Une semaine à Malte

Je viens de rédiger quatre articles en anglais sur notre semaine à Malte (A week in Malta - 1, Week in Malta - 2, A week in Malta - 3, A week in Malta -4) et je ne vais pas vraiment me répéter ici. J'espère faire plus court en tout cas. Au lieu de mettre des liens aux articles de Wikipedia en fin d'article, je les place tout de suite:
Malte, article général
La Valette
Hagar Qim
Mnajdra
Co-cathédral St. John
Museum of Fine Art (en anglais)
Musée National d'Archéologie
Mdina
St.. Paul Catacombs (en anglais)
Gozo
Ggantija
Fenêtre d'Azur
Hypogeum
Marsaxhlokk
Tarxien Temples
Ces articles ont de très belles images et explications, meilleures que les miennes.

Sliema, en face de La Valette, depuis le rempart près de l'hôtel

Ce voyage à Malte était un peu spécial, car pour nous, c'était la première fois depuis presque quarante ans que nous n'avons pas vu certains amis. Un peu moins longtemps pour d'autres, mais ça faisait quand même longtemps. Un rassemblement d'anciens du Pierwige. (d'autres mentions du Pierwige: en octobre 2011; en juillet 2011; en juin 2009) Nous étions 5 couples. Je ne tiens pas à mettre les noms des autres ici, car je ne leur ai pas demandé la permission. Ce n'est pas toujours facile de voyager à dix, surtout pas facile de voyager et de rester bons amis. Nous avons réussi. Moi, qui ne comprenait pas grand chose et qui ne parlait quasiment pas en français il y a 44, 45 ans, j'étais à l'aise, enfin ! Il faut dire que si les garçons se connaissaient vraiment bien, les femmes moins. Je n'en connaissais que deux sur les quatre.

Début de la visite

Malte est une île pleine d'histoire, à commencer par les temples néolithiques qui remontent à 5500 - 6000 ans (3600 ans av. JC, en moyenne). Nous avons visité les temples de Hagar Qim et Mnajdra (en une visite), Tarxien, Ggantija sur Gozo, et l'Hypogée.
Pour l'Hypogée, nous avons eu beaucoup de chance de pouvoir avoir 10 entrées pour le samedi, veille de notre départ. Pour jouer cette chance il faut s'installer devant le musée des Beaux Arts bien avant l'ouverture la veille du jour de la visite souhaitée. Bien avant. Paul s'y est rendu avant 7 h. et il s'est trouvé quatrième dans la queue. Heureusement les deux représentants envoyés par des hôtels qui étaient devant nous ne demandaient pas plus de billets ce jour-là. Il n'y a que 20 entrées mises en vente au musée par jour et nous avons pu en avoir 4 pour la visite de midi et 6 pour la visite de 16h. Après notre passage en caisse, il ne restait plus qu'une place. On peut éviter cet folie en achetant ses billets par internet avant de partir. Cela vaut bien la peine.

Les Temples

Tous ces temples ont une structure similaire; un mur extérieur, une entrée au sud avec un seuil de porte sur le passage central et deux absides de chaque côté suivi d'une autre porte et deux autres absides ou plus. Même l'hypogée, qui est creusée dans la roche souterraine, respecte la structure de base. Les temples à l'air libre sont faits d'énormes pierres soigneusement montés sur place. Ce sont des pierres énormes, plus grandes que celles de Carnac, plus encombrantes que celles de Stonehenge, et surtout, plus anciennes de 1000 ans. Il y avait des statues, surtout de femmes, comme des sculptures de Botéro. Dans l'Hypogée, ils ont trouvé des statuettes, petites, d'environ 10 cm, comme la femme couchée qu'on peut voir au musée de l'archéologie. Elle est parfaite.

La Valette

La Valette est une ville fortifiée planifiée de la fin du 16è, début 17è siècle. Baroque. C'est une petite ville, dont la seule difficulté est dans la montée et descente des rues. Je ne sais pas le dénivelé entre le port et la grande porte d'entrée de la ville à l'ouest, mais après une journée de balade, monter à la rue principale mérite une glace une fois là haut. Sinon, on couvre la ville facilement. La co-Cathédrale ("co" parce que la cathédrale à Mdina est l'originale et reste le siège de l'archevèque) n'est pas extraordinaire vu de l'extérieur, mais l'intérieur est une explosion de baroque -- les fresques aux plafond et murs, les tombeaux de marbre au sol, les dorures. Dans l'oratoire, il y a un tableau de Caravage, La Décollation de Saint Jean. C'est une façon pudique de dire décapitation. C'est peut-être un chef d'oeuvre, mais je ne supporte plus le gore religieux. Face à ce tableau, il y en a un autre, le St. Jérome en train d'écrire, peut-être en train de faire la traduction de la bible du grec au latin. Là, j'ai pu apprécier le brun sombre, la lumière, le visage du vieillard, et le drap rouge.
Le musée d'archéologie est à voir pour une bonne compréhension des temples et des différentes époques sur l'île. C'est là qu'on voit les statues et statuettes trouvées sur les sites. Le musée des Beaux Arts est moins impressionant. Mais c'est à la caisse que j'ai vu que nous pouvions tenter notre chance pour l'Hypogée, alors, je ne regrette pas la visite. En plus, c'etait pratiquement à côté de l'hôtel. Nous avons pu voir aussi le Palais du Grand Maître, maintenant des salons d'apparat de l'état, et l'armurerie où sont exposés des armures et des armes du patrimoine des chevaliers de Malte. A sa mort, l'armure du chevalier devenait propriété de l'ordre. C'est une très grande collection et les pieces sont très belles -- gravées, dorées, ciselées.

Gozo

Nous avons passé une journée à Gozo. Je crois que je l'imaginais plus impréssionante. C'était  cependant agréable. Ggantija, le temple le plus ancien s'y trouve. Nous pensions être notre petit groupe de 10, mais nous nous sommes trouvés intégrés dans un groupe de 52, un car complet, avec un guide parlant français et néerlandais. Il y avait tellement de groupes à Ggantija, je ne vois pas comment des touristes indépendants pourraient visiter le site. Il y a aussi la ville principale, Victoria, avec sa citadelle et la vue magnifique sur les villages au loin. Malgré la petite population de l'île (30000), il y a une impression de grandes villes avec des églises somptueuses. Ce sont pourtant des petites villes et villages. Il y a aussi l'arrêt obligatoire au village d'artisanat et un arrêt à la fenêtre d'azur, où nous avons vu beaucoup de plongeurs. Malte et Gozo sont connues pour la plongée.

La restauration

Nous avons bien mangé, pas extraordinairement, mais quand on prend en compte qu'il fallait toujours trouver place pour 10, parfois 8, nous ne pouvions pas fréquenter les petits restaurants. Donc, les restaurants qui sont sur les places, qui sont pour les touristes, ne sont pas des pièges à touristes. On y mange correctement pour un prix raisonable. La conversation à une table de 10 est quasiment impossible et l'art est de se trouver dans une configuration différente à chaque repas pour changer de partenaires de conversation. Nous avons bien réussi cela. La Malte n'est pas un pays à dessert; heureusement il y avait un marchand de glace ouvert jusqu'à 10 h. La Valette n'est pas une ville de fête; les restaurants ferment avant 9h30 et il n'y a plus personne dans les rues.

Week in Malta - 2

Where to eat? A twice daily question. It was hot and humid and we didn't want to be inside, so that limited us a bit. There were 10 of us, so that limited us further. There are lots and lots of restaurants in Valletta, but the ones that can manage to seat 10 are on the main squares. They are good, but not fantastic. I didn't have a single bad meal, but I didn't have a single exceptionally excellent one, either. Servings tend to be enormous.

Tuesday we decided to do things at our own pace. One couple went off to visit the Tarxien temples and discover the coast, have a swim.... Paul and I headed out early after breakfast to walk through the streets before it got too hot. I wanted to see the church of St. Paul the Shipwrecked (tradition has it that St. Paul shipwrecked on Malta), but there was a mass going on, so tourists were asked to wait. We walked on. Everywhere you turn, there's another church. The island was under the rule of the Knights of the Order of St. John, a hospital order that was dedicated to healing people (like Medecins sans Frontières, today?). They had to defend themselves, so it was also a military order, of course. They built forts and churches and magnificant palaces, called "auberges" for each country or province they came from. We found the market, but there is restoration work going on, so there was no real food market going on, just a few butchers, fish mongers, and poultry dealers open for business. On the street, Merchant Street, there was an open market, but no food, just clothing, batteries, toys...

Before 9, we were already waiting for the Palace of the Grand Master to open at 9, but it didn't, so we headed on to the co-Cathedral and waited for it to open at 9:30; which it did. The Cathedral is a baroque masterpiece: ceiling and upper wall frescoes by Mattia Preti illustrating the life of St. John; marble floors with the tombs of 400 knights, all different and colorful: lots of side chapels representing the countries and provinces of the knights' origins; and lots and lots of gold all over. It's a co-cathedral, because the arch-bishop resides in Mdina, which was the capital before the order built Valletta and which has its cathedral. Caravaggio was, for a time, a member of the order and he painted the "Beheading of St. John the Baptist" and "St. Jerome" in the early 17th century. His paintings are dark; the only highlight in both of them being the red cloth. Personally, I can't stand the gore of  many religious paintings and seeing John the Baptist being behead does not draw my attention. I preferred "St. Jerome" by far. He's the one who is credited with translating the bible from Greek to Latin.
From the Cathedral, we strolled down the main street,Triq (street) Republika, to the Archeology Museum. The visit there gave me a better understanding of the temples we had seen and the ones we were going to see, later. After the civilization that built those temples left (Why did they go? fire, earthquake, disease? Where did they go? further north to Carnac and Stonehenge?), others came: Phoenicians; Romans; early Christians; Arabs; Normans; the Knights; the French (Napoleon's army stayed two years); the English from 1800 to 1979. The Maltese language is, apparently, a Semitic language written with the Latin alphabet. In this museum, they have the gigantic neolithic statues from the temples and many smaller statuettes. There are some statuettes of pregnant women and on the backs of these statuettes, marks that seem to indicate the pregnancy calendar. There is one, who looks very close to the end of her pregnancy and she does have nine marks. Interesting. There is also a very small statuette of a woman lying on her side -- absolutely beautiful. That's what struck me in this visit, but there is also the pottery from all the different civilisations, and all the other things one finds in an archeology museum.
On the way back to the hotel, we dropped in at the Fine Arts Museum, almost next to our hotel, and met up with the rest of the group, who had done things differently in the morning. Valletta is very small, so it's not surprising that we ended up in the same place at the end! There are a lot of dark, badly lit, gory religious paintings, portraits of the Grand Masters of the Order, and some very pleasant paintings of views of Malta, including one watercolor sketch by Turner, who never visited. As we checked in with our "Heritage" tickets (bought at the first visit, at Hagar Qim in our case, it's a
multi-visit ticket), we discovered that there was a slight chance of getting to see the Hypogeum. Pleyel, and Dancla performed by a young violinist and an equally young cellist, both excellent musicians. It was a short concert and a good appetizer, so we all (well, 8, not 10) went off to lunch.

Normally, one must reserve that when planning the trip to Malta because the number of tourists allowed each day is restricted. We had been told there was no chance of our getting in. However, everyday, there are 20 tickets available for the noon and 4pm tours. People line up long before this museum opens to get these tickets for the following day. That evening, we decided that Paul and I would try to get us tickets for the Saturday visit. After this museum, we returned to the hotel to freshen up (I can't get over how hot and humid it is!) before going to the St. Francis church oratory for a noon concert of Vivaldi, Bach, Handel,
Links to Wikipedia articles that might be of interest to you:
Malta, general article
Valletta
Hagar Qim
Mnajdra
Co-cathedral St. John
Museum of Fine Art
National Museum of Archeology

A week in Malta - 4

Early Friday morning, Paul and I took turns waiting for the Fine Arts Museum to open. This was not to visit the museum again; once was really enough. We were trying to get tickets for the Hypogeum for the next day. If you haven't reserved well in advance, this is the only way you can get last-minute tickets. The first person in line had gotten there at 5:45 and Paul was there at 6:50, number 4 in line. There were two hotel reps before him. Since there are only 20 tickets for sale, I felt very self-conscious that we were trying to take 10. The people who came after us had very little chance of getting any, at all. And we were lucky! Four could visit at noon and six at 4:00 on Saturday! There was one place left and, we found out on Saturday, that went to the last person in line, the only single!
After Paul and I got the tickets for the Hypogeum and put them safely away in the room, we all headed down to the port to get the ferry over to Sliema for the Captain Morgan Harbour Cruise. This gives you a good feel for the geography of the peninsula and islands; there are many ports, in fact. There was one filled with yachts taking part in the race on Saturday; they were all decked out with sponsor flags -- Rolex. There are also a few military boats, which are used mostly for rescue missions as Malta is an emergency landing place for refugees from North Africa. Cruise vessels also spend a day in Malta. They are gigantic! They hide the waterfront. They spit out tons of diesel as they enter or leave the port. That said, the view from the ships must be beautiful and friends who have been on such large cruise ships say they loved the trip. We had lunch at a little hidden snack bar on the main street of Sliema before catching the ferry back to Valletta, where some of us went to visit the state rooms in the Grand Master's Palace and the armory. Actually, we kept encountering one another: Valletta is small, so we had time for an ice cream or coffee to compare impressions. I was struck by the decorative beauty of the armor and arms. The Knights of Malta were a rich order and when a knight died, the order inherited his armor, so it's an impressive collection, even after the passage of Napoleon at the end of the 18th century and the English, from 1800. The helmuts and full body armor was made of heavy metal and engraved, decorated with pearls and stones, and sometimes gilded. The pistols, lances, crossbows, and cannons were elegant and also expansively end expensively decorated. All this to go to battle!
Saturday, we met up at the bus station to catch the bus to Paola: 6 to visit Tarxien and 4 for the Hypogeum. We were in the first group for the Hypogeum. This is an underground temple/catacomb dug into the rock. It's an exact replica of the temples above ground, complete with roof structure and decorations. It boggles the mind to think of how they managed to dig into the rock. It's already mind-boggling when you see what they did above ground. It may have been a temple at the start but it was used later to dispose of bodies. There is speculation as to whether the bodies were deposited there to decompose and then the bones were pushed aside to make room for more or if the bodies were allowed to dry before being placed underground. If they decomposed in the crypt, then the stench must have been horrible, especially as the structure was constantly being extended with new digging. This is where the statuettes were found, such as the woman lying on a couch, which is only about 10 cm. (4 in.) long and is beautiful.

We all met up for lunch in Marsaxlokk, the fishing port on the southern coast. The first six arrived early and were finishing up when we four arrived, so we had our own leisurely lunch of fresh fish. It was a good thing we split up like this because the six had to get back to visit the Hypogeum and they caught the bus that got them there early. If they had waited with us, they would have gotten the next bus, which was running late and they would have missed their tour. As it was, Paul and I got to Tarxien in a rush at 4:00 -- just us. G and S had to get back to the hotel and take off again for dinner with friends who live nearby.
Tarxien was one of the earliest sites to be preserved. As such, in the 1950s, they covered the damaged stones with cement and concrete, which, as we know now, accelerates the deterioration. It is still worth the visit. This site was used by several different groups, so there are subtle changes in the temple structure as additions were made.
This day of local bus cost us €1.50 each; a day ticket.
Dinner again at the Ordinnance Pub, for convenience, and a conversation of summing up the day's sightseeing. Early to bed as Y and M had a very early flight back to Lyons on Sunday and we were all tired, anyway. The trip was over. Time to pack. Our minibus picked us up at 11 on Sunday to take us to the airport. We arrived back in Paris to warm weather and sun, but Monday morning, the temperature and skies were more October-like.
Links to Wikipedia articles that might be of interest to you:
Malta, general article
Valletta
Hagar Qim
Mnajdra
Co-cathedral St. John
Museum of Fine Art
National Museum of Archeology
Mdina
St.. Paul Catacombs
Gozo
Ggantija
Hypogeum
Marsaxhlokk
Tarxien Temples

A week in Malta - 3

M'dina, peeking into a courtyard

Wednesday we did the "northern" tour of our hop-on, hop-off ticket. It's not really north. Mdina is due west of Valletta and that was our destination. Mdina is the historic capital of the island before Valletta was built up by the Knights. It's a walled citadel, which is how it got its Arabic name "Medina". It's lovely. We stopped for coffee and tea, walked around the town, peeked into courtyards and then walked into the modern town of Rabat where there is a roman villa. The structure is from 1920 and is over the remains of a 4th century Roman villa's mosaic floors. It's interesting and well-preserved. The mosaic tiles are tiny. It was noon and we stopped for lunch in a hole-in-the-wall pastizzerija where we had ftira (sandwich of Maltese bread, hobz) and pastizza (cheese pastry). Just what we needed and very good. From there, we continued down the street to the St. Paul Catacombs, named as such because they are near the St. Paul church. These are early catacombs. The visit is difficult because the lighting is poor and the floor very uneven. The loculi in the walls were for children and the tombs were carved into the stone. It's really a man-made cave. Paul, R, and I continued on to the St. Agatha's crypt and catacombs, which I found more interesting. First of all, there is a crypt because tradition is that St. Agatha took refuge here to escape an unwanted marriage in Sicily, but she did return home and had her breasts cut off as punishment. She is the patron saint for breast cancer patients. (I do hate gore -- there is a chapel to St. Agatha we passed by in Mdina, and wouldn't you know, there was a painting of the poor woman, bleeding, with her breasts on a platter. Ugh!). Back to the crypt. It's a small chamber with saints painted al freso all around, an altar, a couple of statues and that's it. From there, you enter the catacombs, which pre-date St. Agatha, and were really several separate burial chambers with their individual entrances once upon a time. On the whole, it's the same as the other, but better lit. There is a larger chamber with the table and seating area carved into the stone floor for the ceremonial farewell meal. Also, many of the sarcophages still have the bones in them so you can see that some couples died at the same time -- a double sarcophage -- while others died at different times. They are family tombs, basically: children in loculi around the wall and parents in the "floor" base. And there is an early Christian church. It has the round "table" for the farewell meal and there is an altar with a scallop-shell fresco painted above. This is the original fresco from about the 4th century.
The others were patiently waiting for us at the bus stop in front of the Roman villa. We hopped on for the return trip to Valletta.

Gozo -- all the guidebooks say you must go to Gozo. We had booked a guided tour with a French-speaking guide for Thursday. We had to get our bus from the Phonecia Hotel at 8:00. We were there; the bus finally came at 8:30. This was a bus that only took us to the ferry. At the ferry terminal there were lots of buses unloading and all the passengers were being divided into language groups for their guided tours. Ahh. We thought we were a group of 10; instead we were part of a group of 52 French and Dutch speakers! Our guide was fantastic, in my opinion. Not only did she flow from one language to the other, she really knew her stuff. There were so many groups visiting the same sites, I think it would be hard to visit Gozo on your own. You'd always be fighting the group traffic. The Ggantija site, which is the very, very oldest discovered -- older than the Tarxien or Hagar Qim and Mnajdra temples -- is also made of the biggest stones. These temples all have, with an occasional exception, the same layout, the same orientation, but each one has something marvelous to admire. There's an exterior wall, like an outer shell. The temple apses are built within that shell, and when discovered, the space between the outer wall and the apse walls was filled with dirt. The temple entrance is to the south, with a threshold and door; there are two apses on each side of the passage way followed by another door and two more apses. Each apse has its structure of altar, shelves, or other. The doorpost stones have handle like holes bored into them, apparently to hold rope for cloth doors to close off the area. The main decoration is dots pitted into the stone. There are altars with spirals and there were gigantic Botero-like statues of women. At the exit of the Ggantija temple, there was a farmer selling his jams, capers, and onions. I bought a couple of jams and a pack of olives. He told me that this year had been a very bad year for olives.
From the temple, we went straight to lunch, canteen style: salad, chicken or fish, very colorful pink ice-cream for dessert. The site was beautiful. We went on for a stop at an artisan shop where one could see lace work in the making and, of course, buy it. It is beautiful, but what would I do with lace, now? Even as souvenirs, I can't see anyone I would give a gift to actually setting out the lace. There were some beautiful knitwear.. I don't know if the wool is from local sheep or it's just the knitting. They were selling liqueurs, jams, and other local produce. There were some old village wash basins nearby, fed by natural spring water, the only spring water on the island. After our short obligatory stop at this shop, we went on to a window rock. It was just too hot; I didn't go up to get a close look for once. Paul and I settled for a cold drink at one of the little cafés around the parking lot.
Victoria is the capital of Gozo. Gozo's total population is about 30,000 and yet Victoria is a big city! The city is also known as Rabat. It has developed around the old citadel, which is not quite as picturesque as Mdina, but from which there is a fantastic view of the other major towns on the island. On a clear day, one can see Malta and even as far as Sicily, according to our guide. Our view was hampered by a smoggy haze, but we could see these towns near the coast. When the wind is from the south, that's what you get, although I think the light smog is a local production. When you get up in the morning, there is a distinct diesel odor over Malta. It was getting late and we had to get the bus back to the ferry and then back to Valletta. Upon return, we stopped at the Ordinance Pub, not far from our hotel, and had a fine dinner, with a very attentive waitress. I was surprised because the guidebooks were full of recommendations to stay away from these pubs that catered to the British tourists.
Links to Wikipedia articles that might be of interest to you:
Malta, general article
Valletta
Hagar Qim
Mnajdra
Co-cathedral St. John
Museum of Fine Art
National Museum of Archeology
Mdina
St.. Paul Catacombs
Gozo
Ggantija

Yikes, it's been a whole month!

Last night was my birthday treat! Yes, back in February, I was given a voucher for the Joan Baez concert, the last in the series, for October 7. And we didn't forget; we didn't get the date mixed up. It was wonderful. She's wonderful. Still wonderful. The first time I saw her in concert was in Los Angeles, when I was at Pitzer. It must have been in late '68 or '69. Then, in 1980, she gave a concert in Nogent sur Marne at the Pavillon Baltard, to which I strolled over with Rosette. A few years later, Paul and I saw her at the Palais des Sports at the Porte de Versailles in Paris. And now, the Olympia.
We had to leave England after a very short weekend visit to celebrate Constance's first birthday! We drove up there on Thursday and back home on Monday. We got to see everyone, but it was too short a trip. And I've got another super trip to the States coming up in November.
On Monday morning, I missed an important AARO breakfast meeting with Senator Mike Lee and lawyer, James Bopp, who are drumming up support for the anti-FATCA litigation. This meeting was not a fund raising event, but it was to inform us about the litigation. Luckily, Victoria attended and has published her report.
Family -- I'll try get some family photos up on line and will send you the link.