On the 20th we drove down from Charlottesville to Swannanoa, a small township
just on the outskirts of Asheville. We could have travelled the Blue Ridge
Parkway but elected to take a main road to cover the distance in a more
practical time. It still took all day. We stopped in Swannanoa so that we could
go to a Contra dance we had been told about by our friends in Charlottesville.
| But first we visited Asheville which is an interesting town full
of art deco architecture and some very original buildings. We parked on
the outskirts and walked up to the town centre. Both these buildings were
official buildings dating from the 1930s. |  |
 | It is quite an
upcoming town full of fashionable shops and museums and an excellent open
air bistro culture. Bistro 1896 is at the heart of this (as we discovered
reading the guide book while having lunch there). This could have been in
any fashionable European city. |
| This was the view from the bistro showing the administrative
heart of the city. The architectural detail on some of the shops was
amazing. Definitely a place for your list to be visited. |  |
 | There were over 30
sculptures spread around the town together with a suggested cultural walk.
This one took Jan's fancy. Maybe it's just everything is bigger over
here...
We also found a music shop with lots of interesting CDs including our
own Kate Rusby. The owner commented he sold more of her than many of the
more mainstream American artists. |
| The art wasn't limited to street sculptures. Everywhere seemed to
be art oriented. We saw an F W Woolworths so went in to see if it was like
at home, and found it had become an informal art gallery. I liked this
display but there were also good pictures and woodworking exhibits.
Trouble is we have nowhere to hang anything in the RV. |  |
 | In the evening
we went to the Contra dance featuring these two musicians from
Massachusetts called "Notorious". They were excellent. The
dancers were predominantly college students and the dances fairly basic.
There was a brief period of tuition prior to the dance enabling us to
judge what was to be expected. Thus we did not disgrace ourselves. The
dance was held in the Warren Wilson College which hosts many other events
in the summer including Folk Song Festivals which we had heard about. |
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