Ballet Summer Tour

Here's a tip for my readers in Finland: the Finnish National Ballet is going on a summer tour!

I saw their evening show last Friday in Oulu and I have to say, it was fabulous - there were excerpts of classical ballets and original choreographies and an excellent surprise at the end of the show! The tickets to the evening show cost us only 10 euros per person and I think it was probably the best value I've ever got for that amount of money. Absolutely delightful!

The evening shows are now over, but the dancers continue their summer tour with free shows in 6 different cities. Here's when and where:

Wednesday 3.6. 18:00  Vaasa
Thursday 4.6. 18:00 Turku

Friday 5.6. 18:00 Tampere
Monday 8.6. 18:00 Lahti
Tuesday 9.6. 18:00 Jyväskylä

Wednesday 10.6. 20:00 Kuopio

Enjoy!

Deauville & Trouville

Here's the second part of the post I promised! 

While visiting the coast of Normandy, our next stop brought us to Trouville-sur-Mer, the favourite place of the French aristocracy before the first WW and still a popular destination today, especially among the Parisians. Once a fisherman village, nowadays a tourist attraction... Fortunately Trouville hasn't lost all of its charm, especially if you fancy a long seaside walk and beautiful villas. You can find a short history of Trouville here.

The fishermen used to live in small colourful houses...

...while the upper class enjoyed beautiful hotels and villas.

The signs lead to the famous seaside walk, les Planches.

The villas are impressive indeed.

Trouville Palace, built in 1910.

After an ice-cream and a long walk along the beach, we decided to have a look at our third destination for the day, Deauville. Trouville borders Deauville, so we simply drove across the bridge and we were already there. Deauville is probably the best known seaside resort in Normandy and most certainly one of the most famous ones in all of France. Nicknamed the Parisian Riviera - a very popular destination among the high society - it houses a Grand Casino, a horse race course, luxurious hotels and villas... And the Deauville American Film Festival, bringing there loads of international movie stars every year.

The enormous Hôtel Royal...

...and Normandy Barrière, a 5-star seaside hotel and its gardens.

The Deauville beach in the evening.

Each of the beach closets is dedicated to an actor.

Promenade des Planches, dating from 1923.

I have to say I preferred Trouville to Deauville which, with its overly luxurious feel, big roads and lack of authenticity, left me rather unimpressed. However, if you're in the neighbourhood, both of them do deserve a visit - just don't go there in the middle of the summer season...!

       

Honfleur en fleur

The harbour area in Honfleur.

I'm back in Oulu where the temperature is about + 5 C and the sky is grey and cloudy and rainy and the North wind is blowing... I must say that the eight kilometres to the university (by bike) did feel a bit long this Friday morning and there really isn't that much to blog about a soaked knit cap and mittens.

But earlier this week, while I was back in France and enjoying my day off before heading back to Finland, I got a chance to visit some of the most famous coastal towns in Normandy. So here's the destination number one: Honfleur! 

 

Immortalised by many Impressionist painters, like Monet or Boudin, Honfleur, situated on the Southern estuary of the Seine, across from Le Havre, is best known for its beautiful old harbour, but there is a lot more to see and visit: the Church of Sainte-Catherine, Boudin Museum, Maisons Satie...  And if you fancy a little stroll, you can always climb up the little hill behind the old town where you can enjoy a nice view to the harbour. 

The Church of Saint-Léonard

 

 

 

The famous wooden church tower of Sainte-Catherine.

Norman style houses. Honfleur is one of the few towns in Normandy to have escaped damage during the Second World War.

 

Once a favourite place for many a painter, Honfleur still boasts an impressive number of art galleries.

May in France is beautiful: there are flowers everywhere!

Next stop: Trouville & Deauville!

The creation of the world by Sibelius

Sauna, sisu and Sibelius. The three things we Finns are known for. Sauna (pronounced [ˈsɑunɑ] in Finnish) is a classic of course and some of my ex-boyfriends might call Finnish sisu as plain stubbornness. Jean Sibelius, on the other hand, is without a doubt one of our greatest and most famous composers, especially known for his seven symphonies, Finlandia and Valse triste.

There are, however, some pieces of his work that are less well known -  even to us Finns. I recently discovered one of those rarely heard gems, a piece called Luonnotar. It's a tone-poem for soprano and orchestra, composed by Sibelius in 1913. The work is based on Kalevala, our national epic, and it recounts the creation myth: Luonnotar, the Daughter of the Ether, tired of wandering alone in the space, descends to the sea where she swims for 700 years. Then a seabird, looking for a place to nest, lands on her knee and starts hatching eggs. Feeling the heat on her knee, Luonnotar shakes her limbs, making the nest and the eggs fall into the sea, breaking into pieces. These pieces then turn into the heavens, the moon and the stars in the sky. 

The tone poem is an absolute delight to listen to. There is something very primeval and organic, mysterious and visionary about it. The work was first performed by a great Finnish soprano, Aino Ackté, and it has acquired a reputation as being an extremely challenging song to sing, with its wide range and different leaps and drops. See for yourself: here it is performed by another great Finnish lyric soprano, Helena Juntunen.