 |
| Brocante |
What a good combo. Friends, food, wine and some of that culture type stuff. Could leave it at that really as it more or less sums up what we've been doing for the last few days. Although much is lost without the detail. So I'll keep writing. Note to self - today is Monday, tomorrow is Tuesday - otherwise I'll be a day out. Friday was an ordinary working day over here and not a holiday as in the UK. So all the shops were open as per usual.
Saturday we drove into Tours, early. Beautiful day. Found somewhere for breakfast (coffee and croissant) and then went for a walk. Discovered there's an enormous flower market every Saturday morning near to the town hall. We've not been to Tours on a Saturday before, so hadn't realised it was there. Absolutely great. Terrific range at very reasonable prices and of course on a gorgeously sunny day, it was just lovely strolling through. Then found our way to a terrific art-supplies shop, Plein ciel Cadres et Papiers for Mike, who was needing some origami paper for a workshop he's doing in Chinon. Slightly off the beaten track, but worth the trek as Mike found everything he needed. Then headed back towards the centre to La Boîte à Livre, our favourite bookshop. Absolutely great selection of books, but as I've mentioned before books here are incredibly expensive, even the paperbacks. But guess what - simply impossible to leave empty-handed. This time it was with a novel, a play and a magazine. The book is Le Collier Rouge by Jean-Christophe Rufin. One of the founders of Médecins sans Frontières, as well as a writer, he was amongst other things, the former French Ambassador in Senegal and is the President of Action Against Hunger. His career and experiences heavily influence his writing. The play was Savannah Bay by Marguerite Duras which we'd seen just the once, years ago at the Edinburgh Festival with our good friend Angie - in English. Quite wonderful and forever in my head. Now I have the play in French. The magazine is a special edition of Beaux Arts, dedicated to Henri Cartier-Bresson.
We'd actually come to Tours to meet up with a group of friends and go to an exhibition.
So next up was lunch at Le Turon in the Rue Colbert. Lovely bistro, very good food, very well priced and very friendly staff. Ten of us in all - a great time. Then we headed up to the Château de Tours, which is an excellent exhibition space. Always worth going. This time the main exhibition was - until comparatively recently unknown - the photography of Vivian Maier (1926-2009). An American of French/Hungarian extraction. She was a nanny, with an almost lost cache of over 100,000 images, which having been discovered have, posthumously, given her the deserved reputation as one of the most accomplished street photographers. Her black and white street images shot with a Rolleiflex camera, taken in New York and Chicago images are quite superb. The website link is in English and is excellent. It also contains under Film a trailer of the documentary made in 2013 about Vivian Maier's life and how her images were discovered. Quite extraordinary.
After such a great day in Tours, we headed back home for a brief visit. Got changed, sorted out a couple of plates of apèro type eats and some wine, and then walked down the road to our friends Nadia and Patrick who were driving us over to a mutual friend's Easter barbecue dinner party in Seuilly. A great crowd. Sixty of us in all. A mixture of French, American, Irish, English, German. Chris and his wife Moira come over from the States at various times during the year, the longest usually being in the summer. We saw them when they were last over in December. We went over for dinner with their family, friend Steve and Nadia and Patrick. It was just before they went for Christmas back in the States. They are generous hosts and brilliant barbecuers. Fortunately we'd been very careful at lunch time, otherwise we'd have exploded. Everyone had gone to town on the food, so it all looked good and was all quite delicious. Someone had got a Doodle link organised so that
we could all say what we were bringing, which ranged from appetizers,
vegetables, salads, cheeses, cakes and desserts. Various of his local friends had helped get everything set up as Chris only arrived back in France on April 17. Moira had had to stay in the States, but they're coming out again in June some time for about 10 weeks. All worked brilliantly. We caught up with friends we hadn't seen for a while and met some new faces. What a fabulous end to a glorious day.
We watched an 'eye-opener' of a film last night in Chinon. La Cour de Babel was made in 2013. It is a 'fly-on-the-wall' documentary filmed at the Granges-aux-Belles secondary school in the 10th arrondissement in Paris. The title is a play on the Tower of Babel/La Tour de Babel, with cour meaning playground. Cour also sounds like cours which translates as lessons.
The film focusses on a class of new young arrivals. New to France as well as the school. There were 24 students aged between eleven and fifteen years from 24 different countries. Each spoke a different language and had little or no French. In many instances, the cultures that the students had left were vastly different from each others, as well as from that of the country where the students and their families were planning to start new lives.
The new students were all together in a special 'class of welcome' which ran for twelve months, and aimed to immerse the students in the French language, so they could integrate and move on more easily within the French education system and ultimately embrace the French way of life.
The film followed the progress of the students from their arrival in the 'class of welcome' to their final day together, before dispersing full-time into the school's regular classes. Filming took place solely within the confines of the classroom where they had their French language classes. Glimpses of the students families only occurred when the parents or in some instances, guardians, came to the school to discuss their child's individual assessment with the French language teacher. These took place at various times during the year.
The students were very much cocooned in their group. You saw them only in their 'welcome' group, never with other teaching staff or students. The occasional overhead shot of the outdoor playground during breaks was used more to convey the sense of time passing through the seasons, than a measure of how the 'class of welcome' were integrating.
Some of the
parents/ guardians had been in France for a little while before the
children arrived. But whether they arrived separately or together, each
had a different reason for coming to France. For example, Xin from China had lived
with her grandmother there for ten years and hadn't seen her mother at all in that
time, until Xin joined her in Paris, where her mother was working in a
restaurant. Another girl and her family left Guinea because of their
resistance to female circumcision. A Jewish family had been persecuted
by a group of Serbian neo-nazis and had to get out. Growing up is
difficult enough without such traumas.
Over
the year the director, Julie Bertucelli captured the students
conversations, their conflicts, moments of enjoyment, their frank discussions
about politics and religion, their impressions of living in France, their struggles and successes. Fortunately she allowed the action to speak for itself. There was no attempt to heighten the drama. Gradually through their shared situation of being outsiders, the students bonded. They were also very well served and supported by the teacher, the wonderful Brigitte Cervoni. Such patience, such care and understanding, such skill. Highly experienced in teaching French to immigrant children, Brigitte Cervoni has co-authored a book on the subject.
This film serves a hommage to both the teacher and the students. It also serves as a timely reminder that in our increasingly aggressive and selfish world, we need fair, humaine and welcoming immigration policies.
Being the 100th anniversary of the birth of Marguerite Duras, we were treated last night to two films that were Duras from start to finish, one being an adaptation of a book and the other a screenplay.
Amant/The Lover (1992) is based on Duras's semi-biographical novel of the same name, and is beautifully written, played and at times explicit. I've put in two links to the two film trailers, one being for the French market and the other for the English market. The styles are very different. The French for me captures the sensuality and underlying passion, whereas the English version has to explain everything and as a result, it comes across as something more ordinary. At least, that's my reaction. The story is set in French IndoChina in the late 20s.
The second film was Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959). Quite mesmerising. Reviewed as a 'masterpiece' by the director Alain Resnais and we couldn't agree more. The trailer is of an age, so sound quality and visuals are a bit creaky. But the film version on tv had been recently restored and the quality as a result was fabulous. The story juxtaposes a French woman's experiences during WW2 with that of Hiroshima and the aftermath of the bombing. It's not at times easy to watch, with the two stories being presented in flashback. But it's immensely rewarding.
Just bought Seasons 1-3 of Spiral - a French tv police and legal drama series set in Paris. Word of mouth is that it's excellent. Darker than The Wire and the reviews are excellent. So thought we'd give it a try, mainly to move on from Commissaire Moulin, made back in the late 70's and is shown regularly on channel 17 here. Usually the performances are good, but the stories are a bit hit and miss. But a useful intro for us to French crime drama.
Just completed our first year, which is hard for us and everyone else to believe. Been a manic week. Films, talks, book club, an AGM with concert. Party tonight to celebrate a neighbour's birthday. There's a big nuclear protest tomorrow in Chinon, which is part of a coordinated plan in key cities in the region - may be across the country. Going to a gig tomorrow night, Sunday general gardening, tidying day at home and if it's nice hopefully a walk - we've friends dropping in for an overnight on their way to Spain, on Monday, so have booked a table for lunch at our L'Auberge. Went there for lunch during the week for our first birthday. Absolutely packed and very good. Any excuse if one is needed to go again.
We've more gigs coming up. One at the beginning of May and another at the end of June. Also now been asked to coordinate a WW1 project for some time in the autumn and the Christmas party for one of our Anglo/French groups. Mike has also been invited to participate in a Crafts demo in Chinon on 15 June, doing origami. It's in one of the main square - Place Mirabeau, which we always visit for bread, to pick up a paper and the deli. Mike had made origami decorations for some of the shops there, so was immediately thought of, for the crafts thing. We'll do it together, with me attempting to be his glamorous assistant! But it's really great to be involved and will be an excellent opp for meeting other people. Fingers crossed weather wise.
From now on the portes-ouvertes are in full swing. There are three that we're going to over Easter - some with neighbours and some on our own. We've a big party to go to that weekend as well, and there are various events lined up with one of our Anglo/French groups over the same weekend in Tours. Chinon Wine Fair is on 26 April, and a favourite wine producer has his the same day, so we're calling in there for lunch. 27 April another favourite wine producer is having a p.o. This time we're going with neighbours - so we're all having lunch there after having had a good look round the additional producers who will be on site and that afternoon, a 5/6 k walk round the village has been organised. These events are amazingly well put together. They are such fun, a lot of work of course, but the atmosphere is just great. I bumped into the girlfriend of another producer we know - Fabrice Dellalande - who coordinates the dinner (amongst other things) for St.Vincent. Mike had spotted him earlier in the week, measuring up the side. When I saw Evelyn this morning I asked if this was for St.Vincent next year, and it was. 1500 guests next time - so a bigger marquee, which all has to be planned and booked well in advance. These things always do.
Apart from sampling the local produce and catching up with neighbours and friends, the p-o's are also useful for me to get some photography done. Last phase of current diploma is underway, which I want to finish by the end of April. Like the p-o's this part is people and produce orientated. Timing couldn't be better.
One way or another life is pretty full on for us one year olds.
Should have found another title. When have we ever not had a good week. It has had it's moments of 'oh dear', when Mike's beloved Mac, died a sudden death. 2006 model, which in computer terms means positively geriatric. To the extent that the graphics card which had caused the problem was irreplaceable - from anywhere. And as always advances were such that no new software would work with it either. So expensive month for the cost of a new mac. Then of course the replacement software, which for Mike is essential - same price as the computer. Eek. Glass of wine needed. Anyway, the problems are in the process of being resolved. Although for the moment the taller Shearing has to use my computer, which is extremely annoying! But needs must for favourite person!
Went over to Thouars the other day to meet some newly made friends for a walk round and lunch. Haven't been over there before. Great market - quite extensive. There's also a indoor/covered market. So between the two of them, pretty much everything you might want could be found. On to a lovely brasserie for lunch, just a short walk from the market, and then we headed into a permanent exhibition about the resistance in the local region during world war two, as well as more national elements. A mixture of panels, films, objects, photos. Well presented and very informative. Very pleased we went. A really fun day.
Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the birthday of the wonderful Marguerite Duras. One of my favourite novelists for a long time, some of whose books I've only been able to read once, because their impact was so strong. She was also a cracking playwright. My friend Angie may remember the production of Savannah Bay that we saw together ages ago, at the Edinburgh Festival. It's never left my head. Interesting article about Marguerite Duras in La Nouvelle République last week, which I may well hang on to. Also had the pleasure of meeting her translator - Barbara Bray - in Paris one time, when we were working on a theatre project. Would imagine intellectually these two ladies were perfectly matched.
Have just been introduced to another French writer via my local book club. Sorj Chalandon. Every now and again, a book appears which is very very special. In this instance a book,
' . . .that renders war magnificently, but leaves a peaceful impression - that of a reader who has discovered a great book' (Le Magazine Littérraire)
I'm in the middle of reading Le Quatrième Mûr, which is in French and seemingly not available in English, although some of his other works are. Sorj Chalandon is a French journalist as well as a writer - he writes for the satirical magazine Le Canard enchaîné. From 1973 - 2007 he worked on Libération, covering events in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan. It is the Lebanon that provides the backdrop for this novel. Terrifying in places to the point where you almost can't breathe, L.Q.M. is also extremely moving, depicting individual courage and resiliance, sectarianism, cultural patrimony and in the process provides a window on the overwhelming complexity behind conflicts we constantly read about, sometimes for decades and which appear, unresolvable.
The starting point is Sam, a Jewish Greek refugee and theatre director who dreams of staging Jean Anouilh's Antigone, on a battlefield in the Lebanon, becomes terminally ill and passes the baton to a close French ally, Georges. I just don't want to get to the end. I sense that this will be another 'one-read 'book. The review in Les Echoes sums up the power of the writing perfectly as,
' . . . a cluster bomb that explodes in the reader's mind and is sure to haunt his memory long after.
The haunting has already begun.
Well the best thing we can say about the elections is that they're over. The socialists got hammered and there's been a significant swing to the right. The NF in some instances but just to the right in others. Whichever combination, it means the right wing lobby have strengthened their position. No doubt it will give some encouragement to their cohorts in the UK.
We were able to vote in the local elections for the first time and were delighted to be able to do so. We'd registered last year. We've had the house here for nearly 6 years, although for most of that time we were living our split life. Then last April - a year next week - we moved to this side of the channel. We've steadily got to know quite a few people and to recognise others, which in terms of the Cravant elections, means that we knew all the candidates on the list except for just two of the names. Cravant had one list as our population is under 1000, whereas bigger towns such as Chinon had three or more.
Back at the beginning of the year, there was a drink and a chat for the village with our mayor and team, in the salle de fête, where we were told that new regulations required everyone took a piece of identity with them when they went to vote. Duly noted and for us passeports were the obvious thing.
The day finally arrived. Down we went to the centre of Cravant fully kitted out with all the required documentation. The system in France is different! If you consider the British process, all the tellers, the people inside checking your name off etc. No candidate anywhere involved with the actual process. Here, it was the candidates themselves who were managing the voting process. So in we went into the salle, to be met by all the friendly faces of the candidates. Tried to present our passeports. Of course no one was interested as we all knew each other. It was the usual convivialité of kissing and handshaking. I felt ridiculously excited. Just couldn't stop grinning. Took our slips into the booths, marked them up, put them back in little blue envelopes, then went back to post in them in the votes box and a cheer went up. Everyone knew it was the first time we voted.
Essentially the candidates on our local list were all voted back on. Chinon however was a different story. Big swing to the right. The socialist vote fell back to about 25%. There seem to be various reasons for that. The anticipated disillusionment vote with Hollande. The socialists also fell out badly between themselves, splitting their own voting base. And then so we understand, a significant number of voters, were not prepared under any circumstances to vote for a female mayor. The socialists had fielded a woman.
So interesting and probably difficult times ahead.
Playing around with my surprisingly much loved Kindle, I came across the experimental heading in the menu,which opened up from the home page. I'm not sure how long I've had my Kindle, which is fact my second one, after Mike accidentally stood a chair on the last one and then sat down. No way a kindle could stand that type of assault, so Kindle 2 arrived and has survived.
The experimental heading covers Web Browser, Play MP3 which you can access directly from the same menu page, and then something called Text-to-Speech, which providing there isn't a rights issue enables the Kindle to you read your book to you.
At first I couldn't find how to turn Text-to-Speech on. But having found out, I was also very pleased to learn how to switch it off. My Kindle being an older version has the Text-to-Speech facility on the same page as screen rotation options. Don't know if it now features on the ordinary menu page of more recent versions of the Kindle, but anyway, first off I tried Wuthering Heights.
For Star Trek fans like me, there are loads of memorable quotations in all the films, but the text-to-speech experience reminded me particularly of McCoy in The Voyage Home, where he's in a hospital, dressed up as a doctor, and finds and elderly patient lying on a hospital bed in the corridor. 'What's the matter with you?' he asks. ' Kidney dialysis'. 'Kidney dialysis!' says McCoy.'What is this, the dark ages?".
Perfectly matches - at least for me - the quality of the Kindle text-to-speech experience. The dark ages of computer voice reproduction. Monotone expression, that completely ignores any punctuation and being computerised requires no breathing, so every sentence runs into the next. Then unfortunately, I tried Le Quatrième Mur, by Sorj Chalandon, which our bookclub is reading for our next meeting. Big mistake. All the above problems, but additionally, no French accent, terrible computerised pronunciation, with the words overlapping each other. Unintelligible at times. For example: guidé nos pas, becomes guided nose pad. Il était tout petit becomes El tout paddy.
Hilarious and excruciating at the same time. Sorry Kindle, but someone should have got in touch with Stephen Hawking's team.
Wordless for couple of weeks. Week 1: snivelling cold, sore throat, shitty weather - so didn't feel inspired to blog. Week 2: beautiful sunny days, photography, rehearsals, great films, occasional moments of socialising, strange dreams involving multi-coloured sheep - that's Mike not me, but one has to listen! No time to blog. Until now. Feeling around 95% of my usual self and voice is more or less back, except rehearsing for too long tires it out and I start to sound like Lou Reed. Visually of course there is no confusion. Gig is coming up at the end of March. Fingers crossed it goes as well as the last one. I'm singing my first complete song in French, which is making me twitch slightly, particularly as the artist known for the song, Zaz, is headlining just up the road from us at this year's Avoine Blues Festival.
Am enjoying getting back out to do some photography. I'm putting the finishing touches to my landscape photography diploma, which needs to be handed in at the end of April. Best time for pics has been late afternoon about 4.30pm. The sun has been low and a warm orange, and with all the impromptu reservoirs appearing from so much rain, there have been wonderful 'reflection shots' to take.
News on the domestic front is that Mike and I have achieved an equilibrium. This relates to glasses frames and has taken several decades to achieve. Some time ago when we were still in London, driving back to our house one evening in winter, I dropped Mike back home before going on somewhere. He got out of the car, shut the door, and I started to drive off - gently. Mike tapped the window and waved his arms around. I reversed back and wound down the window to hear what he was saying. He was trying to tell me that as he got out of the car, his glasses got knocked off. Unfortunately when I reversed to hear what he wanted to tell me, I ran over the glasses. Instant demolition!
Roll forward to yesterday. We're out and about. I saw a good site for some photos. We stopped and parked. I got out and wandered down to the river where some traditional boats were moored under some trees. Quite muddy and I was wearing the wrong type of shoes. Walked back towards the path, only to tread on a muddy patch and promptly fell flat on my face, while holding my precious camera up in the air, so as not to get it damaged. Didn't matter if I tore or broke anything else. My glasses went flying. Matching the colour of the pathway perfectly neither of us could see where the glasses had landed. Mike then moves. Crunch. I have to give it to him - stylishly done. No damage to the lenses, but the frames looked like triffids on speed. So we're finally even. One set of wrecked lenses each. This morning we went to the optician 'Krys' in Chinon. Explained what happened. They laughed. Twenty minutes later, I came out wearing my first pair of French frames with the lenses just slotted in. Brilliant service. Mike is slightly poorer, having gallantly offered to pay for the replacement!!
