Travelog for: Barthélémy

Hi,
I'm Barthélémy... I'm a monkey... a dead monkey indeed, but as it was written on my tag when Mistigree rescued me from being burried :
"Dead animals need love too"


That's why I decided to become a ToyVoyager instead of getting bored in heaven or hell !!


My favourite colour is... BLACK of course... ("NOIR" in French) because I'm a gothic monkey !! I like everything that is gothic (music, clothes, architecture...) and I also like Tim Burton's movies and characters !

This evening I went to the cinema to see "CONTROL". I'll keep preciously my ticket as I enjoyed the movie very much !!


It was about Ian Curtis, Joy Division's singer's life and death. It was all filmed in black & white.


Once back home, I asked Mistigree to lend me her walkman so that I can listen to Joy Division without disturbing her !! She told me that she heard me singing while I was listening to the music !! I'm singing very well indeed !!

Did I tell you I like Gargoyles, Grotesques and Gryphons ?


Mistigree has got a Gargoyle at home and I talked a little with her... She told me she was too heavy and too old to become a ToyVoyager...


Then Mistigree showed me some architectural details in Toulouse ! Look at those gryphons ! There were just above a door !


And this grimacing guy is a door knocker !!


There are many gargoyles on Toulouse's churches roofs, but there are so high !!!! So I content myself to pose in front of those characters that we call Grostesques.


This gothic recess would have been perfect for my bedroom but it was in a church and Mistigree told me she didn't want such a recess in her flat !!

Mistigree showed me her pictures of Highgate cemetery in London... I want to visit it too, and Kensal Green cemetery as well !! Don't think I'm morbid !! It is just that some cemeteries are really beautiful and after all, they are part of human history as well as churches or castles !!


This morning we had a walk in the "Cimetière de Terre-Cabade", a famous cemetery here in Toulouse (it looks like the "Cimetière du Père Lachaise" in Paris). It is so big !! Hopefully there are signs to find one's way !


I met some angels...



Look at this grave !! It is the replica of a cathedral but I can't remember which one ?!!


This big one is the grave of Aristide Bergès, a French man who discovered hydroelectric energy !!! It is a Swiss artist that sculpted his grave.


And this one looks like the Acropole in Greece !


I even foumd a Teddy Bear hanging on a grave... He told me he was sad because his mentor has died, and he decided to stay here with him... It made me sad too and I gave him some hugs.

In the evening, I went to the "fête Saint-Michel". It is a funfair that takes place every year in October in Toulouse.


What I prefer in funfair is ... the ghost train of course !!


As Elle was here too (she comes from Japan) and had never been to a ghost train in her life, we bought 2 tickets !


There were lots of skeletons and monsters inside and we could hear frightening screams too, but it did not scared us at all !! On the contrary, we laughed a lot !


I tried to play this game for all the bears to escape, but I didn't succeed !!


Then I wanted to win the Gargoyle (or is it a bat ?) you can see behind the window, but I had no money left !!

Are there graffiti where you live ?? I would be curious to see them !
In Toulouse, there are many streets where we can find graffiti on walls... Of course all are not very nice, but some of them are really well drawn. Look at this Bart Simpson behind the trees !!


Just near there was an extraterrestrial !


This cat one was on a van and Mistigree likes it !

I had to hurry up today !! Mistigree told me I had to leave right now if I wanted to attend the Halloween monkey party of BunTraveler !!!
As I had no costume ready for the party, I tried to make a cape by myself, but the result is not extra ! ... Anyway I think I'm scaring enough without being disguised !!

Barthelemy arrived today in Oregon and jumped right out of the box.  His host thinks he must also have wings as he arrived so quickly to Oregon.

He was looking around for something to add to his costume and he thought this hat looked very good on him.  Then he thought he would like to finish off the costume with one more item.  Perhaps a "bag of bones" or a new friend he can call "bones". 

Now he must wait for the event.

Barthelemy hanging out with one of the nighttime pumpkins.  They too will shine in the dark.

There were a few things on the agenda when Barthelemy arrived that his host wanted everyone that was here for the party to see.

One of the items to view was the GREAT PUMPKINS!

Here there are two pumpkins that are considered GIANTS in the pumpkin patch.  These 2 pumpkins where taken previously to a contest where the owners that grew them had won first place in two states.

In California, the contest for the largest pumpkin won a grand total of $3,000 dollars.  Then free gift cards to 5 seed companies to total another $2,000. 
The contest in Oregon won the owner of the largest pumpkin $6.00 (American dollars) for each pound of weight.
The darker orange pumpkin weighed 1,200 pounds.

The large pumpkins were both owned by the same family.
The largest pumpkin which was the light colored one weighs in at 1,524 pounds.  That's one thousand five hundred and twenty four pounds. 
This weight amount, times 6,  is what the amount of the check ($$$)  was. That is a great deal of money for a contest for large pumpkins.

These both grew from February, started in a green house from seed,  then moved out into the garden in May where they could grow to this enormous size until October 10th.

To move them takes a fork lift or large tractor with a large scoop on it to put it into the back of a truck so it can then be lifted out of the truck onto a large truck type scale that weighs cars.

The toyvoyager gang thought this was a great big surprise that they knew they would probably never see again.

Barthelemy went crusing around today to view the sites of Eugene city walls. 
He didn't find many of the art graffiti as he wished because in this town they cover up most of the designs on the walls as soon as they are found.

But he did find a few things that he liked.

This drawing was made about 3 years ago.  It started with just the one picture in the middle and it was printed there with not such good words for reading.  The owner did not do this but he wanted to find out who did. 

The owner liked the art.  He waited up at night (as most graffiti is done then) to see who might have done such a talented piece of art.  When he caught the person doing the drawing that person thought he would be going to jail.

Instead the man that owned the building mentioned he was going to put a barber shop (cutting hair business) in this building.  He asked if this person would finish off a drawing and then include it as part of the business name?

The person doing the drawing was so pleased not to go to jail for defacing the walls of Eugene that he was very glad to finish something for the man.  Now this artist as he is called is working for a magazine and doing his artwork for them.

You see.  Not all art "graffiti" is ment to be bad.  Some of it is just talented people trying to express themselves in the only way they know how.
The language written was removed by request and the drawing has been there for the past couple of years.

Bathelemy thought this was interesting for viewing.

This wall mural,  as it is called now,  did not start out as such.  During the day one summer the owner of the building put up part of the drawing painted by himself.  He was a rebelious type of guy and signed his name to the art with a few other words in another language that evidentally were not very nice. 

The next evening the drawing was defaced by another group of "taggers" who went about defacing everyones art on the walls of the city and putting their own names all over it.

The owner was fined a great deal of money because his building had these drawings and not such nice sayings all over his business and he refused to take it off.

He thought if he owned the building he could put whatever he wanted onto the building.
Not so in this city.  You must apply for a permit to add art to the side of a wall that is in public view.  If the city does not like it --- you have to remove it or be fined.

The owner did not remove it.  Then started the other wall and finished it in a couple of days.  The city told him to remove all of it.  It was then defaced again by "taggers" and the owner wrote a few more words that were not very nice.

The owner was then cited by the city again and ordered to remove it or he would have to close his store.
The owner complied and got a permit, removed the nasty words in the other language and now it is stated as a city "mural" and not just a taggers dream for defacing.

Once the wording was changed and the owner had a right to leave it there, no one has defaced it since.

While driving around looking for more graffiti Barthelemy noticed this familiar figure. 

His host knew he must let Barthelemy get his photo with this figure.  It is one of Barthelemy's favorites.  Although not in a graveyard---it will do.

It is getting difficult to find graffiti in the city.
There is a special task force of volunteer people that go out during the day and paint over all the graffiti. 
But Barthelemy has a good eye for finding a few more.  There are still a few of the larger drawings that have lasted.
Soon some of these will be covered over too as soon as the task force finds them.

This graffiti has been here a while and the building is condemed.  Soon all of this will be gone.