ClustrMaps - Visitors to "Los JOP" blog

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Birthday, Bill .. and congrats to Luis-Miguel

Today I want to wish a very happy birthday to one of my dearest, oldest friends - Bill McD. The song below is for you ... see you in England this summer!

Also, this afternoon at Orsay we attended the very successful PhD defense of Luis-Miguel (son of our good friends, Aggie & Michel) - congratulations, Docteur !

Monday, November 24, 2008

Land Art in the Gard


Arthur, Jean-Yves' son, has recently been getting into "land art" and also doing some stone scupltures that show a certain promise.

In the photo at left is a piece he has entitled "Now I'm Waiting".

Let us know what you think - it will surely encourage him to have feedback. Also, when he has finished creating his website, I will post a link here.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Marseille²

One of the benefits of traveling is coming across new people, places and events. This includes friends sharing insights into their favorites - such as music. Here is a sample - thanks to Béatrice for introducing me to the Romanian singer Maria Tănase.

She also introduced us to the works of Alfons Alt (photographer/painter). You can visit his site here.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

M & M

The highpoints of today are the Market at Uzès and our trip down to Marseille.

First thing this morning, however, we headed over to the château Bérard to help a neighbor move some (heavy) furniture.

Afterwards, noonish, we headed over to the marché (where a wicked and frigid wind was blowing) ... if you've never been to the Saturday market in Uzès you can see the video below.

We'll head down to Marseille, about 2 hour's drive, later this afternoon and I'll write an update from down there.


UPDATE: Happy birthday, Béatrice. The party for her XXth (well, you didn't expect I'd actually say!) was a great success! We all had a ball (and me a tad too much champagne perhaps). Béa had made enough to feed over a hundred people (we were only 80+) - a fantastic Cake au foie gras et figues, Vol-au-vent blanquette de veau avec sauce suprême, and more. Everything absolutely delicious!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Tapas-a-thon


Back to the train station tonight, but up one floor at Barbara's apartment, for tapas by Bébert.

UPDATE (02:06am): And the beat goes on! We've come down to ground level, the better to rise higher ... deep into sharing favorite music from all our diverse (and disparate) backgrounds - below listen to a wonderful song (thanks to Martin).

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Nîmes, Uzès

In less than 3 hours the TGV whisked us from Paris to Nîmes this morning. From the slate-grey skies of Lutetia to the sun-filled azure of (almost) Provence.

We waited for Jean-Yves to meet us at our "regular" cafe near the train station then walked over to pick up Sylvia near the Nîmes amphitheatre - then we drove up to Uzès. Tonight out for some music by friends of Francis (that's him, here, playing guitar last summer).

UPDATE (6:18pm): Over to the old train station of Uzès - click on the postcard to the right to see it bigger (as you may remember it is now a private home - and pretty much has kept its original allure - and was bought years ago by our friend Nicolas). We're doing some prep for dinner here tonight with a dozen friends - after the concert at Café Muscade.

UPDATE (11:58pm): After an EXCELLENT dinner here at the "gare" (merci Anne-Marie for the filet mignon) we've ended up dancing to Paul Simon's "Born in Puerto Rico" (see video below and lyrics here). Dancing with Odile and surrounded by dear friends. Life can't get much better!
And thanks to Iva for a wonderful introduction to the music of her country (Slovakia), you can start, as we did, with this video and then this other video. Enjoy ... we have!



The song above from the play "The Capeman" - a review here.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

















Just needed a place to "park" these photos for other uses (plus you, dear Readers, get to enjoy on here, too).

Monday, November 17, 2008

Schlaf dich


Tonight Myriam and I (to be joined by Odile & Flo) are off to the Centre Culturel Suisse (CCSP), over in the colorful Marais district, to hear Janet Haufler, Myriam's friend, and other actors read from the play "Dors toi" - see more info here.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

« Où allez-vous jeunes gens »


"Whither goest thou, young people ...."

As part of the "News of the Resistance" program organized by the Florimont association , high school students from the lycée Buffon will give a theatrical representation of the youth revolt of 11 November 1940 against the occupation and the Vichy regime .

Today at 6pm, on the steps of the town hall of the 14th arrondissement.
I (JP) even get to play a small role as a torch-bearer!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Art & Planète



Thanks to Cynthia B. for inviting us to one of the most fun and convivial vernissages we've been to in a while ... and all in a new art space right in our neighborhood. Plus it's for good causes (click the link in the title above to see the cultural and ecology organizations they support).

Gracias to Sergio, of course, for his art ... and his music (he played some accordion) - and also merci to the young, dynamic people that kept everyone "well oiled" (and fed)!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Bienvenues Javi & Mori !

New friends (from our visit to Rincón last March) Javier & Moraima, owners of the beautiful and fun beachside Tamboo in Puerto Rico, are visiting us for some days. Tonight, after an excellent Odileque dinner, we headed over to Jimmy La Watt's place, Le Godet d'Or (see info here and here) for drinks, laughs and some music.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

TDV Hooping


A fun evening starting at Le Théâtre de Verre where we hooked with Jaimie (see her website here) and her mom, Brianne, in Paris from Bellingham, Washington state for some days. We were also joined by Denis, Hélios and his Argentine musician friend, Mintcho (see his site here and playing a "choronga" here). Jaimie got to do some excellent hooping (accompanied by Mintcho on his tiny guitar) for the assembled people at the TDV mixer.

Afterward we all went up to Denis' place for dinner and more music/hooping (Odile practiced and got pretty good!) until around 4am.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Sweet Barack Obama

My friend, Alain, has written new lyrics to "Sweet Home Alabama" so here, in avant-première and in a celebratory spirit, is the video:



I'm sure "Alien" will appreciate your comments (so leave them here or directly on the YouTube page) and tell us what you think. Merci !

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

O-bama! Us-bama! You-bama!

We returned from Switzerland on Tuesday a bit before midnight and I ended up watching the election returns all night. I had thought to turn in when I heard that Obama had won Ohio but decided to see if I could hold on until Obama spoke in Chicago. "Yes, we can" and "everything is possible" and I ended up awake until 6am Paris time to hear Obama's simple but clear message - WE have CHANGED ... and there is so much more to do.

So, let us all rededicate ourselves to "perfecting" our world. And, for an hour - for a day, let us all celebrate. Then to work!

Monday, November 03, 2008

Bravo les amis !


CONGRATULATIONS to my friends, Agnès from Paris and Arnaud from Saint Malo, both finishers in this year's New York City marathon.



UPDATE: Late this morning Max, our friend from Basel, drove over to Vieux Ferrette and took us out for a tour of the area, which he knows fairly well. Beautiful fall colors and a visit to the ruins of the Château du Morimont near Oberlarg - click on the photo to the right to see it larger. We had a wonderfully bracing hike back to the car and then returned to Vieux Ferrette to have lunch with Jean-Pierre & Irène ... her excellent sürkrüt (Royal Sauerkraut).

By the way, Max has a B&B should you ever visit Basel and need a nice place to stay - it's called Atelier Holbein 79.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

La Ferrettoise 2008










Nice run today from sunny Ferrette (a beautiful region as you can see from the photo above) - I managed 1h8m52s for the 11.7km course - fine course in spite of the almost 1km of hill running towards the end. Odile, her uncle and aunt - Jean-Pierre & Irène - were at the finish line where after my arrival we stayed to see the first runners of the marathon (6th running and I might want to do it next year - so running buddies just let me know if you want to come in Nov. 2009).

Afterwards in the local high school gym we all sat down to heaping plates of Baeckeoffe as race prizes were distributed.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Vieux Ferrette

More early afternoon shopping (and a nice lunch) at the Manor store (Rheinbrücke for those in the know). Then an invogorating coffee at Zum Schmale Wurf overlooking the Rhine and we had the additional pleasure of catching up with the owner "Migueli".

Late this afternoon we went to see Odile's cousin Pascale and her SO Heinz in Allschwil, aftewards we left Basel for Vieux Ferrette in the "Jura Alsacien" (the grey blob on the map here).

The photo on the left is the village seen from a ULM and Jean-Pierre's house is just across from the church and 3 houses down towards the bottom of the picture. Click on the photo to get a bigger version.
 
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