Lost in Provence

Yes, I Can!

House with newly painted shutters

I love this time of year. Not the holidays, per se, but this week after Christmas and before New Year's Eve, when I use the brief respite from eating and drinking myself silly to work on my resolutions for the new year. Some people find resolutions tedious and morally crushing, but I love the hopefulness of resolving to change. Come on, who doesn't love hope and change? Oh. Right. I'll let you make your own joke about red states here.

But seriously, you know what I mean. A little self-reflection and planning for the future is fun, especially when the good behavior isn't scheduled to begin yet and you can do your planning while consuming a plateful of Pepperidge Farm and a large gin and tonic. So as I bite into another Sausalito, I'm looking back on last year's resolutions and seeing how I did...

Stop drinking Diet Coke.
I totally did this! I cut Diet Coke out completely, which is good, because the stuff is so bad for you it's essentially liquid poison. However, in 2008 I also started drinking sugar-free Red Bull, which is just as toxic but even more delicious. So I'm calling this one a wash.

Mmmm... Vegan.

Support pet charities.
What I intended to do was donate time and money to my three fave causes, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and SOS Children's Villages. What I actually did was bookmark each of their websites in the "My Favorites" folder of my web browser. Sorry, guys.

Go vegan and alcohol-free for the month of January.
We did this and liked it so much that we plan to do it again. We're also cutting out sugar and caffeine. So long, Red Bull. We had a good run.

Improve French.
This one is perennially on my list and will appear again on this year's list. But since I improve my French with every day that I live here, I'm still going to count it as a win. So yes, I'm going to hang a big "Mission Accomplished" sign on it and then, when no one's looking, I'll quietly take the sign down and keep working on it. I can do that! It's my list! I am the decider! Sorry, I don't know what happened there. Moving on...

Johann with new olive trees

Go to yoga class in the village.
Um... Maybe I should have been more specific with this goal. I mean, I DID GO to the yoga class in the village, but after discovering that the class started really early in the morning, it was hard to find a place to park and I was distracted by my hatred for the smell of yoga mats (they smell like getting smacked with dodgeballs), I stopped going and just did yoga at home by myself. This year I will suck it up and go anyway. But I'm going to bring my own mat from home and clean it with lavender-scented soap.

Lose weight and get in beach-ready shape.
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!! Beach-ready? Oh Lisa, you crack me up. Pass the Pepperidge Farm.

Clean out closet and donate unneeded clothing and shoes.
What? Has someone been messing with my list? "Unneeded shoes?" That doesn't sound like something I would write. But seriously, I did this and still don't have enough room for all my shoes. So more work needs to be done. I think I'll give myself about a C+ on this one.

New terrace

Calculate carbon footprint and plant appropriate number of trees to offset the damage.
We actually did this, for the second year in a row, now. And we have a whole grove of olive trees in front of the house as proof. Want to do the same? Click here.

So, there you have the highlights of last year's resolutions. But lest you think that I don't seem to take them very seriously, rest assured that there are plenty of little things on my list that were accomplished easily, like composting, going to the opera at the Roman ampitheater in Orange, doing more hiking, having the shutters painted, finishing our outdoor terrace and sending Christmas cards out on time. So I'm making progress... Really! And now onto this year's list...

Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier's Unité d'Humanité

After five years of living in the South of France, we finally made plans to see the Le Corbusier building located in Marseille. In case you're not familiar with his work, I'll save you the trouble of going to the Wikipedia page:

"Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, who chose to be known as Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965), was a Swiss-born architect, designer, urbanist, writer and also painter, who is famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called Modern architecture or the International Style. In his 30s he became a French citizen.

He was a pioneer in studies of modern high design and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities. His career spanned five decades, with his buildings constructed throughout central Europe, India, Russia, and one each in North and South America. He was also an urban planner, painter, sculptor, writer, and modern furniture designer."

From the front, not its best angle

With that said, I should note that this was the first Le Corbusier building I have seen in person and I was... I guess you could call it "underwhelmed." I feel sort of badly about this, since they say that if you're the sort of person who doesn't like Le Corbusier, it means that you're the sort of person who just doesn't get it. But on the other hand, that's a terribly condescending sentiment, and to be honest, I resent being told that if I don't agree with you, it must be because I'm a moron. Just because I don't like it, that doesn't mean I don't understand it.

Le Corbusier's Unité d'Humanité

But if you're going to argue that I don't get it, then fine. Guilty. I DON'T get it. At least, not when it comes to this particular structure, which is an apartment building, but looks like a factory that manufactures cement blocks and has cleverly managed to assemble itself. And then there's the human element to consider. All art is about humanness, but I would argue that this is particularly true for architecture, since you can't live inside the Mona Lisa. And when I contemplate the living participants in this art project, my vision is bleak. I picture them sitting at their kitchen tables, staring at vast, windowless expanses of wall while writing out enormous rent checks, their only respite being the time they spend standing on their tiny balconies staring at the long, boring shadow their building casts upon its neighbors.

The Open Hand Monument

Now, please don't think that I have anything against Le Corbusier in general, it's just that this building doesn't do it for me. I've seen photos of much of his other work and firmly believe that if he had put half as much creativity into this Marseille apartment building as he did into his Open Hand Monument in India or the Saddam Hussein Gymnasium (no kidding) in Iraq, we might have something, here.

But apparently, he drew his inspiration for this design from a Soviet Communal housing project called the Narkomfin Building. And man, oh, man, if you think the Marseille building is grim, you should get a load of this freakin' thing. I picture tragic grey office workers, near-drained of their will to live, filing into this building in a "Joe vs. The Volcano" sort of way and spending their days processing driver's license renewal requests from inmates of a nearby gulag. So, I guess, when you look at it that way, Marseille's Unité d'Habitation isn't so bad. In fact, in this context, it's downright cheerful.

Touché, Le Corbusier. Touché.