The Arts

April 28, 2008

Dear Annie and Michele,

You were here for one magic day and night and on a Monday at that, when everything is closed. I wish so much there were some way I could have shared more of the arts in Montpellier with you. We tried to get tickets for a performance, but no luck. Monday is closed and April is still slow. But, for you night birds, there is good jazz nightly in the clubs. This city is indeed, the town that never sleeps.

The French are staunchly protective of their culture, especially French cinema.

State supported TV is required to show French movies. We walk five minutes to the Mediatheque Fillini where our membership gives us access to 10,000 DVDs. Montpellier’s film festival at the end of October and beginning of November is the largest film festival dedicated to productions from all shores of the Mediterranean. There is yet another film festival in April of only short films, three minutes or less. Music?

Jazz. opera, symphony and street musicians. It is all here. Herve Niquet, a creative humor filled pixie of a man, directed the symphony and the opera King Arthur that we attended. One night when you were here, April 21st, Jam had Mark Akins, the king of didgeridoo, a descendent of the aborigines who has collaborated with Led Zeppelin and Ravi Shankar.

Most of all, we can walk through wide-open spaces to get to the movies, the symphony and the opera. It is true that Paris is the hub of high culture as well as haute couture but that, for me Montpellier is the place that takes more risks per artist. What is not here is art. Every year there is museum night in France where all the museums are open from 9 PM to midnight. 10 other museums in our area got more visitors than the Fabre, our local museum. While we were here only one exhibit drew us in, Emile Nolde, the German expressionist. Wish we had been here for the Stradivarius exhibit last summer!

It is good to know you left wishing you had more time here. It seems like a dream that you came!

Much love to Otis, Michele and Ben.

Love,

Sharon