Day Two
Here is my Rocinante with its own windmill, on the road to Amiens. As a modern, modest and weak copy of Don Quixote, my enemies are negligible.
Funny, the contemporary version of CIAM – Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (Le Corbusier’s utopia) is interestingly devoted to a different goal. Here is its office in Reims, right behind Rocinante’s irresistible profile.
A good reason to stop in Amiens is to compare the old and the new, the ancient and the modern, the concrete and the stone, Auguste Perret’s (Le Corbusier’s employer) Railway Station and Tower and the unknown freemasons’ Middle Age Cathedral. The final judgement is unknown – luckily the backlight helps Monsieur Perret…
I have to admit that my memory of Amines will not be linked to these popular trademarks. Walking back to my B&B, with Joe Strummer’s “Johnny Appleseed” in my Walkman, I saw the anonymous town, with its indifference and everyday beauty. A strong and unexpected vision – after all we spend most of our time outside the tourist guides and we should play more frequently with our business-as-usual perceptions.
Aesthetic Intelligence 
The sky and the soil. Human beings are always in this space, in between, trying to connect sky and soil.