La Gardeuse d'oies

Saturday
Back to the cloud and rain today. We had a leisurely start to the day, then went to work out at the gym. For lunch we drove out to the village of Barbizon to a favorite crepe restaurant of ours. We managed to get to and from the restaurant in the dry, but while we were eating we could see and hear the rain coming down heavily. My blip is of one of a number of mosaics of works of arts which can be found throughout the village. The painting depicted is La Gardeuse d'oies by Constant Troyon (1810-1865). Troyon was born in Sevres, near Paris, where his father was connected with the famous porcelain company. He was an animal painter of the first rank, and closely associated with the artists who painted around Barbizon. The original painting can be found in the Musee d'Orsay. In the afternoon we ran a couple of errands and watched a little of the Winter Olympics. This evening we were out at the cinema with a few friends from church, watching a live broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The opera was Rusalka by Dvorak, which I have to admit I hadn't heard of before, but the music was wonderful and it featured Renee Fleming in the title role. During the intermissions, there were interviews with some of the cast and the conductor, and you got to see the backstage scenes of them changing the sets which was interesting.