There was more than a touch of ‘ Allo Allo’ in the village hall on 28th Sept when Carole Bourne-Taylor gave us a talk entitled ‘A Panoramic View of Art Nouveau’. There were strange looking men in french berets, foreign looking waiters and red wine with cheese in abundance. The hall was decked out in red, white and blue, and our new chairman welcomed us all in her best French- which of course we all understood.
The talk itself was excellent with some lovely slides showing examples of French art nouveau ranging from pictures and porcelain to furniture. It seems that the art nouveau movement was a result of a promiscuous society built on decadence and femininity, but was short lived and dead by 1910, although it continued to exert some influence into the 20th century.
But the one aspect that really made the talk so scintillating and alive was Carole’s wonderful French accent which seemed to accentuate the Frenchness of the whole evening. Mon Dieu !
Peter Dutton
for more information about this and other talks go to the Village Society's programme