Chaim Soutine Museum in Minsk, Belarus

I was researching alliterations for my forthcoming ebook Improve your English, looking for an alliterative attraction in Belarus. I scanned down the sights of Belarus and Minsk and found a museum about the artist Soutine.

Okay, remind me. Who was Soutine? He was born in the Minsk are of Russia, now Belarus, of Jewish parents. His father was a taylor. Soutine studied art and worked in a photographic studio as a retourcher.

He went to Paris which was a centre for art and artists in those days and lived in an artist's colony with other famous artists.

At first he was short of money. Then a collector bought a large number of paintings and he was suddenly rich.

When the Nazis threatened to take over Paris he escaped south, and eventually went on the run. At one time he slept in the open in the forests.

This period of uncertainty lasted about two years. He eventually died of ulcers. When the bleeding got too bad, he risked returning to Paris for an operation. the operation was not successful. He died in the mid 1940s, aged 50.

Friend of Chagall.

Painted by Modigliani. The Modigliani portrait of Soutine is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, USA.

Soutine by Modigliani, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA.

Soutine, self-portrait, on long term loan to the Princeton University Museum of Art in New Jersey, USA.

Useful Websites
UK
Paris style restaurant in St Johns Wood, England.
https://www.soutine.co.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Soutine
BELARUS
Note that by in the website stands for Belarus
https://www.belarus.by/en/travel/belarus-life/sightseeing/tourist-attraction-minsk
https://soutine-smilovichi.by/

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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Minsk, Marx, Chagall and Belorussia

When I think of Minsk and Belorussia I see Chagall's visions of idyllic flowers and calm cows and bedecked brides and villagers arm in arm, dancing through their simple happy lives in the nearby villages. And the cities, with their grand gold  domes and stately buildings, magical centres of learning and opera, and the humour. The stoic yokels and cultured writers.

That is the romantic view. But what can you see today? A street called Karla Marksa. Who would that be? But let's start with the museums.

Here's my wish list. M i n s k e r s (predictive text wants to replace with ministers) and tourists can enjoy about twenty museums including those in the list below:

Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War. (Alphabetically)
Museum of Ancient Belarusian Culture.
Museum of the History of Minsk.
Museum of Modern Fine Arts.
Museum of Nature and Ecology.
National Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Opera and Ballet. (Bolshoi means big.)
National Art Museum.
National History Museum.
State Museum of Theatre and Music.

Yakub Kolas Memorial Literature Museum.

Street Names
Regarding finding your way about and language, they seem to add the letter a onto everything which makes life easy. For example, The Museum of Nature (etc) is in Karla Marksa street. Ah. Karl Marx.
The State Literary Museum of Maxim Bogdanovich is in Maxima Bogdanovicha street. The State Literary Museum of Yanka Kuala is in Yanki Kupaly street.

Chagall
The Marc Chagall Museum is in Vitebsk. If you can't make it to Belorussia, or want to do a grand tour of Chagall sites in more than one country, there's a Chagall Museum in France. (See TripAdvisor.)

Vitebsk is also associated with the classic haunting tale of The Dybbuk, written by Ansky.

• S. Ansky (1863–1920), playwright, The Dybbuk
• Marc Chagall (1887–1985), artist

www.artmuseum.by
www.minsktourism.by
www.warmuseum.by
www.yakubkolus.by

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Chocolate delights discovered today: chocolate chickens to buy, and Museums in Minsk and London

Where can you buy and try chocolate eggs, and chocolate chickens? Which came first, the chocolate chicken or the chocolate egg?

Chocolate hen and eggs, according to the ad in today's UK Metro newspaper, (which is free at London underground stations most mornings), £2.99 from Lidl supermarket. (The small print informs you: 250 grams, selected stores, £1.20 /100g.

Nestle Smarties Egg, an egg filled with Smarties, costs £1.50 for the (122g egg, but only £1.35 with a MyWaitrose card.

You can join and get a card from waitrose.com/mywaitrose - also 10% off Easter confectionery. Small print on their ad reads: Selected stores and lines. Offer ends March 22nd.

Asda's ad in yesterday's Metro suggested get egg-cited for Easter and offered three eggs for £10. The five varies are Mars and friends egg containing three bars, Snickers, Mars and Twix, £5 each 327g.
The Galaxy Minstrels contains three Minstrels. The Maltesers teasers contains three Teasers. The Twirl contains 2 Twirls (I needed a magnifying class to check the small print on the box, but the box picture accurately shows the number you receive). The Cadbury Heroes contains a variety of miniatures.  Click and collect ASDA.com/clickandcollect

If you want to visit a chocolate museum and cafe in London, England, there's one in Brixton, south London:
The Chocolate Museum

187 Ferndale Road, 

Brixton

London, UK SW9 8BA

United Kingdom
www.thechocolatemuseum.co.uk

Other chocolate museums are in Belgium, Belarus, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the USA and more countries. Just a few:

Choco-story, Bruges, Belgium.

Chocolate Museum, Minsk, Belarus.

Chocolate Museum, Minsk, Belarus. According to Metro, the Chocolate Museum in Minsk, Belarus asked visitors to stop eating the displays, otherwise there would soon by nothing left. Better visit it soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chocolate_museums
You can read reviews of chocolate museums on Tripadvisor.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons, chocoholic author, photographer, speaker.