Bras, Boobs and Buttocks

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

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

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'

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..

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