Roots in the Lone Star State

Pará, is the second largest state of Brazil, comprising 16% of the country's territory. Its flag, is composed of a white stripe on a red background. White, reminds us of the Equator and the Amazon River that flows across the state. The white lone star is Spica a first order star which belongs to the Virgo constellation. Red symbolizes the state's people's strong blood, it's fighting spirit.

Thomas and myself spent a few days getting to know the city of Belém. Thomas's mother Ana has roots in the Amazon - Imbiriba, Guerreiro and Guimarães. We are investigating local family sources to uncover these tropical roots, taking advantage of my stay in town to teach a GIS course to the Fisheries postgrads at the Federal University of Pará.

The Saturday walk around town included a short visit to the Emilio Goeldi Natural History Museum and zoo-botanical park, where one can see animals and plants typical of this part of the world. The air humidity is stifling  - almost 100% - when its not raining... This season of the year where the air is thick, hot and moist is referred to by the locals as  'winter', mostly due to the fact it feels cooler because of the refreshing daily spells of rain, falling every afternoon. 

In the Amazon lowlands especially around the delta, sediments shift, water courses change places as well as levels from one rainy season to the next. Plant inhabiting these areas must cope with this  and to mantain vertical stability in the 'savage' inter-species botanical competition for light in the undercover layer of the tropical forest. all is fair. Palm trees may switch from 'root mode' ,  good for absorbing nutrients on the surface of the forest to 'spine mode' to help it defend its fruits from the many potential eager consumers present in the forest which may be able to climb up its trunks. Others plants will adjust to the shifting terrain by growing their massive trunks upon tabular roots spread over a wide area below the forest canopy.

Aerial roots are also a good way of always 'surface feeding'. It is generally accepted that most of the nutrients in tropical soils, especially in rainforests lie on the surface of soils, as falling leaves rapidly decompose.

Berlin in Belém

The Amazon, was once the world's largest producer of rubber. That was long, long ago, and Belém on the mouth of the Amazon river the port of entry to this vast hinterland. The Portuguese had to fortify the area to fight back Dutch and French invaders coming from the North. Originally, this all belonged to the Tupinambas! The Portuguese allied themselves with the natives and managed to establish themselves with enough fortifications to control efficiently their claims in this part of the New World.

With the onset of the industrial revolution, rubber became more and more necessary and it made rubber barons in the Amazonian tropics from Belém to Manaus. This money brought in culture, and new theatre houses designed and built to match the best in Europe. In both cities many buildings and general urban infrastructure were built with rubber money.

Walking around town in Belém, you can see all kinds of foreign influence including the traditional designs of the Portuguese 'azulejos' (tiles) on the exterior walls of colonial town houses to French-style 'marquises' over commercial shops downtown.Giuseppe Antonio Landi, an architect recruited by the king of Portugal, D. João V, moved to Belém moved from Bologna, Italy to the this amazonian city where he built churches, palaces, and set himself up a farm where he lived until his death, never more returning to Europe! Belém and the province of Pará, was the most 'Portuguese' part of the Brazilian colony of the Portuguese empire, the last to acknowledge and join newly declared independent Brazil, only a year after the fact....! 

Paris in America. 

Because of its close ties to Europe, and cultural development, Belém became known as 'Paris in America'. A shop downtown comemorated this, back in 1870, being a 'must' for monsieurs et mesdames  wanting to buy fine imported fabrics. The shop is said to be a mini-version of Galleries Lafayette, and is called Paris n'América.

However, it was in Praça da República, the downtown square where the Municipal Theatre is found,  that my attention was caught by a series of sculptures which would probably passed pass unnoticed to most. In definitely Art Deco 30's style you can see 4 large sculptures. On at least one of them  is the foundry's signature - Guss Martin & Piltzing of Berlin. The foundry is very well known, being one of the four companies chosen to deliver medals, bronzes, memorabilia and souvenir items for the 1936 Olympic Games ! 

How did these sculptures end up in the Amazon? This is still a mystery. One explanation given by a local Venezuelan hippie who sells his souvenirs on the square is that local port customs authorities found these on a ship with no accompanying papers. They were thus apprehended, however no one ever came to claim them . Eventually the city council decided to put them in the square for exhibit. 

 

 

 

Orchid show in Paris....

Les orchidées du Jardin du Luxembourg

From 5 to 15 Feb, 2010 the greenhouse 'Orangerie' of the Senate at the Jardins du Luxembourg, Paris is hosting a fabulous exhibit comemorating 150 years of a tropical orchid collection.  It is a fragile and unique collection in the care of the French Senate since 1860. Originally the collection belonged to the Botanical Garden of the Medicine School of Paris installed since 1838 in the south corner of the Jardins du Luxembourg. 

In 1860, mayor Haussmann expropriated the Medicine School and its Botanical Garden to open the boulevard Saint-Michel. The Senate proposes to harbour the school’s orchid collection in its greenhouses already one of the richest collections in Europe, with over 1,300 hybrids and species belonging to over 150 genuses, Many hybrids were developed at the end of the 19^th century. 

The exhibit includes selected exquisite orchids in flower at this time of the year, some of them very perfumed.

Already in 1838 Antonio José Peixoto, doctor to Brazil’s emperor D. Pedro II, himself a passionate lover of Natural History studies presented the curator of the collection to start on a collection of exotic orhcids and kicked off with a over 30 species including Laelia cinnabarina and Laelia cripsa.

A special exhibit shows the secrets of in vitro reproduction - a technique which has saved some very rare species and hybridization - another technique which has creates new varieties of orchids.

This exhibit comemorates the 150^th birthday of the orchid collection on the same year UNESCO declares the International Year of Biodiversity.

Check out other pics...

La Fête de St. Vincent

End of January, snow is back in Montmartre, but fortunately we have among other amenities, including our own backyard vineyard…

And, being a Catholic neighborhood with its own church, why not celebrate St. Vincent, patron of vignerons and poissoniers? According to some vignerons chose him because of the suffix "vin" of his name, however it should be noted that supposedly a grape pressing wheel was used to torture him. The cult was initially started in Bourgogne where he is a patron especially to the bourguignon vignerons before the Champagne split. Both regions are close and related.

Au Relais, up Rue Montmartre, the Petits Poulbots defenders of the 'Republique de Montmartre' had already met up and rehearsed last week... They re-assembled and put on their show on Sat....30th

The "République de Montmartre" dates from May, 7th 1921. The society is charitable and cultural and keeps the ideology left by Poulbot, Willette, Forain, Neumont and Joë Bridge. Its charitable work benefits people with disadvantaged childhood or to connect artists.

Traditionally, members wear a red scarf, a cloak and a black hat such as the one worn by Louis Armand Aristide Bruant imortalized by Toulouse-Lautrec. Bruant left his home in 1866 at age fifteen, following his father's death, to find employment. Made his way to Montmartre where he hung out in the working-class bistros. Bougeois by birth, he soon adopted the earthy language of his haunts, turning it into songs that told of the struggles of the poor. Bruant began performing at cafe-concerts and developed a singing and comedy act that led to his being signed to appear at the LetChat Noir. Dressed in a red shirt, black velvet jacket, high boots, and a long red scarf, he soon became a star of Montmartre, and became one of Lautrec's first friends. In 1885, Bruant opened his own Montmartre club, a place he called "Le Mirliton".

So, I like seafood and wine!

All sat/sun, down around Abesses metro, just below the Sacre-coeur, the stands sold fresh oysters, fish including shark, and many, many clams…

The oyster growers had their own representation in stands. The produce wasn't exactly cheap ! 1 Euro the unit!

The oyster industry, traditional in France still exists because of the ‘‘Resur’’ plan, which consisted of massive introductions of a new species, Crassostrea gigas, from the Pacific. After small-scale trials (1966–1970), several hundred tonnes of C. gigas were imported from Canada between 1971 and 1973 to form brood stock. The species became established and in the Marennes-Oleron region. Additionally 10,000 t of spat (young oysters) were imported from Japan. For the complete story check Ifremer.

Clam producers (not farmed, fisheries only!) were selling fresh clam meat with/without roe (corail) and seared 'clamkabob'.

For those searching for something cheaper - roasted chestnuts!

In the end, a happy walk home up the steps so abundant in Montmartre which help us burn down some of those calories...

Vintage cars in Paris

Organized by the ‘Vincennes en Anciennes assocation’ in order to commemorate the New Year and to take advantage of empty streets in Paris at this time of the year, the Traversée de Paris is celebrating it’s 10 th year on Jan 10. The group departs from the esplanade of the château de Vincennes early at 8AM stopping by the Trocadero at the end of the matinée, saluting Paris’s monuments on the way.

If you have your own vintage vehicle locally, you can participate. Check out rules and regulations at www.vincennesenanciennes.com if you want to go next year. If you don’t have a car you can still ride a vintage Paris bus which follows the party. To take pictures, anywhere along the Bastille, la Concorde or les Champs is fine, but the best place is probably at Montmartre where these photos were taken as they have to go uphill and stop several times passing by slowly. Finally, la Place Vendôme serves as the final stop to cool down the motors and refresh the driver and passengers!

Check ou some of the pictures on my Picasa Album.

Sacre Coeur by night

Sacre Coeur, stands at the top of La Butte Montmartre.

At this time of the year, during the daytime it is quite loaded with tourists following or not Dan Brown's Holy Grail trail...

There was always plenty of visitors even before his book, anyway for other reasons including the spectacular view of Paris down below...











The Place du Tertre is where all the free-lance artists show their works. Many will do a quick impression, sometimes comical of you. This night the place was mostly empty by 8 pm, because of the cold weather, slippery cobblestones and reduced number of tourists. Still quite pretty to look at.

Enfin, à Paris !

After a very hectic year, my reward was arriving in Paris to meet up with my wife Yvonne and our cats... Paris was still under the snowfall of the previous evening, as I arrived at rue Lamarck, Montmartre...









The bistrôs were busy, but mostly indoors.


















The shops are all ready for Christmas food shopping including fresh seafood from all over the world...

Like these mexican lobsters....















The food shops are incredible. I felt like taking a sample of everything.












Back to the land of plenty of wine choices and reasonable prices, even though in euros...