North Carolina State Capitol, Raleigh. Photo GLK

Jan. 2010 – One reason that a road trip in Europe is such a wondrous experience is that over relatively short distances one encounter different regions, cultures, histories, accents/languages, and cuisines.

Over equal distances, those differences are naturally less remarkable in the U.S. due to a briefer, more uniform history, a common language, and the ease with which citizens move and immigrants arrive.

Furthermore, we tend to approach American regions from the air rather than from the ground, leading us to think of major cities as hubs rather than an old center of regional civilization.

Given the opportunity, I like to apply on-the-ground European-style travel to my touring in the U.S., and so in December I took a week-long road trip from New Jersey to Florida, with stops at Philadelphia, Richmond, Raleigh, Charleston, Savannah, and Orlando before arriving in south Florida.

I logged about 1400 miles. In terms of distance that’s like going from Amsterdam to Lisbon, with overnights in Brussels, Paris, Bordeaux, Biarritz, Salamanca, and Porto. Imagine! (In terms of the cost of gas and tolls, you wouldn’t even get through France.)

New Jersey to Florida may sound less exotic than Amsterdam to Lisbon, but a road trip is a road trip, especially when going it alone. And I had mission—in addition to seeing people along the way (an old friend, a younger brother) and visiting places I’d never been (Raleigh, Charleston, Savannah), I wanted to find French bakeries along the way and try their pastries.

Virginia State Capitol, Richmond. Photo GLK

This was my second road trip for the year. In April I’d taken a largely alternate route on a week-long drive north from Florida—Naples, Tampa, Atlanta, Columbia, Myrtle Beach, Richmond, Fredericksburg, Arlington, Baltimore—and also tracked down several bakeries along the way.

Over the next month or two I’ll be posting a series about notable French and French-inspired bakeries that I came upon on either my north-south road trip or my south-north road trip. I’ve already written about Philadelphia on this blog so those investigations won’t be repeated in the upcoming series. You can read about Franco-Philadelphia here.

Readers who would like to provide their impressions of any French and French-inspired bakeries along the above mentioned route can send them as a “Comment” to this blog or by e-mail to francerevisited@aol.com.

- GLK

Henri-Francois de Breteuil in front of his home, Chateau de Breteuil. Photo GLK

I’m fascinated, both personally and professionally, by the way individuals, place, culture, and history fit together and/or play off each other. Sometime this winter I’ll get around to writing about my encounter with Henri-Francois de Breteuil and the rewards of visiting his home, which is open to the public and gives a glimpse into the interplay of historical nobility and contemporary culture. But I’m in the U.S. this month, where aristocracy, past and present, scarcely enters my mind.

Until I was in Philadelphia the other day, that is. Walking through the historical city of the Founding Fathers, by Independence Hall and the Liberty Ball, I was shocked to see posters for an exhibition currently at the adjacent National Constitution Center entitled “Diana: A Celebration.”

The National Constitution Center, is, to quote its mission, “an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing public understanding of the U.S. Constitution and the ideas and values it represents… [and] serves as a museum, an education center, and a forum for debate on constitutional issues.”

How Princess Diana serves that purpose is beyond me, and it’s clearly beyond the presidents, former and current, of the National Constitution Center itself since their explanation for the show is strikingly flimsy.

In October, when the show opened, the NCC’s then-President and CEO Linda E. Johnson, expressed the hope that this exhibit would “have broad appeal, which will allow the Center to expand its audience and, in turn, introduce more visitors to the remarkable stories of ‘We the People’ celebrated here every day.” In short, an acknowledgement that Diana has no relation to the Constitution but promises to bring in visitors willing to offer up a $23 entrance fee and fill their shopping carts of Diana trinkets to muscle up NCC’s coffers.

This fall a new NCC president and CEO, David Eisner, took over, and he was apparently equally clueless as to the link between the disturbed and tragic princess and the U.S. Constitution. “This stirring tribute to Princess Diana,” he claimed earlier this month, “is a way of exploring America’s historical relationship and fascination with aristocracy.”

National Constitution Center. Photo GLK

Bullshit! Whatever sympathy or regard or celebrity-awe one feels for Diana, celebrating her in no way explores America’s historical relationship with aristocracy but simply celebrates celebrity.

Back in France, anyone with an ear open to cult and culture of history hears debates about national treasures such as Versailles trying to balance the interests of historians and preservationists, the need to draw paying visitors, and the desire to keep Versailles “alive.” Last year, a wonderful occasion for such a debate was the decision of curators to display kitsch contemporary works by Jeff Koons, including an enormous, pink, balloon-like dog, against the exuberant prima-kitsch of 17th and 18th –century royal apartment. I didn’t care for the dog, and Versailles is less significant today than the U.S. Constitution, but it was a worthy debate.

Yet Diana at the NCC isn’t even debate material let alone a teaching moment or anything else warranting the show here. In fact, the premise of the show (I did not in fact go but read the press kit) makes a mockery of the public that the NCC is intended to serve, telling us: Let’s face it, you’re too stupid to understand anything about the Constitution so come over here where we can show you some teary and feel-good fluff: Diana’s wedding gown; dresses and gowns designed by Versace, Valentino, etc.; Elton John/Bernie Taupin’s song about yet another dead blonde; Diana’s eulogy from her brother; home movies of her childhood; brunch with Diana’s personal chef on Dec. 20; and did we mention that we have gift shop?

The U.S. Constitution in all that? Nada! But she was such a humanitarian, some will cry—or, as a man who had just spend $140 on Diana paraphernalia for his shrine back home said, “You just don’t like her.”

Perhaps, but more to the point I like the idea of discussing, understanding and appreciating Constitution. I’ve got nothing against a Diana show but why here? Call her a humanist rather than a humanitarian and her story may be worthy of debate regarding the Constitution, say that she wanted a ban on bearing arms rather than on landmines and you can get a good argument going, but celebrating Diana’s celebrity offers the public nothing but ignorance about the Constitution.

America’s historical relationship with aristocracy would be more appropriately explored through a show featuring Queen Elisabeth II, the Emperor of Japan, the Shah of Iran, the King of Thailand, or even the Count of Breteuil. We have nothing to learn from Diana regarding the Constitution except how low the NCC will stoop to draw visitors.

Nevertheless, my personal distaste for the premise of this show is on the wrong side of history. I came to that sad conclusion yesterday when reading the syndicated “Today In History” column in a local newspaper in New Jersey. Among the “highlights in history” for Dec. 9 was noted:
“In 1941: China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.”
“In 1990: Poles elected Solidarity labor union founder Lech Walesa president in free elections.”
“In 1992: Prince Charles and Princess Diana of Britain announced they were separating but had no plans for divorce.”
“In 2001: The United States disclosed a video in which Osama bin Laden said he was pleasantly surprised by the extent of damage from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvanis.”

If Diana’s separation from Charles with “no plans for divorce” can earn a place in the above list then maybe that Versace dress does have something to do with the Constitution. If anyone can tell me which article I’d much obliged.

Diana: A Celebration at the National Constitution Center, Oct. 2, 2009-Jan. 3, 2010, 525 Arch Street, Independence Mall, Philadelphia, PA. www.constitutioncenter.org.

The Palmes académiques, established in 1808 by Napoléon Bonaparte, recognizes those who have advanced the cause of French culture, education, and the arts and made active contribution to the expansion of French culture throughout the world.

Joanne fit the bill for her years of teaching French, her involvement with the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) and other Franco-American organizations, and her work as publisher of Francophile books, in French and in English, at Beach Lloyd Publishers, whose mission is “to recognize the strong historical and ideological ties that bind France and the United States, and to view those ideals globally.”

Before the ceremony began, former Honorary Consul of France to Philadelphia Daniele Thomas Easton introduced me (and my work on FranceRevisited.com) to Ambassador Vimont. I didn’t dare ask the ambassador to sign up for the France Revisited Newsletter seeing as half my friends have yet to do so, but the three of us had a nice chat about this site nonetheless.

Below is a photo, left to right, of me, the ambassador and the former honorary consul. Michael E. Scullin, current Honorary Consul of France to Philadelphia, was caught in the photo to the right. (Click on all photos to enlarge).

Below is a photo of Ambassador Vimont pinning the palms on Joanne’s lapel, after which he gave her the traditional kiss on each check that seals the deal.

Joanne then posed for the official photograph with Ambassador Vilmont, left, and Honorary Consul Michael E. Scullin, right.

Below Joanne proudly displays her palms, freshly pinned.

Also in attendance among the Francophile luminaries of Philadelphia and illustrious guests from the U.S. Canada, and France were some of the members of the Board of the Alliance Francaise de Philadelphie. Among them, left to right in the photo below, were Alliance Board Members Delphine Lawrence (Secretary), Martine Chauvet (Executive Director), Joanne Silver, Lynn H. Miller (who has contributed an article about Frenchtown, N.J. to France Revisited), and Diana Regan (President).

Bravo et félicitations, Joanne!

Postscript: In Oct. 2010 Pierre Vimont was named Executive Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), an entity of the European Union responsible for developing the diplomatic service of the EU.

Philadelphia, March 12, 2009 – “There is more Cézanne within a 4 mile radius of the Philadelphia Museum of Art than in all of Paris,” says exhibit organizer Joseph J. Rishel, referring to the Cézanne and Beyond exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Cezanne collection at the Barnes Foundation in nearby Merion, PA.

The French artist Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) is widely considered to be the father of modern art. His life and work have inspired artists for a century. The current exhibit shows some fifty paintings, watercolors and drawings by Cézanne and includes one hundred paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures by eighteen other artists from Cezanne’s time up to the present.

Over the past hundred years, particularly beginning with the posthumous retrospective of Cézanne’s work in 1907, artists have looked to him for inspiration—and he has provided it in various ways. Some found inspiration in his single-minded artistic vision, others in his close observation of nature, and still others in his simplification of shapes and colors.

As neither a trained artist nor an art historian, it was especially rewarding for me to be accompanied at the exhibit but an artist who has herself been inspired by Cézanne: Laura Barton, who lives just outside of Philadelphia in West Chester, PA. (The fact that Laura and I went to high school together, that it was Laura’s birthday, and that we were going out to lunch afterwards all added to the pleasure.) Laura echoed the chorus of artists displayed in the exhibit in saying that “Cézanne’s simplification of shapes and color inspired me to get the true essence of an object or scene with as little fussing around as possible.”

One of my favorite works in the show is Cézanne’s painting of his wife, whom he is said to have adored, sitting dignified yet relaxed in a red armchair.

Paul Cézanne, Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair, 1877. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Go to the show, running through May 17, to see how Matisse and Picasso interpreted that painting on their respective canvas, featuring their respective loved one. Click here for more information about the exhibit.

Here is one of my favorite recent works by Laura Barton that also reveals her inspiration from Cézanne. Click here for more information about Laura’s work.

Laura Barton, Telephone Pole Series #2: Along Creek Raod