Rock 'n' Roll!

PLANNED

Fêt Nat'

A French holiday that falls on a Saturday? Guess we'll just have to party twice as hard!
Come back for a post-midnight update.

Hump-Day Dining

Denis joins us tonight for first-time visit to Aux cercles bleus for dinner. The location was formerly Ciel & Sable a suposedly excellent, but excrutiatinly slow, Japanese restaurant - we actually went once but they were out of eel and we skipped out once we noticed the cobwebs on the other diners. In any case, I noticed the changement de propriétaire sign as I was out for a noonish run (yes, I am back to running ... AND keeping it up). An update on our expereince tonight in a bit.

UPDATE: Pleasant outdoor seating in the traffic-free Place Flora Tristan (try the following, fairly cool, mapping application to see this area in 3-D at http://v3d.pagesjaunes.fr - go to 56 rue de la Sablière) and a tasty, well-presented meal by Michel - one of the two owners of this friendly, uncomplicated and new (one month old) restaurant that we recommend for an inexpensive mid-week outing.

Brighton-bound

I'm off to facilitate a workshop today at the Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM) a research center at the University of Brighton.

Monumenta - under the wire

Location: Nef du Grand Palais - Paris
Dates : du 30 Mai 2007 au 08 Juillet 2007

As you can calculate from the dates above we *just* got over to see this magnificant expo on the last (and rainy) afternoon of its run in the impressive domed space of the Grand Palais. In a word: mind-boggling. See more about Kiefer's work here.

I liked the deconstruction, appropriation and sheer intellectuality of his work here.

Paris Cinéma

Now that work has slowed a bit I'm hoping to take advantage of this annual film festival.

UPDATE: Sylvie tipped me to Antony and the Johnsons-You Are My Sister

Cheers!

After a successful "green light" EC review (whew!) we stopped for a Trappist beer (and my first taste of Kriek) at the outdoor terrace of Le Roy d'Espagne right on the Baroque square called the Grand-Place or Grote Markt.

Sidelines:
Why the cherries in Kriek?
36 Hours in Brussels

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).

La fête des voisins

Nice turnout of our neighbors in both buildings for this year's (hastily organized) party in the courtyard for the 8th annual Fête des Voisins (formerly called " Immeubles en fête").

Old friends, "annual" friends, new neighbors ... lots of wine, snacks and talk. Our Chinese restaurant neighbor brought over piled-up plates of delicious nems. As usual the oft-repeated phrase of "we should do this more often!"

Symptômes

Vernissage tonight of Claudia's sister-in-law, Julia Tiemann - works of a rare power - at times disturbing in their vision. See more here: www.juliatiemann.com

Poèmes d'ici et d'ailleurs

PLANNED for this Wednesday PM. See you there?

Myriam's Vernissage

The "galerie du Montparnasse" ( 55 rue du Montparnasse in the 14th arrondissement) is showing the works of the painters Myriam Pletner and Benjamin Marques, from the 15th until the 31st May. The vernissage is tonight and we hope to see you there!

Click on the title link above for more details.

La Nuit des Musées

The third annual "Night of Museums" takes place tonight in France and in Europe ... 2,000 museums await us for a night full of surprises... more news after our visit(s).


UPDATE: We decided to forgo the museums tonight (many friends told us it was too crowded with very long lines).

Instead we had a nice Mexican dinner at La Tipica (our first time there) just along the Canal Saint-Martin. Quite tasty (see pix in my "food" blog) and reasonably priced. Afterwards, walking to catch the night bus, we came upon Santa Sed, a Chilean restaurant, that neither of us knew - so we stopped in and stayed until about 2am! Very agreeable - the owner Carlos, who is from Santiago, is both charming and "cool".

[Possible Outing] Max headroom ...

¡Adios Pop!

My brother has just called (4am) to tell me our father has passed away (quickly ... from a burst aneurysm).

It is perhaps a bit brutal and too public to post this personal and painful loss, but I feel compelled to share this with you, my family, friends, visitors.

He was, especially in later years, a wonderful, poetic and loving man who had faced up to his own personal demons and challenges in a long life (he died just 5 days away from his 88th birthday). QEPD. We loved and will miss him.

Cinco de Mayo

Happy birthday to Odile's cousine and, of course, ¡Viva México! (details if you follow the title link).

Música Latinoamericana

We went to hear our good friend, Juan Carlos, tonight at a new place (for us) called "Aux Copains" ... and, indeed, a chummy, welcoming (small) café-bar run by Momo (heart of gold and hands of thunder - he joined in on drums later in the evening).

Pleasantly surprised to run into Anne B. and to meet her cousin, Etienne, who - besides keeping up the family trait of great bonhomie - is a landscape architect for the city of Paris (and knows, well, our acquaintance "Monsieur Tree").

Look for another concert by Señor Rossi next week May 12 ... I'll post some clips and photos here soon.

Afterwards we went with JCR and Florence to have dinner at a nearby Kurdish restaurant (quite good) called Mérivan.