A Wedding & Burning Man

Dear friends and family, and future friends,

Uneventful 3 hour flight from London to St. Petersburg. We were met by Nikolai, a guide who had been set up for us by a friend of Inez and Andrew, Linda Predovsky. Linda, with much help from Inez, had done so much work putting the trip together, I don't know how we can ever thank her. Nikolai helped us get sim cards for my phone (which we had unblocked). We were going to go right into St. P., but clearing customs and getting our bags took so long, and traffic can be so congested in and around St. P., that we decided to wait a couple hours for Andrew, Inez, Paula and Sammy. When they arrived, it almost seemed like a miracle: little cells coming together in the same spot after traveling vast distances.

We dropped our bags at our modest, but perfectly fine apartment. It has a great location, a block and a half from the Hermitage Museum. We then drove onward to the Courtyard Marriott Hotel on Vasielevsky Island where the rest of the travelers are staying. Some photos below of our beautiful walk back to our apartment.

This part of St. Petersburg, along the Neva River, reminds me of Stockholm. Maybe Stockholm in need of a paint job. A beautiful day and refreshingly brisk after the excessive heat of New York and Southern France.

Why St. Petersburg, you may ask? A beautiful city, surely, but it's a bit of a distance. Our good friends, Inez Storer and Andrew Romanoff invited us to go along with them. They are both artists, and Andrew is a Romanoff and 2013 is the 400th Anniversary of the Romanoff dynasty. St. Petersburg is the city built by Peter the Great, one of Andrew's ancestors.

When Inez and Andrew invited us, we were just preparing to go on our last trip to London for Chuck Close's show at the White Cube. We tossed the idea around a bit, could we take off so much time again, so quickly? Don said, "You know, Era, it's the opportunity of a lifetime." I said, "It's the opportunity of several lifetimes." And it was decided. Fortunately, we have a great staff at Magnolia who are filling in competently and cheerfully.

These are the White Nights in St. Petersburg, when it stays light almost all night. Note the long shadows on the above shot. It may be 10 o'clock at night.

This is the group of traveling companions, minus Sammy Zelcer, who is taking the photo. L to R, unidentified young man in lovely green t shirt, Era, Andrew Romanoff, Paula Kirkeby (a powerhouse in the SF Bay Area art world for many years and a good friend of Inez and Andrew), Inez Storer and Don. Photo taken in the Church of the Spilled Blood.

And another photo with Sammy.

The Church was built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and was dedicated in his memory by his son, Alexander III. There are definite highs and lows to being a tsar.

Approaching the Church of the Spilled Blood; the spires rising above the trees like some incredible Russian fairytale.

The Church in all its glory and hallucinogenic splendor.

I loved the wrought iron fence surrounding the church.

Perhaps the inside is even more of a mind blow. It's completely covered in mosaic.

The quality is amazing.

A composite pano Don put together.

To borrow from Ian Fleming (and Chuck Close),

From Russia with Love,

Era and Don

Dear friends and family,

I'm going to whiz thru this because I know you are all waiting for St. Petersburg. And so am I. There is so much to tell.

I think I am finally getting a handle on putting these blogs together on this blogger site, so it is only taking me a very long time instead of a ridiculously long time as I was having to do them over and over as the program crashed, misbehaved, etc. Anyway...

Annie drove us to nearby Aix en Provence.

Another extremely hot day, but this restaurant has figured out a way to keep their rosé cool.

Era is pointing to a pigeon egg which fell out of its nest.

Goofing off.

Our brunch under the trees. That's Annie and Don sitting to the right. That ominous gray shape at the bottom right is where I got tired of filling in the missing parts from the Autopano program. This is a composite of about 7 photos.

Breakfast! Couldn't eat it all. Had some for supper in an Annie-prepared salad.

Back to Annie's place and her beautiful backyard.

Swimming pool with our favorite little French sisters, who pretty much live there (in the pool).

Life is good in Southern France.

Side of the house. Annie's dad did all that lovely iron grill work on the windows, much of the stonework and the decorative and very sturdy eaves.

Tore ourselves away and caught a plane to London. Overnight in London and then on to St. Petersburg. Next, St. Petersburg!

Love,

Era and Don

Dear Friends and Family,

Our friend Annie Salt knows Marseille. She was born right outside the city in the house where her mother still lives, and she herself lived in Marseille for a while for school and work.

She took us to Marseille's new museum complex, the MuCEM (Museum of Civilizations from Europe and the Mediterranean) designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti. The company Annie works for was involved in some of the structural support of the museum. This year Marseille is the European capital of culture.

MuCEM, Marseille

The museum complex is reached by long pedestrian bridges.

Annie says there used to be a draw bridge connecting the island to the main city of Marseille. The bridge was destroyed by the Germans during the War, and for many years the island with its former fortresses was inaccessible except by boat. A beautifully designed and well thought out complex has been created on the island with the MuCEM as the crown jewel.

Another blazing hot, but gorgeous day.

Good for crystal-clear photographs.

Leaving the MuCEM and walking thru Marseille, we passed a group of women sitting on the sidewalk. Without a missing a beat, Annie broke out in song, singing a little ditty, and again right on cue, the eldest of the women sang the next verse.

It turned out she was a vendor of small white snails which she boiled in water with fennel. The ditty was something she would sing as she wheeled her snails around the streets of Marseille. Annie knew her from long ago. Most of the surrounding women were her daughters.

Annie drove us around Marseille in a typical hair-raising Marseillaise style of driving. At one point she yelled out the window to some pedestrians who were not paying attention to where they were walking. The young women responded, "This is not Paris; this is Marseille." In French, of course. In other words, this is Marseille, where we don't follow the rules, where the Revolution began, where you and much of the world might still be living under a monarchy if it weren't for us. And by the way, all commemorated by "La Marseillaise," the best national anthem in the world.

We stopped at a beautiful spot where Annie would often swim when she lived in Marseille.

Fellow foodies, this may be what you were waiting for:

Dinner at L'Aromat in Marseille (49 Rue Sainte)

The amuse bouche was a scallop presented as a Japanese maki roll, a home-made cheese spread surrounding the scallop, all wrapped in seaweed (nori).

Era's entree: sea bass cut in very thin slices and smoked with pine needles, layered on slivered vegetables. Shrimp and avocado toasts.

Don's entree: a suggestion of the chef, sautéed foie gras, tiny little mushrooms, with an egg. Fabulous. Better than it looks.

Annie's entree: stuffed zucchini flowers; a maki-style sushi with fried mussels.

All these dishes were far more elaborate than I'm describing, but the best I can do now.

The plat or main dishes:

Era and Annie chose beef filet, again smoked a bit in herbs de Provence (fab), a cannellloni of risotto, coppa and vegetables, and frites made from tomatoes and other vegetables. I don't know what the sauce was; they called it Corsican, but it was very good.

Don had veal braised in a soupe au pistou (vegetable soup with pesto), an incredible parmesan toast. He loved his pistou and was less rapturous over his veal, but no complaints.

Les Desserts:

Don's dessert was some outrageous chocolate extravaganza: chocolate mousse, some sort of small chocolate donuts, stuffed with chocolate fudge; a chocolate filled cookie, a glass of whipped cream and chocolate-nutella, and I'm not sure what that packet on the stick is. Uh-oh, looks as if he's drained his wine glass.

Annie looking pleased. She has a chocolate eclair. She will soon be dipping her chocolate fudge-like square into the hot chocolate sauce and then into the very cold champagne, which will give it a nice hard shell.

My more modest, but very delicious dessert: Iced tea flavored macaroon with peach and melon compote, Muscat sorbet with a candied almond.

Too bad Jonathan, Annie's hubby, couldn't join us for all this fun. He is out of town on business. Hi, Jonathan, we miss you!

Next day:

Aix en Provence.

Dear friends and family,

Having terrible email problems; we suspect much of our email is not getting thru, especially when we send to groups. So please check this blog from time to time, and apologies if you're not getting emails from us. (It may be a temporary problem while we send from Russia).

Part 2 of Avignon and the Palais des Papes.

How many women have been burned?

Glass planets (probably not the title), Jana Sterbak

Also by Jana Sterbak, a beautiful gown with a hairy chest (male chest hairs woven into it) "Distraction" 1992. She seems to have a great sense of humor.

Inspired by the Princess and the Pea

The mattress is baked bread

At the top of the palace, a beautiful old crumbling room. Kiki Smith's tapestries look magical. Very pleased to see that the curators gave a credit to Magnolia Editions in Oakland, California.