godeberthe de noyon

Heiress to a considerable fortune in Amiens and with a solid educational background that eschewed mundane, temporal comforts and the requisite of a strategic marriage to retain a modicum of soft power, Godebertha (*640 - †700, her Gothic name meaning fervor) was displeased when she was when she was presented at the king’s court to be wed to a suitor of appriproate rank and standing. Sensing this reluctance, Saint Eligius put his episcopal ring on her finger, symbolising Godebertha’s betrothal to Christ. The king, impressed with her faith and conduct, gave her an endowment and permission to found a small abbey. Credited for saving the village numerous times from fires and outbreaks of cholera and typhoid fever through miraculous intercession both during her life and posthumously, Godeberthe is invoked against drought, plagues and epidemics and is venerated on this day on the occasion of her death after a long life of sanctity and solitude.

responsable de style

Via the always interesting Things Magazine, we are directed towards an appreciation and celebration of the life and work of the recently departed French engineer and automobile creator Robert Opron (81932), head of the design department at Citroën since 1964 and then working with Renault in 1975—headhunted to develop an ultra-compact city car concept before transferring to Fiat and Piaggio a decade later. Custom coachbuilt Citroën Presidentials were commissioned for Queen Elizabeth’s state visit in 1971 as well as this clever CX camera car for the BBC were Opron’s doing and his whole line of models were visionary and iconic whilst working with the major French and Italian manufacturers. Opron’s most innovative and unconstrained design was for the smaller Fiat spin-off Simca with his first foray in 1958 in the bubble-topped, roving UFO called the Fulgur—Latin for lightening. Responding to an industry challenge to create a vehicle for the 1980s, this two-wheeled, gyroscopically-balanced concept (“idea”) car was to be—though not in the demonstration car—was to be guided by radar, voice-controlled and atomically-powered. More from the obituary at the link above.

7x7

treasureland adventures: an arcade game made for McDonald’s that’s a lot better than most licensed vehicles—see also  

campfire tales: Haunted Tik-Tok (see also) and the art of the scary narrative in new media  

self-defence for cowards: our social skills have atrophied but we still bid our time before we get back to old, awkward habits  

die frankfurter küche: more on the modern kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky—see previously  

cave à vins: incredible wine collection hidden beneath a chicken coop 

look at me: heretofore unseen footage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono 

catch it if you can: a McDonald’s employee training video from 1972

cour carrée

Via the always informed Open Culture, we learn that the venerable Louvre is putting its entire collection of nearly half-a-million artworks and artefacts on-line for academics and everyone else to use and peruse through the museum’s new portal. Not only what is hanging on the walls of the gallery, the site also grants access to what is in storage and on loan to other institutions. Of course all the masterpieces are there and with such an overwhelming amount to take in, there are some curated playlists, albums of themes and artists to discover, including depictions of historic moments, portraiture and recent acquisitions.

peau d’âne

With the folktale classification of Aarne-Thompson 510B—unnatural love—the 1695 poetic adaptation of the French fairy tale Donkeyskin by fabulist Charles Perrault already promises to be unhinged but this 1970 cinematic version (see also) by Jacques Demy starring Catherine Deneuve seems to be a veritable masterpiece. With fantastical filming locations as the Château Chambord made even more surreal by the talented production team, the recently widowed king of the realm is being pressured by his advisors to take a new wife and produce an heir.  The king promised the dying queen, however, he would only remarry if he found another as virtuous as herself. Royal counsel convincing the king that the only course of action is to marry his daughter. Duly horrified, the princess tries to put the king off his plan, at the advice of her fairy godmother, by requesting increasingly impossible wedding (see previously) gifts.  The king manages, nevertheless, to fulfil the bridal registry with dresses the colour of the Moon and Sun and weather and finally the enchanted pelt of a donkey that sweats jewels, the kingdom’s Golden Fleece and source of its wealth. The princess flees disguised with the donkey skin. In a faraway land, the princess earns her keep as a managing a pig sty but captures the attention of that kingdom’s prince, whom marry—the party crashed by Donkey Skin’s father the king and fairy godmother arriving to announce their engagement. Much more at Messy Nessy Chic at the link above.

code napoléon

Whilst not the first civil law legal codex introduced in Europe to make the system more equitable, comprehensive and self-consistent—replacing a framework of local feudal laws and microjurisdicitions in place prior to the Napoleonic Wars with the kingdoms of Bavaria and Prussia setting precedent, this set of laws drafted and enacted by a quorum of jurists on this day in 1804 represents one the most influential and wide-reaching change in early modern history, malleable and amenable to change adopted throughout the Western world and a template for developing and emerging nations. Rather than building on the medival laws that informed French courts and jurisprudence previously, framers reached further back to the sixth-century codification of Roman law, the Institutes of the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian the Great. Whereas previously civil life was governed by custom and privilege, the rule of law going forward prevented secret rules and application relied on due publication and promulgation, and while rulings could be cited as precedent, legal judgments carried no legislative weight, courts were encouraged to interpret the law by the prohibition of justice denied or dismissed due to insufficiency of the law.

virtus, unita, fortior

Though the tiny condominium of the Principality of Andorra had existed for centuries under the current shared rule between the head of state of France and the Bishop of Urgell as co-princes (chartered in 1278 but created in the ninth century by Charlemagne as a buffer march from Islamic Iberia), its constitution (la Constitució d’Andorra) was not formally codified and adopted until February 1993 and accepted by popular assent on this day, celebrated thereafter on its anniversary—though the document did not carry legal weight until its promulgation when it was published and the register was made available to all citizens, around sixty-four thousand at the time.

impasse des deux frères et le moulin à poivre

Never loaned to a museum or displayed to the public in its hundred and thirty-year history, this Van Gogh work from his Monmartre period when the artist lived in Paris with his brother Theo has been in private hands and only now previewed ahead of its auction. Having developed an intensive interest in ukiyo-e woodblock prints in Antwerp and hoping to experiment with Japonaiserie with his new circle of acquaintances, this landscape (absolutely rustic in comparison to what the neighbourhood is today), represents a transition in style when Van Gogh started to adopt elements of pointillism and bright clash colours. Ahead of its sale, the painting is slated for short exhibitions, with due precautions, in Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Paris.

l’hirondelle noire

Celebrated in his adoptive home of France but not so well known in his native America, flying ace, boxer and jazz musician Eugene Bullard (*1895 - †1961) grew up in Columbus, Georgia and gaining an appreciation for the effects of systemic racism decided to stowaway on a ship to Aberdeen and eventually made it to Paris, via Glasgow and London, becoming one of the first in a cadre of Black combat pilots to serve in World War I. Also fluent in German, Bullard became involved in espionage and military intelligence, monitoring the Germans who patronised his nightclub in the run-up to World War II. Eventual repatriation was a culture-shock, still experiencing the same prejudice and inequality from thirty-three years prior, taking a series of odd jobs in Manhattan, one of which was elevator operator at Rockefeller Center. One anchor noticed his impressive array of medals he wore on his attendant uniform (see also) and intrigued interviewed the “Black Swallow” on the Today Show.

tachygraphy

First demonstrated to the public in Paris on this day in 1792, inventor and engineer Claude Chappe (*1763 - †1805) took the principles of flag signalling from the merchant navy and applied them for terrestrial use in a series of communication masts and towers within successive line-of-sight in a network that eventually covered all of France. Operators viewing their neighbouring link through a telescope could pass along the message to the next relay station (see also). Dubbed the télégraphe Chappe, alternately the inventor coined the neologism semaphore—from the Greek σῆμα + φορός, sign-carrying—and was the first practical means of telecommunication of the Industrial Age, in use until replaced by the electric telegraph in the 1850s.

an american in paris

Though having found an escape and outlet from his detested job as an illustrator at an advertising agency and despite unending praise for Rembrandt and his Night Watch in particular, we learn—via Messy Nessy Chic—that Edward Hopper (previously) basically disavowed the scene and his experiences in the French capital over the course of several years and in four sojourns as not influential, perhaps in the context that the trend in US art at the time was nationalistic and patriotic and foreign interlopers were frowned upon. Yet these watercolours ranging from 1906 to 1910 of various landmarks and landscapes, seldom on display or exhibited as a collection, are pretty stunning and belie the tenor and veracity of his response to critics.

6x6

street legal: these stunning automobile illustration are from a 1930 Soviet children’s book by Vladimir Tabi—via Present /&/ Correct 

conferment ceremony: Finnish PhD students receive a Doctoral Sword and Hat on graduation 

a coney island of the mind: Beat Poet and activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti passes away, aged 101 

train à grande vitesse: Roman roads of Gaul presented in the style TGV routes across France, Belgium and Switzerland—see previously  

epilogue: French electronic music duo Daft Punk disband after twenty-eight years  

usps: design proposals for the next generation US mail truck

saut de loup

Via Miss Cellania’s links, we learn about the ingenious landscaping technique that goes by the above or more commonly hâ-hâ, thought either to reflect the element of surprise by those coming across the invisible barriers or an abbreviation of half retaining wall, half-ditch, which creates walls and controls access without interrupting the view, see also here and here. See several examples from Amusing Planet at the link above.

7x7

high dive: Casa Zicatela in the Oaxaca coastal region references Le Corbusier and the retro look of municipal swimming pools 

rip: legendary actor Christopher Plummer (*1929) has passed away 

polar flare: visualising the true size of terrestrial landmasses through cartographic distortion plus mapping countries as offworld colonies  

gulf stream: lack of circulation during ice ages past may have meant the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans had fresh water 

dataviz: sleek, informative infographics by the Great Grundini  

réseau pneumatique: an exploration of the pneumatic postal system of Paris—see also  

hq2: a preview of the new Amazon headquarters (previously) building in Arlington, Virginia

guillemets

Used in a number of orthographies around the world instead of or in combination with quotation marks, the term is a diminutive of Guillaume (William) after the pioneering sixteenth century French printer and font-founder Guillaume Le Bé—France being the primary place where they are employed, though the nested quotes are used elsewhere and in other ways, including in Japan and China where « » sets off the title of a book or album, in Portuguese and Swiss German (called Möwchen, little Sea Gulls) to indicated a reported quotation within a quotation, and inwardly pointing » « to bracket off direct speech. In Quebec, a singular right pointing guillemet itératif is used as a ditto mark.

palais bulles

Originally commissioned for French industrialist Pierre Bernard, the villa overlooking the bay of Cannes designed by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag (*1920 - †2014), the Bubble Palace (see also), an ensemble consisting of various swimming pools, water elements, an amphitheatre and ten living units in Théoule-sur-Mer, was acquired by recently departed fashion mogul Pierre Cardin as a holiday home. It is now up for auction. Much more to discover at the link above and the property’s French language web site.

by hook or by crook

Though still uncertain what to call this implement that’s part of the standard quiver fireplace tools with this embarrassment of viable candidates: damper hook, a chimney hook, a fire iron though definitely not an andiron—the pair of trusses meant to let air circulate under a burning log and also called a firedog (Feuerbock)—associated with iron only through folk etymology and comes from the Old French term for bull, also called chenet—a little dog. Researching a bit further, however, we were delighted to learn that the term housewarming—coming of course from the act of warming a new house with gifts of firewood—with the party in Francophone countries referred to as a pendaison de crémaillère, hanging of the chimney hook, the last installation of a new residence to mark the inaugural repast.

escargotic commotion

Parallel to the introduction of the telegraph, people were eager to find alternatives that overcame the obstacles of time and tide and one such device was found in the pasilalinic (all prattling) sympathetic compass, build to test the hypothesis in the 1850s that snails formed a psychic bond after mating (see also here and here) by Jacques-Toussaint Benoît de l’Hérault. It was hoped that this supposed telekinetic connection could be used to send messages instantaneously.

en attendant godot

The original French version of the play, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot had its premiere performance on this day in 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris, coming in translation to London’s West End two years later. Held as one of the most significant English-language theatrical pieces of the twentieth century, the tragicomedy extolling existential conundrums in the milieu of vaudeville in two acts follows the characters Vladimir and Estragon (see also) as they await the titular Godot, whom never arrives. The author grew weary and distracted by what he felt was over-analysis, declaring he had not imbued the play with deeper meaning, but later Beckett came to embrace these multiple readings and interpretations.

desireless

Perhaps best known for her debut hit song that despite being sung in entirely French circumvented the language barrier and charted across Europe Voyage, voyage, the performer Claudie Fritsch-Mentrop was born this day in Paris in 1952. Plus loin que la nuit et le jour (voyage, voyage).