Festival Django Reinhardt

Marie has come up from the south of France hailing the talents of Josele - so we're off to see him today at the annual Django Reinhardt Festival at Samois-sur-Seine.

UPDATE: We were underwhelmed by Niño Josele - a fine,even superb, flamenco musician, but somewhat mis-programmed for this festival - but, overall, a very good time as there were all sorts of "pick up" groups playing in the "off" areas near the stands. We plan to come back for next year's 27th annual festival!

North to South...

Late start this morning after having slept over at Denis' Montmartre apartment. Major decompression day as it took over 5 hours to get home - due to: strolling down rue des Abbesses for my Canard Enchaîné; then a bus to Montparnasse for a quick visit to the remodeled Inno and Go Sport for new running togs - yes! I am going start running again ...and boring you all with my training; then stopped by to whistle up to Alison and invite her out from a café on rue Daguerre where we were joined by Benjamin and ran into Pascale.

Off to an art expo tonight for our friend and neighbor Eva - see her work here. More on that later.

Sans Sucre S'il Vous Plaît ...

After a very nice dinner with our friends Jacques & Dominique (at Vanves) we were walking back in the rain when, a couple of blocks from home, at Le Laurier we heard a young woman singing inside and, of course, decided to get a night cap. What a wonderful voice and attitude - her name is Pauline Paris, her CD was sold out and she's playing again soon (I'll add an update here when I know exactly where). You can hear her singing some of her songs here ... and there's a short video at the title link above. Enjoy - we did!

French Parliamentary Elections (round 1)

Today is the first round of the French legislative elections to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic - 7639 candidates are standing for 577 seats, including overseas possesions of France.

We voted mid-afternoon and then ambled over to the flea-market on avenue Edgar Quinet where Odile picked up a nice chair and a necklace. I only wanted to have some churros (you can see the stand in the distance).