Bravo Cravant - très très très bien fait!

Last weekend was the annual St.Vincent celebration in Cravant. Various nearby towns and villages have their own as well. It's not something unique to this village, but each is very different. I haven't got any photos to post. Normally I would have taken my smaller camera - but that got stolen in Paris. My other camera is bigger and too bulky to lug about at an all day party. So I'm photo-less.

This was the fifth St.Vincent we've been to. The first was probably around 2005. The venue then was the salle de fête in Cravant. A few people arrived for drinks and speeches, before  heading into the big marquee attached to the back of the building for a splendid lunch. There were 600 people that day. Eight years on to St.Vincent 2014 and there were around 1300 for lunch.

St.Vincent in Cravant has become a big operation and expectations are always very high. There are three parts to the celebration. The lunch, followed by wine tastings, followed by a buffet and dance. Sounds straightforward? It's extremely complex. Fortunately Cravant's organising committee - le comité de fête - knows exactly what it's doing. This year they surpassed themselves.

Work on site started on the Wednesday. In the lead-up to the Saturday, a very splendid marquee was erected in a large field just off the village centre opposite the football pitch;   portable loos were set-up. Inside the marquee a wooden floor was put in, heating, lighting, sound system, a raised stage area and floral decorations. Chairs and tables obviously, which given it's silver service all the way, were beautifully laid up.  A large kitchen was installed in another marquee which was attached to the main marquee. The same caterers have been supplying the event for a few years now. The chef/traiteur is Bernard Tardivon. Quite simply he and his team are superb. 

The committee has continuously raised its game over the years with regards to St.Vincent. Every time we've gone, we've known we'd have a good time. But this year the quality was different. Why?  It's hard to pin it down to one thing. But every aspect was classy. There's a clear strategy at work to establish St. Vincent at Cravant as a high profile event. And it has succeeded, which is good for the village as a whole. There were probably as many visitors (if not more) from outside Cravant than in, with quite a few coming for the first time. This year has set a very high bar for the follow-up and for 2015, the talk is of 1500 people.

Menu photo courtesy Di Harvie

Our friends Di and Tony came over specially from the UK and met some of our neighbours. There were eight of us going together. We all met round at the house of our friends Jacqueline and Norbert at 11am for a glass of fizzy - just to get us going! Then we walked down to the site. Weatherwise it was ideal. Dry.

Lunch began at around 1.45pm. On the tables were rosé and red wines, supplied by local vignerons, and some of that - what d'ya call it - that see-through wet stuff. Of course! Water! With each course came a special wine, also supplied by local vignerons. The menu was divine. Delicious apéros, amuse bouches, carpaccio of St. Jacques, poire william sorbet, duckling and foie gras, gorgeous cheeses, beautiful desserts. It was all bang on. Fantastic! Simply stunning in flavour, creative in presentation and cooked to perfection. 

In between courses there was live entertainment: traditional local songs for which the words were provided - rousing stuff this singing together; a music trio who played two or three sets, a tombola (each table won two prizes) and a comedian. For us the comedian is always more difficult - loads of slang at speed. This time the comedian was an impressionist, singing as well as word jokes. He was simply brilliant. The impersonation of Mr. Holland - well I thought everyone was going to burst. He got a standing ovation at the end - totally deserved. 

I think the meal finished about 9.00pm. Not sure. If I say I can't remember, there'll be loud sniggering. But I can't remember because I was having such fun, time became irrelevant. Then everyone left for the wine tastings. While everyone was away, the layout in the marquee was changed round for the buffet and dance. For the meal, the tables had stretched the full length of the marquee. Now they were moved to the sides, leaving a large dance area in the middle, with a line of tables across the back wall, where the buffet and wine were to be laid out. Music was provided by a five-piece band who were really really good. In the meantime us punters were visiting four wine producers from Cravant and Panzoult. In order: Fabrice Gasnier, Jean-Louis Loup, Chauveau (Pallus) and Beauséjour. Buses had been laid on to safely ferry us around to each of the estates in relay. That way there were never too many people in one place. It was such fun. The atmosphere was hilarious on board with loads of singing and messing around.  We got back to the marquee around midnight and then just spent the rest of the night dancing around, having something to eat and drink. Not sure what time we got in, 2.30/3am maybe. I don't think it finished till 4am.

Part of a successful event is finding sponsors and in that respect St.Vincent attracts good support. Put it this way, the tickets for the St.Vincent event, which includes absolutely everything was Euros 81 or approximately £67 per head. Quite extraordinary. 

St. Vincent is impossible to 'train' for. In fact this year was the first time we'd got round the whole thing. It's a seriously long day, with loads of food and drink. But every part of it is so well paced that you can just keep going.  No problem. What a fantastic experience.

Bravo to the team!

Revisited: The first and hopefully not the last

The gang

Last October we were invited to help with a vendange. It was a smaller scale family affair over in a village called Bournande. The link is to the original blog - just as a reminder, particularly of what happened at the end. Thank goodness I had a spare pair of M&S knickers.

A few days ago we had some photos emailed to us. We'd seen our friends recently who live in Bournande and wanted to know if we'd received any images. We hadn't so they got in touch with the family and suddenly the photos arrived.  So dreading the response!  However - here they are. . .




Vendange Familiale at Bournande - October 2013

out in the vines

it's getting heavy

treading the grapes

love is treading grapes 2gether

conviviality!!!

Roll on 2014!!

The Digital Activist

Is it easier to become an activist these days? Hadn't really considered it before, until I read an article the other day from the director of the Digital Activism Research Project - an organisation which,  'investigates the global impact of digital media on political contention'. 

I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise that there is such a thing. Every new trend has to be researched, analysed to PHD level. The team behind this outfit are young high-flyers with academic credentials to match, headed up by a professor from the University of Washington and other educational establishments.

Technology certainly appears to make it easier to get a campaign up and running.
There isn't a day goes by without something popping up, on Facebook particularly, requiring a 'signature' to support an urgent petition. And I'm happy to be able to do it.
I want to believe that as individuals we can still make a difference.  Given the nature of digital media, mobilisation runs into millions. I guess sometimes billions. It's a powerful collective voice. And we need it to be. And the range of issues are quite extraordinary.
 
When it comes to matters of social injustice, I am a total convert to digital activism. It's an effective means not just of making a protest, but sustaining it. And that couldn't be better.
If the result is that our leaders are constantly jolted out of their indifference and us punters are constantly jolted out of our complacency - then all I can say is - bring it on!
 

Goodwill Hunting

On this occasion, not the film. Although we have it on DVD and know it more or less frame by frame. Instead it's the topic for our café philo meeting next week. Or at least the goodwill part is. The group meets once a month with someone different leading the discussion each time. For the first session of 2014 it's me.

It takes a little while to prepare for one of these. At least for me. Having got the subject, I then to have think round it in English, pulling key points together to give the discussion a kick-start before trying to translate it into French, which is interesting in itself. 

Finding the expression in another language which conveys precisely the same meaning as in your own, isn't always easy. One of our friends who is a fluent French speaker was talking about the problems the daughter of a French friend of hers was having. The daughter is anorexic and had been given a series of questions to answer, one of which asked if she had a problem with how she eats. It was an oddly phrased question which used the verb manger. In English manger refers to the act of eating. The daughter got very confused apparently and didn't know how to answer the question. Whereas what she was actually being asked was about her diet, which to our ears should have been alimenter - to feed/nourish. So I have to watch out, although at these discussions, surrounded by French friends, there is always someone willing to suggest the right thing if I get myself in a knot.

Good will or la bonne volonté is far more interesting than I thought it was going to be.  We've just celebrated the  'season of goodwill', which are often how Christmas and New Year are described, even if it sounds like a special offer. "From December to January get your goodwill here". But of course as a concept it is in operation all the time . . somewhere!

Goodwill is certainly a well-used noun. We expect to find the spirit of goodwill within the family, amongst colleagues and between friends. There are at least 171,000 charities in the UK and apparently 600,000 that aren't as yet registered. Alongside paid staff, there is also an army of volunteers. According to the NCVO UK Civil Society Almanac, during the year 2010/11, 39% of adults in England said they volunteered at least once a year. That apparently numbers 19.8 million people and accounts for an awful lot of goodwill. How many volunteers were involved with the London Olympics? From what I've read, 70,000.

Business and accounting carry their own definition and methodology relating to goodwill. There are a lot of community projects and other support groups that have incorporated goodwill into the title of their organisation. If you're a goodwill donor you'll probably need the services of the Goodwill Valuation Guide. As to philosophical debate, well there are various trains of thought, but Kant I suppose is the front-runner, describing goodwill as being intrinsically good, whereas other aspects of human nature have a value under certain conditions and can be used for good and evil.

Is goodwill innate? Is it more to do with social conditioning? While the intention might be to do good, it might not be received in that way. Depending on the context, the individuals concerned and the way the goodwill is applied, there could be occasions where it is viewed as bordering on the interfering.

Goodness itself is a profound and ancient belief, existing across generations and cultures.  In that context goodwill is also a well established political strategy, which has existed as part of government ever since diplomacy arrived. Although at home and abroad, certain aspects of imperial history as well as our international present, make you wonder if governments and their officials even know how to spell the word. At moments of crises we see the better nature of political goodwill, governments and agencies working together. So many international organisations have Goodwill Ambassadors. They are a particular feature within the United Nations System which includes Unicef, Unesco, the World Health Organisation. The complete list is here.

It's clear, at least to me, that goodwill is such an important part of our way of life and so diverse in its application, that I'm not sure society could function without it.

Finding a new approach

There just aren't enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do, not without using up an awful lot of electricity. This logistical problem is one that I've been wrestling with for years. It's not even something the supermarkets can help with. 'Spend £100 in-store and claim an extra fours hours of natural daylight on your chosen day - valid until 12/12/14'.  Nice thought though. I wish.

I've been trying to catch-up on some reading you see. There's all the stuff on the kindle that I've downloaded, complete books as well as samples, fact and fiction. Then there are the art magazines from the UK, which we had redirected as we're members of various organisations and political mags which are my thing really. Then there are the French newspapers, books, magazines. I go into overdrive.  I start reading with pencil in hand, poised to mark-up all the new links, titles, names etc., that I inevitably come across and just have to check out. There's something about being insatiably curious that is extremely irritating.

I'm in the middle of reading a supplement called The Shifting Power Dynamic. Sounds very dry and worthy but it's fascinating, revealing and unsettling.  Contributions come from politicians, diplomats, academics, various think tanks, international agencies. So a broad knowledge/experience base from which emerge a series of perspectives about politics and the world stage.  The supplement is divided  into sub-groups such as International Relations, Global Diplomacy, Control and Influence. There's also a book list at the back. I'm only on page 10 of this wretched supplement and already there are crosses, underlinings, exclamation marks on every page of things to follow up. Hopeless!

The introduction is by Paddy Ashdown who discusses the age of global interdependence we have embarked on. He's given a TED Talk on the subject. Haven't got round to watching it yet, but it will no doubt be an indepth version of the article I've just finished. 

One of the key themes throughout the supplement is that government as we know it is no longer the solution; that it remains resolutely stuck in the past; that Ministers and Civil Servants are far more interested in preserving their budgets, defending their payrolls and protecting the territorial integrity of their individual departments.  Networking is deemed a threat and not viewed as an opportunity. Networking  of course matters. 

Ashdown cites as an example for failure in Afghanistan, the international community's failure to network.  As a result there was no coordinated plan, just the inability of nations to work together  and their refusal to speak and act with a single purpose.  His real attention grabbing point is that in this day and age where '. . .everything is connected to everything
 . . .we increasingly share a destiny with our enemy.'

The concept of living together is not a new concept. But as Ashdown explains it, whereas in the past it was more a question of morality, for our times it is more a question of our survival.

A drink with the Mayor

There were a lot of people packed into the salle de fête last Saturday night for the annual drink with the mayor, It always happens at the beginning of the new year, although not normally being here at this time, we hadn't realised. Don't know how many Cravantais there were, but it was heaving. We walked down with our neighbours Jacqueline and Norbert and caught up with some others inside. It was a very useful evening - one good networking opp. Suddenly realised how many people we now know, how many we recognise and there were some people we've never even seen before. Spotted around eighteen wine producers and various festival committee members and hunt committee members, Some people are on both. Wines and fizzy supplied by various wine producers as always and terrific food as always. It's done with real style, but of course everyone is used to it or perhaps expects the quality.

Not sure if Cravant viewed 2013 as a particularly difficult year weather wise compared to others. From our point of view, it seemed to have had some difficult moments, particularly with the flooding.In his address to the collected group of villagers in his review, there was a huge amount of repair work to be done. Cravant is looking good again. Both our 'home' towns have a bad time. In Bradford on Avon some restaurants lost their entire Christmas and New Year trade. That's a devastating blow and not one you can easily recover from. The Fat Fowl that is in prime position in the centre of town, which we often go to, had a metre of water inside and is now shut for the foreseeable future, while repairs are done. They want flood defences put in understandably. Financially it's an awful position to be in.

So with the village apéro party, festivities have really come to a close. The next big event will be at the end of this month with the annual St. Vincent 'do'. It's already sold out. There's a bigger marquee this year thank goodness. It's really built up a fantastic reputation over the years. Takes a huge amount of organising, which the festival committee are used to. But it's maintaining the quality of the event that's so important. We have British friends coming over for St. Vincent this year, which we're really pleased about. It will be a great day - given it starts about 12.30 and doesn't finish till about three or four in the morning.

Words from abroad

We so rely on journalists and Foreign Correspondents for what we see and understand from 'over there'. That daily feed which skillfully deciphers and interpretates from every part of the globe.

I hadn't realised that Hitchcock had made a film in 1940 called Foreign Correspondent, which tells the story of an American reporter, who tries to expose enemy spies in Britain. It involves a continent-wide conspiracy, which eventually leads to war. The film was up for an Academy Award in 1941 along with Hitchcock's Rebecca, which ultimately snatched the title of Best Picture. In his article from a couple of years back, Timothy Garton Ash suggests that although the days of the Foreign Correspondent are over, as Waugh satirised them in his novel Scoop, the craft remains a necessary one. The life also remains a hazardous one.

Reporters Without Borders campaigns vigorously for international press freedom while the Committee to Protect Journalists continues to fight for the protection of journalists worldwide. Both organisations bring the reality of reporting into sharp focus, and the struggles and dangers that can be encountered. 107 journalists and assistants were killed in the course of their work in 2011; 141 killed in 2012 (37 in Syria and 19 in Somalia); 129 killed in 2013. Out of that last figure, 39% of the casualties were in a war zone. A five year summary from the Press Emblem Campaign, covering 2009 - 2013 lists in total 609 journalists killed, which averages out at 122 a year or 1 every 3 days. As of Tuesday 7 January 2014 two journalists have already been killed in this new year.

I'm in the middle of reading China's War with Japan 1937 - 1945 by Rana Mitter. Modern China fascinates and disturbs. I wanted to understand its attitude towards Japan, which appears increasingly turbulent, and China's relationship with the rest of the international community. I came across a review of Mitter's book in The Guardian which suggested there was 'no better guide'.  It makes for a riveting read. Rana Mitter is professor of history and politics of modern China at Oxford University. A brilliant academic who is an equally brilliant storyteller, he effortlessly explains the internal politics and key political personalities in China during this time, along with the role the major powers played in the upheaval.

Du Zhong Yuan (1895 - 1943) was one of China's best-known war time journalists and reported in great detail on the Japanese invasion of China. Mitter describes Du's style of reporting in detail, but also examines the climate in which Du worked. How he 'haggled for rides on military convoys or hitched rides' and suggest that while Du was 'clearly having the time of his life',  he was also 'exhilarated and shocked in equal measure by all the carnage of people and place, that he saw. In the 30s China had a rich and lively press culture, rather than a nationwide broadcasting network. Du's experiences across the country went into detail, in an attempt to explain precisely what was going on to the Chinese people. The deprivations and hair-raising experiences that Du endured were the same as every shopkeeper and peasant, soldier and government official. So Du's writing was understood and empathetic. 

In her paper Report the Nation: Understanding the Role of Foreign Correspondents in 21st Century Public Diplomacy, Cristina Archetti (Lecturer in Politics and Media) suggests that although FCs ' . . shape a country to the eyes of foreign audiences every day through their reporting . . .their role tends to be neglected by both policy makers and researchers." If she's correct, it seems an extraordinarily blinkered approach and a dreadful waste.


Footnote: link to working conditions in China for journalists today