return/retour

we've been on holiday,me, the south of France ,la coitat to be precise,close to Marseille- so hot there was an orange alert at medical centres ,but if you keep out of the heat between 12 and 4 ,dink lots of water and wear floppy clothes, Tuareg's do not wear shorts ,you should be OK .what do you do on holiday ,me ,i go to exhibitions try to find good restaurants, not so easy these days in France ,read, talk. next post I'm going to tell you places to go , this one is about the big Holiday stand bye the good read. i tried a coupleof books which i've forgotten already ,then read new moon again ,while trying not to get involved in a water theme park . then took up salambo by Flaubert. according to my partner blogger, one of the most controversial books in french literature ,it concerns a declining Carthage ,the priestess daughter of Hamilcar father ,of Hannibal and her calamitous meeting with matho the mercenary barbarian. somewhere between baroque and Gothic the descriptions of Carthage ,battles ,executions and daily life are literally dripping with descriptive prose .the climax is searingly tragic , matho distracted by his obsession with salambo is defeated, then given up to torture and public execution .salambo too late discovers she cant exist with out him .it should be a movie but probaly never will be .i finished it and my mouth fell open,other people on Holiday with us kept lifting it up ,putting it down again - "disgusting"- but couldn't leave it alone .salambo will haunt you ,its in penguin classic. i only wish my french was up to reading it in the original version .its message being distracted by Passion a can be a calmitous thing especially if you want to win a war or hang on to your sanity