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Monday, March 21, 2016

Visiting Salvador Dali's Home Town in Figueres, Spain and the Dali Museum (Monterey, CA) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget





Visiting Salvador Dali's Home Town in Figueres (Spanish Catalonia) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget



Figueres, Spain is a nearby outing in the Catalan Pyrenees mountains from Barcelona or the Languedoc-Rousillon region of Spain.

Figueres is sought out, because it is the childhood home of Spanish artist Salvador Dali (1904 – 1989), and the site of the Dali Theater and Museum.  The Surrealist exhibition and performance space was converted from a Neoclassical building built by Jose Roca i Bros in 1850.  According to Michelin’s Guide Vert Rousillon Pays Cathar, the glass cupola over the theater was built by Emilio Perez Piñero.

I like Dali’s satiric and critical artwork, but I also went to Figueres with my husband to help Spain’s economy.  When we visited in the summer of 2015, official youth unemployment hovered around 50%.

The Spanish are working themselves out of this fiscal crisis by maximizing attendance at tourist venues I think.  We arrived at the Dali Museum at opening time and the line wound around the streets with an hour wait.  Busloads of tourists were loading more people into the streets.  It is okay to wait when you are part of a group and the distress is part of the trip story experience.  I was already considering a postcard visit.

I was a little distressed by the admission price.  The Guide Vert listed admission at 13 euros.  The Museum’s website listed admission at 14 euros.   The price listed with a sign posted at the Museum’s door was 20 euros.  You could get into the Louvre with a few more euros added to the 20 euros.  Dali would have loved this huckstering to get the economy back in shape.

I wanted to spend my money on souvenirs, so I said, “Let’s just get pictures to say we’ve been here” to my husband.  He agreed, because he was probably thinking of what parking was costing us.

The decoration of the Dali Museum is wonderful for photos.  Dali topped the Neoclassical building with large egg sculptures and put pastry puff decorations on an orange background to make it appear fairy-like.  It was a great photo op.  We discovered a way to reserve tickets several months in advance if you speak Spanish or Catalan, too, on the side of the Museum rarely stopped at by tourists running to get in line.

Then, we went to some souvenir shops.  The paucity of choices attested to the bad state of the Spanish economy.  Only posters, calendars, and postcards were on sale.  We bought calendars and many postcards. 

I bought a postcard of Dali’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony.  It is not at Figueres, but in the Royal Art Museum in Brussels, Belgium.  (I have seen it.  Temptation, as usual, takes the form of a nude woman.)  Art books and guidebooks are expensive to produce.  T-shirts are relatively expensive to make in a depressed economy.

I thought of something that might boost the local economy, though, as we went back to the parking garage.  My idea deals with beating the heat, hydrating tourists in sweltering weather, and feeding tourists; sell chilled, bottled gazpacho vegetable soup along the line to get in the museum.

Make the bottles plastic to avoid breakage problems.  You can also recycle plastic for money.  Roving refrigerated carts could sell the gazpacho like ice cream carts do in Hispanic neighborhoods in California.  Eventually, other tourist items and recycle carts could be added.

Gazpacho is made with vegetables, olive oil, bread, and ice and crushed into a refreshing drink.  The green pepper and cucumber disagree with some people.  Otherwise, the cold soup is halal, kosher, vegetarian, and vegan.  A gluten-free version can be made without bread. 

And, that is my little token of appreciation to the Dali Museum in Figueres, written Figueras in Catalan, for a ride through the mountains to fairy-like, Dali-Land.

When my husband Laurent and I returned to Monterey, California from Europe, we loved finding out that there was a Dali Museum on the wharf in Monterey.  Dali spent several years in Monterey and painted and organized lavish parties around California.  His paintings of parties and curiosities from this period in the museum make it an unexpected outing for a trip to Monterey, California.


By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books




Photo by Laurent Paget