RACINE DE MONVILLE HOME PAGE NEWS LOG
This news log documents timely information about the Désert de Retz and topics related to the subject matter of this website for 2010 and 2011. In addition, there are updates and news about this website.
Consult the Racine de Monville Home Page News Log Archive for entries dating from June 1999 through 2009.
Please report to the webmaster any information about the Désert de Retz or Monsieur de Monville such as links to articles in the media or online or blog entries in any language that you think pertinent and would like to see posted on this news log.
Email: Ronald W. Kenyon
2012
2011
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November 28, 2011.
The Centre de Documentation de la Musique Contemporaine [CDMC] will host its third annual encounter on the theme of "Musical Creation and Gardens " on Saturday, December 10, 2011, at the Pavillon du Lac in the Parc de Bercy. The series of lectures will start at 9:30 AM and the last is scheduled for 5:15 PM. A highlight of the encounter will be a talk in French by Dominique Césari at 10:15 on the Anglo-Chinese gardens of the late 18th century. Dominique Césari is the author of Les jardins des Lumières en Ile-de-France.
Full program and reservation information in English.
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November 24, 2011.
Jane Roberts Fine Arts in Paris is currently showing works by French photographer Philippe Grunchec, including monochrome views of the Désert de Retz. The gallery is located on the fourth floor at 65, rue du Fourbourg-Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris, and is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 12:30 and from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM. The exposition runs through December 23, 2011.
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October 14, 2011. A retrospective exposition of the works of surrealist artist Claude Chanot was held from September 22 through October 8, 2011, in the Town Hall of Levallois, a suburb of Paris. The exposition included 30 works inspired by the Désert de Retz and Monsieur de Monville. View twelve works by Claude Chanot. You'll have to click on "Decor" at the botton left to see the works.
Lire Le désert de Retz et Chanot par Olivier Choppin de Janvry.
Visit Claude Chanot's bilingual website and blog to view photographs of the retrospective in Levallois along with texts by Chanot and reviews of the exposition from the French media.
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September 25, 2011. Concert des Lumières at the Désert de Retz.
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| Back row, left to right: Patricia Samuel, Serge Louet, Huguette Géliot, Didier Magne. Foreground: Jean-Louis Saury, President, Le Désert de Retz-Jardin des Lumières |
A concert of Baroque music was held at the Désert de Retz highlighting compositions that Monsieur de Monville might have played or heard. The music was interpreted by Hugette Géliot, harp; Patricia Samuel, soprano; Serge Louet, flautist and Didier Magne, guitarist and leader.
The program included compositions by Mozart; Christophe-Wilibald Gluck, Monville's friend and his favorite composer; Vicente Martin y Soler; Mauro Giulini; Fernando Sor; Francesco Molino and Didier Magne. A composition by Francois Racine de Monville himself, a chamber cantata entitled Le Retour de Chloé, arranged by Didier Magne and featuring the ensemble, concluded the concert.
This concert was most likely the first time baroque music had been performed at the Désert de Retz in over 220 years.
Color poster.
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September 21, 2011. As part of the annual European Heritage Days, the Désert de Retz was open to the public on September 17 and 18, 2011. An estimated 1,000 persons--including 839 adults purchasing entry tickets--took the occasion to visit Monsieur de Monville's garden. [Children were admitted free.] Members of the non-profit organization, Le Désert de Retz: Jardin des Lumières, were on hand throughout both days. Some served as docents to conduct visitors on hour-long guided tours of the garden. Others enrolled new members and sold refreshemnts and Désert de Retz merchandise including post cards, books and Le Miel de Retz, the product of four beehives located on the grounds of the garden.
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September 1, 2011. The Racine de Monville Home Page donates €100.00 to the Régie du Désert de Retz as its contibution to the preservation and restoration of the Désert de Retz. This donation represents the commissions recived on the sale of books sold through
Monsieur de Monville's aStore, hosted by Amazon.com. All future commissions will also be donated to the Régie du Désert de Retz. You can help restore the Désert de Retz by purchasing Amazon.com merchandise on
Monsieur de Monville's aStore.
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July 30, 2011. A new entry
on blog called Form is Void featured five Michael Kenna monochrome photos of the Desert de Retz and a short text containing hyperlinks to the Racine de Monville Home Page, the Wikipedia entry about the Desert de Retz and the essay about the Desert de Retz on Alexander Trevi's blog, Pruned.
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July 23, 2011. The Paris daily Le Parisien published an article by Yves Fossey, Le désert de Retz livre ses secrets, illustrated with a photograph of a group of visitors accompanied by their guide and a sidebar with contact information and dates of forthcoming tours conducted by the tourist offices of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Poissy.
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June 26, 2011. On June 24 and 25, 2011, a Sound and Light spectacle, L'Intemporel au Désert de Retz, sponsored by the town of Chambourcy and open to the public, took place on the grounds of the Desert de Retz. The program included 18th century music sung and performed on the harp, harpsichord and clarinet, dancing and an evocation of the Desert de Retz by
Monsieur de Monville, portrayed by François Cottet.
Additional details.
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May 22, 2011.
Residents of the town of Chambourcy were invited to visit the Desert de Retz during the annual Open Door event. Two hundred eighty Camboriciens and Camboriciennes took advantage of the beautiful spring weather to visit the garden.
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May 6, 2011.
Introducing Monsieur de Monville’s aStore. Today is the official launch date of the new Racine de Monville Home Page online store. It replaces Monsieur de Monville’s Boookstore.
Now you can shop for books about the Desert de Retz in English and French and browse and buy any of the hundreds of thousands of books, CD’s, DVD’s or other merchandise sold by Amazon.com.
As a member of Amazon Associates, the Racine de Monville Home Page will receive a small commission from each sale made through Monsieur de Monville’s aStore. All these commissions are deposited into a fund for the restoration and preservation of the Desert de Retz.
Don’t wait to order your next book from Monsieur de Monville’s aStore.
For anyone who’s nostalgic about Monsieur de Monville’s Bookstore, you can still access [and order Amazon.com merchandise from] the archived page.
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April 19, 2011.
French blogger Alexia Guggémos, Curator of the the virtual Musée du Sourire [Museum of Smiles], posted an amusing entry in her French-language blog, Deliredel'Art recounting her unsuccessful attempt to visit the Desert de Retz, followed by an equally unsuccessful attempt to visit the house formerly occupied by the painter André Derain, also located in Chambourcy. Désert de Retz : comment j'ai trouvé portes closes.
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February 20, 2011.
Toronto blogger Yesha posted some monochrome photographs and Will Viney's November 16, 2009, article about the Desert de Retz [without any attribution to Mr. Viney as the author] as "Idea Log 20022011" on her blog GOVERNMENTGIRL1943LP.
I think the post should be renamed "Plagiarized Idea Log 20022011."
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February 19, 2011.
Excerpt from: The Villager, Volume 80, Number 39 | February 24 - March 2, 2011
"Galleries offer reasons to come in from cold," by Stephanie Buhmann.
Maccarone Inc.: “Corey McCorkle”
Exploring how landscape is articulated and ritualized, McCorkle works in installations, sculpture, photography and film. One focus will be the Desert de Retz, an immense 18th century garden devised by the French aristocrat Francois Racine de Monville. McCorkle’s featured work Zoetrope (2010) — a five-channel projection of still and tracking shots of these grounds — transforms the now-derelict structures into eerie protagonists. Feb. 19–Mar. 19 (630 Greenwich St. and Morton St.)
For info, 212-431-4977 or Maccarone.
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February 9, 2011.
"Photos Détournées: Collages de Jacques Prévert" is the title of a new exposition at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in the Marais district of Paris. Featured in the exposition is Prévert's famous collage of the Désert de Retz, combining fragments of illustrations and engravings set against a monochrome photograph by Izis.
Article about the show by Sarah Muroz. Maison Européenne de la Photographie, 5/7, rue de Fourcy, 75004, Paris. The show runs until April 10, 2011.
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January 5, 2011.
Le Désert de Retz, locura romántica en Chambourcy, an article in Spanish about the Desert de Retz, ilustrated with my infrared color photograph of the Temple of Pan, was published on the Spanish blog,
Sobre Francia.
2010
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December 31, 2010.
According to statistics compiled by the Chambourcy municipal government and published in the December 2010 issue of Chambourcy Actualité,more than 7,000 persons visited the Desert de Retz in the twelve months following its official reopening in June 2009.
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December 30, 2010.
An entry was posted in Morfes,"A photo blog focused on the unique and bizarre things of the world" entitled The Broken Column House. The post includes photographs, text and a link to this website.
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October 3, 2010.
The non-profit associations Désert de Retz: Jardin des Lumières and
A.R.B.R.E.S jointly sponsored a ceremony at the Désert de Retz to dedicate a plaque identifying the garden’s 450-year old linden tree as an “Arbre Remarquable de France.” Mayor Pierre Morange accepted the honor on behalf of the town of Chambourcy.
The Desert de Retz linden tree is a rare example of layering. Natural layering typically occurs when a branch touches the ground, whereupon it produces adventitious roots when, in turn, produce new trees.
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September 18, 2010.
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As part of the annual European Heritage Days, the Désert de Retz was open to the public on Saturday, September 18, 2010. An estimated 1,200 persons took the occasion to visit Monsieur de Monville's garden. Members of the non-profit organization, Le Désert de Retz: Jardin des Lumières, were on hand throughout the day to answer visitors' questions and orient them to the points of interest in the garden.
Once a year, citizens in 50 countries celebrate Europe’s cultural heritage. This initiative of the European Heritage Days, launched by the Council of Europe in 1991, has been since 1999 a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, putting new cultural assets on view and opening up historical buildings normally closed to the public.
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September 15, 2010.
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A photograph of Monsieur de Monville's Column House was featured on the front cover of the Yvelines edition of the French news magazine L'Express for the week of September 15-21, 2010. A full-page article about the Désert de Retz was included in the magazine's special European Heritage Days supplement. |
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July 19, 2010.
Atlas Obscura, "A Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiosities and Esoterica," recently added a page devoted to the Désert de Retz in its Eccentric Homes category, with text in English and several photographs.
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June 5, 2010.
"Déesses et Lumières au Désert de Retz" is the title of an outdoor spectacle held at the Désert de Retz in Chambourcy. The
event featured the Compagnie Tour de Babel, and included dance, instrumental music and song. This is the first open-air, artistic performance held at the Desert de Retz since the days of Monsieur de Monville, more than 200 years ago.
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April 15, 2010.
The eight members of the Board of Directors of Le Désert de Retz Jardin des Lumières met in the Column House at the Desert de Retz to discuss the objectives of the association for the coming year. Topics included expositions, visits and communications. Ronald Kenyon, Webmaster of the Racine de Monville Home Page, is honored to be the only non-Camboricien member of the Board. The goals of the association are to schedule and conduct visits to the Desert, participate in restoration efforts and commercialize products related to the Desert de Retz.
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March 11, 2010.
Prisoners of the Sun is the second in the “Erudition Concrète” series of exhibitions proposed by Guillaume Desanges at the Le Plateau, exploring the links between art and knowledge in contemporary practice. Through a special production by the American artist, Corey McCorkle, Prisoners of the Sun explores the sensory, utopian, and political reach of architecture.
Having trained as an architect, McCorkle develops his work by linking modernism, functionalism and ornamentation with a particular interest for deserted structures, evoking traces of a failed utopia and the temporal interference that certain monuments suggest.
The focus of Corey McCorkle’s project is the Désert de Retz in the town of Chambourcy. This unique and unlikely place has provided inspiration for a number of artistic creations (by Colette, Jacques Prévert, Abel Gance, the Surrealists). Here the artist has developed a totally new work integrating film and sculpture, to show for the first time at the Plateau.
Dates of the exposition: March 11-May 9, 2010
More information in English and French from ArtSlant.
Review in English,
An Enlightened Gothic Mix-Up at Le Plateau.
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February 25, 2010.
An article by Alain Guyot in the French daily Ouest France,
Le Desert de Retz est un jardin extraordinaire, discusses the history and reopening of the Desert de Retz. The article repeats the error that originally appeared in the Libération Magazine article of January 23, 2010, implying that the Desert de Retz was "rescued" deux ex machina in a surprise visit by then-President François Mitterrand. President Mitterrand's visit, in fact, lent support to the two co-owners in thier litigation against the adjacent golf course.
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February 22, 2010.
In a long article in French entitled Le golf, le maire et le Désert de Retz, and published in
La Tribune de l'Art,
Didier Rykner details the convoluted recent history of the Desert de Retz. Rykner places particular emphasis on the legal wrangling that has extended over the last several decades, culminating with a new court case brought by the two previous co-owners. Illustrated with numerous photographs and footnoted.
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February 22, 2010.
Dans un article paru le 22 fevrier au Monde,
Imbroglio sans fin pour un site magique, le Désert de Retz, Michel Guerrin ecrit, "Au Tribunal de Grande Instance de Versailles, les anciens propriétaires demandent la nullité de la vente de leur bien à un golf." Voir un autre article paru le même jour, La belle opération de communication du maire.
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February 22, 2010.
Photographer Emmanuelle Gabory published a series of color and monochrome photographs of the Desert de Retz on her blog, Lieu(x), Temps et Interstice(s).
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January 23, 2010.
Vincent Noce has written a two-page article in French about the Desert de Retz entitled Le Réveil du Bois Dormant in Libération Magazine for the weekend of January 23-24, 2010. The article,accompanied by two photographs by Philippe Grunchec, reviews the history and reopening of the garden and discusses the life of Monsieur de Monville. The author mentions Monville's project to install a system of voice tubes--the acoustic telegraph--to communicate with his employees in nearby St.-Nom-la-Bretèche [See the entry for the year 1783 in the Chronology.]
The article incorrectly implies that the Desert de Retz was "rescued" by then-President François Mitterrand who "landed in a helicopter at the Desert de Retz in 1990 on the spur of the moment." In fact, President Mitterrand visited the Desert de Retz on July 20, 1990, upon the personal invitation of the two co-owners, Olivier Choppin de Janvry and Jean-Marc Heftler-Louiche, who had undertaken an extensive and costly restoration of the Desert de Retz starting in 1986.
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January 1, 2010.
Read a thoughtful essay by Will Viney, The Romantic Ruin, from the Winter 2009 issue of Precipitate. The first part discusses the interest in ruins from a historical perspective, and the second part focuses specifically on the Desert de Retz. This is the longer version of the article referenced below.
Consult the Racine de Monville Home Page News Log Archive for entries dating from June 1999 through the end of 2009.
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This page revised January 1, 2012.
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