The Xaintrie Blog

I meant to come to St Martial this afternoon to finish my portrait but I awoke this morning with a cold (!) - so anyway, I finished it this afternoon at home.

Here it is, - Georgy Porgy surrounded by his favourite things.

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

BBC News - In pictures: Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition

2011-05-05T09:27:00.001+02:00

Worth a look...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13284230

I like the one of Boris. Hate the one of the queen.

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

YouTube - Yolk

2011-04-20T16:19:00.001+02:00

Interesting!

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

My first 'Nature Morte' for years

2011-03-14T15:09:00.001+01:00

Painted in Acrylics on MDF at 46x27cm. I found the smooth mdf easier to work, and faster, than canvas.

Still Life with pears

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

Some new acrylics

2011-03-10T12:38:00.001+01:00

I've been trying out different supports and different sizes.

This first one is small - 41x27cm ("6P" in french format which is actually meant to be for horizontal landscapes), on canvas board.

This second is much bigger and on 10mm smooth MDF - 46x62cm

I find that the former is hard work due to the 'key' of the canvas surface and makes me feel I must get some better acrylic brushes to work more in impasto

The smooth mdf is easier to utilise glazing techniques (partly transparent layers).

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

Règles de composition dans la peinture occidentale - Wikipédia

2011-03-09T15:35:00.001+01:00

Aha! - It appears that the french sizes I discussed in the last blog are based on 'Rules of Composition'.

The Wikipedia explanations are in french here:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Règles_de_composition_dans_la_peinture_occidentale

..and Google translated them into English thus:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Règles_de_composition_dans_la_peinture_occidentale&langpair=fr|en&hl=en&ie=UTF8

I haven't looked through this yet - be my guest.

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

Painting sizes and Framing

2011-03-09T14:17:00.001+01:00

We all know how expensive framing can be. So, it pays to paint or draw on supports which are standard sizes so that cheaper, off-the-shelf frames could be used. The trouble is, 'standard' means different things to different nationalities.
Look at this site:

http://www.lucyart.co.uk/size.php

This shows sizes on sale in the UK. But beware! - the centimetres are approximate, the centimetres are precise.
Here in France we can get metric shapes, as shown at the bottom of this table, but here you will also come across 'traditional' sizes, often codified as "5F" or "6P" etc. where "F" stands for "Figure", "P' for "Paysage" (landscape), "M" for "Marine".

Also -look at this site:

http://alain.joly91.free.fr/paged_accueil_tailledestoiles.htm

I've been trying to trace the historical basis for these French traditional shapes but haven't got very far. Does anyone have any info on this subject, I wonder?

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

Read Postcard from Provence, paintings by Julian Merrow-Smith

2011-02-25T09:55:00.001+01:00

You can flip through this artbook (or part of it anyway) on screen

http://www.freado.com/read/6764/postcard-from-provence-paintings-by-julian-merrow-smith

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

Postcard from Provence

2011-02-23T09:55:00.001+01:00

Trawl through this website for good work, all subjects...

http://shiftinglight.com/

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Art Project, powered by Google

2011-02-21T10:03:00.001+01:00

This is a stunning website. The level of detail attainable is second to none...

http://www.googleartproject.com/

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

Nearly finished -Acrylic on Canvas

2011-02-20T14:28:00.001+01:00

This is the first I've done for myself on canvas (50cm x 40cm) for more than 3 years. More or less finished. Criticisms welcome

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

Sheila Hancock Brushes Up: The Art of Watercolours

2011-02-20T13:59:00.001+01:00

It's on Today, 7pm French time

http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsServlet?event=10&channelId=92&programmeId=167255046&jspLocation=/jsp/prog_details_fullpage.jsp

Sunday 20 February
6:00pm -

7:00pm
BBC1

Presenter Sheila Hancock likes watercolours. "You can get an immediate human reaction in a way that you can't with oils," she says. And she loves the fact they used to document scenes in the days before photography was commonplace. So, as a taster for a new exhibition at Tate Britain, she follows in the steps of various watercolourists - some as famous as JMW Turner, others less well known, such as Lady Charlotte Canning - by travelling around the UK, Venice, the Alps and Calcutta to see where and how they painted. It's a gently enjoyable dabble into the subject that requires no exertion. Just the ability to appreciate a nice picture.

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

Who did what for the Pack of Cards

2011-02-19T14:22:00.001+01:00

I've lost my list of who did what, so why not comment on the blog, telling us which ones you created. I know I did the Ace of clubs and the Queen of Hearts.

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

Who remembers the "Pack of Cards"?

2011-02-19T12:48:00.001+01:00

Well - here it is. Created in 2006 by our group of artists:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Small objects - CA3 at work, 27/1/11

2011-01-27T18:08:00.001+01:00

Enjoyable afternoon, looking hard at small objects

Tony's bunch of keys (with Jane in the background otherwise engaged)

It occurred to me as I was struggling with my hazel nuts (in the foreground), a later talk/discussion on how to represent "form" with these complex objects might be an idea for the future.

For instance,

Here's a pencil drawing of a walnut:

and here's a pen cil drawing of a tomato:

...how do the artists make these drawing appear so realisitic? - Discuss.........

Anyway, Here are some more pics from this afternoon

All quiet and concentration...

Jim and his walnut

Mike

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AVALON ART NEWS: Today's small objects paintings

2011-01-22T17:06:00.001+01:00

Here's something relevant to next week's meeting. I simply googled "painting small objects".

http://newartsource.blogspot.com/2009/06/todays-small-objects-paintings.html

Sent from my iPod

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Subscribing to our blog

2011-01-22T10:22:00.001+01:00

Nice pictures Tony - another way we can share our images, i.e, photos we take we'd like others to see.

Apparently I misled you yesterday - anyone can subscribe to our site (i.e., see what we write) if they wish to. We already have some outsiders keeping an eye on us of course because it's a public website, but some wish to be informed when we blog.
A form of flattery?....

....Not sure....

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

AGM and wake-up call

2011-01-21T11:13:00.001+01:00

Congratulations to the new CA3 bureau, elected yesterday, especially to Jim, our new President.

This email is going to the blogsite as I suggested so here's a reminder of how you can use it:

The site itself is at:

http://ca3.posterous.com/

Normally, you just have to type the name 'ca3.posterous' in your browser to open it. Then you can stick it in your internet browser 'favourites' if you wish so you can get to it easily again.

Scrolling through it you will see previous blogs and comments (nothing since last May!).

At the moment, I am the 'Administrator'.

You have each been made 'Contributors' and 'Subscribers'.

Contributors can post to the site by simply writing an email to:

ca3@posterous.com
Subscribers receive regular updates of latest posts via email. The full content of the blog will be shown in the email that you receive, as well as on the blogsite. If you want anyone else to be a subscriber (i.e., see what gets blogged), let me know - I only have to know their email address.
At present only ca3 members have been made 'Contributors'.
The hope is that we can use this to spread ideas, comments, requests, pictures etc, among ourselves whenever we feel we have something to say.
As long as you know how to make attachments to emails, you'll be able to include them in the blog because they will be automatically inserted.
Here's an example - the latest fresque I've just finished for #LaPataterie
Happy New Year, CA3
Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

If the Strike don't get you, the Ash Cloud will

2010-05-16T20:16:00.001+02:00

I could say "all set" to return home tomorrow. Flights, booked many moons ago to keep the cost down resulted in a 2-leg trip via London Heathrow. We have the the flight San Francisco to London confirmed (but the cabin crew strike will probably commence while we're half-way across the Atlantic - an interesting thought - and the ash cloud is, at this very moment, creeping towards SE UK). The leg Heathrow to Paris also confirmed after the original was cancelled due to the strike but now we'll miss our train to Brive so that had to be rebooked.

So it's not so much "all set" as "emergency rations being packed in our hand-luggage, check-in bags contain items capable of being lost forever without too much pain".

Looking forward to "doing art" again soon(er or later). Also, looking forward to the Correzien pace of life again and Real Food. There are many things I like about America but its culture is truly one of Conspicuous Consumption.

Now we need a bit of luck, then we'll be back on Wednesday....

Mike

Posted via web from The CA3 Newsblog

Wine and Music in California, Islands and Spitoons in Washington State

2010-05-07T01:17:00.001+02:00

The wine tasting with music affair took place last week in downtown Morgan Hill. You had to purchase a ticket which entitled you to around 20 small 'tastings' of the local wineries' products. On registering you purchase at a table on the pavement in front of the local theatre, you were issued with a list and a commemorative wineglass with which you ambled around the small downtown area, sampling the wines which were dispensed in a variety of shops, cafes, restaurants etc. Each sample was noted by crossing it off your list. Meanwhile, several musical groups and individuals were doing their stuff on the pavements or in the shops. An entertaining afternoon in the sunshine.

We flew up to Seattle last Monday to stay with my neice. After poking around downtown on Tuesday where we found a few galleries in the cold and rain, we took a much more adventurous drive yesterday 80 miles to the north to visit the San Juan islands which are just south of the Canadian border. A ferry from Anacortes took about an hour through a maze of mostly deserted rocky, pineclad islands to Orcas, the largest of the group. What a beautiful place, Click on the link to save me wittering on about it, but suffice to say that is well worth the visit. Noted an interesting sign in Anacortes as we returned from the ferry port: "Need Medical Services? Call Anna Bohnker".

This morning we drove up into the Mount Baker mountain park area to the east- part of the Cascade mountain range. About an hour later we left the freeway and soon arrived at a tiny village called Roslyn.

The link gives you a taste of this extraordinary place. Originally a coal-minig village it now still boasts "The Brick" tavern - oldest in Washington State, opened 1889. And it looks it. Bar furniture imported from England around 1900 and still in use, including a spitoon gutter with running water at the feet of the patrons - you can see it on my picture here.

Needless to say, Fleur dumped her handbag in it without looking as we heaved ourselves onto our barstools... the barman politely told us it wasn't actually in use at that moment.

On the art front, managed a tiny watercolour and a pen drawing of my neice's 2 teenage daughters so far. Could do better......

Mike

Posted via web from The CA3 Newsblog

Your CA3 roving reporter in downtown Morgan Hill, California

2010-05-01T18:16:00.001+02:00

je fais mes excuses a mes Amis francaises. Tout est en anglais... The art scene here not too evident yet- if you don't count music. I've seen some gallery stuff in nearby Los Gatos, a wealthy town on the highway south of San Francisco, on the way to Santa Cruz. The standard of work is not as good as you'd expect, despite eye-watering prices. I managed to lock the hire-car key in it's boot after parking there yesterday morning. An interesting hour followed on the phone to the carhire insurance peolpe who were about to organise a tow-away (oh gawd!) as no-one could tell me how to open the boot without the key or dynamite. Luckily I found a hidden button tucked away behind the steering wheel and so saved a disaster. The music scene is lively. Spent yesterday evening in a wine bar, entertained by a jazz quartet. This afternoon there is street jazz and wine- tasting nearby. Sounds interesting. Hope to sketch there, or at least take lots of pictures. Mike
Posted via web from The CA3 Newsblog

Been Busy! - J'ai été très occupé

2010-04-16T16:37:00.001+02:00

This acrylic panel took much longer than usual because it presented several problems - how to show a mass of trees receding into the distance without making the greens too boring. In fact, my ususal technique of short brush-strokes, merging colours where necessary, turned out to be the best way here. It took a long time because there was so much of it.
The perspective and impression of distance problem solved itself because the subject of a river flowing towards the viewer meant that I didn't have to convey very much aerial perspective.

J'avait passé beaucoup plus temps que d'habitude parce qu'il présentait plusieurs problèmes - comment afficher une masse d'arbres fuyant à la distance sans les verts trop ennuyeux. En outre, il n'etait pas necessaire de lutter avec "aerial perspective." parce que le sujet a resolu ce probleme soi même, mais il y avait un tas des arbres!...

Detail..

Detail...

Detail

Mike

Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

The first April panel is finished. This a typical bucolic subject, beloved of the resaurants we are supplying.

2010-04-11T15:27:00.003+02:00

The panel is MDF as usual and around 1.6 metres wide.
It took just over 10 hours to do, although it has yet to be varnished.

It was entirely executed with the studio door wide open this time, spring is really giving me a push now and this morning I've already started the next panel.
We've started our musical endeavours again - just three of us. We've clubbed together and bought some PA kit so we can make a reasonable amount of noise if anyone asks us to play for them (Amplifier/mixer, speaker, microphones) - all we need now is some practic! We're down to 2 guitars, the occasional keyboard use and a singer but i'm attempting to make some 'backing tracks (via 'Garageband on the Apple Mac) to give us a bit more 'body'. Tomorrow evening I'll be attending a meeting to help organise a music festival in June at a nearby village so we may have a gig....
We'll see.
Busy, busy............
Mike

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

Today is good-to-be-alive day

2010-04-05T18:03:00.001+02:00

The weather is perfect. I'll start two new restaurant panels tomorrow with the studio doors fully open for the first time.
Meanwhile:

Today's lunch in the garden..

..surrounded by Spring..

..with winter now a distant memory.
Those are the Auvergne mountains with their shrinking fleece.
Wonderful!

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOGS: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://mapmaker.posterous.com/
and http://ca3.posterous.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

Another UK trip(up). The politics of despair and the despair of politics.

2010-04-01T12:33:00.002+02:00

Just got back from a week in the Old Country. Frankly, very depressing. Used Flybe (Limoges - Southampton) for a change as we thought it would be a bit cheaper overall but the whole thing was a trial (security, extra baggage payments, inconvenience of not being able to carry extra stuff), so won't fly again in a hurry. Car much more convenient and doesn't cost much more overall.
Weather was awful and politics worse. The anodyne "debate" between the three putative Chancellors-to-be was pretty pathetic. I found myself aligned with Simon Jenkins - have a look at this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/30/three-chancellors-banks-the-city
And then there was the nonsense in the UK media over the possibility of a 'huing parliament'. The Guardian tried to sum this up:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/30/gordon-brown-hung-parliament-pm
What a farce! What a muddle. Look at this quote:
"The head of the civil service, Sir Gus O'Donnell, updated a manual today which sets out how the key players are expected to act if no party can instantly form a government.
In one of a number of precautionary steps, it has been agreed that parliament should not meet to decide if a government can be formed for as long as 18 days after polling day.
The extension to the period is to give the political parties extra leeway to create a government commanding the support of the Commons.
After the 18 days the Tories could then table an immediate motion of no confidence.
The manual is designed to protect the Queen from being asked prematurely to invite someone to form a government, or to prevent a constitutional impasse causing a panic in the financial markets at a time when the UK's triple-A credit rating is under threat .
O'Donnell is due to meet with other senior civil servants in New Zealand shortly to discuss how they have handled hung parliaments."
Is this the way to run a country?
"..it makes yer want ter eat yer young..." (Someone said this, I think)

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOGS: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://mapmaker.posterous.com/
and http://ca3.posterous.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

Blog Standard

2010-03-23T11:00:00.001+01:00

Ironically, the reason I haven't blogged in "The Xaintrie Blog" since January is because I've gone Facebook, Twitter then 'Posterous' new blog (for our Art group here) since then. It's time I consolidated all this verbal thrashing about...
Facebook I dislike - messy interface, only good for checking up on activities of other family members and friends who use it but I don't join in very often.
I'm a fan of Twitter though. I like its simplicity and the fact that one can find a group of tweeters who have similar interests to your own, then 'follow' them. More often than not, they will start to follow you and as long as you don't let the list become too long (I follow around 35 artists - nearly all of them follow me) then you can keep up with their tweets. Web links can be inserted in the short texts (tweets are only 140 characters long) and a twin site called 'Twitpic' can allow you to publish a picture. No more complexity necessary. I have added one or two others to follow out of curiosity, and mostly 'unfollowed' them pretty quickly therafter as there is a lot rubbish out there. One enduring outsider for me however is Stephen Fry - always entertaining and full of fascinating outside web-references.
Posterous is now my favourite for actually creating the blogs, simply because all you have to do is write an email. As soon as you send it to them via your Posterous postbox, they manage the whole thing and it appears as a blog within minutes. I'm doing this right now, writing this email which will be published immediately I finish - to the Xaintrie Blog and to "Michaels Posterous" (http://mapmaker.posterous.com/). I've set it to automatically write a Twitter entry also. I write separate emails to our artgroup blog which is called 'The CA3 Newsblog' (http://ca3.posterous.com/).
Xaintrie news: Winter seems to have ended at last. I'm no longer lighting the fire after breakfast - last year this event took place a couple of weeks earlier. This year the cold was not too intense but lasted much longer than previous years. No rain to speak of though.
The fishing season started last week but I've resisted a cold wade into our lovely Maronne thus far. The fishing experts tell us the trout are still dozing on the river bed as the water is still too cold. I dipped a thermometer into it last week and registered 6 degrees C. Since then the weather has become very warm and spring is twittering everywhere (pun might have been intended - not sure).
We've decided to grow some veg this year so I've cut a chink out of the lawn (only around 4 square metres at the moment) which will become a raised 'potager'. A friend nearby says he has a pile of good soil we can have so that's the next task.
Sun is shining, temperature's rising. I'm off - outside to get some...

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOGS: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://mapmaker.posterous.com/
and http://ca3.posterous.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

A blogsite for CA3 that we can all use - Un "blogsite" pour CA3 que nous pouvons tout utiliser

2010-01-17T12:26:00.001+01:00

I thought this might be a good idea. Write whatever you think might be of inetrest to members of CA3, whenever you like. All you have to do is compose an email to :
post@ca3.posterous.com
J'ai pensé que ce pourrait être une bonne idée. Ecrivez ce que vous coyez peut-être de inetrest aux membres
de CA3, quand vous voulez. Tout ce que vous avez à faire est de rédiger un email à:
post@ca3.posterous.com
Mike

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOG: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://leonardo-on-art.blogspot.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker
POSTEROUS: http://mapmaker.posterous.com/

http://ca3.posterous.com
Posted via email from The CA3 Newsblog

It's been a while, but I feel like a blog; Resolutions versus Aspirations

2010-01-10T11:26:00.003+01:00

A pleasant Christmas came and went while I wasn't looking. The New Year celebration was enjoyed with friends yet now, after only a week or so, it too has shrunk into a slightly blurred experience like a recent dream, more a fading feeling than memory. Is this a sympton of old(ish) age?
The months ahead are already filling with projects and promises however. I feel enlivened by the prospects, despite the cold, grey-and-white weather. As for 'Resolutions', I want to 'do' more art -painting and drawing. Fleur and I are booked for a two-person exhibition in the early summer in Tulle so this means more thought and planning than usual and definitely more work. It's some time ahead but I know how time will out-run me as usual.
Xaintrie is under snow at present but we're not overly inconvenienced. I'm still not sure how the main roads can be simply wet rather than icy when the temperature is well below freezing. I know the local councils spread salt but there never seems to be ony 'grit' as in the UK. Do the French use only salt - I don't know.
I do know though that it's too miserable to go out at the moment and as it's Sunday and the log fire is blazing away (I blogged on the subject of wood as a heating fuel in the 'Xaintrie Blog' in November 2008), I'll do some more painting. Trouble is, my bedroom-studio is in the roof-space and poorly insulated. There's a limit to how long one can work in temperatures of around 14 centigrade (as it is at present). Ironically, it's over 20 in the lounge, below this room. I can get the studio up to 15 or 16 on a day like this (it's -3, that's minus three outside at present).
So - that's another project for this year; insulate this room. Tricky though, 'cos I want to keep the splendid beams and roof trusses visible. Here I am, thinking about doing some work on this rather oversize portrait. Why so big? Don't ask, as I don't know.

Happy New Year

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOG: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://leonardo-on-art.blogspot.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker
POSTEROUS: http://mapmaker.posterous.com/

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

Fleur Portrait. 'Brushes' on ipod Touch.

2009-10-29T12:07:00.001+01:00

via youtube.com

Partly from a photo - I was feeling my way with gradations, different tools etc. Final isn't a bad likeness though.

Posted via web from Michael's posterous

Sunset Besozzo using 'Brushes' on Ipod Touch.

2009-10-29T11:06:00.001+01:00

via youtube.com

Using 'Brushes' on Ipod Touch. Sketched from a window at sunset, late October. Lake Maggiore is hidden by the trees in the foreground.

Posted via web from Michael's posterous

Maggiore sketch

2009-10-29T10:41:00.001+01:00

via youtube.com

My first attempt with ipod 'Brushes' app in the open air when I was in Italy last week. It runs a bit fast but gives some idea of my approach.

Posted via web from Michael's posterous

iPhone Brushes app... Here's an expert

2009-10-29T10:10:00.001+01:00

via forums.mactech.com

This guy made it look easy. It's not too difficult to get started but lots of practice needed....

Posted via web from Michael's posterous

Wonderful places, Wonderful names: A visit to Squividan and the paintings of Emile Simon and Madeleine Fié-Fieux (pronounce "Fee-ay-Fee-uh")

2009-09-21T18:55:00.002+02:00

Ane extraordinary pair of Bretonne painters - pretty-well unknown as they had no need to sell their art and simply kept it at home at Squividan. When Madeleine died in 1995 at the age of 98, she bequeathed everything to the département of Finistère.
This summer, 2009, some of the works were put on show to the public in a small gallery attached to the manor house for the first time.
If you can read French, here is a reference:
http://www.cg29.fr/Decouvrir-le-Finistere/Toutes-les-actualites/Inauguration-du-Manoir-de-Squividan
Here's a summaryof their biographies (I haven't found one in English yet so the translation is mine):
Emile Simon and Madeleine Fié-Fieux lived and painted together in and around their home at Squividan in the commune of Clohars-Fouesnant, Finistère. They were attracted by the local countryside, architecture, traditional costumes and customs and recorded these in oil-paint.
Eventually, over 1500 works were amassed at the manor and left to the département, i.e. the nation and the world at large.
In 2009 the manor was openend to the public for the first time.
Emile Simon was born at Rennes, 28 February 1890 to a 'modest' family - father a printer and mother, dressmaker. He obtained a school diploma in Beaux-Arts and a bursary to study art in Paris in 1908. He further obtained the 'Prix du concours de Rome' (prize, enabling him to travel and study in Rome) but was persuaded to give up his place to an older pupil, hoping to go the following year. However, in 1913 he appeared to have gained a post as a professer in Cairo, only to be clalled-up (mobilised) at the beginning of WW1 so went back to France.
Incredibly, he was unfortunate to be taken gravely ill with the notorious 'Spanish 'flu' in 1917 and was invalided out of the army. Back at the family home in Rennes, he found manual work in order to support his family.
In 1921 we find him again as a professor of art in Nantes at which time he lost his left eye in a motoring accident. He married later that decade but in 1930, was already a widower and living with his mother at Nantes.
Several notable paintings and by him are recorded in the 1930s.
WW2 commenced and in 1943 moved to Quimper to avoid bombardments with a married couple, Philippe and Madeleine Fié-Fieux. Philippe was a wealthy dental surgeon. By 1945 he had obtained the post of Director of the school of fine arts at Nantes and in 1947 they all moved in to the Manor Squividan.
At some time a little later it appears that Madeleine became a widow. Emile and Madeleine stayed togrther at Squividan for the next 30 years, painting all the while. Their relationship during this time is not totally clear. Emile Simon died in 1976, painting with his left hand for the last 4 years of his life, having suffered a stroke in 1972.
In fact, Madeleine was his pupil back in Nantes, possibly before the commencement of WW2. Born in 1897, she came from a wealthy family and was a gifted potraitist. After Emile died, she took it upon herself to conserve his works, continued to paint, and died in 1995, leaving everything to the Conseil général, Finistère.
This is the manor where they lived and painted for 30 years.
One of Emile's paintings of Madeleine - painting.

Lovely light.
Superb technique.
We stumbled across all this last Friday. A small gallery with 30 or so works is now open and in 3 years' time the manor itself will have been renovated, open to the public and many more of their works will be available.
His works are incredibly attractive, nearly always done outside 'on the spot' and apparently, never reworked. Beautifully cleaned and restored, for me they are of among some the most inspiring and emotive works I have ever seen.

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOG: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://leonardo-on-art.blogspot.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker
POSTEROUS: http://mapmaker.posterous.com/

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

The latest Restaurant deco panel is nearly finished.

2009-09-10T17:35:00.002+02:00
.. I hope they don't mind being associated with a crumbling ruin. I rather like the wall effects, but will they?

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOG: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://leonardo-on-art.blogspot.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker
POSTEROUS: http://mapmaker.posterous.com/

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

Blighted Blighty- a brief visit to the Motherland

2009-09-06T09:41:00.002+02:00

Here's my earlier post which was diverted because I used one of my own email addresses that was not logged with Posterous - Thanks Posterous for sorting this out.
We're on our way home on the ferry, 1 hour out of Portsmouth. Overall, the weather was pretty mediocre, definitely not summery. The wind blew with a vengeance every day. August 30th, 'Bank holiday Sunday' was appalling- cold enough to switch on the central heating. OK, we're English and we know what to expect in that department but as always, there was hope. No joy this time.
Highlight as always was friends and family. Nadir, also as always, was trying to move around in the turgid traffic systems with any degree of certainty.
For some years now it has been impossible to plan a journey in the UK to any sort of reliable timetable. This time was no exception and, as a final example, we caught this ferry by the skin of our teeth.
Rant coming up:...
For those who know the New Forest, that green oasis in central southern England, it was the village of Lyndhurst, the putative pearl in it's bosom, which was the final protagonist in our tragi-comedy of a journey earlier this afternoon. In short, this crossroads of two major road systems nearly caused our downfall. Four miles of jams just because of those damn' traffic lights in the middle of the village. I know this area; it's been like this for 50 years, no exaggeration. Why no relief road? You tell me. I you want to get a country moving, you see to the infrastructure, particularly the road system. You don't bury your head in the sand and simply allow the numbers of road users to continue to increase while doing nothing to accommodate them. Where are the people looking to the future? Who hears them when they say we must have more roads, expand our rail network?

As for general maintenance of public ameneties, road signs, state of the road verges, roadside drain clearance, road surface repairs and replacement, rubbish clearance.......... What's (not) happenning, UK?
There was a lot more of this rant but I've cut it down, now I'm back home in France. Don't want to upset my English friends and family but someone should at least say something from time to time to point out that UK "could do better" - as they used to say on our school reports.
Tailnote: Drove into our home town here in France on Wednesday afternoon on the final leg of the journey. Confronted with road signs directing us around the BYPASS as the road through town was being RESURFACED. There was nothing obviously wrong with the old road surface but it was time to carry out the SCHEDULED PERIODIC MAINTENANCE program. Polite signs everywhere apologising for the inconvenience alongside another new sign stating PLAN DE ANTICRISE ('anti-crisis'). This is what the French State, departments (counties) and Regions have devised to pump money into the economy by improving the infrastructure, creating work and helping to secure a future for its citizens.

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOG: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://leonardo-on-art.blogspot.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker
POSTEROUS: http://mapmaker.posterous.com/

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

Fossil Rock found in a French Barn

2009-08-23T10:52:00.002+02:00

Last night an amazing find was made in an ancient barn, deep in the French countryside on the western slopes of the Auvergne.
'Fossil Rock' performed their first evening gig on the occasion of Louise's birthday.
The picture shows the scene at the actual moment of discovery. Later, visitors and guests where able to sample the effects of this remarkable exposure to the light, at which point loud noises were heard, approximating to those remembered by the older members of the public present, from the days when popular music only needed three chords to get itself into the charts.

Rumours have since been rife that other discoveries of this nature may be made in locations nearby in the near future.

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOG: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://leonardo-on-art.blogspot.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker
POSTEROUS: http://mapmaker.posterous.com/

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

Art is solitary, music is not

2009-08-21T23:03:00.001+02:00
At the risk of being accused of stating the bleedin' obvious, I have just arrived at this conclusion. To practise the art of painting or drawing you must do it alone. To make music, you do it with others.
It's late in the evening and I've just seen a great 'prom' concert on the BBC. The precision pumping of the bows of the violins and cellos was mesmerising - all those musicians moving as one. I've been painting all week and spent the afternoon and evening playing fossilised rock with friends at a wonderful birthday party. I've enjoyed it all, the one, alone and the other with my fellow musicians.
Hence the revelation.
Time for bed.

Sent from my iPod
Posted via email from Michael's posterous

Using Posterous with my existing blog

2009-08-20T15:11:00.001+02:00
This post should now show up in my existing 'Xaintrie' blog as well as Twitter and Posterous, so it's a sort of test.
I confess, Posterous is looking good and easy - using only an email to do this is a stroke of genius.

Michael Durant
michael.durant@wanadoo.fr
michael.durant@cegetel.net
WEBSITE: www.artsargentat.com
BLOG: http://maronner.blogspot.com
and http://leonardo-on-art.blogspot.com
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/photos/mapmaker
POSTEROUS: http://mapmaker.posterous.com/

Posted via email from Michael's posterous

What you Will

2009-07-20T10:04:00.008+02:00
Shakespeare used the alternative title "What You Will" to his play Twelth Night. Apparently he had some problems dreaming-up titles for some of his works, a common malaise even to this day. Back at the beginning of June this year this same dilemma descended on five friends here in deepest France when we decided to form a rock group - as you do, and had to call ourselves something.
First ideas were crass. As our average age is (subject to verification) 61.8 years, we've currently settled on "Fossilised Rock". Opinions are divided still, principally along the line which separates us, the 'boys', from our spouses. We think it suits us as we don't want to take ourselves too seriously.
Our wives, who know only too well how appallingly rough we sound at present, have expressed dismay at the self-deprecating tone in this name; a bit of a pleasant surprise I suppose as normal reaction to wrinkly men playing young men's games has tended to be rather more disparaging.
Ah well, it should keep us out of mischief.

For the interested (or intrigued, incredulous), we're attempting stuff up to 50 years old - Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, The Shadows. Also some 'newer' stuff by Dylan, The Eagles. Next stop: some bluesey Clapton perhaps, but not until we can get through our initial repertoire (9 numbers would you believe) without too many hitches.
Don't laugh, it's rude. One day I'll maybe put an audio file on this blog - but that's not a promise...

Mapmaker

Dordogne and Ducks

2009-06-11T09:33:00.013+02:00

Twenty-first of May was ascension day- a holiday in France, not to mention our wedding anniversary, so we went for drive into the outer edges of Dordogneshire.
True, we live in the upper Dordogne valley but we consider ourselves, literally, a cut above the immigrant Brits who inhabit the lower Dordogne, from Souillac, through Bergerac, westwards to the Gironde. All nonsense of course, but we do feel slightly smug about it. We have more room here; we're more thinly spread, our terrain is more rufty-tufty, we know how to tough- out our more severe winter cold snaps, our summers are more, well, clement- and so on. As a softy-Brit Southerner (raised in the Bournemouth area- never seen a decent blizzard), I'm ashamed to say I've come across this before of course but in reverse, in our former life in the UK, from our friends in the north whom we used to think crass for using these arguments to somehow prove their superiority. Ah well, human nature and all that.....
We visited Sarlat and Domme- wonderful towns in inimmitable surroundings. Sarlat is a truly medieaval survivor, built from soft Dordogne limestone. The town has a unique charm and intimacy, despite the crowds there on that feast-day having a jolly time in the streets under warm, spring sunshine. We had a coffee outside the Town Hall in a lively street in the town's centre, entertained by a wandering sort-of-trad-jazz band who blasted their repertoire over the heads of the throng against the background commentary of the day's master-of-ceremonies - a man somewhere nearby with a microphone linked to the speaker system in the streets. He spent the whole time we were there talking about ducks; how to feed them in preparation for the subsequent culinary delight of killing them, plucking them, 'emptying' them (literal English translation for the French for 'disembowel'), cutting them up and then the recipes. Finally he came to the famous foie-gras explanations and our favourite potato dish, Pommes Sarladaise, named after the town (potatoes cooked in duck-fat).
Domme is not far away. Stick to this link to find out about this village - as some of you, I'm almost sure, would know that the word has another meaning... (click here if your curiosity compels you).

I've been pretty slow on the blog-front in the last couple of months, I know. Summer's here and the warm, dry weather has brought other attractions and time-fillers. We've had our euro-election too, since the last blog and we voted for the first time in France. Fascinating. Favoured candidate paper flyer is sealed in a plain brown envelope and dropped into a totally transparent ballot box, manned by a smiling man who operates the shutter on the posting slot. He was pretty quick - get your fingers out of the way,- smartish. My man didn't do too well, but hey, vive l' europe!

Mapmaker

Going Dutch

2009-05-18T11:16:00.021+02:00
I've just spent two weeks in Holland, my first visit to the country. This is my excuse for my inactivity, blogwise; the last blog was over a month ago. I did keep some notes though so that the red-hot observations could be regurgitated here for my faithful readers, if they exist (or existed). I wrote them rapidly, convinced that I would be able to recall in vivid detail and full technicolour the on-the-spot sensations and emotions. It hasn't worked as well as I'd hoped, (this is trying to tell me something: I'm not cut out to be a writer) so you'll get the notes themselves, mostly. Besides, this is supposed to be the 'Xaintrie Blog' - news and views from this corner of south-west France, so I won't ramble-on too much about the trip...

Xaintrie and Holland couldn't be more different. However, contrasts are always interesting and often generate waves of reaction or similar responses.

Amsterdam is a magnificent showcase of architecture and environment, stuffed full of contradictions; seventeenth century houses overlooked by twenty-first century tower cranes undertaking the city's never-ending renewal.

The construction-site picture here shows an example of the first images of central Amsterdam when arriving by train. There's an awful lot of this, particularly around the central station area.
Yet, across the road from the modern you will see the ancient in all its charm.

We stayed with friends in a new-town, 30 kilometres east of Amsterdam. First impressions here were that nothing seemed to be more than thirty years old and this turned out to be true. The town of Almere was seabed in the 1960s and in fact, the first house there was finished as late as 1976.
Spacious and green and very flat, it was, for me, a fascinating place - not least because of its modernity. For example, most of the domestic housing was heated by cooling water from power stations some 20 kilometres away, and future developments at Almere Poort will benefit from the world's third largest solar energy installation.

One of our first excursions was to a country park which houses the Kröller-Müller museum and art gallery. Follow the link for full info, but it is a wonderful place, reached by optionally leaving your car at the park gates then riding a bicycle for a couple of kilometres to the actual gallery and sculpture park.
The gallery contains over 200 Van Gogh and other impressionist paintings, in a calm, rural setting which seemed to us far preferable to the scramble back in Amsterdam to get into the Van Gogh museum there. We didn't manage that anyway due to waiting times and booking restrictions.
By the end of the first week we'd seen more of the countryside and set off for three nights on the isle of Texel, stopping to see the cheese market at the old town of Alkmaar on the way. The famous cheese market at Alkmaar seems to be a rather stage-managed affair but thousands of tourists turn up and it makes for a lively few hours in a pretty town with a picturesque if a bit scary trip on a boat around the canal system, where you have to literally get down on your knees to pass under the bridges.
Texel is a fascinating 25 kilometre-long island, a populated large sand-bank in the North Sea with quaint villages, lush green, flat(!) meadows, sand-dunes and home to the world renowned Texel sheep. We spent 3 nights there, one evening entertained by a famous Jazz trio (Borstlap, Bennink and Glerum) at the Klif 12 Music Club, in the village of Den Hoorn. Good jazz - click on their websites, a revelation...

It's still true about the windmills - there are thousands of them, but now these new ones are turbines, producing energy rather than pumping water to form the polders as in former times.

We were in Amsterdam again on the Queen's birthday, 'Queensday', 30th April. This is a unique experience where up to 1 million visitors cram into the streets and on the canals in all sorts of floating craft and go crazy. Here's someone else's blog on this. Well behaved fun in the sunshine, no problems. We didn't even see a policeman until we got back to the Central Station to find our train at the end of the afternoon where we came across a couple of mounted cops, chatting amiably with the some of the crowd.

Time to get back to Xaintrie..

This blog is long enough - more soon.

Mapmaker

Back from Blighty

2009-04-13T10:01:00.008+02:00

I must be getting old. The word 'Blighty' came to mind immediately as I considered a title for this post. Click on it to read Wiki's explanation of its derivation..
In fact we arrived back here last week. I tapped out the gist of this blog on my new Ipod-touch while we were there - I've been longing to get my hands on one for some time and the current exchange rate between the pound and the euro finally tipped the balance. Apple, in their wisdom, have not changed the euro price of them since there were 1.5 euros to the pound and now the two are practically at parity giving a 50 euro saving. Not a great excuse I suppose - I ought to be able to justify it in some other way and I think I can (to myself). Suffice to say here that it's a lot, lot better than sliced bread.

Cultural difference noted on the return journey: Notice in gents toilet at Portsmouth ferry terminal: "Please note. These toilets may be cleaned by male or female cleaners". Equivalent in France - female mopping around your feet while you pee.

'Bt openzone' was active at the motorway service station - free, thanks to 'Roadchef' as a 'special' for their customers. Great! I can blog a bit while drinking my coffee. Not to be - supposed to be free after registering name and email address etc. but I couldn't log in, even after using my father's UK address. It didn't like something. Possibly French email Address?

Sailed from Portsmouth dead on time at 2:30. Perfect April day. Fluffy cumulus stretching out eastwards, gathering into a jumbling roll over the South Downs. At first the Isle of Wight sheltered the ship from the south-westerly swell. After a couple of hours the swell rapidly settled into an almost flat calm. Learned to play Canasta with Liz. Good game, deserves more exposure.

8:30 pm-sunset with an almost full moon over the french coast and a short stub of a rainbow rising out of the razor-edge horizon, somewhere near LeHavre. One hour to go, then the 'Hotel de la Phare' at Ouistreham. We're back on what is now our home soil.

Mapmaker

Fish and Ships

2009-03-22T10:33:00.014+01:00

The fishing season started just a week ago, the spring equinox has now occurred in a wash of cloudless blue and yesterday the first house-martins dashed over our house. I was in the river on the first fishing day - actually hooked a fish (which fell off the hook, but no matter).
I share this bit of riverbank with our farmer-neighbour's sheep. The picture was taken this morning - it's 30 metres from our house and garden.
Before we came here, I hadn't attempted to river fish since I was a boy, but with surroundings like this, who could resist. There's even a chance on catching something big enough to make a meal.
It started soon after we arrived here in 2000. My neighbour on the other side of the river loaned me a fly-rod and that was it - I was hooked. Literally, as it happens; fly-casting is something of a skill and an art and hooking oneself was a common experience at first. Now, I manage to catch more fish than clothing but the knack took some time to learn.
I was surprised to find other, obviously skilled, lifelong fishermen in the river on the first day using fly-rods, but we've had very warm weather for a couple of weeks now and there are small flying insects in the air so it was a joy to start swishing the 'canne-à-la-mouche' right from the start. I'll confess that I enjoy this activity far more than using a 'spinner' or other bait methods. It's just somehow more satisfying and even has an aesthetic appeal. Above all, you actually stalk a fish instead of plonking yourself down on a river-bank somewhere, toss in your tackle and hope some fish stumbles across it. Here, we stalk trout and grayling - nyam, nyam.

I'll have to forgo the river for a bit as it's time for our next UK trip. Family to visit- it's been six months since the last. We'll drive to Ouistreham, the port at Caen, Normandy on Tuesday, a seven or eight hour trip. After a night at the port in a small hotel (they actually give us the 4-digit code to open the main door, over the 'phone in case we arrive too late for the staff), then take the 8 am 'Brittany Ferries' boat to Portsmouth. It means six hours on the English Channel but the ships are comfortable, well run and serve good food, so the time passes easily, filled by a leisurely meal and a hundred or so pages of a good book.
I won't mind sampling a plate of English fish-and-chips either for a change.

Mapmaker

Spring Fever

2009-02-25T12:09:00.013+01:00

Spring has now sprung - at least for the present. Blue skies, sometime morning light frosts, birds looking at their very best as they continue to eat us out of our stocks of bird-food (mostly large sacks of loose peanuts brought from the UK as this particular bird-feed isn't available here in bulk). Snowdrops have been around for some weeks already and crocuses are in the grass.

We went to the 'Moulin de Lavergne' country-restaurant for last Sunday-lunch; haven't been for ages. Jeff-the-chef produced fantastic cuisine as ever - a four course menu (as usual) for 24 euros of a standard that deserves more recognition. Yet, he's struggling, like many, many enterprises, people are cutting back on inessential spending and, in fact, his business has been falling ever since the 'smoking ban' of over a year ago. He built a small terrace outside last spring, to try to alleviate some of the 'side effects' of this ban (see my blog 'Being one's age' last July) but it wasn't enough. Catch 22 of course - we can't afford to go there more than just once every two or three months, on special social occasions.

This morning, Sunday 1st March it seemed strangely gloomy outside. We haven't seen a cloud for days so we're not used to it. We drove down to Figeac two days ago for a day out under bright, cloudless, cornflower-blue skies, car-windows open to the sparkling air after a light frost at dawn. The drive takes less than two hours and by the time we arrived at Figeac after passing through Saint Céré, over the shimmering hills and woodlands, through Leyme and Lacapelle Marival the temperature had climbed to a warm, breezeless 15 degrees or so. We parked in the Place Vival (50 centimes for 3 hours) and took a table in full sun in front of the Bar Brasserie "La Monnaie', facing across the square to the 'Old Figeac Museum' (Musée de Vieux Figeac). It was time for an 'apero' and after half an hour sipping and sunbathing we took lunch there too (Mussels and chips - Fleur's was 'Mariniére' and mine, 'Espagnol' with chopped chorizo in the sauce). Yum.
This could get boring I know, for readers (are there any?) still under grey skies, and smacks a bit of smug-buggery.
So, au revoir.... suffice to say, Figeac is an amazing little town, on the Lot river, much of very 'Italianate' in character and well worth a detour. For us, it's a short drive from the granite massif's gorges where we live to the soft, limestone start of the midi.
Contrast is everything

Mapmaker

Waiting for the Spring

2009-02-15T11:42:00.012+01:00
Its over a fortnight since my last blog but then this is the quiet season - nothing much is happening. We haven't had the really bad weather that occurred recently 'up north' although the frosts persist; its been a bout 6 weeks of icy mornings this year - not usual. I'm burning much more wood than before in an attempt to save on electricity (my other form of heating) and it's working. The problem is, I'll have to find a couple more 'stere' of wood by mid March to see us through.
I have managed to re-arrange my office/studio into something rather more comfortable and un-cluttered during the frosty weather by being ruthless with unsold paintings (they haven't actually been thrown out, rather than stored in Roy's barn) and other accumulated dross (made myself take these items to the tip - a hard thing to do as I'm a hoarder). Still, there is now floor room here and even a bed for visitors...

I've also started another blo g ('groan', I hear you say). The link will appear from now on, on the 'Links to try' menu. I decided to ramble about art in a slightly vain way (in both senses perhaps), partly for the reasons given in the subtitle, and partly because I've read that an 'authoritative' blog or website could eventually attract more readers and possible future commercial art activity for me. We'll see.

The fishing season starts in about three weeks - whoopee! I must dust-off the gear and buy my permit - a harbinger of Spring if ever there was one.

Mapmaker

TV or not TV?

2009-01-28T16:41:00.023+01:00
I've just been surfin' around - as you do - to try to find comment on the fact that we, in the bits of Europe nearest to the United Kingdom, can access pretty-well all of British television via satellite. Not many people seem to want to discuss this, at least, to link the discussion to the raging BBC licence debate which never seems to subside. Is it because we don't want to make these particular waves?
Ravings over the pros and cons of the BBC licence fee are legion on the web. My own sentiments are equivocal; on the one hand I think the service on the whole is excellent and the programs generally better than any other service I've seen, and worth paying for. On the other hand, why, I ask myself, do the BBC make it so easy for the whole of Europe to watch their stuff for free by satellite. Knowing what I know now about picking up the transmissions here in south-west France, not to mention all the regional channels, ITV channels, Channels 4 and 5, etc. etc. etc., I'd be anti-paying the licence too if I were still in the UK.
Just look at the coverage (the satellite 'footprint'): It means that even this far south, you get a perfectly good reception even with the tiny Sky-dish supplied in the UK.
You don't need to subscribe to Sky of course for the main channels or the 'freeview' channels; you don't even need a Sky 'digibox'. A digital satellite receiver bought off the shelf in the local supermarket here for 60 euros or so will do the trick. Even our son in northern Italy gets perfect reception with a 1 metre dish.
What is this all about, auntie BBC? Or should I address this question to the British government? You can't prevent hundreds of thousands of us in Europe watching all your channels for free while the law in the UK makes anyone with a TV pay the licence fee. How can this be fair, to make your main source of income a UK tax on a service which can be used with impunity by anyone up to a couple of thousand miles beyond your shores?
There are few disadvantages for us. If we use a Sky digibox, we don't have to subscribe and it will continue to work for all the main channels but we might suffer a little more on reception break-down when it rains. This is often easily cured by installing a bigger dish. If we use a cheap-o receiver bought from the local supermarket, we also suffer a bit when it rains but occasionally 'lose' a channel as the frequencies are sometimes changed without warning, something the Sky-boxes seem to cope with automatically. It's a simple matter to refind lost channels by putting the receiver in 'auto-scan' mode on the Astra 2 satellite. Alternatively, all the up-to date frequencies can be found on the Internet (e.g. 'Lyngsat').

That's enough of that. Time to watch the news and, no doubt, another debate on the UK TV licence fee.

Mapmaker

Keeping Idle Hands Busy

2009-01-18T10:34:00.011+01:00
At last! - It's now a simple matter to start a small business here without the cumbersome and complex bureaucracy previously associated with this activity. In fact, up to now many immigrants to France, me included, have fought shy of jumping through the hoops set before us in order to start a small legitimate company or trade. There's no doubt that the 'black'  activities (no, not racist; the French call illegal trading 'working on the black') of many people here, including the French themselves, have thrived simply because of the onerous registration processes and up-front tax charges which exist as a burden to all sizes of commercial enterprises. 'Sarko' seems to be making waves in all directions since his inauguration in May 2007 and this is another of his changes in order to shake France into life and increased profitability.
The instrument of change is a new category of business called an "Auto-Entrepreneur". The link shows a brief description. In fact, you can carry out the whole registration process on-line.

At the end of 2007, I was offered some work as an artist-painter, painting large acrylic scenes of early twentieth-century French rural life. These are displayed, screwed to the walls as theme-decor for a chain of franchised fast-food restaurants called 'Lapataterie', a sort of 'Spud-U-Like'. It meant producing three or four paintings a month and it had to be legitimate, so I took advantage of the services offered by the 'Maison des Artistes and registered as a professional "Artiste-Peintre'. The MDA, among other things, organises your social security payments for you in such a way as to protect you from the highs and lows associated with the life of an artist who never knows what the future might hold, income-wise. Other advantages include the non-necessity to register your business for VAT, or to use an accountant, or keep complex records of income and expenditure, and so on. The new 'Auto-Entrepreneur' category enables the same, but for anyone, doing anything.

There is a recession ringing in our ears but above this din I've just heard that for me, the new year has started with a new order for four more paintings so - so far, so good.

Mapmaker

This Mortal Coil

2009-01-11T10:35:00.007+01:00
Pam died two days ago. Her husband Tony has been an active member of our art group for some years, so that's how we got to know them. Obviously, this sad event focuses our thoughts on Tony and his family to whom we all offer our condolences, who have had a hard year coping with Pam's illness.

Without meaning to be morbid, I can recall that there have been at least three occasions since our arrival here in 2000 where we have been confronted with the death of a close friend and subsequently reminded of our own mortality, not to mention its actual location. The practicalities of dealing with the death of a relative or friend here are not complex, but our Anglo-Saxon attitudes will most probably mean that we'll seek the nearest crematorium. There are not many more than 100 of them in the entire country, the equivalent of one per county if this were the UK or one crematorium per half-a-million people.

Another thought occurred to me; the differences between those people one meets back in the UK or on holiday here who will say that they are "dying to live in France one day". It's those who find no problem saying that they're "living to die in France one day" who actually settle happily here.

Mapmaker

Apocalypse 2009

2009-01-04T11:15:00.008+01:00
The holiday season seems to have made an even briefer appearance than any other that I can remember. The Christmas decorations are still up, but will be confined to their dark drawer dungeons by the end of tomorrow; the desiccated mistletoe will be thrown out and the 80 or so cards pinned to the kitchen ceiling beams will be prised off once again and banished to the appropriate waste recycling container. It seems a shame, particularly the fate of the greetings cards but what else can you do with them? Those with new addresses have already been copied into the address book and the one or two 'unknowns' will have to stay that way.
Simon came over from Italy with the family on the 29th December. He hit a blizzard on the A89 motorway when he was less than one hour from us and spent more than three hours trapped there, finally escaping out onto the old National Route highway by means of a service road.
We exchanged a few anxious mobile 'phone calls during this episode while we waited and the dinner was put on hold. We didn't get a single snowflake during this time, 40 kilometres away but more than 500 metres lower down the valley.

And so, on into 2009...
Will life as we know it come to an end? Will it be worth making a few new years' resolutions? Will the pound fall so much against the euro that my weekly UK pension amount will be totally blown every time I go to the baker?
We'll see.
Happy New Year

Mapmaker

Nostalgia versus Homesickness

2008-12-21T11:17:00.015+01:00
It's the Sunday before Christmas in Xaintrie. Nostalgia is in the air as we hear the everlasting carols and christmas songs once again on the airwaves. We're more than 500 miles from 'home' (except that we've been able to avoid that expression for some years now. During the first two or three years, the word popped out without warning whenever we talked about the UK, but now it doesn't. At first, you don't notice it, then after a year or two you hear yourself say it and make a mental note to correct it. Finally it becomes automatically the epithet for what has been truly 'home' ever since we arrived over 8 years ago). Does that mean we're 'homesick'?
Personally, no. I don't think I could ever say that I've been homesick since moving to France. Or after moving anywhere in fact; I'm not the type. Nostalgia, however, is another thing altogether in my opinion. I've plenty of that when the opportunity to take a gentle reverie in the past arises. Christmas is particularly evocative of childhood and other earlier-
life memories and is already stirring dormant reminiscences of family gatherings (good and bad), meals and places. In three days' time we'll have the Nine lessons and Carols once again from the chapel of King's College, Cambridge; a key event in my Christmas evocation. Even if I miss the forecast, knowing that it is taking place paints a misty picture for me of the small back 'parlour' of my parents' house on a Christmas eve, grey sky outside the window dripping with the condensed breath of me, my parents and sisters as the coal fire in the grate bravely but barely manages to keep at bay the December dampness and cold just the other side of the window. The shiny brown bakelite wireless is on with the Cambridge choir in full song and I can smell mince pies.
This to me is nostalgia - an affection for the past, not a longing for it which is the true description of homesickness.
Interestingly, there is no French word equivalent for 'homesick', but 'nostalgie' is there all right. There is even a pop music radio station with that name; you can imagine the stuff they play.

Happy Christmas

Mapmaker

Mince Pies and Carols

2008-12-14T11:53:00.026+01:00

Yesterday, a unique cultural event took place at the Church of Saint Peter here in Argentat. It was a joint English/French Carol Service, organised to bring together the local community and its English residents in a sing-song, with nativity readings from the Bible by local schoolchildren in the two languages. The children had also been coached into a delightful rendering of 'Away in a Manger', complete with handheld candles, theatrical dimming of the lights. They even sang 'Little Donkey' entirely in English.
We also had the opportunity to bellow out other carols like 'Once in Royal David's City', 'O Come All Ye Faithful', 'Hark the Herald Angels' and the like to the polite surprise to the French majority of the congregation who had previously thought us a rather reserved lot, full of sang-froid.
Our local Web-Wizz has already set this up on the Argentat website. Click h ere to see the article and a short slideshow-video of the service. The sound quality is excellent and gives a good idea of what it was like. The article, written by Corinne Escure, is translated, more or less, by me: ...

At the beginning of the autumn, Alice, Sue and Johanna [English and French members of a choral group] proposed to Père Damian [the local priest] that they could organise a traditional English Christmas Carol service. Johanna, teacher and parent at the Jean d'Arc school [in Argentat] also suggested this to the other teachers. They were charmed by this and also by the idea of a cultural event for the two communities [French and English]. Consequently, the schoolchildren started to practise bible readings [in both languages] and carols, to be ready for this unforgettable evening. French and English carols followed one another, the children's voices carrying beautifully in the warmth of occasion. The children carried 'Christingles', decorated oranges with candles, symbolising the Earth and Light - and a moment of sharing with the traditions of Great Britain. After the service, still feeling the charm of the English and French choristers and of the solo by Mr Eyrigoux [he sang 'Silent Night' in French - 'Douce Nuit'], everyone was invited to take mulled wine, mince pies and other patisseries. An evening, we hope, to be only the début of further cultural exchanges!

Then it started to snow. The next morning, Sunday 14th December gave us a real taste of winter - and a traditional Christmas scene:

Real sang-froid has now set-in. Time to stoke up the fire, a little early I admit, with the Yule-logs.

Mapmaker.

2008-12-02T16:39:00.011+01:00
It's the 'Telethon' this weekend. A bit like the 'Pudsey' phenomenon in the UK last month (fund-raising for the 'Children in Need' charity), this one is for the 'Association Française contre les Myopathies', in other words, dedicated to raising money for the French Muscular Dystrophy charity. All over France, people will be doing worthy or silly (or both) things for pledges of cash.
An English version of the official website gives a flavour of the event.
I wrote the last paragraph last week. Telethon now been and gone along with several more days of my life. I can't understand how these days pass, seemingly at ever increasing speed although it has been one of those weeks stuffed with more social activities than the average...
Notably, December 5th, or 6th (depending on your euro-origins) is the day when the Dutch, in particular, celebrate 'Sinterklaas'. It's a long story, but he's basically the very same 'Santa Clause' or Saint Nicholas or 'Father Christmas' that the rest of us recognise. Last Wednesday was the 5th December and it so happened merry band of friends held another of our 'Entre Deux' meals, this time chez Nini (Nini and Chris's names came out of the hat the time before).

As half of us around the table are Dutch, we did some of the traditional stuff like providing a couple of the 'Black Pete' slaves and writing little poems about one another. I and Chris were persuaded to 'black up' for this(!)

That was last week - now Christmas decorations are up in town and on Saturday there'll be a carol service in the local church. It's going to be a mixed French/English affair; we haven't sung English traditional Christmas Carols for ages so we're looking forward to it. Mince pies and other goodies afterwards.

Joyeuses Fêtes...

Mapmaker

Saint Barbara to the Rescue

2008-11-24T14:19:00.009+01:00
Two young 'pompiers' came by the house a couple of days ago with their calendar for 2009. They do this every year, at about this time which is another reminder that winter is setting-in.
The Sapeurs-pompiers is France's fire and rescue service and is largely voluntary for the smaller communes. It is expected that we give a donation for the calendar. We always oblige - you never know when you might need their services and besides, next year is our local brigade's 150th anniversary. The busy, six-page glossy calendar is full of dramatic scenes
of their derring-do over the past year as well as some homely, family touches such as a large photograph of 'Le petit Luca et son papa, le sergent Jérôme Courcelaud'.
The first page of the calendar is entirely taken with 'mugshots' of the whole brigade; one Chief, 14 other officers down to the rank of 'caporal' and 11 more 'sapeurs, 1st classe'. Out of these 26, four are women. On the last page we are treated to photographs of five more under the title "La section Jeunes Sapeurs-Pompiers" in their uniforms - sort of apprentices or 'cadets', aged form 11 to 16 years. Four out of the five are young women. All this for a town of 3,000 inhabitants. A bit like the scouts, but with some serious hardware to play with. Wikepedia has a description of these cadets and their duties here in English.

A small 'flyer' accompanied the calendar inviting us as residents, to a free knees-up ('Grand Bal Gratuit'. It does sound better in French), in January in the sports hall. The occasion is an address on behalf of the patron saint of pompiers, Sainte Barbe, to be followed by general jollity with dancing - all organised by 'Fred et Lulu'. Sounds intriguing.
Sainte Barbe - Saint Barbara was an interesting, albeit shadowy saint in the catholic world. Originally she was prayed-to to protect one from lightning strikes.
Really? Is it worth it, I ask myself. Then again, we get some pretty awesome thunderstorms in these parts at times.

Anyway, the way she came to be associated with lightning was through a typically tortuous set of circumstances. Her father didn't like the way she was always eyeing the boys so he locked her up in a tower. Having little else to do while she was in there, she somehow learned about christianity and converted to it. From what, I don't know (flirting?). This made her father even madder so he had her tortured. She held-out against that, so he beheaded her (himself!). It seems that fathers were pretty strict in those days. It makes me feel that I got off lightly when I was smacked - hard, mind you, on the bum by my dad when I wouldn't stop asking for an ice-cream which he was not inclined to buy for me at the time. Ages ago, of course, but luckily not back in Bab's time.
I digress. As soon as Barbara's father had carried out the rather harsh punishment, he was struck by lightning and died. Served him right, you might say. Not for him our modern remedy of a spot of family counselling with a holiday at the seaside for all the family, just to help rekindle those happy earlier days.
After the unfortunate result of this mediaeval family spat, Sainte Barbe then acquired even more admirers and is now the patron saint of lightning-avoiders, architects, geologists, miners, gunners, metallurgists(!) and so on. Anything vaguely related to fire. Which finally brings us to the pompiers - she is well and truly, their guardian angel.
With a list like that, I suppose you could say that it goes some way towards compensating her for a rather heavy-handed bit of scolding from her dad.

Mapmaker

A Burning Issue

2008-11-12T08:48:00.025+01:00
This morning we hear that the UK is once again under cloud, but 'mild' for the time of year. It's amusing how this sort of weather 'anomaly' still makes news back there in Blighty. Here, at the same moment, we are recipients of the opposite; a light frost under a pale blue sky. A harbinger of winter.
We're experiencing one of those not infrequent weather patterns which occur from autumn to spring, when a finger of high pressure pokes across the northern half of France delivering its slow, clockwise circulation of warm, damp, 'claggy' air from the Atlantic to Britain while at the same time dragging down crisp, dry, cold continental air across us here in the 'bottom half' of this country.
We Brits get 'caught out' by these European mainland weather phenomena quite often in our first few years as French immigrants, especially those who think that 'south of the river Loire' means 'southern Europe', ergo a Mediterranean climate. In fact our winters can be much harsher than those of southern Britain, 800 kilometres to the north.
Almost all residents of France, with the exception perhaps of the well-heeled who can afford to inhabit the Côte d'Azur, have to accept the fact that they need heat in their houses for at least 7 months of the year. This means that the natives here are well-versed in the use of wood-burning stoves.
Wood-burning for heating has been around for a very long time - obviously. The stoves nowadays are very efficient - more than 70% of the heat generated is going to come into the room. What's more, 27% of France is still covered by forest and woodland so the 'industry' of growing and harvesting wood for fuel is still strong and actually increasing in activity. The French state now gives tax credits equal to 50% of the cost of installing in a home any device which uses renewable sources and this includes wood-burning stoves. We get a special low VAT rate for this also.
If the wood is dried for at least 18 months before it is sold as fuel, as any decent wood-farmer would do, the best (oak, beech, ash and particularly hornbeam, the hardest of all and better even than oak as fuel) can cost as little as around 2 euro centimes for kilowatt-hour of heat. Natural gas costs around 4.5 centimes for a kilowatt-hour, domestic fuel costs nearly 7 and propane gas, over 10!
Here, the wood is sold by volume. This doesn't seem fair at fist because, in fact, weight for weight, all woods are closely matched for calorific value. However, water content would make it heavier so the French prefer to sell it by this way. (Nevertheless, the Italians sell it by weight - ok, as long as it's dry).

The standard measure for us is the 'Steyre' which is, sort of, one cubic metre. In fact, it is a pile of one-metre-long logs stacked, one metre high, on a one metre base. This means, the amount varies slightly, depending on how straight they are! It also means that if the logs are already cut into two or three (we use the latter for our stove) before delivery, they will stack closer so a cut 'steyre' will give you more wood than an uncut one.
All this is a bit academic as the supplier-farmers always deliver, cut and jumbled on a trailer behind a tractor and simply tip it somewhere near where you want it. It's all based on trust really. We pay a little extra for the cutting.

It's interesting to note that new Brit immigrants here have no idea how to manage a wood-burner as their main source of heating. We all had to learn, despite the fact that the wood burner has been a fashionable addition to the 'ideal UK home' for many years now. It's still more likely to be an aesthetic assembly in the fireplace, rarely lit and fuelled by a few sacks of logs, purchased at the local garage or from a dodgy itinerant local trader with a pickup piled with some scruffy bits of trees which were probably still growing, a few days earlier.
Here, we gradually realise that, as the main source of heating a house, the wood must be properly harvested and dried, the stove must be kept going, pretty well continuously throughout the colder months. The walls of the house will take 24 to 48 hours to reach a steady, warm state and must not be left too long without a heat source in the rooms.
It's alien to a Brit at first to stoke up the stove just before retiring for the night. Coaxing it into life again before breakfast is also a lost memory, passed over with the death of our grandparents. It was more dangerous then; now we have modern, efficient burners, often with warm air circulatory additions which make a real difference, capable of heating a house, most likely more economically than other systems.
Finally, but actually firstly, - make sure you insulate otherwise the draughts will suck away all this eco-heat and leave you with cold feet....

Mapmaker

Kissing Cousins*

2008-11-01T12:15:00.020+01:00

*Click here for definition

We left Siena on the Wednesday and drove out to the Italian coast at Livorno to follow the Mediterranean motorway to France. It was somewhere along this route that I spotted an Italian (at least, his car had Italian numberplates) peeing at the side of the road, just like his cousins, the French. For some time I'd had the idea of a blog on this subject (if I could come up with a polite title), hitherto being convinced that they, Frenchmen, were the only nationals in Europe, if not the world, who practised this art. I was wrong. Perhaps I'd better abandon the idea of an essay on this topic for now; suffice to say, you can substitute the 'K' in the title of this piece for a "P" if you like.

The differences between these euro-cousins becomes apparent as soon as you cross the border at Ventimiglia. Tidiness take over. Confusing roadsigns, particularly the temporary ones setup for roadworks no longer leave you guessing. A sense of order - efficiency even, whispers its name again in the warm breeze coming from the sparkling sea, gliding over the fabulous rooftops of Monte Carlo. It's not until Nice, still on motorways but now crammed with traffic, that you are reminded of the auto-scrum that you get around all northern Italian towns and cities.
At last we were able to leave the motorway and, guided by Fifi, our faithful GPS comforter, start to take the road to the hills nearby.

Biot is a village in these hills a few kilometres inland from the ugly, urban coastal strip along the 'Bay of Angels' which stretches from Nice to Antibes. It must crawl with tourists from Easter to November, but when we arrived (late October), it was almost normal with very few obvious tourists and the genuine feel of a French village, slowing down for the 'low-season', politely keeping its attractions available but in a sleepy sort of way. A delight after the mêlée of Siena.

We headed for 'Les Arcades' hotel-restauran t at the top of the oldest part of the village. We'd passed-by a few years before, briefly, with Marina (once again) as our guide. She knew it from her earlier days as a photo-journalist as it was only a short dash from Nice and Cannes and thus became known to the press-crowd and their filmstar targets during the Film Festival weeks.
The hotel is a delight. The proprietors, M. and Mme Brothier (André and Mimi) have run it for over 50 years and treat their guests like relatives, who drop-in from time to time for a meal and to catch up on the family news. Each room is hung with original artworks of no mean value (artistic as well as financial). Mimi will show you her large private art collection in the cellars as well as expounding some useful medicinal advantages of some of her recipes - "The entrée you have chosen is a diuretic. Makes you peepee," she said with an encouraging smile.
The village of Saint Paul de Vence is only a few kilometres distant and so we made a visit in order to ogle at the (very) up-market galleries, artworks and residences in the ancient hilltop settlement, tucked inside its ramparts, from where you can peer down onto its millionaire neighbours' villas and swimming-pools.
Enough. Time to return to the cool, green valleys of Corrèze by way of the fabulous Millau bridge, designed by Sir Norman Foster. Another 'Kissing Cousin' perhaps? Well, he is English - from a working-class north-of-England family who has risen to 'Baron Foster of Thames Bank'. Sadly, I can find no information on his propensity to kiss, unlike the Italians...

Mapmaker

Tuscan Travels

2008-10-26T10:09:00.022+01:00
This morning, 26th Ocober, we had the first frost. At least, the car had ice on the windscreen, just after sunrise when I went out to buy fresh bread. It's just thirteen days since we left Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, in warm sunshine, to drive down to Siena in Tuscany to finish our short holiday.
We were now five friends in two cars, Roz and Bob having left by train for Venice, Florence and Rome before flying back to California after another week. We set off heading south across the interminable Lombardy plain, on what must be the most boring and ugly drives in europe, flat as a board and as picturesque as an enormous industrial estate in decline. Siena was 450 kilometres distant and not until Bologna (300 kilometres) can you find anything worth looking at from the motorway.
We knew that Bologna to Siena via Florence meant crossing the Apennine mountains and sure enough, green hills hove into view a few kilometres north of Bologna. We swept into them, climbing steadily, by-passing the city with welcome views of farms and woodlands. I was a bit surprised to find the maximum altitude attained was only 750 metres (according to Fifi, our GPS locator) and the motorway was in pretty poor condition at this point, two lanes only and an uneven surface (not unusual for Italy, even on newly-laid carriageways).

The route by-passed Florence as we left the 'mountains' passing through more ugly industrial activity and yet more road construction work with the city itself just a smudge in the haze to the east of us. We were now well and truly in Tuscany.
Thomas Patch, an English painter living in Florence painted this 'Distant View of Florence' in 1763. The words 'spinning' and 'grave' come to mind.

Later in the afternoon we were threading our way through the northern suburbs of Siena towards the walled city centre with some trepidation. Complex meeting arrangements had been made; we were not going to be able to park or even unload our luggage near our apartment as it was inside the mediaeval city walls, legal access by vehicle being only available to residents. The plan was, to telephone Jacopo, an old friend and former work-colleague of Marina through whom the accommodation had been arranged. His son-in-law, Pino (who, we imagined, was the owner of the apartment), would drive to meet us, transfer our luggage to his car and then somehow show us where to park and lead us to the apartment at the same time.
All this came to pass- eventually. The apartment was on a steep bluff, just inside the city walls on the north-east side of the city, at the corner of the Piazza San Francesco

I found this photo which actually shows the apartment and part of the mediaeval wall - our green balcony on the yellow building where we took our evening drinks just visible above the trees in front of the looming mass of the Basilica of San Francesco.
There is an alley between the two buildings which leads to a series of escalators descending to the street and the public car park where we had to leave our vehicles - at 30 euros a day each.
There is no doubt that Siena is one of the world's surviving wonders. The 'Campo' in the centre is a marvel and must not be missed. Of course, we expected and were not wrong in assuming that to sit there at one of the numerous bars and cafés to admire the view while sipping a refreshing drink would not be the cheapest way to quench our thirsts. Beers were three times normal price and nearly nine euros for a gin-and-tonic was mildly eye-watering (not due to the alcoholic strength, I might add).
If one's 'thing' is to visit, study, imbibe the magnificent monuments crammed into a marvel surviving from the middle ages such as Siena, then one could spend a week or more there, discovering new joys by the hour. After two days however, having been let down on various lodging arrangements (Marina had to move twice to nearby B&Bs at the last minute) and worrying somewhat about the security of the vehicles and the haemorrhaging euro in our pockets, we decided to review the situation. Personally, I found the bane of Siena was the noise and local pollution of constant roaring, rattling mopeds weaving in and out of the pedestrians in the narrow streets. The noise was amplified as in canyons so eating out on the pavement, although pleasant in the warm weather, was a spoilt experience.
In addition, Michel was obviously contracting a cold, or worse so we made a trip out to the hilltop village of San Gimignano as everyone should, who visits this region, then headed back to France on the third day. Michel needed to see a GP and we had decided to settle for a visit to Biot, near Antibes on the Côte d'Azur as a possible rest stop for last part of our trip.

Mountains and Lakes

2008-10-22T12:27:00.018+02:00
Back home at last, after a busy schedule outlined in the last blog. The best laid plans are often disrupted and our odyssey into Italy and back through France's Provence was no exception. However, the holiday was great and family bonds were reinforced, as they should be.
The crossing of the alps was the first casualty of my route plan. I turned into the wrong valley while cruising along the autoroute on a warm, sunny afternoon and we couldn't be bothered to retrace once I realised the error. So we went through the Fréjus tunnel instead of climbing over the 'Little St Bernard' pass. It was just as well. We reached our destination just as it was getting dark. The drive over the top would have set us back further in time, making the final 100 kilometres to Simon's house near Lake Maggiore a bit tricky as we were a two-car convoy with Michel following me on his first visit to Italy. The dense scattering of villages and lanes full of local traffic on steep
hillsides once we'd left the motorway was not the easiest place to try to follow another car in the dark.

Our three-day stay included a day trip on one of the passenger boats which cruise around the southern end of the lake like buses; the ticket was inclusive of stops anywhere around the circuit which included Laveno where we embarked, and the islands of Isola Madre and Isola Pescatori, both of which we visited.

Isola Madre consists entirely of a garden with a 16th century villa in the middle of it which belonged to the Barromeo family, all of which can be seen between passenger boat visits. The picture shows a view from the gardens. I've put a set of these pictures here on 'flickr'

After another superb celebratory dinner, arranged by Simon which took place in a sort of grocer's/butcher's shop which doubled as a restaurant after hours, it was time to leave for the next planned stop on our itinerary - Siena.
So far so good, if not quite as predicted....

Mapmaker

The Days Grow Short

2008-10-07T09:25:00.015+02:00
October is well under way and we have a busy schedule ahead. The weather is still kind with warm sun and no rain to speak of. I took this picture this morning from the garden. I was just too late to capture the earlier wisps of mist rising vertically from the water surface like party ribbons, something we see often at this time of year. Promise of a warm day again.

The schedule should run like this:
Drive to Limoges airport tomorrow, Wednesday to pick-up Roz and Bob who have come all the way from California via the UK. Dinner at the Fouillade in the evening with Chris and Sophie added to the ensemble.
Lunch on Thursday with the 'Entre Deux' crowd, plus Roz, Bob, Nadine and Michel - that makes Fourteen of us. Special occasion, Fleur's birthday on Sunday but we'll be in Italy by then so not all friends here will be able to attend, hence early celebration.
Friday morning, we're off to Italy to Lake Maggiore with Roz, Bob, Nadine, Michel, Fleur and Marina in two cars, to visit Roz's brother and family via the alpine pass alongside Mont Blanc - the 'Little St Bernard' (height 2,188 metres). I'm keeping an eye on the we bcams up there at La Rosiére, a ski resort just below the pass on the French side) but there shouldn't be a problem at this time of year.
Another celebration, Italian style, on Sunday, then the two Californians leave for Venice while the rest of us head for Sien a where we have an apartment reserved for the rest of the week, thanks to a friend of Marina.

The return journey is planned (for me, Fleur, Nadine, Michel and Marina) to be via the Mediterranean route with a night or two at St Rémy de Provence, a watering hole we've visited several times before. We should find our way home after that.
Not a bad schedule for October. Well, you only live once and winter is-a -comin', in more ways than one, if the current financial crisis is anything to go by.
Later blogs - hope to show how it all turned out.....

Mapmaker

Confusers and Electrickery

2008-10-01T17:40:00.028+02:00

This blog is about computers, so skip it if the subject bores the pants off you....

I can think of only one of our large group of friends and acquaintances in this neck of the woods who doesn't have a computer; I'm talking about a group of people, mostly immigrant retirees, with an average age of around 60+, at a guess. Yet nearly all of us have them in the home and feel utterly deprived when they 'go down', get fried by thunderstorms (pretty fierce affairs here when compared with those we remember from times past back in Blighty) or when our 'Internet Providers' inexplicably stop providing on random occasions.

'Confusers' are what a good friend of mine calls computers - you only have to change a few letters and you're there. 'Electrickery is another word he uses a lot. He's a nice, intelligent chap, running a survey company in the UK. He has to rely on them as tools of the trade (we're talking land survey here - mapping, so lots of numbers have to be crunched), but he's honest too. I spent ten years helping people to do useful things with these desktop, one-eyed beasts and I know that my friend is not alone. Everyone is confused by them, including me.
One thing came home to me very early during this period when I was frantically trying to keep ahead of the latest 'improvements' and 'updates'. My revelation was that these machines will always be confusing until the day comes along when their actual purpose and method of use are as readily understood as those of a toaster, a telephone, or a teapot..

Why do so many of us, even oldies and crinklies, need these wretched machines? What do we actually do with them? We send emails and browse the internet. These two activities have been more or less 'mastered' by most of us, but even then, the finer points of 'cut-and-paste', email attachment formats, 'favourite' web site management, RSS news-feeds etc. etc. are too tricky to bother about. We get by, largely without them.
Some of us like to use the 'media' facilities and enjoy playing with our digital photo or video libraries. As for spreadsheets, databases, desktop publishing, graphics, even computer diaries and 'to do' applications, these are largely spurned by most of us. Yet, a 'home' computer is an incredibly versatile and powerful tool, capable of doing almost anything if you know how. That's why it carries its relatively high price-tag; it's like having a box of tools in the house for any conceivable task. Only a small percentage will ever be used because we haven't learned how to use them, or we're just not interested.

Yet, the complete toolbox is there, cluttering-up the desk.
We don't actually need all this capability. Most of the time we simply need a small device for internet browsing, interaction (booking hotels, flights, ferries etc.) and emailing.
And in my opinion, combining these functions in a portable telephone is not the answer, especially while the telecom companies persist in ripping everyone off with outrageous charges.

Times are changing however. Broadband blues aside (last month's blog on the subject..), hand-held, wireless devices are now available offering email and web access with all that the latter can provide. Not to mention the digital media functionality like photo, music and video facilities. The leader of the pack at the moment is Apple's 'iPod Touch' which is, in fact, its world-beating iPhone without the 'phone bit (i.e., without the crippling charges). Other manufacturers are catching-up, fast.
I can see us all using these before we're driving our Zimmer frames. The computer accessories industry will be right there with us with its 'Zimmer iPod clip-on holder' with built-in speakers, auto-charging as we shuffle along....
I hope so - I look forward to it.

Mapmaker

Bras, Boobs and Buttocks

2008-09-24T08:36:00.012+02:00
With a title like that you might wonder where I've been recently. Browsing around Marks and Spencers in Bournemouth, UK is the rather sad answer I'm afraid - and musing on the plethora of bouncing bosoms in British high streets.
I didn't actually take this photo of the current darling of the charts and the tabloids, but it does illustrate the point(s). Women are currently enjoying an exposure which hasn't been quite so revealing since the 18th century (if costume dramas on film and TV are anything to go by). More noticeable in UK high streets than here (at least, to me), one of this interesting fashion phenomenon's secrets was pointed out by my wife while cruising around M&S's lingerie section. The cunning bra engineers build pads into the lower or lower-outer parts of the cups to push up or in (or, up-and-in) the wearer's bazooms in a sort of gravity-defying, difficult-not-to-notice way. I didn't know that. I thought it was something to do with diet or genetics or evolution (something which might have fascinated Darwin perhaps). I am of a certain age, don't forget - out of touch, so to speak.
My excuse, as a self-proclaimed artist-painter with a penchant for figure drawing and painting, is that this 'development' resulting in certain modifications of the female form, is of academic interest. Well, I would say that, wouldn't I?
What was even more fascinating was the size of some of these supports. The largest on display could have housed a pair of hefty buttocks, let alone a couple of boobs. Not surprising as the world is supposed to be suffering from a plague of obesity.

Speaking of which, the book 'French Women Don't Get Fat' by Mireille
Guiliano - a bestseller recently, does not speak the truth. Her advice is obviously correct - keeping portions small, savouring food to increase satisfaction, smaller amounts of high quality rather than large amounts of low quality, etc. but It's pretty obvious here that not all French women (or men) keep to this regime, or follow it instinctively. It's true that a nation whose culture is food will probably be wiser towards the part it plays in its daily life; more likely to spend more time at the table savouring quality, well-crafted dishes. Plenty of (non-French) people have been saying 'not so' however since the book came out, and this sight (photo above) is not that rare.

Here's an icon of fifty years ago to end this blog - Brigitte Bardot at 72. A pretty good advert for Ms. Guiliano's book....?

Mapmaker

The Lost Art of Trundling

2008-09-19T12:54:00.020+02:00
We decided that our 10-day trip to England would be less of a rush if we did a 'trundle' instead of the usual dash to the Channel ferries - a total of more than 700 kilometres from here. It's what we used to do, before we settled here permanently. I was blessed with long holidays as a college lecturer(!), so we were able to roll slowly across France each summer, no fixed itinerary, discovering the delights of out-of-the-way places by taking the 'yellow', 'D' roads (à la Michelin) or even sometimes the white ones. It's how we fell in love with France.
Since our full-time residence here we abandoned this idea in favour of a dash along the ever-burgeoning motorway system, marvelling at how more and more quickly we could cover the distance. Hotel fees reduced to a minimum, door-to-door from here to my dad's place in Dorset on the same day.
This time we thought, why not have an 'old-time' holiday on the way, taking 2 days instead of one? Trundle speeds should save us some fuel too, contributing towards the cost of an extra night's lodging somewhere. Setting of in a vaguely northerly direction, we would keep the speed down to 80km/hr or less and enjoy the ride, with the expectation of coming across a small country hotel in a sleepy town sometime in the late afternoon.
All went according to plan; under a bright, blue sky we drove leisurely across the Millevaches plateau, an upland area with considerably more than one thousand cows on it ('vache' means 'cow' in French, but here it is probably an old word for 'source' or 'spring'). After a café lunch at the Lac de Vassivière we pressed on, gradually leaving behind the granite uplands of the Millevaches as they gave way to the softer contours of Creuse, parts
of which showing similarities with south-western UK.
The rest of the day's journey was now dictating itself - a drive to the Creuse river, then follow it through to Argenton-sur-Creuse where we took on board two enormous cappuccinos at a sunny café location in the middle of town. Then again onwards up to the small town of Descartes where we found a hotel for the night.
The town was named after its famous 'father of modern philosophy', René Descartes. It used to be called 'La Haye en Touraine'. Imagine calling the village of Stradbroke in Suffolk after its famous son, Robert Grosseteste (12th century philosopher and Bishop of Lincoln).

Whilst sipping a refreshing beverage at a pavement café in the town we were reminded yet again of the 'Rentrée' (see my blog of September 3rd). The sign shown here was in the window of the pharmacy on the other side of the road. The enterprising proprietor has shipped in extra supplies of anti-nit spray and kits to 'finish-off the little critters' and wishes his customers a 'Bonne rentrée' - presumably guaranteed after making this purchase.
Dinner was up to expectations: I had a warm goats'-cheese salad with figs as an entrée followed by turbot in a mustard-seed sauce then baked banana in cream and rum as dessert. Nyam! nyam!, as the French say.

We were about half way but the next day, despite the easier, flatter countryside of Touraine and Normandy, it still took another day to reach Cherbourg port under our 'trundle rules', rolling into the port around 6pm with an hour to spare in order to catch the ferry.

There is a coda here: We saved some fuel - around 10% in fact. However, the following days' reflection brought home to us that we had spent two whole days in the car instead of one, with a subsequent heavier toll in terms of general fatigue. In fact, for the first day in the UK we were knackered. The 10% fuel saving was not much really and to cut this long story short, we decided to go back to the quick-dash regime next time.
Trundling can be considered part of the holiday of course, but is not necessarily for everyone. The French may be catching-on. I noticed a piece in, I think it was 'Le Figaro', last week. It has been shown here that the consumption of carburants by the nation's motorists has fallen significantly over this summer - the French are driving more slowly, to save fuel! Encroyable!!

Mapmaker

Broadband Blues Update

2008-09-06T17:09:00.005+02:00
Broadband Blues (my blog, August 26th) may be a lighter shade of that colour - my friends with Numéo now report continuous functionality for the past week or so, AND their first payment has been lifted (Numéo said they wouldn't start taking subscriptions until the problems were solved).
To be fair to Numéo, the problems seem to have been higher up the chain with their physical network suppliers AXIONE who provide the 'backbone' of cabling here in Limousin on which the Wimax distribution is based, utilised by Numéo.
The two-way satellite broadband story plunges us back into the dark blues; cost of kit for self-installation, ('Tooway') including all the bits and TVA (VAT) added is nearer 900+ euros, not 600 as I'd previously suggested.
Enough of this techspeak. We're off to UK next week so that should give me something to write home about.

Mapmaker

It's the 'Rentrée'

2008-09-03T12:42:00.008+02:00

Yesterday all French schoolchildren went back to school after the summer holidays. It's the 'rentrée'. I assumed that's what the word referred to but as the occasion arrived each year we non-French immigrants realised it is actually some form of restart for just about everything in the French social, political and commercial calendar.
I'm just an uninvolved observer of this phenomenon so I recommend an expert - just click on the 'Links to try' alongside this blog ('Another Brit in France - Interesting stuff') or simply click here.

No translation needed for the above...

Mapmaker

Art for Art's Sake..

2008-09-01T16:08:00.005+02:00

Seven years ago we created CA3 which stands for 'Le Cercle des Amis des Arts d'Argentat. The idea was for a group of friends to meet regularly in order to paint and draw together, learn form each other and generally have a good time.
The new 'season' starts this week so we celebrated with a barbecue. Very little actual 'art' on this occasion but the thought was there........

A lovely afternoon beside the Dordogne....

Mapmaker

Broadband Blues

2008-08-26T14:42:00.017+02:00

Here in Xaintrie we enjoy a rural existence with beautiful scenery; wooded hills, plunging gorges, trout streams and placid lakes, peaceful meadows with scattered, contented cattle. Not too crowded, lively towns and villages which don't die in the winter when the visitors have all left. Not a bad life really. We even have broadband access to the internet.
Some would say that this is now an essential requisite to life in the 21st century although some would say otherwise. But not many. Without even attempting to analyse why this service is deemed essential, you only have to open your ears to the complaints of friends and neighbours to be convinced that a decent broadband service is not a longed-for luxury but an absolute, fundamental human right.
Why is this? What is so 'essential' about speedy access to the internet? Only two or three years ago we were perfectly content with our 'dial-up' connections, happily swapping simple emails with family and friends. Two or three years before that most of us were content to wait for the postal service to do what it has always done for the past century, oblivious of the internet revolution twittering into our lives.
Is the answer something to do with consumerism and desire, to indulge in the latest trends? I think it's much more than this. The message is sinking home that the internet is actually us. We are the world-wide-web. We can actually make our words count and have an effect on those pressures which govern our daily lives.
Look at the Wikipedia phenomenon. Note also a number of recent media stories concerning how the US presidential hopeful, Barak Obama has grasped this and used it to great effect in his campaign. We all want a share of this power.
So, we now have the internet, but what has this desire for speed (of connection) got to do with it. We can use our 'phone lines and join in the 'www' jamboree. Why should we have to do this at ever increasing speeds? Well, anyone who has spent a frustrating time waiting for a web-page to manifest itself (due to the fact that the designers all presume we have fast broadband access anyway) at dial-up, non-broadband speeds will know the answer.
Here in rural France some of us have broadband, some of us don't and some of us have it only some of the time. Speeds are low, no faster than 2Mb/s at best in this area for ADSL broadband and often at slower speeds of half-a-Mb/s, no better than dial-up. The average for the whole of the UK is around 3.6Mb/s and in Paris and other large cities, speeds of well over 10Mb/s has been attainable for some time now. Telephone-wire-delivered ADSL broadband can only be effective up to around 4 kilometres from the 'exchange'. This leaves a lot of people beyond its reach, including a number of people I know in this neck of the woods.
A year or so ago our Département of the Corrèze and its Region of Limousin announced that they were well aware of these connection problems in rural areas, where many new enterprises and commercial initiatives were struggling to launch themselves but hampered by lack of broadband access to the internet. This page shows the situation and progress towards one of the solutions. The service is a 'Wimax' system which entails installing an antenna on the house and receiving the signals from a transmitter mast up to 10 kilometres away. Note that we need 'Les Opérateurs Particuliers' listed half-way down the web page (those companies offering services to private households). Of the 4 companies listed here only 'Numéo is anywhere near offering a service at this time but they have been offering it for 9 months now and it still doesn't work properly. I suggested to two friends of mine in this area who were beyond ADSL reach to try this option over 6 months ago. One household has actually had the system installed for more than 2 months now and it still does not give them a satisfactory service, often totally unobtainable for days on end. The other friend has been told she can have the service but Numéo has gone completely silent on when. In fact, I'm sure there are major technical problems with Numéo at present (check out a few forums with their name). Is there someone out there to prove me wrong?
Enter, stage right, two-way satellite communication for internet access. This is our latest option, apparently now viable and affordable due to new equipment developed with the private household in mind. See this web site devoted to 'Tooway'. I have done some research here but to cut a long, rather complex story short, it's a bit tricky to install, the kit has to be paid for (in the order of 600+ euros) rather than equipment rental included in the monthly subscription and this subscription is at least twice ADSL and Wimax charges.
Should my friend go for this option? She is an erudite, retired journalist-photographer, very much still involved in world affairs and desperate to get broadband access. Her present dial-up with Wanadoo is laughable - slow, slow, slow, connections often closing down inexplicably after a few moments.
Two-way satellite-internet is new technology at the level required by the private household so, even leaving aside the expense, will it work satisfactorily? She's a feisty lady and doesn't stand any nonsense. Like all of us here, she's on a limited pension. Will money spent on this technology be worth it?
She's not going to move house. She needs Internet in place of Internot.

Mapmaker

Parlez Vous?

2008-08-20T11:32:00.020+02:00

As a Brit, is it possible to live in France without speaking French? Of course; there is no language test (yet) for immigrants, particularly if they originate from another EU country. The debate rather takes another direction - should  a Brit speak 'passable' French in order to live here? A genuine gallic shrug, beautifully illustrated here, probably isn't reproducible by a Brit but should we at least try to get our mouths moving a little more?
In my opinion, living in a foreign country is more or less 'comfortable' according to the stance of the host nation. This in itself has a number of levels - the laws of the State at the top and the attitude of your immediate neighbours at the bottom.
Most Brits living here seem to find few problems, even with a limited command of the language. Some of us struggle a little with our consciences, knowing we should do better, but find the idea of learning a foreign language (at the time when we prefer to indulge in our favourite pastimes) a pain in the bum and put the whole thing on the back burner.
The 'anglo-saxon attitude' - see the illustration here (gleaned from Google Images when I entered that phrase), probably doesn't exist anymore, at least among those who have genuinely made the permanent move to France.

On the other hand it has been replaced by a ready and grateful acceptance of the tolerance of our host-cousins to put up with our linguistic stumblings. In fact, I would be happy to say "chapeau" ('hats off') to the French for a smooth ride in this respect.
There's a message here also for us Brits living in France - an understanding of the French language to any degree will lead to a richer life. To be able to reply to a jocular remark with an appropriate riposte is an achievement. To do the reverse gives great satisfaction and means you'll feel truly 'at home'.

Mapmaker

Nickers!

2008-08-15T12:16:00.015+02:00
The theme from the last blog continues, simply because the subject keeps cropping up in conversations with friends, relatives and in the media. This has now brought into sharp focus for me one of the hitherto vague reasons people like us uproot ourselves and emigrate to another country and another culture. People here are much less likely to nick things, ergo French society has retained more of its respect for other peoples' property. I'm not talking so much about the habitual criminal fraternities but rather the mentality of people who will 'lift' a portable object and walk off with it simply because it is momentarily unattended.

Since the last blog the self-employed antenna and satellite-dish-installer son-in-law of a friend working in the UK told us how first, his ladders were taken from the top of his van, then valuable tools stolen from inside. As an aside we learned that the insurance wouldn't pay up because the van was deemed a 'workplace'. He's an honest man but is sure he'll lie next time and say that the stuff was stolen from home so his household insurance should cover it. Otherwise, another hit like that and he'd be out of business.
Yesterday my former professional colleague, still working as a Land Surveyor, had his work umbrella (a special piece of kit, used to protect the survey equipment) stolen when it was left unattended for a minute or two, 50 metres from where he was standing. Our friends with whom we were dining when we heard the ladder story, told us how their English village church roof had its lead taken - an everyday occurrence now. It will cost £140,000 to replace which had to be raised by voluntary funding, not to mention the extra £40,000 for the security arrangements, insisted upon by the insurance company, to guard the scaffolding as obviously, that too would offer an irresistible prize to the 'nickers'.
The final straw, prompting this outburst was to hear on the TV yesterday of an English doctor, whose car was stolen after stopping to attend a pensioner badly injured after being hit by a bus in Salford. Read it here.
Apparently, sat-nav units in ambulances are now the latest craze - ripped out by opportunist thieves while the crew attends an accident victim. Nice one.

Am I being smug? After all, we live in a rural corner of France, 45km form the nearest city Brive-la-Gaillarde, population 49,000. Rural France is 85% of her territory but only 27% of the population live there. Are the French that bad in their cities? It doesn't seem so from here.
Be that as it may, my 'quality of life' is enhanced by being able to leave my car unlocked in my garden, my fishing gear hanging outside in the porch, ever ready to use as soon as the fish start to rise, my bicycle outside, potted plants around the house, safe from marauding
opportunist ne'er-do-wells. Great Britain is, I believe, the third most densely populated island in the world behind Java and Japan. Is that a reason?

Mapmaker

Bless 'em All

2008-08-09T14:48:00.017+02:00
The long and the short and the tall. They're still here, especially the tall, in other words, the Dutch. One more week and the visitors will suddenly leave; the campsites will lose most of their clientèle and our town will start to look normal again.
At present however, the supermarkets are still thronged with our summer visitors, the Dutch, perambulating through them like brightly-coloured fishing floats, bobbing around, well proud of the swirling surface created by the rest of us.
Why is it that the Dutch are so tall? Our Dutch settler friends say they are largely from the north of Holland, but that doesn't explain why so many choose here for their holidays. They also seem to make up the majority of those who have chosen the émigré life here in Xaintrie. There must be a historical context there somewhere.

Speaking of supermarkets - I'm always amazed at how trusting they are here. The two photographs were taken this morning. Literally loads of stuff on display outside the main entrance; finely-tuned products for the summer visitors such as, tents, camping chairs, lilos, camp cooking equipment and lots, lots more. All highly portable and totally un-monitored. Not a single member of staff, let alone the beady-eye of the dreaded cctv camera. People are left to choose what they want, then take it inside to purchase it. Those who subsequently walk off with their choice without paying (and there must be some) are not contemplated by the management. People are trusted to do the right thing.
Unlike the UK. The surveillance society there doesn't want to take their monocular off the naughty public for one second. And for good reason, they say. Britain is now a nation of nickers. People will nick anything. A few weeks ago, listening to the BBC Today program we heard of the latest UK klepto craze due to the world shortage of metals. Never mind your church roof with its covering of grey-gold (lead) - thieves are now carrying off whole bus-stop shelters. Lots of good stuff there for the scrap merchant.
I wonder if it has occurred to the spying authorities in Britain that people might behave better if they were trusted to do so.
It seems to work here.

Mapmaker.

One Day in the Life

2008-08-04T19:05:00.012+02:00
Yesterday, Sunday, 3rd August 2008 Alexander Solzhenitsyn died. Curiously enough, I was going to use this title before I heard the news. My blog was going to be another ramble recounting that particular day in my life, here in deepest France. Trivia indeed, compared with that of Ivan Denisovich.
My day, more than half a century on from that of the Nobel Prize-winner, seems almost obscenely privileged by comparison. It included an unplanned morning spent at one of the local summer 'brocante' markets - a French version of a car-boot sale without the cars; aperos at the Café des Sports in the village, then the inevitable lunch chez Marina as we were not far from her place anyway.
An hour or to to recover then off to an 'American-style' barbecue at 5pm at Jerry's place in celebration of his 80th birthday. His chocolate birthday cake was similar in shape to an F4 Phantom jet-fighter used in the Korean war; Jerry flew one during that conflict. Around the time Solzhenitsyn was finishing his book, come to think of it.

A light-entertainment day for us here in our new, warless Europe. Conversations and events of our day will fade quickly as they are of little consequence. One image however from last Sunday will remain in my mind's eye - a photograph in a magnificent book Marina had recently taken delivery of, just arrived from Germany. The book was entitled 'Diaspora' and was a collection of brilliant black-and-white photos of jews and jewish groups in scattered locations around the world. On flicking through the pages I stopped at one showing four old, gnarled Greeks, forearms bared, their concentration-camp tattooed numbers still perfectly legible.
No further comment necessary.

Mapmaker

When the lights go out...

2008-08-02T09:48:00.009+02:00
Yesterday's UK headlines were all about the nuclear energy debate and wranglings. Will French EDF (80-odd percent owned by the French government) be able to buy/run the British nuclear industry (30-odd percent owned by the British government)? Apparently not, as at present but this important discussion has already dropped out of the headlines this morning.
Two interesting points to ponder: One, who has been the wiser, the French or the Brits, in the level of reliance on private industry to plan for the (far) future? I know who I'll put my money on.
Two: Once again another example here of the total lack of long-term planning and vision by successive UK governments in respect of securing a safe future for its people. I don't feel that frustration here in France. I see daily examples of an inherent sense of duty by the state, départements, local authorities etc. as, for example, the execution of continuous maintenance regimes on the roads, public buildings and other amenities.
To return to the subject of energy security I now live under a long-established nuclear/hydroelectric regime, envisaged over 30 years ago by the French. (The World Nuclear Association website here gives the French situation). My house is powered by electricity and wood. My bills have increased, of course, but are not subject to these lurches in cost currently being experienced in the UK due to government failure to obtain energy security.

And here, I'm a citizen, not a subject. Vive la République!

Self-Catering with a Difference

2008-07-29T11:33:00.027+02:00

I've already blogged on eating together with friends ('Table Talk', 22nd July) as a cure-all for society's ills; we're continuing to do our bit here in deepest Xaintrie with a splendid invention we call 'Entre Deux'.
Once a month, two names are drawn from a hat, out of a total of ten. The names on the folded papers are all friends, all Xaintriecois. The two 'winners' have to organise, design, prepare and serve (at a place of their choice) a meal for all ten of us.
The random nature of the choice of the catering duo, extremely variable culinary skills and international background of our group has proved to be a great formula for a jolly good time. Good friendships have become better and the unique recipes experienced and wines sampled have been such a delight that the latest meal (29th July) produced a resolve to record these dishes for posterity. An 'Entre-Deux' cookbook was mooted along with other promises; whether or not they'll be kept is open to question of course, but it's the thought that counts.

Anita and Marina (English and German with Belgian undertones) were the lucky pair this time.
After aperos in the garden on one of the hottest days of the summer, we sat down to the first entrée of a highly flavoured gazpacho soup, complete with centred ice-cube. Couldn't have been a better start.
This was followed by a second entrée; an italian-style salad with mozarella, avocado, grape tomatoes poêlées (I think that's how it should be described, but I'm no cook - just an appreciative consumer), all in a balsamic-based dressing.

Main course was colin (hake?) steaks wrapped in prosciuto ham with a delicious marinated, baked cucumber with saffron. Cheeses. Dessert - Frozen orange juice with a chilled cream which had been pre-soaked in coffee beans in some magic way.
All accompanied by wines, choice of group members (no corkage to pay).

Roy and Elisabeth (English, Dutch) next month. Can't wait.

Mapmaker

Being one's Age

2008-07-26T08:48:00.007+02:00
Today is Mick Jagger's 65th birthday. Yesterday was Marina's so we all went to the Moulin for lunch. We sat on Jeff-the-Chef's new outside terrace alongside a French family (there's only room for 2 tables, 20 covers maximum).
The average age around our table was higher than Mr Jagger's total but that didn't stop us enjoying ourselves and making rather a lot of noise throughout the meal, in the usual melange of languages (French, German, Dutch and English).
Jeff excelled as usual with his inventive, skillfully crafted dishes; pan-fried foie-gras in a wild cherry sauce for example. Would you believe?
Our French family finished a little before us. As they left, I turned to say a few words as I thought I ought to apologise to them for making such a noise. There were polite smiles in return as I explained, it was a birthday celebration. The smile of the only man in the group looked genuine, along with the others as he replied, "Eighteenth?"
Touché.

Mapmaker

Extracting the digit

2008-07-24T09:40:00.010+02:00
A short reflection on using numbers in French:

I love France. I love living in France. I'm retired now so absolute precision in numbers is not of absolute importance, but the French method of counting....?

Mapmakers do it with triangles and lots of numbers. I trained and qualified as a Land Surveyor back in the pre-electronic days of hand-cranked mechanical calculators and even log-tables; batteries not required. As such, the principal tenet rammed home during training and practice was to ensure that you always had at least two ways of calculating something from your observed angles and distances and errors in 'long numbers' had to be avoided at all costs. Mistakes could be costly (especially when setting-out bridges, tunnels and the like).

This is why, even now, several years into 'retirement' with my brain running at a gentler pace, I find the French way of 'speaking num
bers' extraordinary and, at least to me and countless others attempting to make headway with the language, prone to misinterpretation.

Apparently, in French long numbers are grouped in twos and/or threes but not as we would say in English. Take for example the number 205379099. In English we would most likely say "two-oh-five (pause), three -seven-nine (pause), zero-nine-nine. This would be correct even if we didn't actually pause. In French? Possibly "vingt, cinquante-trois, soixante-dix-neuf, zero-quatre-vingt-dix-neuf". Or, "deux-cents-cinq, trois-cents-soixante-dix-neuf, zero, quatre-vingt-dix-neuf.

Depending on pauses discerned or otherwise by the listener, the former coud be a number as long and as erroneous as "2
0503601908019" or something, almost correct, like "20537908019.

In either case, the bridge would fall down.

The picture is of one of my survey stations in Oman, 1963

Mapmaker

Table Talk

2008-07-22T09:18:00.004+02:00
Yesterday was one of those not infrequent occasions when a group of us met for lunch - for no particular reason other than friendship, food and talk. We were three Dutch, three English two Germans and an American; seven of us were xaintricois(es) with two visiting friends.

Liddy and Gerrit were hosts; we passed a pleasant four hours or so (a normal lunch interval) around a table in their garden with a view across to the peaks in the Parc des Volcans, thirty kilometres away in the Cantal. The food was 'rice table', a dutch favourite originating from the Netherlands' colonial past; the conversation was varied and ranged from language, through accents and travel to the inevitable food and drink topics. We passed house prices and royal families on the way.

I'm one of those people who are convinced that civilisations grew out eating together, with family and friends. Share conversation (even if three or four languages may be needed), food and drink and avoid wars.

Incidentally, the royal family topic popped out of Liddy's table napkins; paper ones but obviously of superior quality as they were purchasedd at a Dutch 'royal' venue (a palace of some sort?) which boasts a shop with such items, the wrappings no doubt embellished with the Netherlands' royal coat-of-arms. We were very careful what we did with them after the meal.

Mapmaker

Stuff Happens

2008-07-18T19:20:00.000+02:00
The title of this blog is Donald Rumsfeld's 'blurt' after the looting in Baghdad in April 2003. It has since appealed to me as one of the most useful (and shortest) quotes of the 21st century so far.
Here's a little of my stuff from yesterday:

A message on the 'phone in the morning , in French, from a woman interested in one of my paintings in the local summer exhibition here in Argentat. I'm getting better at French numbers, rattled-off with their usual sprinkling of 'quatre-vingt-somethings' but I still need one or two extra plays of the recording to be sure I've got it right. Final proof came when she answered my return call and we agreed to meet at the gallery at 11am.

A forty-something woman was sitting on the steps outside the gallery when I arrived, smoking a splendid English-looking briar pipe. This turned out to be my interested (interesting) buyer. We concluded the deal whereby I would change the frame for a smaller, and deliver the goods at 7pm to her house in town.
I spent the afternoon working on a painting in neighbour Jim's 'studio' which he lets me use. The picture shows the view from the studio doorway. Paradise.
A great-tit flew into the room as I worked. It was not afraid of my presence and spent some time hopping around, pecking at my feet, hands and even tasted the acrylic paints, spread on paper plates on the table alongside where I worked. It seemed to prefer red. Jim's mother feeds birds from her balcony nearby so I suppose it was just after a free lunch. I didn't really imagine it had any artistic tendencies.

Since the last blog: There's been some feedback, which is satisfying.
Marina thinks I should have put quotes around the word "foreign" at the end of the last entry. She has a point; I was imagining an unknown English person reading it in some remote spot like Hartlepool or Hull, who wouldn't need quotes around this word but to Marina, who is Bavarian, it looks a tad condescending and almost rude. Interesting.

Among further comments, not all recorded, were ones from Simon in Italy who thought it was too long, and Simon in Australia who seemed to enjoy it (he lived here with his family for a year and his comments are attached to the last blog) although the process of reading it appears to have been a dangerous one.

The interesting woman took delivery of the reframed painting with grace and the right sort of appreciative noises (for me) later, as planned and wrote out the cheque.
Stuff happened.

Mapmaker.

Bastille Day

2008-07-15T10:20:00.000+02:00

Well, my first blog entry wasn't much of a first effort, but I'm still finding out how to run this blog thingy...

As I was saying, Xaintrie is actually a place. I was about to say, "look it up on Wikipedia," but I now find there is no entry there - yet. Something, perhaps, for one of us Xaintrie inhabitants (I think we're known as "xaintriecois") to rectify? This website might help, if you read French. There's a map, even if you don't.

Yesterday, Monday 14th July, was of course, a national holiday here. As well as being Roz's birthday. The weather was perfect for a firework display so we installed ourselves early on the Quai Lestorgie in front of Roger's Ice-cream bar/art gallery (Les Quatre Rivières). This is where we expected to get a good view of the pyrotechnics, scheduled to be launched at around 10.30 pm from the Jeanne d'Arc schoolgrounds at the end of the quay. The picture here shows the view we had while we waited (click on it to see it in greater detail). The river is the Dordogne.

We didn't need to settle onto Roger's steel-pseudo-rattan chairs quit so early; we were there before 7pm. He thought (hoped) there would be quite a crowd and would not be able to 'hold' them for us until much after that but like everything else associated with traditional tourism this year, visitor numbers are well down. The quay didn't fill to capacity until 3 hours later.

The fireworks were great as usual. The occasion was appreciated by all, perhaps a thousand or more, sitting at the Quatre Rivières, the Gabariers restaurant next door, the Créperie along the quay and the throng just standing around with their families.

Something to note (particularly for any blog readers here familiar with the current UK scene): Not one incidence of drunkenness, throwing up, shouting or fighting despite copious amounts of wine and beer being consumed. No police in evidence. The Security Team comprised three pretty teenage girls wearing bright yellow hi-viz vests with the word "Security" on the back. Their job was to politely keep the public away from the firework end of the quay, behind some portable (easily negotiated if you wanted to be awkward) barriers. The public politely obliged.

A final word on this 'public' in evidence there yesterday. We tried to guess how many might be French, how many non-French. I think it was around 50/50 with a bias on the French with their families. Everyone had a good evening and there was no trouble. It was a national occasion but it had no hint of nationalism or jingoism. This goes a little way towards explaining why this is reason 23 (or is it 24?) why we live here, in this foreign land.

More next time,

Mapmaker

First entry to "The Xaintrie Blog"

2008-07-14T18:00:00.000+02:00
I've just created this with a view to getting into the blogosphere. It's my personal blog, on anything that comes to mind.

Let's start on "Xaintrie" itself. Why "Xaintrie"? What does it mean?
Well, it's a place. In France, where I live.