The tour that we took usually ended in Nice, on the Côte d’Azur. Ours was changed to terminate in Toulouse in order to avoid the throngs in Nice for the Tour de France bicycle race. The substitution was fortuitous, as Toulouse had a wealth of unique attractions. One of these was the Bemberg Foundation. I credit HL with having done the research that led us to the secluded museum on our last afternoon in the Rose Pink City.
Georges Bemberg was a Parisian art collector with a peculiar passion for the works of Pierre Bonnard. Bemberg was born in Argentina in 1911, and began purchasing Impressionist pieces while he was still a university student. I do not know the source nor size of his fortune, only that it enabled Bemberg to amass artworks from the medieval through the modern period, in addition to his beloved Bonnards. His became one of the largest private collections in Europe. In collaboration with the city of Toulouse, Bemberg established the Fondation Musee Bemberg in the Hotel d’Assezat, a Renaissance palace near the Garonne riverside.
The Fondation Bemberg was housed in the grand Hôtel d’Assezat.
Every locker in the museum's entryway bore the name of a painter who was represented in the collection.
Henri Le Sidaner painted La Table de la Mer (The Sea’s Table) in 1920.
I must admit that Bonnard is one of my least favorite post-Impressionist painters. As Bemberg had at least 30 Bonnard canvases, I had ample opportunity to revise my assessment. I did not see anything, however, that caused me to alter my opinion. The rest of the Bemberg collection was far more to my liking. I was astonished by its range and quality, with fine pieces from Cranach to Modigliani. And I shall be forever grateful to Bemberg for introducing me to the art of Henri Le Sidaner, an early 20th Century painter. Like Bonnard and Vuillard, he was an Intimist, one of a school of artists who specialized in depicting domestic interiors.
This is the river boat that took us on The Garonne for a tour of Toulouse’s harbor.
Our itinerary initially had included a ride on the Seine in Paris in one of the traditional bateaux mouche pleasure boats, but that was cancelled owing to pre-Olympics security measures. In compensation, the tour directors arranged for our group to have a boat ride on the Garonne. There we had a last look at Toulouse, a city well worth the traveler’s attention.
These macarons were one of the myriad treats tempting passersby to enter French bakeries.
Early the next morning, well before dawn, we boarded our return flight at the Toulouse airport. I sank swiftly into dreams of the South of France, land of lavender and violets, and the source of my newest memories.
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