ClustrMaps - Visitors to "Los JOP" blog

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Eva @ Cachan


The town of Cachan, just south of Paris, has the opening of their 20th Art Bienal tonight. Our friend Eva has several works on display.

For those Dear Readers in France: if you're free and want to drop in for some fine "land art" type works please let me know and I'll get you an invite. See you there!

UPDATE: A great turnout for this interesting show - with Eva's works (see photos below) being very well admired. A tip of the hat to another work, of animation - entitled Bâmiyân, by Patrick Pleutin that we liked a great deal (see him at work here). Over 60 artists are exposed and the expo runs until June 30 so stop by if you are nearby.










Visit Eva's website at: www.bony-tourtoglou.net

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

La fête des voisins


PLANNED: click title

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Entre les murs


The film adaptation of the book "Entre les murs" has just won this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes. It was produced by our friend Fanchette's son, Alexis - bravo mon p'tit !

Which film do you recommend to us, dear Reader? Just leave a post here.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Manifestations pour la défense des retraites

We marching,this afternoon, in the big manifestation unitaire starting from Bastille at 3pm.

UPDATE: I was met by Dominique, Jacques, Winky and Joel on the steps of the Opéra to take part in what, for me, turned out to be a rather lackluster "manif" - fewer people than I'd expected and a low "energy level" (maybe because most of us were over 50? Alas, lost youth!) - after a couple of hours of start-stop marching we stopped to have drinks at a bistro near Saint-Sebastien - Froissart then we dispersed.

For dinner at home we had Myriam (back from visiting her friend in Puy-de-Dôme), Fanchette (who's responding well to her treatments), Florence (who showed up with a stapler a patient's little boy had taken apart - we had fun figuring out how to put it back together - good idea for a party game) and also Benjamin came over (after a week in Korea).

Benj was kind enough to bring us a bottle of Dong Dong Ju (in its charming plastic bottle). Dong Dong Ju is a rustic rice wine (emphasis on the "rustic"). It's milky white and a little bit sweet, but not too sweet. Benj tells me they usually serve it up in big bowls, which you then ladle into smaller bowls for drinking. It's not that strong, really, but if you drink a lot of it then it supposedly gives you a warm and happy buzz with just a little bit of CRAZY thrown in. I didn't know better so I had brought out tiny shot glasses to serve us - next time BOWLS!

We had a nice discussion over coffee (OK, OK and more Dong Dong Ju!) about cremation and disposing of ashes in France. Also the rights of burying someone on your own property. How'd we end up on those topics? Maybe I'll hold off on those bowls for the DDJ!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

"Du vent dans les branches"


I came across this expo (Artsénat 2008) in the Jardin du Luxembourg on my run this afternoon - the image is of a work by Faz. The expo runs until September 21 for those of you who'll be coming soon.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Happy Saint Yves Day


I walked down the street to our "Comedia" Square where the 14th arrondisement's Bretons (and wannabes) were gathered for today's Fest-Yves Gouel Erwan - bagpipes galore, much dancing and lots of cider and crepes. Fun for all! Next year I'll come earlier and stay longer.


Saturday, May 17, 2008

La Nuit des Musées OR Les P'tits Rocks

Well, the idea of staying up all (or most) of the night going from museum to museum (I had a hit-list of 18 interesting spots) was pre-empted by our friends Dominique & Jacques dropping over in the early evening and us all deciding to go to have dinner at Jimmy Le Watt's nearby.

To our surprise the place was packed and a pick-up band of 12-year-olds were wailing away (impressively) on old rock standards (both French and American). High energy, fairly saavy musically and good looks - we were probably at the genesis of the new Rolling Stones (I askd - they call their group "Les Petits Rocks").

Just so you can enjoy a bit of their gig here, below, is a short clip I shot.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Lundi de Pentecôte

We're heading up to Saint-André de Valborgne for the day. Some hiking, some lunching, some fun!

UPDATE: Little hiking, fine lunching, more drinking and talk of caviar (no, we didn't have any ... but did you know it is also produced in France? Yes! See here.)

Lots of kilometers on winding, not to say very twisty, roads ( see below) up from Saint-Jean-du-Gard (where Anne our friend lives - sadly she was not home when we stopped by).

Dinner, en trio, with Jean-Yves followed by viewing the French film "Les Côtelettes" (strange - but then aren't most French film strange for me?) ... where's the action?! Anyway, Death never looked better (well, when she makes an effort).


Sunday, May 11, 2008

BBQ Sunday


Twenty of us at la Gare d'Uzès (in the tiny photo on left) for lunch by Polo (excellent BBQ).

Beautifully sunny all day - around 6pm the rain started to set in and it promises to be with us most of the week - nonetheless tomorrow we plan to go up to Saint-André-de-Valborgne. Then return to Uzès on Tuesday for dinner with Christian and Anne-Marie (your easy but mind-blowing recipes gladly accepted - post here, thanks).

UPDATE: And the beat goes on ... after leaving the station around 8pm about a dozen of us showed up at Jean-Yves' place out in the scrublands to continue partying. As a treat below you have a short clip of Bébert going at it (as Odile tells me to shoot "stills", not "film"!) ...

Couscous Delight














Dinner at Bourdic - as you can see from the photo (above) a town surrounded by vineyards - where Carole served us (a jolly band of 10) an excellent couscous liberally accompanied with natural (biodynamic, often) wines - such as a fine red, cuvée Cariña.

Natural wines are growing in popularity - see a map of wine growers in France here.

UPDATE: It took a while but I've found the name of the "petillant" white wine we had before dinner; it was a very agreeable "Moussaillon" Domaine des Griottes (also a link here). According to Carole we can find it in Paris at La Cave les Papilles. And here is a place to taste it direct!

Friday, May 09, 2008

Quand mes pieds me brûlent...

"Quand mes pieds me brûlent, je dégaine mon pouce en free-lance vagabonde."

We're off tonight to a local bookstore, Librairie Le Parefeuille, to hear our friend Lucie read from her first novel, Gadji - see more info here.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Le Grand Déballage du 8 mai

We're headed off this afternoon to the traditional combo "Spring Cleaning -Flea Market" in Uzès' main square.

UPDATE: Spotty luck finding items of interest at the market but afterwards sure-fire fun at La Muscade bar,where almost everyone we know in town showed up at one moment or the other.

Dinner tonight finds us back (again) at Collias for crepes at our friends' restaurant. We drove over with Jean-Jacques in his impecably restored 1948 Chrysler Windsor (one of his amazing collection of Amerian cars of the 30s and 40s). Always a kick!

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Some assembly required...


Our friend, Nicolas, has gotten a billard table for his home (le Gare - some nice B&W photos here) and it seems that it requires some assembly (the pool table, not his home!) so we're hiking over there late this afternoon to lend a hand ... then invited to dinner there.

UPDATE: At the "train station" right now listening to some wonderful tangos by a singer Nico has introduced me to: Daniel Melingo. Also got an earful of Alexandre Kinn (tip of the hat to Camille for the lead).

We're tucking into an excellent "Gigot d'agneau" for dinner right now ... so more later.

LATER: More music - (merci encore Camille) some songs from Adèle: "My Same" and "Right As Rain".
And, finally, don't miss "Lake Of Udaïpur" by Le Tone and Rit who sings "Morning Drop". To end (icing on the cake): KT Tunstall doing "I Want You Back".

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Dinner is served ...

We're making dinner for a dozen tonight so the morning was food shopping then a stop at Café Muscade (one of our "regular" places here in Uzès) for a quick "short beer" = 15cl.

Hopefully enough time for a short run this afternoon (although the weather has turned rainy) and then I will "trimer aux fourneaux!" to prepare "soup to nuts".

Monday, May 05, 2008

Adessias Marseille

After leaving Marseille we drove to L'Estaque for a nice lunch overlooking the marina then had coffee with Corinne (our "bodywork" friend) before hading back to Uzès along secondary roads.






Our rather meandering route took us to the beautiful calaque (rocky inlet) of Niolon which you can appreciate in the photo just above and also here. We had a nice midafternoon stop there for coffee at L'Ancre on their wooden terrace overlooking the small port - which also hosts a well-renowned scuba-diving school. [click on any of the photos to get a larger view]

Later we crossed the Rhône via ferry (a hoot!) called the Bacs de Barcarin, which you can see in the photo below. There are also some nice pictures of the area, called the Camargue, here.

Afterwards we stopped at Beaucaire (where Yves had once owned a house) where we tried to hook up with his bookseller friend - he was unfortunately already closed, but the bookseller just next-door, Ahmed Agbani, who we ran into by chance in the main square, opened up his shop (Motif) for us. You can see a nice view of the town in the photo on the right.

Finally pulled into Uzès around 7pm tired but happy with our trip.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Uzès --- Marseille ... and towns in between


We're off to Saint Siffret (in the photo at left) for a vide-grenier late this morning then lunch at Marie-Ange's (her famous paella) in Arpaillargues et Aureilhac ... you can see our buddy Francis slamming the guitar in the YouTube video below!

Late afternoon we're off to Marseille (to drop off Jean-Yves' grandson) where we'll be staying the night chez Béatrice. Hopefully, this time, I'll be able to procure some La Cagole beer,there!




Francis, Camille and Bébert here.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Uzès 2008.05.03


Heading over to join some friends at Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie for a rock concet tonight at the town's Place de la Liberté - part of the Festival "Amours d’Accordéons" - with two local groups: Gattaka and le groupe Portelli.

Friday, May 02, 2008

Uzès 2008.05.02

Jean-Yves & Silvia met us at the gare de Nîmes and drove us up to Uzès where it is just lovely today - plenty of sunshine, warm and plans for a hike this afternoon. More news later.

UPDATE: The hike, starting from the church in the lovely town of Boucoiran-et-Nozières, turned into a sort of "Lost Key" treasure hunt as it turned out we were retracing the steps of Arthur, Jean-Yves' son, who lost the key to his Citroen BX the day before. After a couple of fruitless hours of searching we gave up. See here more info about this town and others in the area.

Evening found us, as our own personal tradition dictates for the first night in the region, for dinner at Anne-Marie and Christian's (Happy Birthday to him!) crêperie Les Caves de Collias. We ran into René (the scupltor), two of his children and his sister & brother in law - so we all got one big table together. Lucky for me as I got an insider's look (thanks to sitting next to Rene's son, Henri) at Grand Theft Auto (I sat next to Henri, the 14 year old PSP addict) - and finally have an idea of what all the excitment for GTA4 is all about - it is truly light-years advanced from the video games of my younger years (if somewhat amoral). In any case this kind of doesn't get any better than here ... and they aren't even Bretons!

Heading South...


... to Uzès and points adjacent.
 
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