Meeting Bench

TESTAMENT IN PRAGUE – Teresa Pàmies / An alive witness of the Spanish Civil war, and the Republican’s exile.

The spring of Prague, a sign and a dream. It is located by the river Segre, a tributary to the Ebre. Balaguer is in Catalonia. The town has a Gothic bridge over the Segre river, destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in the battle of “Cap de Pont”, rebuilt after the war. Another Gothic building is the Santa Maria Church, …

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SING TO LIBERTY – José Antonio Labordeta / The singer-songwriter who used concerts to express what censorship impeded in print and television.

Songwriter, but poetry was a passion all his life. Its San Pedro Cathedral, is of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in Spain. Jaca, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BCd0BlF6pc the city with it’s stone walls, buildings and cobblestone streets it was the capital of Aragon until 1097. The surrounding mountains provide you a reflection of the extraordinary landscape of the Pyrenees. Dont forget: is …

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ANGELES SANTOS TORROELLA (1911/2013), SPANISCH PAINTER – Catalan artist whose first masterpieces later gave way to a more conventional style.

A creativity in the balance between originality and conventionality. In Costa Brava, Portbou http://www.catalonia-valencia.com/portbou-travel-guide.html is a town with a special seafaring tradition. Its peculiar location turned this town into one of the main points of access into Spain. Its fishing port sits on a sunny coastal valley. Its historic quarter is surrounded by coastal hills and slopes covered with vegetation. …

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MARIA BLANCHARD (1881/1932), SPANISH CUBIST PAINTER – Discovering Cubism, influenced by artists like Juan Gris.

Painting images extremely expressive and sometimes, even intimidating. In Santander, most of the 1,200 objects on display in Flavióbriga Museum date from the period between the Upper Palaeolithic and the Iron Age (but you can admire also items from the Roman era, mostly from Julióbriga and Castro Urdiales (the ancient Flavióbriga). Over 3,000 square metres, it aims to show the …

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THE SOLO GUITARIST WHO BEGAN PERFORMING AS A BOY – Sabicas / The man that brought his art to concert halls and theaters.

Playing guitar at the age of five, performing debut two years later. It’s walls have a perimeter of 5 kilometres, which an evocative walk around the city, one of the most interesting and best conserved fortifications in Spain. You’re in Navarre, on the fertile Spanish plain of the river Arga sits Pamplona, a city full of history and deep-rooted traditions …

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SIX HOURS OF TRAVEL AND FIVE SPECIAL PLACES TO KNOW ABOUT – Author’s travel in France, from the Manuar Henri IV of Bessines-sur-Gartempe to the Château de Sable restaurant of Porspoder.

408 miles of French creativity, together with two painters and a poet, a writer and a singer-songwriter. The painter Suzanne Valadon was born in this village in 1865. Bessines-sur-Gartempe is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department (Nouvelle-Aquitaine, western France). Obviously, your “author’sjourney ” needs to host you in a 16th century palace, the Manoir Henri IV http://www.henri4-hotel-restaurant.fr/manor-henry-iv.html The hotel’s restaurant …

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THE ATLANTIC FRANCE IN 20 PICTURES – Five unmissable places where the French creativity continues to be born.

Bessines-sur-Gartempe e Poitiers, Nantes, Quimper e Argenton-en-Landunvez. Traveling Frence, never forget that the creativity of the inhabitants of an terrestrial latitude and longitude it’swrapped in flavors, smells and atmospheres, books and poems, songs and paintings. Everything is useful to tune emotionally to culture. That’s why, when you decide to visit this land, you should also know the fruits of the …

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BRETON SONG – Max Jacob / A man that felt the sting of anti-Semitism, as a child.

The professional of prose poetry. Not far from Brittany’s far western point, where a poet was born who knew many forms of modernist art, Quimper is a historic city permeated with this region’s identity. Every few steps, here there’s a crêperie to tempt you http://alafoliecafe.com/about-us/. Its old town has medieval timber-framed houses (always with typical Breton granite at the base). …

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THE CONFIDENT – Helene Gremillon / A woman destined very young to literature.

When a letter arrives every Tuesday, with the sequel to a gripping story. Here was born the writer of a well-known novel translated into twenty languages. City Centre Has a small square which is surrounded by cafes, where you can sit down with a glass of wine or coffee. Its “Macaroons from Montmorillon” (a local speciality delicious with a coffee …

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SUZANNE VALADON (1865/1938), FRENCH PAINTER – To become model for Toulouse-Lautrec, after the birth of a son.

Taught herself, thereby formed a style all her own. The painter Suzanne Valadon was born in this village in 1865. Bessines-sur-Gartempe is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department (Nouvelle-Aquitaine, western France). Obviously, your “author’sjourney ” needs to host you in a 16th century palace, the Manoir Henri IV http://www.henri4-hotel-restaurant.fr/manor-henry-iv.html The hotel’s restaurant will propose you traditional French dishes. In Paris, …

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