Auguste Rodin - Sculptor

Musée Rodin

Hôtel Biron built by Gabriel and Aubert in the 18th century

The Kiss 1886 Marble Musee Rodin, Paris

The Thinker 1880 Bronze


Auguste Rodin was a French artist, most famous as a sculptor.

He was the preeminent French sculptor of his time, and remains one of the few sculptors widely recognized outside the visual arts community. Since 1919, the sculptures of Auguste Rodin have been housed in a mansion known as the Biron Hotel

He was born November 12, 1840 and died November 17, 1917.

Auguste Rodin naît le 12 novembre 1840, 3 rue de l'Arbalète à Paris dans une famille d'origine rurale et modeste. Son père Jean-Baptiste est d'origine normande, sa mère Marie Cheffer d'origine lorraine. Du premier mariage de son père avec Gabrielle Cateneau il a une demi-sœur, Clothilde, qui semble avoir été écartée de la famille après le deuxième mariage de Jean-Baptiste. Auguste a une sœur aînée, Maria.

Many of Rodin's most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. Rodin's most original work modeled the human body with realism.

Rodin was sensitive to the controversy about his work, but did not change his style, and successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.

During his lifetime, Rodin was compared to Michelangelo, and was widely recognized as the greatest artist of the era. In the three decades following his death, his popularity waned with changing aesthetic values. Since the 1950s, Rodin's reputation has re-ascended. He is recognized as the most important sculptor of the modern era.

Il a révolutionné la sculpture par une liberté de forme qu'on n'avait pas connue jusque-là. Son célèbre Penseur est tout en déséquilibre, composé de cinq triangles dans un arrangement précaire, exprimant ainsi la nature du cours de la pensée et son lien au corps.

Rodin, à l'avant-garde de son art, a laissé les moules de ses sculptures à la disposition du public. Il avait aussi préparé des copies de sa signature. Une manière pour lui de laisser d'autres prolonger son œuvre après son décès.

Mimolette - French Cheese

Mimolette is a cheese traditionally produced around the city of Lille, France (where it is also known as Boule de Lille), and also in some areas of Belgium and the Netherlands.

It was originally made by the request of Louis XIV, who wanted a French cheese to resemble Edam. In order to differentiate it from Edam, however, he had it colored orange.

A cow's-milk cheese, it normally weighs about 4.5 pounds. Its name comes from "mullet". When young its crust is supple, but with age it becomes harder. It has a grey crust and orangish flesh. The orange color comes from the natural colorant, achiote. Due to its appearance, this cheese is often mistaken at first glance for a cantaloupe.

La mimolette est un fromage traditionnellement produit dans le nord de la France d'où elle est originaire, dans la région de Lille et également aux Pays-Bas.

C'est un fromage à base de lait de vache, à pâte pressée non cuite, d'une masse moyenne de 2 kg. Sa croûte est grisâtre et sa chair orangée. Avec l'âge, elle devient de plus en plus cassante.
Selon sa durée d'affinage, elle peut être jeune (trois mois), demi-vieille (six mois), vieille (douze mois) ou extra vieille (deux ans).

La couleur orangée de sa chair provient d'un colorant naturel, le roucou.
Sa période de dégustation optimale s'étend d'avril à septembre après un affinage de 6 à 24 mois,

mais elle est bonne toute l'année.

The Mimolette is a most unusual cheese, spherical like an Edam but with a rough moon-like surface and a bright orange interior. It resembles a melon when cut open.

Maturing the cheeses involves storing them in damp cellars and turning them every week. At the same time the surface of the cheese is brushed to remove cheese mites which feast on its surface. As the cheese ages, evidence of mites can be seen in the pitted and moon like surface which appears on the cheese.

Guinguette Auvergnate

The Guinguette Auvergnate — located in Villeneuve Triage—is the perfect place to take visitors to Paris, who never fail to be charmed by its friendly relaxed atmosphere, the view of the Seine from its windows framed by potted geraniums and the unpretentious cooking from the Auvergne, the home region of the patron. If they are lucky, they will see their fellow-diners waltzing to the strains of the accordion, ‘just like a Renoir painting', as a friend once whispered to me. I have arrived as late as 3 pm and still been fed, as Sunday lunch here can last up to 5 pm.

La Guinguette Auvergnate est tel un navire à trois ponts mouillant devant la gare de Villeneuve-Triage à douze minutes en RER de la Gare de Lyon. Un petit paquebot en pierre et en bois où la Croisière s’amuse aux sons des bourrées rouergates, d’airs de Jazz, de country ou de rock, le long d’un des plus jolis coins de la Seine.

The Guinguette Auvergnate is smaller and less well-known than the ones on the River Marne and attracts a mainly local clientèle. The reason for its survival is probably the geographical isolation of this part of the town of Villeneuve-St-Georges, with the Seine on one side and the huge gare de triage, the largest in Europe, on the other. (A gare de triage is a railway station specialising in the redistribution of freight wagons.) They don't hold dances here every Sunday, but the convivial family atmosphere is truly part of the esprit guinguette. It is standard etiquette to nod and smile at fellow-diners, murmuring ‘Bonjour/Au revoir, messieurs et dames' as you arrive or leave.

Qui dit Guinguette, suppose une assiette sérieuse et honnête mais également une piste de danse et une musique qui rallie tous ceux qui aiment danser. Sur le premier point, l’ami Jean-Pierre, cuisinier de formation sait proposer des menus qui rapprochent l’estomac et le cœur.

The Historic Province of Champagne

Champagne is in northeastern France. The name derives from the Latin meaning "plain." The county of Champagne was incorporated into France in 1314. It is a generally arid plateau that slopes toward Paris. Its strategic location has made it a battleground whenever France has been invaded from the east. The Falaise de l'Ile-de-France, a limestone ridge, borders Champagne on the west, separating it from the Ile-de-France, core of the Paris Basin. Grapes grown on the lower slopes of the Falaise are made into the famous sparkling wine in the miles of cellars carved out of the chalky soil under Reims and Epernay.

Le vin de Champagne, également appelé champagne, est un vin effervescent célèbre dans le monde entier et aujourd'hui associé au luxe et aux fêtes. Il tire son nom de la Champagne, une région du nord-est de la France.Les champagnes sont des vins souvent synonymes de fête ou de célébration, bénéficiant d'un prestige reconnu de par le monde.

Champagne was a region long before it was a sparkling wine. The region lies at a crossroads of northern Europe – the river valleys leading south to the Mediterranean and north to Paris, the English Channel and Western Germany – and thus has been the setting of many dramatic events in the history of the French nation.









For the most enjoyable cellar visits and champagne tasting, many visitors will prefer to visit the small town of Epernay, fifteen miles south of Reims. Lying in the heart of "champagne country", Epernay is home to many of the most famous champagne producers.


87 miles E of Paris, 16 mile S of Reim, Epernay rivals Reims as a center for champagne. Although it only has one-sixth Reims's population, Epernay produces nearly as much champagne. It boasts an estimated 200 miles of cellars and tunnels. These caves are vast vaults cut into the chalk rock on which the town is built. Represented in Epernay are such champagne companies as Moët et Chandon (the largest), Pol Roger, Mercier, and de Castellane.











Les visiteurs s'orientent pour la plupart vers la Champagne chargée d'histoire, ses vignobles et ses caves prestigieuses. Les sites et itinéraires se diversifient avec la découverte du patrimoine et de la gastronomie : Troyes et ses maisons anciennes, Châlons-en-Champagne et ses cours d'eau, Langres avec ses remparts, Épernay, les vallées de la Marne et de la Meuse, Sedan, Reims ou encore Colombey-les-Deux-Égliseset le Mémorial Charles de Gaulle.