Things are Looking Up for Vincent Van Gogh

An Authoress of our acquaintance is working on a book dealing with the time that Vincent Van Gogh spent in an asylum near Saint-Remy, France.  He was there for a year, starting soon after he cut off his left ear.  This is considered the most productive period of his career.  Many of his most famous works including Starry Night were produced while an inmate there.

The Authoress is heading down there for a visit, and I was happy to report to her that I had already been there on a trip some years ago, and had toured the Saint-Paul Asylum while there.  It is a quiet and contemplative place, but did contain one jarring scene.

When our little party of travelers visited the room in which Van Gogh received his hydrotherapy treatments we saw this:

All of us had the same mental image flash, one that I should think would be universal among anyone exposed to the United States advertising market:

Hmmmm.  This ad for Cialis seems to have been based on something.  But the guy in the ad still seems to have his left ear so it might just be a coincidental similarity.

But happy travels S, and hope you find great material for the book.  I offer no apologies for the double entendre of this post title, you heard lots worse during your time down in the excavation trench with a bunch of muddy guys!