As I shared with you yesterday, when my brother visited recently we visited the Cloisters.
We enjoyed all sorts of medieval art in the museum... like these silver-stained roundrels. This one is called "Souls Tormented in Hell" and was painted between 1500-1510.
This one is titled "Playing at Quintain" and was painted in 1500...
And this "Nativity" was painted between 1510-1520.
We also spent some time in the West-Guilhem Cloister, which was built in the 12th century.
We particularly liked this cloister because each of the capitols and shafts are different. (This one is really intricate- and it was carved before the year 1200!!)
My brother really liked the zig-zaggy shafts... they were so cool!
As if the interior of the cloisters weren't lovely enough, there's also a garden cloister.
From wild honeysuckle...
To other fruit trees...
There are many different plants growing in the cloister. Some of the beds are thematic, featuring some of the plants/herbs that would have been growing when the cloisters were inhabited in France.
These areas of the museum show how practical, and beautiful, gardens can be.
See?
There are also dwarfed fruit trees...
And trained fruit trees on the property (I love this pear tree SO much!).
Oh, and remember how I told you about the thematic gardens?
This one is the "magic" garden, and it's full of poisonous plants! (That pyramid-shaped structure supports a bittersweet bush.)
In one corner of the property there's also a gardener's area, and I loved walking by because it smelled like the room where my grandma used to dry flowers when I was a kid... yum!
Of course, after all that time wandering through amazing art and beautiful gardens, we were in need of some sustenance. So we selected a table, pulled up some chairs...
And dug into lunch! When a museum serves mozzarella and tomato sandwiches that are this good, you can't lose!
As you can tell, I'm a pretty big fan of the Cloisters. So if you're ever in NYC and you have time to travel up to the museum, I highly recommend it!
Thanks for visiting- I hope you have a great day!
