Elsien's Traveblogue

Monday, May 28, 2018

Dutch Book Festival in Montpellier

I've had the most wonderful few days at the Comédie du Livre in Montpellier. It is a Book Fair that takes place every year and focuses on a different nationality each year. This year it was Dutch and Flemish literature.

My Dutch friend Els, a translator, was slightly involved in it and thanks to her I could participate in Breakfast with Dutch author Gerbrand Bakker and another one, the next day, with Flemish writer Stefan Brijs. I am not that au fait with modern Dutch literature, so had never heard of these two writers and had to start reading at some pace! Thank Goodness for Amazon, the Dutch on-line bookseller Bol.com as well as Kindle, Kobo and E-Pubs. By co-incidence, trying to sort out my overfull DropBox I found that a lovely Dutch friend had given me access to hers, which was choc-a-full of Dutch literature! Wow, thank you!

So, I got through enough of the books to be able to have some idea. I read all of 'Arend', by Stefan Brijs. A bit bizarre, not easy to read, about a somewhat monstrous-looking child, the 'Arend' of the title, who is neglected, mainly in horror of his looks, by his single mother. He finds a neighbour, or rather, the similarly eccentric, shunned by others, neighbour finds him and the two become friends. The neighbour, a much-needed father figure, collects feathers, which fits in beautifully with Arend's various obsessions and the boy dies, in the end, spoiler-alert – trying to fly … 'Arend', in Dutch, means 'Eagle'.

Stefan Brijs is better known for a more recent book, 'The Angel-Maker', about a medical researcher who clones a triplet, after his own, far from perfect image, with his genetic material. I have almost finished the book, fascinating, but long … The interview with the author, over 'breakfast', a cup of coffee, glass of juice and little croissant, was excellent and really added another layer of understanding to the books and their author. I was extremely impressed with the interpreter who not only translated swiftly and accurately, using French words and expressions that really gave the sense and flavour of the original Dutch, but managed to wait until the author had stopped speaking and then gave the translation of his words. See below, it's not always like this …

We had the same interpreter for Gerbrand Bakker and she did the same fabulous job there. I almost finished reading his books 'Boven is het Still' (It's Quiet Upstairs), in a very agricultural setting, and 'The Detour', set in Cornwall about a woman trying to finish her dissertation on Emily Dickinson. Still reading both! I have an affinity both to farming settings and to Cornwall and know a bit about Emily Dickinson. I was especially struck by the beauty of Bakker's language and found out that his degree is in historical linguistics, so not too surprising he finds words fascinating too …

There were more interviews during those three days. I got so tired I missed Day 3, also because of other circumstances, but I did a pretty full-on Day 1 and 2.

An amazing discussion with focus on 'The Other', immigration and integration, a real topic, problem in the Netherlands, well, Europe. Toine Heijmans, whose column in the Dutch newspaper 'The Volkskrant' I read from time to time (but none of his books yet – will try!), Annelies Verbeke, another Flemish author, whose book '30 Days' I had actually read, thanks to my now 95-year-old mother, who started her studies of Dutch Language and Literature aged 40, taught Dutch for 20 years and still reads several novels a week (day?) to maintain her sanity, living with my Dad who hasn't got much left in the way of memory. My Mum has been really enthusiastic about this event: I have had to phone her all the time and she'd tell me what other books I had to read …

The third author in the discussion above was someone called Fouad Laroui. I'd never heard of him, but he was a marvel. Look him up on Google, I think. He was born in Morocco, is an engineer, lives in Amsterdam, is fluent in Arabic, French and Dutch (probably English as well) and shares with me, and so many of my friends, this European identity, and this phenomenon of roots in one language and culture, but feeling totally at home and integrated in another. I bought Joseph his 'Insoumise de la Porte de Flandres', set in Molenbeek, Brussels, as Joseph had lived in Brussels for so long. I still have to read it myself … So much to read!

Another author interview was with Inge Schelperoord, whose debut book is about a pedophile, trying to become a good man (my Mum hated it), then Joost de Vries, 'L'Heritier', another debut novel, not read that either. The interpreter kept almost constantly interrupting him, in her hurry to translate, while Joost was still searching for words and he then promptly lost his train of thought as she came in with her interpretation … I thought it was a perfect example of how not to interpret … However, she also did the interpretation with Anna Enquist, a real 'grande dame' of Dutch contemporary literature and she was fine then, maybe because Anna stopped at convenient moments to enable the interpreter to do her stuff...

I love Anna Enquists's books, and so does my Mum. I especially love the ones where she uses her musical background as a professional pianist to tie in with her books, but I also love, from my own past in the Pacific, the book about Captain James Cook. The interview was excellent, and made much of this musical past as well.She's astonishing, wouldn't mind interviewing her myself.

I also loved David van Reybrouck, whose book about the Congo has been on my Dad's bookshelves for a long time now. I never read it in Dutch, but I found a pretty cheap French language translation of it in paperback in our local bookshop. I'm halfway through! It's incredibly impressive, mixing history and human experience to an amazing degree, well written! The author is bi-, if not tri-lingual and, as the story of the Congo, if not in Lingala or another Congolese language, is mainly in French, the language of the Belgian colonisers, I have no problem reading it in French. In the case of Gerbrand Bakker's book, 'Boven is het Stil' (It's Quiet Upstairs), I had real trouble linking the French translation of the first pages, which was read out during the breakfast, to the Dutch I had read, where you could smell the cows, the fields, the water, see the skies … This, to me, seemed sadly missing in the French translation.

Who else? Herman Koch, 'The Dinner' – I read this ages ago, my Mum gave it to me, of course. A good interview and a very intriguing book, from beginning to end. By this time I had lost my Dutch mates, I don't know what happened to them. There was so much going on, it's not surprising. I'll try and find them again today …

I lost them when I went to the local museum, the Musée Fabre, where one of the curators gave a talk with slides about the Dutch and Flemish influence on French painters, as seen by the collection of the museum. Absolutely fascinating, and I left the room, head buzzing with ideas for my own research, half a dozen of possible PhD's...

So, I'm now back at my desk, newly re-captured from my partner, who's used this study for more than six years, while I have had to keep moving from pillar to post. He's not got much work now, so I'm supremely happy to be here and still feeling inspired to be productive. Proof: I've written 1200 words on this, today!

posted by Elsien Gale # 6:38 AM 0 comments

Thursday, April 05, 2018

Totally overwhelmed by London and art ... If the English weather didn't literally cripple me, I'd still live here, even if I wonder how people can afford to live here .. I'm spending a tenner a day on transport alone...

Enough whingeing. I'm writing this in the Members' Room in Tate Britain, where I've just seen the 'Almost Human' exhibition. More about that in a moment.

I've finally, after many years of unsuccessfully hinting about it to family, as the perfect Christmas or birthday present, got myself a Tate membership, 15 months, £76, all Tates, no picture on Membership card. I've done 3 exhibitions @ almost £20 @ so far and will go to Picasso @ Tate Modern on Saturday or Sunday, open early for members only. This Tate card is definitely recommended! Just to be fair, Josh did get me an Art Fund Membership once! Great story, ask me!

The 'Almost Human' exhibition was fabulous. I have always liked Freud, found a beautiful, strong Self Portrait (1965), which I could have looked at for hours. Also one of the Ignatius X portraits, after Velazques. Note to self: more research. Pictures when I'm back in Montpellier.

Paula Rego exhibited a wedding trilogy, after Hogarth, again, note to self, check out.

I also discovered a painter called Souza, whose work reminded me so much of stuff I had to do at school... Not in a bad way! Note to self: Write about this!

Most importantly for me and my current research into Hawkswood churches, Leon Kossoff's East London paintings, Christ Church Spitalfields. Definitely more research needed, more about Hawkswood and his churches next week.

Now off to British Film Institute, 'Look Back in Anger', John Osborne. More soon!

posted by Elsien Gale # 2:15 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

While there is a part of my life that is, most of it is not about Brexit, gun control, Trump, NHS, SNCF strikes, refugees, Europe, Syria or Geert Wilders. While I will always try and stand up for what I think is right, fair, moral, I don't want politics constantly in my face, especially not if it's people repeating something they've read somewhere, quoting someone, often out of context.

For politics, society, I'm much happier to read the original articles, from journalists or politicians or even 'experts' left, right and centre. I can then form my own opinion. I'm happy to go on Twitter. It's a platform ready-made for politics and politicians, but to keep in touch with my friends I want something more personal, preferably something not punctuated by adverts or promotions. I don't need to know what petitions my friends have signed, or get the links to what makes them angry. I'm angry too, but I don't see many of you very often, so I'd rather read about your life, your kids, your holidays, your moods. I'll happily look at pictures of your food, I'll put up with pics of your cats and dogs (some are quite cute)... but please, spare me the re-posts of animal rights issues, dogs that need a home or ill-treated cats. Yes, it's awful, but would you come for dinner at my house (please do - I love cooking for friends! Montpellier is lovely!) and entertain me with that when I want to know where you are going this summer? Or how your extension is doing? Or want to see pictures of your sister's wedding, or your grand-daughter?

Yes, I also have concerns about the NHS, not keen on Johnson, Farage, Trump, Melenchon, May, doubts about Corbyn and don't get me started on Brexit. ... but re-posts, many one-sided, quite a few inaccurate or out of date (see Snopes a lot of the time) aren't going to make me feel better - unless they are extremely funny, I'll look at Jonathan Pie, but I can find him myself. I really cannot cope with motivational posts and I cannot see the point of most quizzes, unless it's clickbait for harvesters.

I don't even blame Zuckerman. I think most of us users have turned Facebook into the monster it has become. Including myself!

Finished though, I've had enough. This is my blog, first post after a very long time will be about visiting Bury St Edmunds, being a grandmother, parenthood, being the mother of an amazing chef, and trying to be an art-historian myself. Maybe even some thoughts about death and old age. Can't post many pictures as I've just got a fairly simple tablet and a borrowed smartphone, but I'll see what I can do!

posted by Elsien Gale # 4:00 PM 0 comments

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Maguelone - April 2013

Back to Maguelone

We were here some time last year, but I don't seem to have posted anything about it. It was a beautiful day today, after a whole day of rain yesterday and I needed light and space and sunlight, so … beach! We go to Palavas regularly, had just been to La Grande Motte, so this time walk to Maguelone. You start at the end of Palavas, there is no beach promenade, you can only walk on the sandy beach, unless you go on the road behind.

The beach was pretty empty when we started out around mid-day, apart from some diehard nudists who were still tanning themselves when we walked back. At the beginning there's the world's ugliest caravan camp, so you determinedly keep looking at the Mediterranean, almost blue today.

At the Maguelone end, the beach continues to Frontignan – a hell of a long walk with nothing there as we experienced a few months ago when we walked it in the pouring rain. We got soaked to the skin and never even made it to the end, had to turn back halfway!

We turned off through the étangs – between a pond, lake and marsh – towards the Cathédrale de Maguelone. I love the étangs, real wetland nature reserves with pink flamingoes, seagulls of course, little black terns.

Near the cathedral there were lots of spring flowers : what looked liked little orangey wild marigolds, white and purple irises and a field of white flowers as well as a few purple thistles. The vineyards are still totally bare, kind of interesting. We had lunch at the cathedral where they have now opened a beautiful restaurant with simple but nice food.

There's nothing left in the cathedral, a vast empty space, but there are early music concerts there in the summer. Strange to think it was such a powerful place once which had given a home to various Popes. The power went to Montpellier in the 16^th century, partly because of the constant threat of pirates.

See links – one in French, sorry!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishopric_of_Montpellier

http://jean-francois.mangin.pagesperso-orange.fr/capetiens/capetiens_maguelone.htm

Back to Palavas the way we came, now meeting a lot more people. The nudists were still there.

posted by Elsien Gale # 11:13 AM 0 comments

Monday, April 01, 2013

La Boissière

Easter Sunday, 2013

So, how did a very well-planned 12km walk turn into a bit of a 22km marathon – well, half marathon?

It all started so well: the first of the tulips I'd bought in Holland appeared on Easter Sunday, very appropriately, I thought. We had a bit of a cloud hanging over Montpellier, just a little one, said the satellite picture and indeed, it moved over to Nimes or Nice and we set out in the car. We have discovered this very nice wooded and hilly area just about ten minutes north of Montpellier, second exit off the A750, at a nothing place called St.Paul-et-Valmalle. There is an actual Valmalle as well, but there are only three houses there, not even a church …

Under the motorway, D27 towards La Boissière and you are there: the Bois Nègre to the right, some other bois to the left and paths, wood, hills everywhere, walkers' paradise. Some of the paths were old railway tracks, they are pretty straight as you can imagine, but there are overgrown ones, paths that turn into rivers in winter, with very stony dry riverbeds during the dry seasons. We'd decided to start off just after La Boissière this time, because I'd found a walk description and a little map of just the walk I'd worked out from the Ordnance Survey map. The trouble with the French Ordnance Survey maps is that they aren't really OS maps at all, not very detailed and missing landmarks, so this little description was very welcome. 12km, which could be cut short to 6km, beautiful weather and lovely landscape.

We came across a couple of groups of French families who were having a picnic in the middle of nowhere, with tables and tablecloths, lots of food and even more wine, as you do in France on an Easter Sunday, a handful of cyclists and that was it. All was wonderful. There was a little lake in an old bauxite quarry, a gorgeous pine wood, a babbling little river, some abandoned farms, spring flowers, singing birds, great! The walk was not too taxing, highest point not even 200 metres.

At about 9 kms we were supposed to turn left to cross the hill, back towards the little lake we had passed on our way out, but there was no path. There was something very soggy and swamp-like and blocked after 50 yards, so I thought I'd made a mistake and we carried on. I though the turn-off might be a little further up. A long way later, still no turn-off and we got lost, made another mistake taking the right fork where we should probably have taken the left one and another long way later I started to recognise some places we had passed a few weeks ago, on a previous walk, south of La Boissière. We finally met some horse riders we could ask and they sent us back the way we'd come, but via the top of the hill, called a 'Puech' with the radio mast - 367 metres up.

A hot, steep scramble up to the top later, I found that there was only one way down, in the wrong direction. The right direction was fenced off. Down again, where we finally came to where the soggy blocked off path was and then the only way was back further the way we'd come. Eventually, after another steepish climb up another Puech after crossing the little river at the wrong ford - «Funny», we said, «it's got bigger!», we heard the noise of the road. We stopped a passing motorist who kindly pointed us in the right direction and even took us there, in spite of our very muddy shoes … «We're country people», she said, with a big smile. «We are used to this. The mountains are beautiful, but sometimes people get lost». We got to where our car was parked in less than two minutes,; we'd actually come out where we should have come out … 22 kms we'd done by then … I thought my legs would fall off, but they are still on and after a roast chicken from the corner rotisserie, half a bottle of local red and a good night's sleep they are still working … It was raining today, hurray, so a very good excuse not to do anything, except go to the cinema round the corner: pre-showing of Dustin Hoffman's first film as a director, Quartet, with Maggie Smith and Billy Connelly, a treat!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441951/?ref_=sr_1


The Puech Bartelié with the radio mast ...

posted by Elsien Gale # 9:34 AM 3 comments

La Grande Motte, Easter 2013

The amazing shapes of La Grande Motte

When La Grande Motte was built in the 70s and 80s, lots of people hated it: the enormous pyramid-like buildings were not like the French seaside resorts they had come to expect, with palm-lined promenades, a cute little marina, remnants of a little fishing port, maybe, a few classy hotels … It was far too futuristic and plebeian: ordinary French working-class tourists had money and wanted to go on a seaside holiday too, but couldn't afford Nice, Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Biarritz where the rich went, so more and more of them went to the Costa Brava.

La Grande Motte had to become a democratic beach resort, fit for mass tourism, to keep the French in France, but not like the resorts in Spain. The architect Jean Balladur created his pyramids, inspired by the Mexican ones he had studied, at an angle to the coast, to break the normal hierarchy of expensive apartments with sea views and the cheaper ones on the second row. It must have been a massive job, because before the area was part of Mauguio, where the airport is, and was basically just mosquito-infested marshes. Like I said, lots of people hated the futuristic result, including me. I remember going there in the 1980's when it was just finished and thought it was kind of amazing, but nothing would ever induce me to stay there.


View through the dunes

Now, however, it's really popular and we have got used to futuristic building : the Parisian La Défense, London's Pineapple and Shard and Montpellier's own Antigone have won architectural awards and look rather stylish.
La Grande Motte has amazing sandy beaches, separated from the beach path by dunes. You can walk or cycle the path (the road is a little further up) and every few meters you get a through view to the beach and the Mediterranean.

When we went on Saturday before Easter, it was a bright, but windy day. Most tourists had obviously decided to spend this last weekend of March in the Alps, last skiing holiday of the year, or were busy doing their Easter shopping, so the beach was empty. We had lunch outside a restaurant, but towards the end of the meal we got some raindrops and it was too windy to let the sun shades down, so we finished a little hurriedly - no coffee for me! - and walked back along the path, which was a little more sheltered than the beach. The beach was even more deserted! I love beaches out of season!
In summer you have to come early, but there are still stretches that do not get too crowded.

posted by Elsien Gale # 12:41 AM 0 comments

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Lunaret

Montpellier, Lunaret Zoo and Wildlife Park, Good Friday 2013

In 1910 Henri de Lunaret gave the area to Montpellier who can start to use it after his and his sister's death. She died in 1939 and initially the Agricultural University looks after it until 1964, when it becomes a natural reserve and wildlife park, with a zebra as its first foreign resident.
The park is enlarged a few times and it is now a large natural woodland by the river Lez. The natural reserve is free to walk through. A large number of the animals roams relatively freely too, so wherever you walk, you may catch glimpses of wildlife.
I had forgotten my camera, but found these images on the Internet, with thanks to the original posters.

It was a beautiful day, like in the pictures, even though it was only the end of March. We walked most of the time in short sleeves. From Lunaret you cannot get right next to the river any more, it has been fenced off, apparently something to do with people bringing their dogs in from that side.
However, you can walk all the way along the Lez from near where we live, with occasional interruptions, but certainly from the Domaine de Méric where the Impressionist painter Frédéric Bazille lived. We'll try the whole walk one of these days!

posted by Elsien Gale # 1:20 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Dagory Montpellier February 2013

Dagory, Montpellier February / March 2013
I can't believe it has been three months since the last blog post again! Well, I've been to Holland at the beginning of January, to UK end of January for Burns' Night at Hoops pub at the Henry Moore Foundation, in deepest, darkest Hertfordshire, and again to UK mid March, via Charleroi and Brussels and in-between I have been working like a slave with my e-learning students and doing zillions of tests for my employer language school in Brussels...

Any fun and outings? Yes, a few: apart from regular evenings at the Corum in Montpellier for a concert or the Royale cinema for direct transmissions of operas from the Met in New York and a chamber music concert in the beautiful Hotel Magnol, there have been a few theatre outings to the Theatre Pierre Tabard.

http://theatrepierretabard.com/

We saw a performance about Margaret of Anjou, Shakespearian mother and wife of kings of England, which I really liked and mid February we took part in a pre-performance walk to attract some publicity for Jean-Michel Dagory's show about his walk across France, in 2000, following the meridian that runs through France:

http://www.liberation.fr/portrait/0101331145-jean-michel-dagory-54-ans-touche-a-tout-culturel-traverse-la-france-par-la-ligne-droite-de-la-meridienne-verte-pour-redresser-sa-vie-zigue-zag

Here he is, giving a little taster of his show in the Parc Clémenceau in Montpellier.

Dagory is a moderately well-known actor and writer, is on IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0196815/

We walked into Montpellier with him, some of us dressed as died-in-the-wool walkers, although my legs gave out at the end as it wasn't a walk, it was an amble, with frequent stops, the worst for my knee.

He is a brilliant conferencier, intersperses his stories with snatches of song, some audience participation. A very small audience, alas, the Théatre Pierre Tabard is only small but could do better on publicity... Or maybe there are just too many theatres in Montpellier ...

We also saw Molière's Dom Juan there, followed by a piece about the death of Don Juan.

Here's Dagory once more, this time stopping at the Place de la Comédie:

Spring is here, so time for more outings! I'll stop working so hard from now!

posted by Elsien Gale # 12:13 AM 0 comments