembered and known today, at least to the outsider, only because of his association to Gaudi’s work! (http://www.casabatllo.es/)

Colonia Güell

For more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bourlingue/sets/72157616363827182/

Today is a day off, so aimed for breakfast at the Cuines Santa Catalina, a restaurant adjacent to the wet market of the same name in Sant Pere (Mercat de Santa Catalina; www.mercatsantacatalina.net). Misled to believe that the restaurant opens at 8 when in fact it does not until 9 (thank you Wallpaper City Guide!) Plenty of other places in the market though, so that I got my cafe con leche and light ham sandwich anyway. The market sits in a plaza that seems to have been expanded, and the structure that covers the market is another landmark of Barcelona – a very colourful, mosaic-like, wavy roof the size of the market (best to be appreciated seen from the heights of the neighbouring buildings, which I could not get!) built as part of a redevelopment of the neighbourhood initiated by Enric Miralles and finished by his wife after his death. A walk nearby in the chore of the old city on the other side of via Laietana for a quick appreciation of the Cathedral - under renovation – and of the old royal palace built on top or within what was a Roman establishment.

Then off to Plaça de Espanya, to take the train (a twenty-minute ride) to Colonia Güell. Because, of course, of Gaudi’s crypta there, the first step towards a church that was never completed. Worth seeing though as this represents an astonishing accomplishment, where the seemingly distorted structure – all in curves and irregular forms – is the result of a revolutionary architectural technique. Gaudi was not “doing plans”, at least in the first place, he did models; and he did them first by assessing the sureness of his wild design through a system of hanging strings, vertically and horizontally, to which were attached bags of lead loaded proportionally to the weight of the columns and arches they were meant to represent, to gauge how the thrust of the building would be transferred to its foundations. It`s called a polyfunicular model. The church was meant to be done on a smaller scale than churches and cathedrals built in town (certainly as compared to his monumental undertaking, the Sagrada Familia, which he did not live to finish – actually they are still working at it!), but how much more delectable! A jewel of architecture and decorative arts! Known by some as Gaudi’s most accomplished, if unfinished, work.

The history behind Colonia Güell is quite interesting in itself. This is a “company town”. Eusebi Güell, a textile entrepreneur, decided to move his operations outside of politically and socially troublesome Barcelona, in its vicinity, and to build an estate (apparently a common thing at the end of the 19th century) around the factory (innovation: it was powered by steam rather than by a stream of water) where the workers and their families lived. Güell though wanted an original and perfect estate, and called upon a clutch of “Modernista” architects to build it – houses, the school, other public buildings – and that included naturally Gaudi for the church (construction of the chuch was stopped in 1914 when Güell’s business took a turn for the worst, and was never resumed). The estate continued to grow until the textile factory closed in 1973.

I like the anecdote, as reported in the fascinating BBC/Robert Hughes documentary on Gaudi, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074nvw): a depressed Gaudi would have one day confided to Güell that sometimes he felt that only he and Güell appreciated his architecture; to what Güell would have responded: “you should not be under any illusion, I do not like it either!”

Palau de la Musica Catalana, et al

For more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bourlingue/sets/72157616363827182/

Palau de la Musica Catalana (Palace of Catalan Music) http://www.palaumusica.org/

Probably the best illustration of “non-Gaudi” Modernista (or Catalan Modernisme). Built in the first decade of the 20th century by another prominent architect of the period, Lluis Domènech i Montaner, at the request of two men, Lluis Millet and Amadeu Vives, founding members of the Orfeò Catala choral music society, it is one the most lavish concert halls of Europe, we are told. We were lucky to be able to get on-the-spot tickets for the (English) guided tour – it is recommended to book in advance their website advise. The decoration is extravagant and overwhelming: it is opulent and rich in colors and motifs, ranging from an incredible stained glass skylight, in the shape of a drop hanging above the main concert hall, letting the natural light filtering in, to the multitude of sculptured or moulded decorations – some 2000 large ceramic roses that punctuate the ceiling; 18 busts of women figures representing the spirits of music distributed along the walls of the hemicycle; countless and very colourful allegoric mosaics decorating the interior walls as well as the very charged exterior facade. It’s a feast for the eye, as much as I am sure it can be for the ear, had we had the chance to attend a concert (although we had a sample of what it can be as they were rehearsing an operetta when the guide took us to the hall and the piano was playing.)

I read that it got almost destroyed in the 1920’s as the architects of the day, in reaction to the exuberance of the Modernista movement, questioned its extravagance. However they did not prevail and it became a symbol of Catalan prowess, dear to# Barcelonans. It was enlarged a few times in the 80’s and more recently as part of a renovation in view of its 100th anniversary in 2008. The “modern touch” – a glass plate that cover the entirety of its side facade among other things – has not taken away any of its original splendour, but seems only to have conferred to it a modern relevance as a unique, and very active, stage of world culture for all kinds of performances (800 a year the guide tells us) ranging from classic Catalan song registry to hip-hop!

Not surprising that in 1997 it made the UNESCO World Heritage list (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/804)

Spent a good deal of the Saturday walking to and discovering some of the other deeds of Gaudi:



Sagrada Familia. Probably the structure to which Gaudi’s name is most associated. With reason, as he worked, early on, on the design of this so-called “expiatory” church, and on which, from 1908 to his (accidental) death in 1926, he worked quasi exclusively, even sleeping on the site. Never finished; still “work in progress” more than 80 years after his death. And for how long yet – the subject of perennial discussions and dissensions in Catalonia! (http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/index.php);



Casa Milà; known also as La Pedrera, the stone quarry, a name given by its detractors. Built in 1905, it was commissioned to respond to the Casa Batllo on the other side of Passeig de Garcia, the last private commission Gaudi got (contrast with its first private commission, at the age of 31, Vincens house - http://www.casavicens.es/) Undeniably Gaudi; there is an aquatic feel to it. “It feels raw and primitive” as Robert Hughes puts it in his documentary. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Mil%C3%A0)



Park Güell; fantastically exuberant; Gaudi’s imagination is breathtaking! Harmony parallel to nature; serpentine bench with its “trecendis”: parts of broken ceramic tiles reassembled pêle-mêle, mixing colors and sizes and shapes into the most colourful and cubist-like pieces, an art that came from the Moors. It’s a magical place!) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Guell)

St-Petersburg – Florida’s beach!

Stopover on our way back in Tampa on the west coast, to spend the weekend with the LeBels at their newly acquired place. Top-floor condo in secluded area, on golf course, with a superb view on the Gulf of Mexico, on the Clearwater – St-Petersburg peninsula, the ideal southern retreat from the snowy cold-biting winters of the North!

Fabulous sandy beaches, 35 miles of it, on the Gulf side of the peninsula. Have time to walk along only a tiny part of it, from the southern tip, to almost the old wedding-cake like, pink Don Cesar hotel that sits further north. Took advantage of the sun, and the wind, that day, as the weather turned nasty the Sunday, with heavy sky, north-westerly winds of 34 mph, and waves in the Gulf reported at 13 to 15 feet-high! Strangely though, very little rain, at least where we are, and God knows they need it; it has been extremely dry this season, burning every patch of grass, except the links of course. Toured and walked St-Petersburg itself, very inviting core of the city, practically desert because of the weather, but strolled around nonetheless. Stopped by the Venoy, old dame of the local hotel scene, pink again, by the water.

Struck by the fact that there is a Salvador Dali Museum in St-Petersburg, and actually a very considerable one, a fact we discovered too late to go. I was curious as to the origin of its presence in this city, and here is the story from the website of the museum:
The Dali Museum is the flagship of cultural tourism on the West Coast of Florida and welcomes over 200,000 visitors each year from around the world...
The Museum celebrated 24 years in St. Petersburg in March 7, 2006. However, the history of the collection began in Cleveland, Ohio in 1942. Industrialist A. Reynolds Morse and Eleanor Reese began their marriage and their lifelong involvement with Dalí and his wife, Gala, as friends and collectors with the purchase of their first painting Daddy Longlegs of the Evening-Hope! in 1943. They spent the following 40 years seeking out the artist's work and assembling the largest private collection of Dali's art in the world.
Ten years later, they began the search for a new, permanent home for their collection. After seeing an article in the Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Art World Dillydallies over Dalí," St. Petersburg attorney James W. Martin persuaded local leaders to approach the Morses to choose St. Petersburg. With the financial support of the City of St. Petersburg and the State of Florida, the collection moved to Florida in 1980.
The Museum opened its doors in St. Petersburg Florida, in March 1982, with the Morse bequest - the most comprehensive private collection of Dali's work in the world...

Was able nonetheless to enjoy some of Dali’s work as the museum and the Tampa International Airport Authorities had taken the good initiative of organizing a mini exhibition of hi-quality photos of some of his great works they have at the museum – well done! That is where we learned that a new aisle of the museum is going to be completed in 2011 – one more reason to come back to this part of the world! http://www.salvadordalimuseum.org/home.html

March 2, 2009

Miami – South Beach

Sunday at the beach – what an American institution! It does not get better than on Miami’s South Beach. Happens to be a sunny February day, nice breeze but warm, somewhere around 75 to 80 degrees. Breakfast at one of the establishments on Ocean Drive – Casablanca, but you can try the better known News Cafe – followed by a good 5 hours on the beach, lying in the sun and dipping in the ocean from time to time, reading and “beach-watching” – it beats a wintery day in cold Toronto anytime!

Had dinner at another “SoBe” fixture, Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant. Early as otherwise we are advised there is a long waiting line. This place which I expected to be sort of artisanal turned out to be a huge place that can sit as many as 400 people! But delightful! Crab needless to say is the specialty; it comes in a selection of claws in different sizes – I am advised. Aside from the claws, some crab ceviche and deep-fried calamari. Plus a nice Sancerre (Domaine Vincent Delaporte, 2007). As desert, I let myself convinced to try the Key Lime pie, another fixture in the diet of southern Floridians; I am told in fact that it is the “official pie” of the state! The limes come from the Florida Keys; the pie is succulent, sweet and creamy, with some meringue on top; I remember having something very similar in my youth, most likely made with the juice of citrus other than those from the Keys... We are told by our very friendly – and caustic – server that the place is still run by the founder’s family – 4th generation. Joe Weiss, an Hungarian immigrant who came down from New-York to take care of his asthma and opened a small lunch counter back at the turn of the last century. The place operates only during the winter and closes for 5 months, putting on unemployment insurance some 300 staffers- none of whom apparently is complaining! http://www.joesstonecrab.com/

Cynthia visited on her own the Vizcaya, an extravaganza by an eccentric industrialist, James Deering, who was so taken by Italian villas that he decided to “import” one on to the shores of Florida. That was in the 1910’s; needless to say that you can’t maintain a domain like this nowadays without being a public museum. A bit of Venice on the fringes of Biscayne Bay http://www.vizcayamuseum.org/

Other eateries, aside the ones at the Biltmore, that Cynthia or I sampled: Jaguar for its selection of ceviches in Coconut Grove; www.jaguarspot.com ; Caffe Abbracci; http://www.caffeabbracci.com/c Bangkok Bangkok; A fish named Avalon http://www.afishcalledavalon.com/ – again, with its French Canadian manager. A few I would have liked to go to: Casa Tua http://www.casatualifestyle.com/restaurant.htm and Azul http://www.mandarinoriental.com/miami/dining/azul/ ...another time.

Feb 27, 2009

Miami – the Biltmore

In for a week of meetings under the aegis of CISAC, a bi-annual gathering of Common Information System executives from Societies – lots of technical discussions as well as for some of us critical management issues to address...

Staying at a hotel in Coral Gables – not the Biltmore though. (There was a great story in the NYTimes the weekend before on Miami and how much they were “feeling the heat” down there, with hotel bargains abounding, including at some of the trendier ones such as the Gansevoort South – so I checked the Gansevoort and the bargains were not that good – perhaps the Times article gave them a boost after all...) At any rate decided to go to the Biltmore Hotel for dinner with “Florida-resident-Canadian-snow-bird” sister and her partner, Rolande and Denis.

Fabulous facilities! Built in the 20’s, in the “Mediterranean-revival” style, it is now a National Historic Landmark (you actually find strong Spanish, Moorish and Italian accents throughout – the hotel centerpiece, its 15-story bell-tower, is actually modeled after the Giralda Tower in Sevilla). Huge grounds – fabled golf course – and largest swimming pool in the US – my kind of pool! (We had drinks by it at the Cascade Pool Bar & Grill; I read that it was the site of all sorts of aquatic events, from Esther Williams’ synchronized swimming shows to Johnny Weissmuller’s training, the water instructor and world record-breaker prior to his tree-swinging days in Hollywood as Tarzan, from waterskiing performances to alligator wrestling!)

It is interesting to note that the Biltmore went through various states over its history, from being converted into a hospital during the WWII and for veterans afterwards, until the late sixties’, to being a site for the University of Miami’s School of Medicine. It was converted back into a hotel in the 80’s, owned by the City of Coral Gables, and now operated by a private company.

In the tradition of other Biltmore hotels we stayed at or visited (especially the one in Phoenix, Arizona, built according to Frank Lloyd Wright’s design at about the same time), I wondered what was the link between all these Biltmore hotels that share the same grandiose style, to find out that the name Biltmore comes from an unrelated property built by one of the scions of the famed Vanderbilt family, in Asheville, North Carolina, at the end of the 19th century, a Chateau-de-la-Loire inspired massive castle that you can still visit as a museum. The name was exploited by hotel owner and operator, John McEntee Bowman, a Canadian from Ontario, who started the chain by buying his first hotel in New-York City, and being associated with the construction of Biltmore hotels in Coral Gables (with local-celebrated developer George E. Merrick), Los Angeles and Havana. I guess the name “Biltmore” became associated with a certain genre of establishments and was borrowed by others, such as for the one in Arizona, or the one I also visited in Santa Barbara (Montecito more precisely), California, in the 70’s, another classic hotel built in the 20’s. There is probably behind all those connections, but that suffices me at this point...

Dined al fresco at the Fontana, built in the central courtyard of the hotel around a large fountain; excellent Italian (Cynthia had the special-of-the-day Stone crab as an entrée and the orecchiette with Italian sausage as mains, Rolande, the beef carpaccio and the pan-seared Chilean seabass, Denis, the minestrone soup-of-the-day and the vitello al limone, and I, the diced Ahi tuna tartare - without the cucumber salad mix! – and the fettucine with porcini mushrooms, with 2 decently-priced “vins de Bourgogne”: a Xavier Monnot 2006, and a 1er cru, Pernand-Vergelesses, Louis Latour 2005.

( Sylvia, André, Cynthia and I returned to the Biltmore during the week, to dine at the French restaurant, the Palme d’or, where that night, lucky us, everything on the wine list was half price! Great food by French chef Philippe Ruiz, and unlike usual American practice where dishes come in the oversized variety, here you must order at least 2 mains to have your fill!)
http://www.biltmorehotel.com/index.php