Almost a cathedral

My nephew, J (who extremely kindly installed my second-hand kitchen shortly after I moved into my house - I'll get round to blipping that one day) is a set-builder, working on festivals, exhibitions and lots of other temporary installations. This morning he took me to LV Dream, an exhibition of Louis Vuitton products that he worked on three years ago. His standards are very high and he winced at some of the work that was redone when the exhibition was updated a few months ago: display board joins that weren't square, fraying fabric well above eye level, illuminated panels whose warmth didn't match. He wasn't involved in the rebuild as he was busy creating installations for the Paris Olympics at that time. But he was pleased that the cafe and its product displays and planters were still as he'd built them (extra).

It was J who pointed out these reflections in the Samaritaine Department store windows.

He carried my backpack to the Picasso Museum before we hugged farewell and he headed back to his flat. It's been a real treat to spend time with him.

I've been to the Picasso museum before, long ago, and my reason for going today was because I'd seen advertised an exhibition there of paintings by Françoise Gilot, who lived with Picasso from 1943 to 1953 and who enraged him and the art world by publishing a very successful book about her life with him. From the exhibition publicity, I'd expected to see more than nine meagre paintings by her and to find a bit more context. Rather disappointing. The works by Picasso were also thinner than I'd remembered.

I met most of my fellow choir members at Gare de Lyon and we headed together to a very warm welcome at Grenoble station from our hosts. I am lucky to be staying with a lovely couple I've known for about 15 years who live in the Vercors mountains. A bit of a journey out of town, and cold, but beautiful.