The Lady of Vix and Her Treasure

The star attraction of the museum at Chatillon sur Seine, in Burgundy, where we had such a great time recently, is the collection of archaeological finds from a hilltop at the nearby hamlet of Vix. Around 465 BCE a woman was buried on the site, laid out on a four wheeled open wagon and surrounded by unimaginable treasures made of metal. Her gold torc was stolen exactly a month before we got there, but the most outstanding piece, a huge bronze krater used for mixing wine and water, is totally worth the visit.

The Vix Krater.

The hilltop settlement at Vix is strategically positioned to overlook the valley of the upper Seine. It was a staging post for shipments of tin coming from Britain and being sent to Italy and the community here could control a wide territory. The Celtic culture in the 5th and 6th centuries BCE at Vix appears to have been matriarchal, and in possession of immense wealth from the collection of taxes related to the tin trade passing through their territory.

Detail of the Vix krater.

A local farmer and keen amateur archaeologist noticed a slight anomaly on the lower slopes of the hillside at Vix in 1953. He told another local self taught archaeologist and the latter began excavations. Although he recorded each object found he did not always record in what position those artefacts were discovered.

Detail of the Vix krater.

The tomb was dug into the earth, creating a chamber of 4 x 4 metres. It had been covered with a 6 metre high, 40 metre diameter tumulus, but this had more or less disappeared by the time of the dig. A skeleton of an approximately 30 year old woman was found laid out on a four wheeled parade wagon with bronze fittings. Numerous jewels, bracelets, torcs, and bronze fibulae brooches were associated with the deceased. As a consequence the finds became known as the Treasure of Vix.

Reconstructed wheel of the vehicle the Lady was laid out on, with the original bronze elements in place.

The French State Archaeology Agency (INRAP) conducted a dig in 2019 designed to contextualise the previous amateur dig of nearly 70 years ago. The head of INRAP likened the situation to being a bit like if you opened a book and kept the pictures but no longer have the text which went with them. This new dig has recovered missing fragments of the krater which completes the frieze of warriors.

The bronze elements of the parade wagon the Lady of Vix was laid out on.

The krater is the largest metal vessel from classical antiquity in the world. It was made in Greek workshops based in the south of Italy around 535 BCE, and probably shipped to France in seven main pieces to be put together once it arrived in Burgundy. Its dimensions are exceptional -- 1.64 metres high (that's the same height as me!), weighing 208 kilograms and having a capacity of 1100 litres. The decoration features gorgons as volute handles, a lid, and a frieze of horses, chariots and hoplites (soldiers) around the neck. It is masterpiece of antique bronze working.

View of the upper Seine valley from the archaeological site on the hill at Vix.

This was absolutely the highlight of our recent trip and it was on the first day of travel!!

Road Noise

Electric vehicles were supposed to make the world quieter. However, what they've done is expose a noise problem that's been hiding in plain sight: as engine noise fades away, rumble of tyres on asphalt becomes the dominant sound on the road.

The problem is a measurement gap. Current vehicle noise approval tests happen on a single, specially prepared stretch of asphalt under tightly controlled conditions but real roads are nothing like the test track. They're messy, a mix of surfaces with expansion joints and potholes. That mismatch means regulators and manufacturers don't have any data on how vehicles actually sound in everyday driving, even as noise limits keep tightening.

Because of this there's a project called**TyRoN (Tyre Road Noise)**, a research project led by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in partnership with RWTH Aachen University's Chair and Institute of Highway Engineering, along with the Federal Highway Research Institute, Continental, and several major carmakers.

We encountered the cars being used for the research outside our hotel in the Moselle area. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of the Porsche they were using, which was possibly the most beat up and still road legal electric car I have ever seen. It was properly ugly, especially with all the sensors Gaffa taped to it. This Audi is no beauty queen either.

The project runs from October 2023 to September 2026, so we were lucky to see them in action.

Kiki de Montparnasse

Recently we visited the museum in Chatillon-sur-Seine in Burgundy. The temporary exhibition was about Kiki de Montparnasse (birth name Alice Prin). She was born in the town and lived there as a child. The exhibition was outstanding, a real credit to the museum. It evoked Kiki's time and place exceptionally well, with photographs, posters, paintings, a recreated Parisian cafe and several fascinating videos (one of interviews with people who knew her, one a wonderfully quirky animated biography - trailer is here).

Posters from Kiki's time.

Her mother was 19 and unmarried when Kiki was born in 1901. Her childhood was spent in poverty with her grandmother and it was not until she was 13 that she went to join her mother in Paris. Once Kiki had finished school at the age of 13 she was apprenticed to her mother, who was a linotype operator. This didn't last very long and she worked successively as a bookbinder, florist, bottlewasher and wielding a screwdriver manufacturing aeroplane wings. In 1917 she got a job working in a bakery. When she stood up for herself against her violent and bullying boss she was sacked.

Portraits of Kiki by Maurice Mendjizki.

Thus began her best known career, as a nude artists model. She wasn't entirely comfortable with it at first, and it caused a permanent rift with her mother, but it was a way she could put food on the table and be independent. She developed a close circle of friends, most of whom were artists and she blossomed into a marvellously self-assured and determinedly individualistic personality. One of those who supported her from very early on in this period of her life was the Belarusian painter Chaim Soutine (who has a connection to Champigny-sur-Veude, which is not far from where we live).

Posters from Kiki's time.

In 1918 she and the Polish painter Maurice Mendjizki* became lovers and she moved in with him. In the 1920s she posed for the Italian artist Modigliani and the Japanese artist Fujita. She was part of a group of creatives who were at their peak between the Wars. Her appearance was distinctive, with red painted lips, hair cut into a square bob, and copious kohl around her eyes. Her eyeshadow changed colour to match her dress and she shaved her eyebrows so she could redraw them in colours to suit her mood and outfit.

Kiki's portrait of Chaim Soutine.

In 1921 she and the American photographer Man Ray became a couple and she was his preferred model. He described her as 'irreproachable, from head to toe', and created the famous Violon d'Ingres image of her. Amongst their circle of friends were Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, Max Ernst, Ernest Hemmingway and Vaslav Nijinski. She herself became a portraitist and regularly exhibited.

In 1929 she became the mistress of the editor of Paris-Montparnasse magazine, Henri Broca, and wrote her memoirs. The book was banned in the United States, despite her excellent connections with influential Americans.

Le Violon d'Ingres by Man Ray, a photograph of Kiki's naked back, which has been developed with cutouts of violin f holes transforming her into the instrument.

By 1930 she was making her living as a singer in night clubs. There are those who say she was the only rival Edith Piaf was afraid of. But by this time she was drinking heavily and eating badly. Although she maintained a successful singing career throughout the decade her health was beginning to be compromised. When the Second World War broke out she fled Paris. On her return she was unrecognisable, a travesty of her former stylish self, overweight and wearing too much makeup. She died of complications from substance abuse in 1953.

It seems to me that she is the epitome of the dazzling star who burned bright then crashed to Earth. She was charismatic and much loved in her prime. Her friends really cared about her until the end. Having come from grinding rural poverty she had the strength and self belief to make a life for herself on her own terms and her use of makeup and fashion were the beginnings of a more general practice of adornment and self expression by women for decades. Her influence is much more widespread than people realise, and today she is all but forgotten.

*Mendjizki, who was Jewish, later married someone else and subsequently lost almost his entire family in the Holocaust. One of his sons was shot by the Nazis, but his other son lived until 2017, renowned as the youngest ever member of the French Resistance.

Autumn Lady's Tresses

Autumn Lady's Tresses Spiranthes spiralis (Fr. Spiranthe d'automne) is a species of orchid. The scientific name translates as 'spiral flowered spiral'. Fair enough...

There are around 40 species of Spiranthes around the world, of which four are found in Europe. Most of them are native to the Americas, but there are a few in Australasia too.

Autumn Lady's Tresses grow on chalk and calcareous soil in open dry habitats. Typically you would find it in abandoned unimproved pasture, grassy slopes, stable former terraces on calcareous land, roadsides, old lawns (especially those that also host a wide range of fungi such as Hygrocybes), and lawn cemeteries. Although it generally prefers open areas, it can also be found on the edges of woodlands, like the ones in these photos. 

This species is widespread in France but uncommon and localised. It flowers at the end of the growing season and this may limit how far north its distribution extends and at what altitude it can be found, as snow will inhibit the germination of seeds.

Because of its small size (at most 20 cm high) and discreet colouration it is often overlooked. If you do spot it though it is easy enough to identify, because of the distinctive spiral arrangement of the flowers. The leaves and the flowers appear at the same time, in late August and early September. A rosette of four or five leaves will be formed, and the flower stalk will appear from just beside the leaves (not from the middle of the rosette). The spiral of flowers can be clockwise or anticlockwise.

 

Ingrid aims her big lens at a tiny orchid.

The tiny flowers, if you can get down that far, are sweetly scented and provide nectar to attract diurnal insects. The visitor in my and Ingrid's photos is a Great Banded Furrow Bee Halictus scabiosae (Fr. Halicte de la scabieuse), easy to identify because of its two tone yellow abdominal bands. The white flowers of the orchid are only 5 mm in length and surrounded by bracts covered in dewy hairlike glands. 

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

Like most orchids it has a strong symbiotic association with a mycorhizal fungus for exchange of nutrients.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

These photos were taken last year in the commune of Bossay sur Claise.

Why was it a Surprise German Holiday?

If you were paying attention, you'll have noticed we went to Germany last week.

It was all because my cousin Linda was doing a lecture on her genealogical research entitled "Did my Great Grandfather Live Next Door?" The research was impressive, the fact that the lecture was delivered in what I was assured was perfectly understandable German was just as impressive.

Linda rehearsing her speech and PowerPoint presentation 

Because we don't speak German, we were given a printed version in english by her husband, Philip. It made following the action far easier for us non German speakers.

And why was it a surprise German Holiday? Until two weeks beforehand we weren't totally sure we were going, and once we were sure we decided not to let Linda know. The plan was for my brother to join us from London, and for us to appear with our Australian flag to surprise her. Much to my disappointment Linda realised something was up, so our plan was foiled at the last moment, but here we are with the flag anyway, making ourselves evident.

It was a great success, with more attendees than was expected (cue panicked setting out of extra seats) and an appreciative audience that laughed in all the right places. At the end of her speech Linda listed some of the surnames that occur on our family tree, and afterwards various members of the audience introduced themselves as distant - and previously unknown - cousins. Amazing!

Surprise German Holiday Day 10

We spent last night in Luzy, on the edge of the Morvan, a town you've never heard of. Which is a pity, because they have a very rare thing : a set of early 18th century Aubusson tapestries in their original location.

Then we set off home, only to see a brown sign pointing towards the Ternant Triptychs. It was a 15km diversion well worth taking!

And THEN we set off home, stopping only for a picnic.