At the National Gallery, London to see highlights of the Renaissance collection.

Jan van Eyck ‘The Arnolfini Portrait’ (1434)

Botticelli ‘Venus and Mars’ (c.1485)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Doge Leonardo Loredan’ (1501 – 02)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Virgin of the Rocks’ (1491 – 1508)

Raphael ‘Madonna of the Pinks’ (1506 – 07)

In Toulouse to see the impressive Fondation Bemberg exhibition, the personal collection of the wealthy Argentine Georges Bemberg (1915–2011). It is an extremely eclectic collection of paintings from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

Lucas Cranach ‘Venus and Cupid’ (c. 1530)

Paul Gauguin ‘Head of a Young Boy’ (1888)

Henry-Edmund Cross ‘La Chaine des Maures’ (1906 – 07)

Maurice de Vlaminck ‘Still Life with Fish’ (1907)

Paul Serusier ‘Fern Harvesters in the Bois d’Armour’ (c.1910)

At the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris for the ‘Icons of Modern Art – Sergei Shchukin’ exhibition. The exhibition shows 130 works on loan from museums in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, one of the most significant collections of modern art of the early twentieth century, with works by Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, Cézanne, Rousseau and Derain. It is incredible that one man could have built such a collection as Sergei Shchukin and it must have been devastating to lose it when it was appropriated by Lenin after the Russian Revolution.

Claude Monet ‘Dejeuner sur l’Herbe’ (1866)

Paul Gauguin ‘What, Are you Jealous?’ (1892)

Pablo Picasso ‘Portrait of Soler’ (1903)

Henri Matisse ‘Red Room (Harmony in Red)’ (1908)

Kazimir Malevich ‘Woman with a Rake’ (1930 – 32)

At the Musée d’Orsay, Paris for the exhibition ‘Frédéric Bazille: The Youth of Impressionism’. Bazille was a key figure at the birth of Impressionism, but he died tragically at the age of only 28 during the Franco-Prussian War.

Frédéric Bazille ‘Réunion de Famille’ (c.1867)

Frédéric Bazille ‘La vue de Village’ (1868)

Frédéric Bazille ‘Summer Scene’ (1869)

Frédéric Bazille ‘Jeune femme aux Pivoines’ (1870)

At the Louvre in Paris to view the Italian and Northern Renaissance collections.

Giotto ‘Saint Francis receiving the Stigmatization’ (c.1295 – 1300)

Fra Angelico ‘Coronation of the Virgin’ (c.1430 – 32)

Paolo Uccello ‘The Battle of San Romano’ (c.1435 – 40)

Andrea Mantegna ‘Saint Sebastian’ (c.1480)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Portrait of Lisa Gherardini’ (c.1503 – 19)

Jan van Eyck ‘Madonna of Chancellor Rolin’ (c.1435)

Rogier van der Weyden ‘Annunciation’ (c.1434)

Jan Provoost ‘Allegory of Christianity’ (1510 – 15)

Hans Memling ‘Portrait of an Old Woman’ (1470 – 72)

R.I.P Leonard Cohen, who has died aged 82.   I was introduced to his music when I was a teenager by the wonderful ‘Songs of Leonard Cohen’ album and to his writing by his novel ‘Beautiful Losers’.

I was lucky enough to be able to see him live on his famous 1979 tour, backed by the excellent Texas band ‘Passenger’, and immortalized on the ‘Field Commander Cohen’ album. He was a wonderful songwriter and poet.

At the impressive Château de Biron in the Dordogne department of France for the exhibition ‘The Messengers. Masterpieces from the Maeght Foundation’.

Château de Biron

Joan Miró ‘The Birth of Day I/III’ (1964)

Alberto Giacometti ‘Grande tête’ (1960)

Georges Braque ‘Hymen’ (1939 – 57)

R.I.P. Bobby Hutcherson, amazing jazz vibraphonist, who has died at the age of 75.

He was responsible for some of my favourite Blue Note albums, including ‘Happenings’, ‘The Kicker’ and ‘Dialogue’, as well as appearing on seminal albums such as  Eric Dolphy’s ‘Out To Lunch’, Lee Morgan’s ‘The Procrastinator’ and Jackie McLean’s ‘One Step Beyond’. He influenced generations of musicians as both composer and performer.

Exploring the Landes department in south-west France, staying at the excellent Château de Bétan in Beylongue.

An extremely enjoyable performance of ‘The Comedy of Errors’ in the delightful Quercy village of Lherm in south-west France.