Sorry to have been missing in action but my family and I are several weeks into a trip to France. This year's home base is the sleepy little town of St. Aubin de Medoc, about 20 minutes west of Bordeaux. This is one of France's premier wine growing regions and vineyards unfold for miles in all directions.
Our home is beautifully designed by its two architect owners and boasts acres of amazing gardens. We spend all our time outside in the small oasis they have created, and since this area boasts zone 9 to 10 growing conditions, there are some wonderful and unusual botanical marvels.
We took a small road trip to the Basque region of France/Spain and ended up in the town of Bilbao, Spain. The main reason people choose to visit Bilbao is the incredible Guggenheim museum. There is a little bit of Canadian content to this tale as the museum was designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry and opened in 1997.
The Guggenheim is without a doubt one of the most extraordinary and beautiful buildings you will see anywhere. Standing beside the river, it is all soft, undulating lines that at times look like a ship or a fish. It is coated in hundreds of silvery titanium plates which shimmer and reflect and change tones and colours throughout the day.
There is an amazing example of unusual flora and fauna that greets you at the top of the entrance to the museum, whom the locals lovingly refer to as "Puppy," a giant floral sculpture installation of a West Highlands terrier that was designed and created by Jeff Koons. Covered in multi-coloured layers of flowers, it is probably just as photographed as the museum itself.
Jeff Koons is famous for his large-scale cartoony sculptures and this 43-foot-tall living plant installation does not disappoint. Koons used computer modeling to create the crazy version of topiary sculptures that were common to 18th century formal gardens.
Apparently Koons created the sculpture to "inspire optimism and to provide confidence and security."
It is an unusual example of how life doesn't imitate art.
When the museum first opened in 1997, ETA Basque separatists posing as gardeners and working on Puppy nearly set off bombs. Apparently the men, dressed as gardeners and carrying flower pots like those on Puppy, were ready to explode 12 remote controlled grenades. Thankfully, the plot was foiled.
A firestorm and pursuit took place and unfortunately claimed the life of a local policeman, Jose Maria Aguirre. The plaza where Puppy sits is named in honour of Aguirre.
Puppy's size and imposing reputation stand guard over the museum today. More than 60,000 plants and flowers cover the sculpture, and seem to bloom in incredible harmony. Puppy was meant to be a temporary installation at the museum, but the locals fell in love with it, so they bought it. It is now a permanent piece at the gallery and he literally and figuratively continues to grow.
