One of the pleasures of living in this little neighbourhood here (whether it’s called “Centre Sud” or “Les Faubourgs” –I’m really not so sure) is the now annual urban art event L`Écho d’un Fleuve, taking place on rue Dufresne, just below my front door here on Rouen. Who’d have thought there were so many artists living here? But it is that kind of area, even though it’s changed over the 20 years I’ve lived in this little apartment I love so much.
Not much else to say, except to present snaps, sketches, and video I took over the weekend. Didn’t get everyone’s name, and not so happy typing all of this French, what with accents, and all, but I’ll give it a go.
Friday night was an evening ghost tour, in search of Marguerite-Ida, a woman who vanished in this area during the 1930s. With neighbours and their kids, we tramped past installations, and even into people’s apartments, as below:
Since this was taking place at night, things were appropriately spooky. But then, even I’ve got tales to tell about murders and shady dealings in this low-rent area!
Shot some video, too. Sometimes it’s hard to see, because it was dark out, and it was only my pocket camera, but there is the sound.
This was a great performance, but I can’t quite find out the names of the performers. Happened a couple of blocks away from here.
The next day saw rue Dufresne blocked off, and lots of art events happening. Here’s gumboot dancing, and a robot man.
My other shots I’m presenting as a slideshow. But, you can click on it, and get what info I could scrounge up.
It was a fun time. I didn’t do a lot of painting, except for the view that heads up this piece, and the page of sketches of cool types below.
A cute little girl was watching me paint that. So, I let her have a go with the paints, and she made the pretty little drawing below. She was about 9 or 10 years old, but kept a perfect point on my Chinese brush. So, I’m expecting great things from her in later years. Let her keep the drawing, of course, after I snapped it.
In all, a very pleasant weekend.
Tags: colour, men, montreal, photos, ruttan's place, sketches, visual art, watercolour, women
Great post, Jack! Wish I had been there.
Hi Jack – awesome review and now I am sad to have missed the 8pm walk-through events. I was only able to attend the Fetes on Saturday and I am going to do a review soon this week (photos and maybe a video). Would be great if I could borrow a couple of your photos and link back to this blog. I’ll email you soon to discuss!
Oh and my nerdy neighbourhood answer: Centre-Sud is still the widely used term that includes everything from St-Denis to the CP train tracks (basically the Village + our area). Les Faubourgs is a new trend that I just don’t think will last long. But you live in the micro-neighbourhood of Sainte-Marie according to the city (Centre-Sud is made up of St-Jacques/Village and Sainte-Marie).