So, finally did a reasonable walk - I walked from Auxerre to Musee Pierre Merlier - it was 25km exactly boat to boat.
Temperature was perfect for walking.
Exc. summary - Pierre Merlier died a while back - I met his ex wife (no idea if she's a widow - I don't know if they were married when he died). She left him in about 1995 I think she said, but, they remained friends - and, I can only assume that she either owned the property or that they both owned it or he owned it and she was left it - because she's there now with it as a museum - she doesn't live there now - she left when she left him.
She doesn't know anything about his art - and, apparently he didn't either - she said that he didn't like talking about the art - he didn't know where it came from and he wasn't interested in how long it took or anything - he just did it.
60 years - 600 sculptures, 300 paintings ----------- I 'think' the 300 paintings happened in the last 2 years of his productive life - there's the odd one from the past - but, only one or two.
Mostly he worked in wood - he felt the wood was closer to skin like than stone - the young male face in one video was done when he was 16 years old - the rest are in either wood, bronze cast from wood, there's a couple of funny mediums - and, that's about it
Here's videos of the walk there and the museum -- I'll put up 3 at a time each post
