Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Meet the inhabitants.




Here are some internal views of the previous houses. They may or may not be in the same order. Photos appear randomly as far as I can make out. No photos were allowed in the third building so I've posted a garden view.

The top photo here is a view of the Long Gallery at the château de Chenonceau as it extends over the River Cher. The alcoves now contain conifer trees as Louis XIV whipped the original statues off to Versailles. It was in this château that Mary Queen of Scots married the Dauphin, who was later crowned François II of France.

The Italianate garden is at Le Clos-Lucé, Amboise. Leonardo da Vinci walked around this garden, inventing mechanical solutions to military and civil engineering problems. He had brought his favourite paintings with him from Italy by mule, including the Mona Lisa and the Holy Grail ... no , I made that last bit up. Don't start me on Dan Brown.

The green and red nightmare décor was familiar to Balzac, who wrote Le Père Goriot at this house in Saché. No wonder he was a coffee addict with that colour scheme.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

....so who lived in a house like this?




Here are three very grand houses we visited last week: one was lived in by a beautiful red-haired queen, one was the last home of a genius and the third was host to a coffee-swilling author (because his mother was having an affair with the owner!). Any ideas ?

Let's go through the keyhole and find out who lived in a house like this.

Monday, May 29, 2006

So nice to come home to ..


After 4 days away being force-fed cream sauces and desserts, it is a welcoming meal of beans on toast that we enjoy on our return home to Paris. We have been to the Loire Valley, where restaurants serve you 3 extra courses on top of the 2 courses you actually order. This plateload arrived as we'd finished our dessert and yes, there is a crème brûlée and a warm moelleux au chocolat amongst other delights.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Style AND cakes ....


Food shops in Paris are generally little gems. There are few utilitarian-looking businesses, as appearance is everything. Window displays are works of art, colour co-ordination and imagination. This is a reflection of the French philosophy that, if you don't make an effort to present yourself to your best advantage, then you are just plain stupid. And look what happens as a result..... shops that are so beautiful you have to go in and buy a cake.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

You couldn't make this stuff up........




Off to the Races!

Race day at Longchamp started seamlessly as we walked 300 metres to the free and frequent shuttle bus service to the racecourse. Everyone was given a free-entry voucher as we got off the bus. The grounds were immaculate. All was lush greenery and tasteful flowerbeds.

As it was our first visit to a French race course and my first ever visit to any race course, we spent half an hour reading the programme, studying how to put on a bet, memorising the vocab. Then it was off to the parade ring to study the horses.
Ah yes, this was more like it. Frisky, shiny thoroughbreds and mini men.

My criteria for best bets were the usual.... Best name, best colours (nothing too garish), best mane and best number. It had to be "Strive", no 4, in pink and green. Right, off to the bookies' counter to place the bet ... but they were not open.... How does this work, then? Perhaps in another part of the building..?

Then the shouting broke out. For some reason the horses and riders weren't making it through to the track. What was all the noise and milling about in aid of? Ah yes, of course! The bookies and counter clerks were on strike! They were not working on Sunday as a protest, on my behalf apparently, against deteriorating race course conditions and automatic betting machines, which I discovered I was also not in favour of. On hearing that it was impossible to place a bet, 100 hard-core punters - the rolled-up newspaper brigade- had staged a "mouvement social" and blockaded the passageway from paddock to track to stop any racing at all. How French was this!?

Everyone joined in: jockeys (you will all recognise Thierry Gillet), TV crews, course managers, spectators. How long was this going to go on for? Should we make our way home? The French are amazingly accepting of strikes and demonstrations. They shrug their shoulders and carry on as normal. They know that, as sure as eggs is eggs, they themselves will be on strike within the next 10 months and they hope for the same discreet approval in their turn.
At Longchamp, parents queued up patiently with their children for the Shetland pony rides or sat around eating picnics. It was a real family day out - one of the very few places in Paris that children can run about with grass under their feet.

TWO HOURS later.... the racing began....and what do you think....?

Strive won in a photo finish. 30 euros to me !!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Another morning spent painting ...



I'm falling in love with Paris..... I think getting up early has something to do with it.

Our Art class was held in the Jardin du Luxembourg, on my direct metro line more or less. The park is just lovely, early on in the day. Right now the greens are fresh and clean. The horse chestnuts are in bloom and the recent rains have rinsed the air and the paths.

Due to huge public demand, I have attached two of my oeuvres for the day and you will all recognise the statue of George Sand and a naked lady putting her hand in the Mouth of Truth and looking very smug about it.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Bank Holiday weekend



We don't go away for long Bank Holiday weekends as the traffic is horrendous in both directions. Instead we nip out for a day here and there and this time we chose extremely well. We went to Milly-La-Forêt and Courances just 40 minutes south of Paris.

Milly is famous as the home of Jean Cocteau and he is buried in a little chapel (originally a lepers' chapel) just outside the town but this was closed for lunch when we visited...... This is the house he lived in for the last 17 years of his life.

We had lunch in Milly in a restaurant typically French in its treatment of foolish non-smokers. Never accept a table in a no-smoking area. It is invariably in the darkest , dankest recesses of the building next to the toilets.
Prefer to sit by the window and gamble on eating more quickly (a dead cert) than your French neighbours so you can pay up and leave before they light up after their first course. Where do you think non-smokers were placed in our little restaurant?

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Tulips and légionnaires


The Parc de Vincennes outing was a great success. The weather was perfect - bright but high thin cloud and a freshness in the air. In fact, we didn't see the sun all morning. At 10.00 a.m. the park was empty apart from lots of infant school groups.

There were areas of glades, formal borders, grassy banks, shady paths and the tulips. Unfortunately the tulips were in officially segregated boxed ranks but they are one of my favourite flowers so I had a go at painting them. Not successfully, of course, but it whetted my appetite to paint some more.

To get to the park, I walked past the barracks of .... The Foreign Legion! A phalanx of légionnaires (no.... no képis with a handkerchief hanging out the back) jogged towards me and they all looked disappointingly scrawny and unimpressive. It must have been new recruits. I hope they'll cope.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Allez Monoprix!


After a wet, cool holiday weekend the weather is building up to a heatwave tomorrow, just when I am due to start my open air painting course. We go to the Parc de Vincennes way over to the east of Paris. I have never been there but I hope it's more interesting than the Bois de Boulogne which is just a series of grassy traffic islands separated by a car-racing track. Vincennes appears to have lots of pavillions and we are painting in the Peony Pavillion.
I needed to buy a folding stool and popped into my local Aladdin's cave of a Monoprix just in case.... and blow me, if they didn't have the perfect, lightweight, folding stool for 4 euros! I just love that shop.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Truman Capote


We went to see the film"Truman Capote" (as it is called in France) this wet May Day weekend.
Philip Seymour Hoffman gave a great performance. His Capote was sensitive and manipulative at the same time and his voice, a kind of nasal high-pitched drone, never faltered.
There was no conflict in the film. All the characters respected each other's viewpoint and integrity. No voice was raised, no fights broke out. The criminals smiled at the journalist and shook hands with the sheriff. The journalist had quiet telephone conversations with his boss. The tone was so subdued that I can't remember clearly if the film was in colour or just shades of sepia. And these are my excuses for dozing off for 10 minutes two thirds of the way through.

To Honfleur


This weekend is a Bank Holiday weekend in France as well as England. We left early to beat the Parisian exodus traffic and spent the day in Honfleur, a picturesque harbour town in Normandy.

Coquilles St Jacques

Grilled sea bass
Tarte Tatin with a dishful of double cream
A bottle of Chablis

Horrible.