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.

Name that tune ...

On this day in 1792: French army officer Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem.

For some alternative twists on this hoary chestnut of a tune please go here.

Y para la familia (subtitulado en francés y español) vayan aquí.

A voter ... round 1

Between excitement and trepidation ... today's first round of the French presidential election. I voted just around noon (you can guess whom) and just now the tension has broken with the announcement that the next and final round will be between Ségolène Royan and Sarko (caramba!). Let's hope for the best (again you can guess) ... real change for real progress.

UPDATE: 9:22pm - It's, perhaps, going to be a long pre-election night. We're watching TV commentary with Alain (le Chinois Vert), Anne (our neighbor) and Marie (her friend).

UPDATE: 9:53 just saw Ségo speak at Melle (she's headed back to Paris tonight - maybe we'll go over there) and she was faultless. Very impressive and clearly "présidentiable"".

To close, don't forget that HE said: "Segolene Royal is someone I've respected for a long time" -French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy

Les Compagnons du Devoir de Paris

We're invited to a post-baptism celebration here this afternoon. The Compagnons are a French organization of craftsmen and artisans dating from the Middle Ages, but still active today. Their traditional technical education techniques includes taking a tour, the Tour de France from the name, around France and being the apprentice of several competent masters. More info (in English) here.

Volem rien foutre al païs

Tonight we (with Anne C. and Fanchette, who tipped us to it) saw this film dealing with RMIsts who "live and work (not) otherwise". Very interesting, if choppy at times, documentary that was followed by a open debate with one of the film-makers.

Besides the film's link (above) you might want to learn more about: Dinero Gratis.

Art Friday

Had a lunch-time conversation with Myriam about Baumeister's Mauerbild mit Kreis (which she once owned) now on display at the Centre Pompidou.

Now we're off to the vernissage of our friend Gérard Omez at nearby Villa Adrienne.

Paris-bound

After a last visit to the Uzès market this morning (Wednesday's marché is much calmer than Saturday's) to get some olives and goat cheese, we stopped for a noonish farewell drink at Terroirs café - where we ran into Anne-Marie, Nadège and Victoria and a nice moment in the sunshine of the Midi. We missed seeing Nicolas (of la Gare fame) but he caught up with us at Jean-Yves' for lunch. Off soon to catch the TGV at Nîmes for Paris.

Who gives a ...

Excellent dinner at Le Phuket (the only Thai restaurant in Uzès).

Somewhere over the rainbow...

We're heading to St-André de Valborgne, a small village (375 inhabitants) up in the heart of the Cévennes, where Jean-Yves' friend, Sylvia, has bought a property (actually in the picture it is the rather big house at the (right) end of the rainbow). Just a quick round-trip (3 hours all told) to check things out.

Pizza party!

It's a beautiful, sunny day at Uzès today and we're about 25 friends at Jean-Yves' for a party with home-made pizza (cooked in his outdoor wood-burning oven) to celebrate 7-year-old Anna's birthday.

UPDATE: More than 18 pizzas later I can say we are having a really fun time and that if you want to try what turned out to be a superb recipe for the pizza dough then just go here. The day has been incredibly mild - the sun is still out and strong (at almost 6pm) and the temp is at 18°C (65°F), there is (still) wine, cheese and 3 (!) birthday cakes. Parfait !

UPDATE#2: Dinner at Anne-Marie's in Sanilhac with her two daughters (Julie - down from Paris for a few days, who's heading to Colombia for a month in August - any tips/suggestions from readers? and Jeanne - the young horse-woman).

Market Day .... then Jazz @ Montaren

After today's visit to the famed marché in Uzès we (Odile, Jean-Yves, Victoria, Carole and yours truly) are off to nearby Montaren for a jazz dinner concert.

Less is more (more or less...)

I've shared the following podcast with some of you already, via e-mail, but given the postive replies I thought I'd (slowly) share it with all visitors to this blog. Enjoy!

Less is More

Carl Honore, author of In Praise of Slowness, explains how you can get more out of life by doing less. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 20:00)
Watch Online Download Audio Download Video