La Mazet et le Cosmos

Le peuple de Nîmes avait pour habitude de quitter, le weekend venu, le bas des collines où se situe le centre ville pour les collines (il y en a sept comme à Rome) où de grand-père en fils et petit-fils, de brique en brique, de pierre blanche en pierre blanche, ils avaient construit ce que l'on a ici coutume d'appeler "un Mazet". Là, comme isolés du monde, le ciel de nuit semble si prés que l'on y enveloppe ses rêves et son silence, on y respire pus fraîchement que l'air épais de la ville ne le permet. Là, donc, les amis, la famille, les gens de passage y rejoignaient la communauté d'exilés volontaires de la fin de semaine et c'est un partage du langage, du vin et des légumes grillés qui s'y déroulaient. J'ai vécu, il y a peu , le même instant. Celui-ci m'a paru tellement hors du temps que j'avais envie de mentionner cette anecdote. Car la nuit venu, dans le jardin sec du mazet la tête touche le cosmos et l'intime devient, dans l'illusion de l'été, l'universel.

nothing is ever as it seems- as i join the rebels of the calanques

just as i was beginning to love sarkozy he puts his foot in it tries to declare the calanques de marseille a national park , these are stretch of spectacular inlets and cliffs that stretch between marseille and la coitat. national park status sounds fine until you realise it means direct interference with the lives of the inhabitants of the calanques .the calanques are dotted with cabinon, fishermans cottages largely used by the locals ,where they weekend, fish ,generally go about their business .they fish to eat ,cook what they catch ,hunt game and birds for the same reason. nothing is being damaged ,a balance has been achieved. there is a spirit,a way of life, now this is threatened by regulation that would occur if national park status is granted. sakozy has rushed in here waving his Green credentials ,without thinking that the area is the way it is ,not just because of nature but also because what man had done there .unless you regard man as an infestation as some greens do ,then there must be respect for the community that dwells there as much as nature.as a rate payer in la coitat, i have right to get involved in this ,especially as it is a place that has piece of my heart and a sizable chunk of my soul , i along with the rest of the citizens of the coast are not prepared to allow the calanques to be used as a green fig leaf for paris to mask its failings to match targets elsewhere- i am taking break in the very place for the next four weeks ,i will report on the situation first hand when i get back

all things french

welcome to full participation solar a poetic presence from the midi ------------this week sarkosy made brave move to protect the stocks of blue fin tuna the british afraid of offending the spanish and the Japanese offred a minimal and timid support . audrey tautou makes a stunning chanel, high priestess of enduring chic and cigarettes, she has become another victim of the air brush - a cigarette has been substituted for by a pen .sex ,violence, every deviation you can think of is OK but cigarettes no, i don't smoke never have, still don't get pruirience that distorts the truth . the brave legionnairs of aubagne have set fire to the outskirts of Marseilles with some ill aimed tracer bullets, supremely careless, however unlike most of the fires in the midi a complete accident .in England swine flu rages though i don't know anyone who has it , gordon brown has been badly d defeated in a bi -election and believes hes winston Churchill, i believe I'm leonardo da vinci well we all have our delusions .mean while it rains and rains ,hydrangeas grow as big as houses ,and we find the government encouraged the weather forcasters to say it was going to be fine summer. needless to say that has back fired , but thats the uk deep in the silly season meanwhile our troops burn in afghanistan .uk or france you make you choice I'm off to the midi for the summer after next week

Rouler dans le temps

Proust aurait-il été d'accord avec ceci: La vie est une forêt d'arbres abattus. Que viennent-ils préfigurer ? La mémoire des instants, chacun, un à un unis dans la lumière noire de ce qui fut. Regarde sur ton épaule ou bien au creux de ton ventre, il y a comme un oiseau qui palpite et vient te dire ta chance d'être dans la mémoire d'un ou d'une autre. En quoi la mémoire est aussi une forme fantômatique de l'amour, un amour apaisé, cicatrisé. Qui a dit malheureusement ?
Je crois que la mémoire n'est pas le souvenir de ce qui fut mais bien l'espoir de ce qui aurait du être ou pu être. Il y a dans le roulis du temps la mer immense et profonde du quotidien qui a frappé. Et c'est un anéantissement quasi certain de toute objectivité. Je dirai désormais "j'espère que cela s'est passé ainsi."

Uzès et Les Saintes Maries: parenté lumineuse

J'ai dernièrement parcouru les rues d'Uzès et des Saintes Maries et je dois avouer qu'elles ont l'intelligence des lumières authentiques. Uzès se lit comme une lumière surannée, usée, presque polie à l'image des cailloux dans le lit du proche gardon, Le Saintes ont quelques chose d'une flamme diurne,sauvage et indomptée, une lumière qui serait portée sur le ventre d'un cheval affolé sous un grand ciel qui pousse les pieds dans le sel des marais. D'ici je vous conseille donc ces visites, flâneries qui vous porteront du côté d'Arles ou d'Aigues-mortes. J'y reviendrai.

airbrushing the truth

the french authorities are now air brushing any signs of smoking from images of the past. those with fags knocked out of their mouths include delon , bardot , dietrich and audrey hepburn .its very ok to ban smoking but to pretend it never existed suggests counselling is needed for obesseive pruriants- who would re- write visual history--- not so funny the fact that gordon brown slashed money for helicopters in 2001 in afgahanistan .now for 8,000 troops there are ten british helicopters for americans with same number of troops 120, brown yesterday said he had increased the number by 60 percent, that meant six .the most dngerous man in the world is one who never admits the truth or that he is ever wrong .our original story is about foolish nes, the second has deadly consquences and is the tragic opposite of a joke. a writer in the indpendent said men have grudging respect for brown, where has this guy been, just look at the faces of army personel when he visits them abroad and why does he engender amongst most of my male friends suspicion ,for a variety of reasons, as well as managing out to arouse the robespierre / defarge element to an extent we havent felt before - maybe its something to do with unelected ancien regimes

pas encore

officers of the french navy have mounted a campaign to stop the english from burning joan of arc a second time.the joan in questionis the jeanne,-d'arc a 13,000 ton helecpoter carrier which is due to be de-commissioned and dismantled.although no decision has yet been made, the probablity is that the 45 year old vessel will share the same fate as the french aircraft carrier the celemnceau, which is being dismantled by a specialist scrapyard on teeside in the u.k. according to le monde, the french naval top brass have been bombarded with messages from naval officers that jeanne should not be martyrised a second time by les anglais.vice admiral hubert jouet in charge of scrapping redundant war ships said -the english are europeans and have the same values as us,but occasionally,just like in sporting contests, a certain french national pride asserts itself against them.

star crossed lovers

taking up solars theme of uzes and st maries dela mer both are must see on any itenery .uzes is so perfectit looks like it been assembled by by a divine design consultancy ,while st maries de la mere has the magical quality of being neither land nor water floating somewhere between the elements , besides its gypsy festival its celebration of the arrival of the maries in a boat ,it is a site for one of Provence's greatest romances . provence like most places has its share of star crossed lovers ,edmund dantes and mercedes in the count of monte christo ,fanny and marius of the marseille trilogy, less well known are mireille and vincente .the story written in Provencal by Frederic mistral is a tale of a rich girl falling in love with a handsome shepherd ,what else , on the plain of crau., father interferes, boy is beaten up flees to st marie de la mer. Mireille rejects her fathers choice of suitor ,tries to join him by crossing the plain of crau which is a desert like expanse of stones in the scorching heat. she staggers to st marie de la mer exhausted by heat stroke dies in Vincent's arms on the steps of the church . devastation and remorse all round . the moral of all these stories, parents should keep well out of it ,but for the sake of literary drama they never do ,which is probably just as well- Fredric mistral one of the great literary figures of the region brought about the revival of the Provencal language and we now know mireille mireo

alfonse pellet etalage de la peche a bord de la goelette 1890 on show in marseille

a l'heure du sud marseille

port d'attache huiles,guoaches,aquarelles des18th,19th et 20th siecles,et une centaine d'ouuvres, les marines et ports mediterraneens rassembles par la fondation regards de provence racontent , dans tout l'eclat et les subtilites des lumiers du sud, commentles artistes se sont toujours ancres face a l grande bleue .de voyages d;exploration en contemplations immobiles, de l'activite portuaire aux plages oisives et merveilleux mouillages naturels l'amateur ou le collectioneur eclaires retiendront au fil des siecles desmouvment majeurs et des signatures illustres pellet,lacrox,ponson ,garibaldi,lhote friez, ambrogiani --- jusqua 20th septembre ,palais des arts ,1,place carli, cours julien , marseille -- an exhbition of marine art of the past three centuries it contains some important names, the staging of the exhibition in the gallery is always excellent and the catalogues usually become collectors items

bastille day

july 14th french national day to commemorate the storming of the bastille the beginning of the french revolution and the end of the ancien regime so from this side of the channel at least vive la france

french myth 2

that paris is named after a trojan prince not so, it is named after the celtic tribe the parisii who built a fishing village on what is now the ille de de la cite, this error is compounded regularly in quiz books and if you really want to win give the wrong answer a trojan prince

berlusconi's follies and the international wags

the g8 another meeting supposedly to put the world to rights ,this time arranged by berlusconi in the town - l'aquila recently devastated by earth quake in order to show solidarity withe victims .on shaky ground indeed ,with a show of solidarity that flaunts extravagance ,personal vanity and a vortex of sirens enough to tempt any greek sailor not tied to the nearest mast. expensive gifts, meals and visits out all funded by the taxpayer are added to by the international wags aka first ladies .as help had come to l'aquila about as fast as new orleans under bush it wasn't for nothing that women of l'aquila held up placards saying -were the last ladies. this gang of politicians do everything for show in order to retain power at all costs .what is the point of this meeting when the divide between the anglo saxon world and the rest has deepened, there has been little progress on climate change and hardly any of the aid promised to the third world had been stumped up .adding trivia to the spectacle are the wives or wags .in time of trouble 3 million out of work in the uk, an afghan war getting bloodier we have the tabloids distracted by sarah brown fighting it out with michele obama as to who can have the most change of out fits in one day .in sarah bowns case to no avail with no sense of style she imagines slavishly following fashion is the answer, well it isn't thats what fashion victims do.worse still were subsidising it. these women instead of staying home add to the air of extravagance and profligacy, the exception was madame sarkozy refusing to condone berlusconi , she stayed way until the last minute and has such a sense of style you don't notice what she is wearing because she always looks like carla .its time these junkets were replaced by video conferencing and so called first ladies found them selves careers of their own or stayed home. the out come of this meeting so far ,more posturing ,more group photographs ,more promises that will probably remain unfulfilled in a years time, until the next junket is set up to take out minds off what's really happening once again

design by christian la criox, arlesienne tradition

christian la croix

christian la croix

christian la croix, fashion designer extraordinaire, is a true son of provence, born under the scorching sun and bleached out summer skies of arles . it is devastating to hear that his fashion house is in trouble and that his american backers are thinking of deserting this most thematic of designers. his work had been described by the unitiated and ignorant as baroque .this is to fail to understand his origins. his designs are an expression of the south, resonant of the ferria , the heat ,the violence of the seasons ,the works of mistral , giono ,with echoes of jean de florette and la belle arlesienne all reflected in the exhubrent use of colour and fabric .the charge that there are not enough beluga eating, champagne drinking women to carry off his designs is probably true . never one to influence the high street his creations nevertheless were not snatched out of the air like most couture design "lets go gypsy this year ,and think pink "his work echoed the midi was its fashion window and consistantly in touch with with its roots .lets hope rescue is at hand and that la croix manages to survive this down turn in our collective good fortune

can this be love

sarko to brown - you handled your self so well athe g20. brown to sarko - your a force of nature , an interesting exhange of compliments as their economies contract at the same rate, we wonder what best girl angela merkel feels about being left out of this display of mutual admiration

can this be love the franco/german axis unhinged at last

inane remarks

1 ed balls and gordon brown intent on patronising a group of children asked them -what do you want at your school ,take a guess guys, endless holidays and A stars in exams without lifting a finger, or more properly -how the hell do you expect us to know if you don't ---2 sarkosy in reply to david milliband's call for a assistance over arrested embassy officials in Tehran -what do you want us to do? full of bright ideas as usual then sarko--sue barker to andy roddick after loosing at Wimbledon, don't you think tennis can be a cruel game -- the reply that should have been, spot on there sue, mind if i go off camera and shoot my self.

chevalier of tennis triumphant

j.w.waterhouse exhibition royal academy london

if you visit london -waterhouse and beyond

any one from the south side of the channel must not miss the jw waterhouse exhibition at the royal academy . this is an exhibition of late pre raphaelite work and contains famous images i.e the lady of shallot and narcissus. the mood of these works is steeped in pagan and british mythology and is devoted to to examining the eternal feminine principle . some critics see him as throw back to an earlier era ,misogynists might say too many women or too many look alikes, what ever their verdict this exhibition has an eerie grip .the canvases of waterhouse's mid period reveal meticulous paint application..the overall standard is breathtaking and an exhibition not to be missed if you appreciate Romanticism and and superlative figurative art .by comparison royal academy summer exhibition is a let down .large abstracts with a garish misunderstanding of the use of colour are placed next to similarly elphantine wish wash .the only explanation for the latters pallid existence must be they looked good in the sketch stage. weak shapes lack of depth even in an alan jones painting make you long for some thing more substantial .all the cliches are here and when all else fails turn to fauvism . photography in black and white that doesn't trap the eye ,fill several of the best spots for reasons known only to the hanging committee .the room with the small paintings is frightful , why couldn't a better space be allotted at the expense of the so-so large scale abstracts that abound , i left dissatisfied and admiring waterhouse even more than when i arrived.for those wanting a punctuation before moving on to the national collection and the portrait gallery a good stop off for lunch is or maybe was, the national galley restaurant .in sainsbury wing on the first floor ,adjacent to the national gallery proper, it has good views of Trafalgar square the wheel etc. last friday it was as hot as marseille in london and the air conditioning was very welcome. the meal we orderd was from a menu with restricted choice ,usually a good sign but was confusing as it appeared as though you had to have two items from the a la carte selection,whether you wanted it or not. another oddity were waiters dressed in suits ,they looked like bankers,is this new trend or what ?. the lamb that i ordered tasted ok ,nicely seasoned ,not over done unfortunately it was no more than warm .the potatoes tasted fine but were cold. in fact the potatoes took on a life of their own .i happened to spill some on the cloth-( the table setting cutlery and glasses were immaculate ),i apologised to the waiter to receive a matey riposte - "messy bugger i hope the floors not the same" . ok it was good humoured but it was also a first in testing customer good will to its limit .then another waiter started whisking glasses from the table before we'd finished. maybe the suits had put them on a power trip. get these guys in order. once this restaurant served the best bangers and mash in the world and waiters were all charm and tact, so whats happened .a bad day ,the heat getting to every body ,I'm a regular customer when in london ,so to prove my self wrong I'll be back. more importantly if you escape this suggested stopover unscathed, head to the world class collections next door you won't be disappointed. relevant reviews of waterhouse can be found in u'k newspapers sunday times and the observer july 5th editions