June 4: Beaux Arts & The Sixtus of Westvleteren

It's amazing how stupid a foreign metro station can make you feel. Regardless I made it to the Parc du Cinqantenaire for a self-guided Art Nouveau walk, and headed to the Musée Royal des Beaux Arts, where I saw THIS!!!:

The Death of Marat, by Jaque-Louis David, 1793

In real life Charlotte Corday left her knife in his chest, not on the floor.

Also, I was excited to learn about two connections that are favs of mine:

Carravagio. This is "The Entombment of  Christ"

Pietá, Michaelangelo 

Next up I took my first ride on Bri's seafoam green VESPA to the Cauchie House!  Imagine this as your second floor porch.

Brussels calls itself "The Capitol of Art Nouveau".

I learned another iteration of what I only knew as Italian "sgraffito", which is Art Nouveau sgraffito/i.  

All the stuff on this building made by laying a layer of light mortar over a layer of dark mortar, and then scratching the design through the light mortar when it is a just the perfect wetness. Then you paint it.

Cauchi surrounded the living room with sgraffito, one panel for each of the five senses. I wish my living room was this sexy...

And finally, my favorite Beer of the Day:

Westvleteren Blonde!  From the trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren, Belgium, founded 1838. They only brew 60,000 cases total of their three beers a year, as they have since 1946. You have to call their "beerphone", which is endlessly busy, to reseve a case.  One of my jobs at Casa Warner is to try to make calls to the beerphone to secure a case of Westvleteren #12.  Today we took our two bottles with a picnic and a round of Yahtzee. Perfecto!