La Pedrera

Gaudi is really amazing... We are surrounded by many of his creations in Barcelona and I realized that I only start to appreciate his work now that I am about to leave.

Yesterday I went to see "La Pedrera", this building is really amazing. Wandering inside this house, which was designed in the early 20th century, was really a nice experience. I advise anyone who goes to Barcelona to visit this Casa Milà.

View on the Sagrada from the terrace of La Pedrera.

Just below the roof.

MACBA

May 21st, on a sunny day in Barcelona, I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). I am normally not a big fan of this type of art, but it was really interesting to discover something new.

On the second floor there was a whole section about Latvia and the development of art after the dismantlement of the USSR. Very interesting to see that simple pleasure like singing or meeting at a cinema are something amazing for them.

The glass structure above is one of the pieces that was exposed this day. The big one is made of vases stuck to each other, and the smaller ones at the back are made of glasses. Interesting how it catches the light...

My favorite item this day was designed by Diether Roth, a German who used to live in Switzerland in Basel. He called it the sea of chocolate ! If you have a close look at it, you can see that there are hundreds of chocolate, from Lindt, behind the glass. Really an original idea...

Petit moment de bonheur !

Most people do not actually know that I am a musician and that music used to take a great place in my life. When I was a kid, I would practice the clarinet at least 1 hour every day. That allowed me to have a pretty descent level and to play in a brass band and also as a lead clarinet in a quartet. So I really enjoy seeing live music since I can really relate to the amount of work that the artists have put in before performing.

Yesterday, I found a software which is called VeohTV. To my great surprise, I am able to watch the concert that Metallica gave in 2006 at Rock Am Ring. More than 2 hours of one of the bands that I prefer ! When I started to play the guitar, around the age of 18, I learned to play on Metallica ! So being able to watch this concert is this kind of moment that really gives me a lot of pleasure... I hope that one day I will be able to see them live ! I am such a fan that I even bought a guitar that is the same as Kirk, an ESP Ltd with Skulls !

One of my other favorite guitarists is Slash, therefore I also own a Gibson Les Paul 1960... It is a totally different type of sound, a bit more jazzy to some extent. And I also own a few other guitars, which I am not going to detail here !

Visit of Parc Güell, my best day in Barcelona ?

After almost 18 months in Barcelona I still have so much to see...

During this time of intense study at IESE, I have enjoyed somewhat of the night life but not so much of the cultural aspect of Barcelona.

Of course, even if I am not an expert, my eyes were impressed by some of the beautiful buildings that you can randomly find in the city. The Casa Mila on Paseo de Gracia is for example one that I saw many times when walking by.

This week was the first time I went to Parc Güell. For anyone who has seen the movie l'Auberge Espagnole, the movie from Cédric Klapisch picturing the life of Xavier who comes to study to Barcelona (http://www.cedric-klapisch.com/films/aubergeespagnole.html), this park is a must see ! It was designed by Gaudi who finds a lot of his inspiration from the nature.

It has this je ne sais quoi of magic. Wandering around the park, while listening to a trumpetist playing international and french successes (!), was such a great and unforgettable moment.

The magic worked well for me and I would like to thank this person who shared this moment with me. Probably the best day I had in Barcelona...

Proverb

A nice proverb I heard from a nice person:

"The ideal for a man is: a Japanese wife, an American House, Italian food and European benefits...".

If that were for me, I would change 2 of these to make the list more accurate...

First post: this is how it started...

One of my best friends just showed me his blog today and I thought that I should start writing my own. Talk about my own experiences, post on different topics and then come back in a few months/years to see how my life and the world has evolved seems to be a great idea !

So let's start from the beginning. It took me almost one hour to figure out what name I should use. So where does the name of the blog comes from... It actually almost speaks for itself. A tastevin is a special cup that is used in France to taste wine. It was created in the 17th century in Burgundi. Being originally from a family of winegrowers in France, I thought that this was an nice name to use.

As you can see from the picture, the tastevin has lines and circles drawn inside the cup, which are used to observe the color of the wines.