A Postcard A Day - Friday 9 September 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

This is the last scheduled blogpost as we are on a ferry between England and Spain. We left Portsmouth yesterday at 19:30 and will arrive at Bilbao at 8 o'clock in the morning of Saturday. That is a two night voyage. Normally it is one night and a day but this time they have a change of crew in France so we have two nights on the ship. We don't mind. We have a nice cabin with a window. We'll do lots of reading as there is no Internet on sea (for emergencies there is expensive satellite communication).

Today is Friday, so I'm going to link up with the ladies at Annie's A Stitch In Time where we share our smiles and positive things from the week.

I will too as we have had a lot to smile about, but first let me show you my postcard for today. This scene makes me smile every time I see it:

This is such a happy scene! Of course it is the famous painting by Auguste Renoir, entitled The Luncheon of the Boating Party.

Luncheon of the Boating Party is also known as Le déjeuner des canotiers and it was produced at the height of Renoir´s Impressionist career, in 1881. Luncheon of the Boating Party is one of Renoir´s final works depicting a sociable scene from his early life.

Here is a better picture:

Luncheon of the Boating Party shows a group of Renoir´s friends relaxing and enjoying food, drinks and good conversation on a balcony at the Maison Fournaise in Chatou, France. Renoir often included close friends is his paintings and in this canvas he also includes his future wife, Aline Charigot, who can be seen in the left foreground playing with a small dog.

It seems that Renoir portrays his feelings for Aline by separating her from the others and she is the only cast member who does not engage in conversation or flirting but instead directs all of her attention at her dog. Renoir also reinforces Aline´s status in the painting by using brighter colors for some items of clothing.

The owner's son, Alphonse Fornaise Jr is seen in the foreground leaning on the balustrade and his sister, Alphonsine Fornaise is resting het elbows on the railing a bit further into the picture. 

In terms of other attendees, in the right foreground of the paintings wearing a straw hat is Gustave Caillebotte, one of Renoir's wealthier customers. 

The restaurant is called Maison Fournaise in Chatou, France and it still exists and is now a museum.

In 1857, Alphonse Fournaise bought land in Chatou to open a boat rental, restaurant, and small hotel for the new tourist trade.

Closed in 1906, the Maison Fournaise remained abandoned before being restored in 1990 on the initiative of the town of Chatou, with the assistance of American private funds from the Friends of French Art.

This restaurant was meeting place of financial persons, politicians and painters of nearby places. That time Impressionist artist liked this restaurant because it was present near river, at this location reflection of sunshine on river's water was a pleasant site, open place and natural air.

The building  on the right (in the above photo) is probably where the lunch scene took place:

The postcard was sent to me by someone in Japan. The stamp is simple. It looks like a poinsettia.

I will try to add some pictures from our stay in 'Blighty'.

We went to church on Sunday and got talking to a couple who then invited us a few days later for cream tea:

We have had a lot of rain and the last five days of our holiday we spent on a campsite in Devon in our caravan ( we store it there and our eldest uses it occasionally with the children). In between the showers and the torrential rains, hubby managed to clean the outside of the caravan and put on a special winter protection product. 

This sort of says it all. But we had a good rest after three sets of grandchildren and we’ve read books and just relaxed.

 And I also add some funnies at the end.

Have a lovely weekend, and... keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca

Guess what these are...

The eyes of different types of spiders! I never knew, but then, I don't like to get up close to them!