| New Romandie East Chairman, Farrol Kahn, got off to a good start with his first event on 29 October in the old town of Martigny. A goodly gathering of BRA Members met up in the depths of a converted Ursuline Convent which is now a wine cellar. Following a talk by Farrol on some of the hidden delights of the Valais, propriétaire-encaveur Gérard Dorsaz introduced us to the wines he produces on terraces anchored on the oldest rocks in Switzerland. Following the sampling of quite a number, we gently swayed our way to a charming restaurant just a few steps away to enjoy a more than copious traditional Valaisan meal. To our amazement, one part of the dining room was a converted railway coach from an epoque long gone by. The highlight of the afternoon was a visit to the Giannada Foundation to see an impressive exhibition of paintings by Claude Monet, a founder of the French impressionist movement and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of its philosophy of expressing one’s perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant. More than 70 of Monet’s paintings were on display, including a number of his favourite subject, water lilies. Our understanding of the paintings was greatly helped by an illustrated talk beforehand given by an excellent and very animated member of the Foundation’s staff. |
Michael Type