Port d'Envaux

We drove (through the snow) to the commune of Portd'Envaux from Angoulême yesterday and are staying with our good friends Marco, and his son, Titi. Marco is involved with bike tours in France (mostly for cyclists from Norway and Sweden) - see more here. If ever you, Dear Reader, want a bike or hiking tour in France (even if you are not Norse) plan to contact Erik (Marco's boss and owner of Merlot in Oslo) - the hiking trips, which are a new addition to their catalog, look very appealing - there is a hike around Mont Blanc and another on the "The Way of Saint James" (Santiago de Compostela).

Tomorrow we plan to drive back to Paris - which we hear is under quite a bit of snow - as you can see from the photo.

ANGOULÊME

We've traveled to Angoulême (me for the first time) to visit our dear friend "Dr. Phil". The area is a leading industrial pole between Nantes and Bordeaux, they have a good focus on TPEs via their economic development organization.

Abd el-Keller

At Le Baron Rouge at 2pm for oysters and wine with Frank & Brenda, Larry & Carole ... for a rollicking good time until early evening. We then decamped and had a fine dinner at Le Café Moderne (19 rue Keller - famed for their "couscous franco-algérien") - you can appreciate their nice bar in the photo above. To appreciate their food (I had tajine d’agneau aux pruneaux - as did Frank) you'll just have to go there!

Fried Day

Off to a photo expo by one of the Commedia regular, Danièle Mottet. It is entitled "Lieux Communs et Autres Clichés ... du côté de la Porte de Vanves" at Association Florimont (5 et 9, place Marcel-Paul 75014 Paris - M° Pernety) from 7pm onwards.

Later tonight, from 8pm onwards, we are over to La Commedia for some great music with our friends: Alain, Cécile and Eric. See you there? More info on facebook. Also a link here to a short video of their closing song.

Oh, and "Fried" Day is my lame reference to a loooong week of celebrating friendships (current and truncated).