53. The Challenge

In the beginning of this trip every time we stepped into an art museum or a cathedral, I would appreciate the place for about 30 seconds. For the rest of the time, it was like I was looking at a code I didn't have the key to. How many "Madonna with Child" paintings really need to exist? Whats so cool about another stone column? Does every catholic have the stations of the cross memorized? After some time, I began to see patterns, notice artists styles, and read the paintings like a book. That's what they were meant for in the first place, right? To educate those who were illiterate and unable to read the bible. Now when I look at art, or a cathedral, I can see more than paint on paper, I can see the reason it was painted,

Today was not like that. I didn't have insight as to what I was looking at, and after two museums, and 6 floors, I can sum up what I learned in just a two sentences:

Bordeaux was good at trading and owning slaves. There was a guy who lead a revolution during World War 2 but he was caught and died.

Our challenge today was that nothing was in English. We've experienced this before in Venice's History museum, but that place was mostly all about looking at fossils. I don't need English words to tell me I'm looking at a 10000 year old caterpillar.

I walked around looking at pictures, wondering what the display meant in relation to the rest of the museum, and making up stories, to go along with my conclusions. 

After a dinner of Orzo Soup - a new favorite of ours introduced by Uncle Brian last week - we headed out to see the city at night.

We aren't to far from a reflection pool that made a great photo op for Arden's class and everyone else got in on it too. Brody loved it when it started misting and, after some apprehension, ran straight in to play in the water. As we were leaving the pool started to fill up again and Brody wanted to watch the entire process start to finish. We promised to come back tomorrow.