Spring Break 2010 Wrap Up

After Ravenna was Padua to visit the Scrovegni Chapel. From the outside, again nothing much. The story is that Enrico Scrovegni's family were money lenders and therefore, not allowed into heaven. Enrico wanted to get his father into heaven so asked Giotto to paint him the most beautiful chapel in the world. Inside, it is. Painted between 1303 and 1305 it was a major break from Byzantine art and can be claimed as the first major work of the Renaissance. (Art History CHECK)

I LOVED Padua, for some reason it captured my imagination. I didn't get a picture of the huge elliptical park, but here is a war memorial to those Paduans who perished in a battle with modern day Ethiopian, a former Italian colony.

Padua is home to the huge University of Padua. It was founded in the 1200's as an alternative, more free-thinking institution than those more religiously based. A famous former faculty member? Galileo. These posters are posted around by the friends of graduates and are kind of "this is your life combined" combined with a roasting of the graduate.

St. Anthony, the great orator, was from Padua. Here's a totally Romanesque church in his honor. I do have to inform you all that his TONGUE and VOCAL CHORDS are preserved and on display. I saw them.

Next stop, Lyon

My former student and friend, Yalie K. met me there and we spent a BEAUTIFUL spring day walking around the city and having lunch at an outside cafe.

Yalie has been teaching English in a town called, Clermont-Ferrand, which is located in the Massif Central of France. This part of France is formerly volcanic and very mountainous. Pictured is "Puy de Dome", an extinct volcano right outside of town.

Yalie's cute house, in the small town of Royat in the hills outside of C-F.

The gothic church of C-F isn't dirty, it's just made out of the dark volcanic stone that is in great supply locally.

Jambs, archivolts, post, lintel, typinum (sp?), it's a gothic portal.

Yalie and I spent an afternoon watching the ASM Clermont rugby team play against Stade Francis of Paris. ASM has been to the Superbowl of French Rugby 10 times and lost all 10 times. Clermont lost this day, but I'm now an ASM supporter.

C-F is the home of Guided Light Rail. Notice it's a tram with only one rail. The advantage is that it can be on the track and THEN go off track and be driven like a bus.

Because it is like a bus, one can enter and exit on street level. But, there have been problems with snow and erratic movements when the driver has to steer off the rail when someone jaywalks across the rail line. Other small issues have arisen so Bombardier, the maker of GLT, has disbanded the project.

Clermont-Ferrand's biggest claim to fame? It's the home of Michelin tires.

The Michelin Man's official name is Bibendum, Latin for "let's drink".

Yalie and I took a trip to the Michelin museum.

I am a huge fan of Bibendum and now have his key chain!