30th October. As the number of visitors to the blog approaches the 100,000 mark, I'd like to say a big thank you to all those of you who have visited over the years.
24th October. There's a well-written descriptive 'primer' about the Pays Basque in the "Independent" for those who wish to know more (in one article) about this endlessly fascinating corner of Europe that straddles the border country of France and Spain. My regular reader(s) may remember that Madame and I made our first visit here 30 years ago and that we were instantly smitten by its unique identity as expressed by the warmth and generosity of the people, the impenetrable Basque language, the Basque culture, the gastronomy, the style of the houses, its distinctive landscape - it goes on.
It didn't take long for us to decide that here was where we were going to live one day. The area combines everything we love in our lives with very few of the factors that combine to make life disagreeable elsewhere. And there aren't many places in the world where I can say that.
The "Independent" article (above) about the Pays Basque compresses neatly into a column what I've been trying to do for years. I've been writing about the Pays Basque here since 2009 - trying to capture the essential spirit of life here - if I'm honest, as much for my own benefit as anyone else's. Top tip? Start at the beginning!
22nd October. I've come across a copy of Orson Wells' film (in English but with French subtitles) made in 1955 about the Pays Basque..
19th October. Woke up today to a beautiful morning here in the Pays basque where the temperatures were heading for the high twenties with a soft warm wind from Africa (according to the forecast). We decided to take a walk along the coastal footpath at Anglet hoping to make a stop at L'Arrantza, a quaint-looking café overlooking the sea and set up with grass-fronded parasols and comfortable chairs.. You'll find it at the Plage de la Madrague..
As you can see from this short video, there's no shortage of beachside bars and cafés along this stretch of coast. The 'in' drink appears to be a Mojito.. (I prefer the ones I make.. they're teeth-crackingly cold - and they really do hit the spot on a hot day..)
16th October. I spent the whole of yesterday translating the quarterly newsletter of the association I'm involved with from French to English. The dog woke me up at 4.45am (bless him!) and half an hour later I found myself in front of my PC making a start on it. Apart from meal breaks, I worked through until 9.30pm when I finally called it a day* after finding myself staring at the screen for 5 mins. I've almost finished.
* It was 32 pages long - before any wags here are tempted to suggest that that's not bad for a one page document! 😁
14th October. Earlier this week, we went to the local hospital where a vaccination point had been set up. The appointment for my third vaccination was timed to the minute and there was only a negligible delay as I was fed into the well-organised system. A doctor asked me a few yes/no questions - and then despite the fact that we were both wearing masks, she said that she recognised me. She lives in an impasse (cul-de-sac) behind our house and a couple of years ago, she and her husband organised a highly enjoyable apéro-dinatoire for all their immediate neighbours.
We finally decided to address one of the very last of the jobs remaining with the house and that is to carpet the staircase and the upstairs landing. We've chosen sisal carpeting and we've had the measurer and fitting team around to plan how they're going to fit it - as there are some complications. I've just downloaded pages and pages of documents from the carpet company all written in legalese - 5 out of 6 of which need signing and dating. It's a lawyers world that we live in.
I brought an extending ladder out from the garage to make the job of doing the upper one that little bit easier and so with an open litre can of paint in one hand - and a paint brush stuck in my back pocket, I set off up the ladder. I hadn't bargained for my right leg (due to my new knee) being less flexible than my left - so I had to shuffle slowly up the ladder one step at a time.
When I'd finished, I started back down the ladder again (with the open can of paint in my left hand) but when I was about 4 steps from the bottom, my shuffle turned into a plummet as I lost my balance - aaarrgghh - and fell the rest of the way, landing flat on my back, still clutching the can of paint - but being a Northerner, I hardly spilled a drop..! 😀
Job done.. Next time though I think I might just pay someone to do it.
4th October. This song by Gilbert Bécaud describes an (imaginary?) encounter with Nathalie, a female Intourist guide in Moscow.. It made the 18 year old me want to visit the Café Pushkin.. (lyrics here - click on version #2)
1st October. I could listen to a lot of this:
30th September. We set off early this morning for Andernos-les-Bains (about 2 hours to the north) to take a friend for lunch at Le F des Fontaines, a restaurant with its feet in the water at nearby Taussat. It had a extended deck outside that overlooked the bay of Arcachon.. and I can't think of anywhere we've ever been that's had such a panoramic close-up view of the sea. Fortunately the cooking was up to it as well. This is highly recommended for anyone finding themselves in the Bordeaux region. Here's the restaurant under a big sky - just as it was today. More photos here and here.
27th September. We watched a concert (Julian Rachlin & Denis Matsuev with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1) on the box the other evening and we were transfixed by the power and the passion of Denis Matsuev's playing. Here he is with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.3 - a Russian playing real Russian music.. Stand by for fireworks!
Here's another look at my 'dream'.. a 50+ year old Porsche 912 that still looks the business in a very understated way - no aerofoil wings, no untoward lumps and bumps - just timeless styling:
21st September. I was out for a ride on my bike along the banks of the Adour this morning when I came across 'Hermione" in dry dock. She's a replica of an 18th century three-masted French frigate of the same name. I was surprised to read somewhere that back in the 18th C she had a crew of 300..
She's here in dry dock in Bayonne for 6 months - having some damage below the waterline put right - so I'm hoping to have a look around her. With our long maritime history, I think this is something the UK could and should emulate. (Looks like someone has already had this idea - Google has just turned up the Lenox project)
18th September. Back home after a few days away at Bielle in the Vallée d'Ossau.. with its stunning mountain scenery, towering peaks and alpine-style roads with vertiginous drop-offs. The big plus for us though was that we could breathe at last after the heat and humidity of the recent weather on the coast.
Every field seem to be devoted to the growing of corn or maize (maïs in French) - the stalks of which were a good 7-8 feet high. It's rarely seen on menus in France though as it's only considered suitable for animal feed here..
The owner of the hotel where we stayed had an immaculate Lancia Montecarlo* in rally trim in red - what else!
* It may have been the legendary supercharged 037 model - it had 4 pipes sticking out of the back - my knowledge of Lancias is not that great.
During one prolonged day of rain, we decided to revisit a favourite restaurant of ours - Les Bains de Secours at Sévignac-Meyracq - for lunch. It's situated in la France profonde. Once again, we enjoyed a wonderfully inventive lunch there - full of surprises - all of them good! I don't think we've ever had better anywhere. Highly recommended - and well worth making that special journey to visit it - you won't be sorry.
For our last night in the Vallée d'Ossau, we decided to treat ourselves at a restaurant in nearby Laruns that featured garbure.. To an ear attuned to the sound of the English language, garbure doesn't sound that appetising but, when made well, it is a very special dish indeed. See what you think:
Unfortunately, our garbure was nothing like the one shown above!
After driving through a more or less constant downpour we arrived back in the Pays Basque and after picking up the pooch from the kennels we took him down to the beach for a good run.. As much as I like being up in the mountains, there's something indefinable about the sea that has always drawn me - is it the distant horizon with its constant reminder of a world beyond? Or is it that salty tang? Or the eternally restless sound of the waves? Or all of the above?
9th September. Here's Jean Paul Belmondo making his final appearance at Les Invalides this afternoon. I'm sure he's still smiling in there..
Over the weekend, we had 3 days of bullfights at Les Arènes nearby.. The bullring is on my early morning dog-walking route and I think it was on Sunday morning that I saw a "suit of lights" hanging up on a garment rail inside the grounds of the bullring as vans were unloaded. It struck me that the spectacle of the bullfighters and the whole carefully calibrated charade of the presentation is designed to divert and distract the viewing public from the essential cruelty of bullfighting.
Hemingway fell hook, line and sinker for the spectacle in the 1920s and wrote "Death in the Afternoon" - what many have subsequently described as the 'bible' of bullfighting - where he wrote of: “the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick.” (conveniently forgetting the sword) I'm not sure that the bull would agree with him. There's no mention of the cruelty in Hemingway's world. As an activity, it is abhorrent, medieval, cruel and decadent and it has no place in Europe, let alone in France.
I remember reading "Death in the Afternoon" as an impressionable 20 year old and I have to confess that Hemingway's persuasive prose had me nodding along with him. This is the problem when you confuse a description of bullfighting when written by an author at the peak of his powers with the sordid reality of it. I remember once trying to convince a girlfriend at the time that bullfighting was a noble art - having read his book but never having seen a bullfight. How wrong I was.
If I were to go into a field and start stabbing at a bull or a cow with a sword, I'd fully expect - and deserve - to be arrested for cruelty to animals. However, in a bullring, matadors are applauded.
Later on in the day, during the mid-afternoon dog walk, I crossed paths with 4 elegantly dressed, coiffed and perfumed ladies who were en route to witness 6 bulls being put to death for their evening entertainment. I would have liked to have thrown the contents of a full dustbin over the lot of them (and more).
2nd September. The sky has suddenly gone black - as in black - here - and a few minutes ago a lady from a flat behind us called to say our garage door was open and that there was a storm coming.. Moments later, the sky was full of lightning and now the rain is now falling in sheets like a monsoon. There are some kind people around. Merci beaucoup!
I should have taken a photo of the western sky - a dense black wedge of mammatus cloud - black as night - was driving in from the sea and it split the sky - with clear blue sky showing on either side. I've seen mammatus cloud before but this was an extreme example of it (the cloud was denser and blacker than any of the photos shown in these two links). There were multiple soundless flashes of lightning within this mass and then suddenly the skies opened with a torrential downpour accompanied by lightning flashes and violent crashes of thunder.
One good thing to come out of the Covid 19 global pandemic has been the eruption of virtual choirs.. here's one with Judy Collins' "Amazing Grace":
Apparently there's a shortage of Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) drivers in the UK..
Yesterday marked our 14th year since arriving in the Pays basque in September 2007. I meant to post on the subject yesterday but I ended up in a stressful online electronic tangle with a Forex trading company that we'd been using since February. In the middle of a routine monthly online transaction to change our £ sterling to euros, they suddenly demanded to know my employment status, then they asked for a photograph - not a scan or a photocopy - but a photograph of my passport - and finally to surrender control of my mobile phone to them so that they could take a "selfie" of me.
I wasn't sure if their site had been hacked or not but I thought the security measures they were taking were out of all proportion to the risk. And under the pressure to complete the transaction I started responding to their demands before I suddenly realised that they were excessive and potentially damaging to me. Why hadn't they emailed all their clients to brief them on their new security policy so that we could read through it in slow time and prepare the necessary info for them? To launch into these bizarre requests in the middle of a transaction caused other sites I was using to time out - amid great frustration.
I pulled the plug on that nonsense and started googling for an alternative Forex dealer. Finally, after starting the abortive transfer process at around 11am - I finally completed the monthly currency exchange with a new Forex dealer at 9.30pm.. Phew! In between all of that, I called my UK bank* to brief them on what had happened and to ask them to block any requests from the offending company to transfer money from our account.
* This involved an inordinately long time waiting on their "Customer Service Department" (ahem!) to pick up the phone.. I gave up the first time after waiting 18 minutes stuck in a queueing system. Aaaarrgghh! Breathe deeply - and now r e l a x.
29th August. This is the weekend of le Grand Retour (the big return) when those holidaymakers with children will be making the great trek back home. Not a day to be out and about on France's autoroutes, especially those heading towards Paris.
25th August. Earlier I was half-listening to someone on the radio prattling on (and on) about the joys of WFH as he called it.. (it's known as working from home to the rest of us). It struck me that one of the reasons why we've enjoyed the last 14 years so much is because we too have been 'working from home' - if you can call work taking the dog for a run on the beach; exploring mountain passes in the Pyrenees; having lunch out in Basque villages where life stops at lunchtime; wondering which pair of shorts to wear or any one of a thousand other things. If this is WFH, then long may it continue.
23rd August. I really don't understand anti-vaxxers - I remember thinking right at the start of it all, that the only way that we'll be able to defeat Covid would be via mass vaccination. Yet the anti-vaxxers have all kinds of fanciful theories - ranging from the bizarre - Bill Gates wants to inject us with tracking devices - to the nonsensical - such as Boris Johnson is "behind" it - whatever that means. Then there are those benighted anti-vaxxers here in France who shout "Liberté" when they are really making an anti-Government protest. If ever I met an anti-vaxxer, I'd be tempted to show him/her this.
We paid a visit to Biarritz yesterday morning and found a table at the Bleu Café on the Grande Plage - but someone has had the bright idea of installing some OTT monster parasols.. so now there's just a letterbox view of the sea. There's still nowhere else we'd like to be on a Sunday morning though!
There are no words sufficient to describe the human tragedy that is unfolding in Afghanistan in the wake of the decision to pull out. Without wishing to point fingers at any individuals, it's clear that, in the West, we have too many politicians and not enough statesmen. In fact, no statesmen. It seems to have escaped our politicians' attention that there's an unbridgeable gulf between our Occidental concepts of democracy, law, education for all - and the type of society that the Taliban seem to want to impose - backed by Sharia law - where medieval punishments such as stonings for adultery and hand amputation for theft are de rigueur.
There's one ray of sunshine as far as I'm conerned (you may think it trivial - and you're probably right) but perhaps the day is fast approaching when I'll no longer have to endure listening to the BBC 'journalists' talking about Afghanistarn, Karble and the Talibarn. It might be a small thing but these languid Home Counties pronunciations have had me gritting my teeth for 20 years. The last time I looked, the diminutive of Stanley isn't Starn - it's Stan; and Karble should be Ka-bull (Ka to rhyme with cat) and Talibarn should of course be Talibann.. I think I'm fighting a losing bartle though! 😀
20th August. Blue skies this morning.. At last! 😎
Here's Scotland looking at its best.. (music from the soundtrack of the cult film "Local Hero")
19th August. For all dog owners 'out there' who think they know their dogs, here's a cautionary tale.. I went out in the garden this afternoon to see Nutty (our cocker spaniel) standing astride a fluttering fledgling. When he saw me coming, he grabbed it and disappeared with it like a flash into the 'jungle' - some big bushes that are his preserve. We managed to catch him in a pincer movement - but too late.. he'd eaten it. First lizards and now fledglings.. he's a serial killer. He's the fourth cocker we've had but he's the first (that we know of) to eat other species. Not good.
I had a good ride (on my ebike) early this cool morning along the banks of the olive green Nive - and, to my surprise, for such a beautiful river, I was disappointed that there wasn't a single boat out on the water.
However, there was quite a few holiday makers with loose toddlers on the towpath, along with roller-bladers plus a couple of anti-social lycra-clad cyclists riding two abreast - so I had to keep a watchful eye out when passing them. I rode as far as the footbridge at Villefranque - I think I did about 30km in total. I know, it's hardly Tour de France territory but it's better than not doing it.
17th August. I've just spotted an account in an English newspaper of a bizarre construction that's appeared adjacent to London's Marble Arch.. a 25m (82 feet) high artificial hill (or mound) that's cost £6m (so far). It's designed to attract people to come and shop in Oxford Street.. How threadbare must your imagination be to think that something as ill-conceived as this could possibly bring people back into central London and not only that, but people would pay to climb up it? In failing miserably to touch the human spirit, this project is akin to the loosely-named Millennium Dome.. that was anything but and could easily have been charged with an offence under the Trade Descriptions Act. What to say except that somewhere in London the lunatics are running the asylum..
And in other news, from the roof of London's Dorchester Hotel nearby, read this review of their 'Polo Lounge' and weep.. (The bread basket is £16. The salads start at £28. A bowl of pasta is £38. A steak is £135. Proof that I'm not making this up!)
Far from encouraging me to visit the self-proclaimed "world-class city", stories like these have the opposite effect on me. I'm more than happy to leave them to it.
This is Silbury Hill - and it was built around 4,500 years ago.. without fanfare. More photos here and more info here.
12th August. Just cooling down after driving back home through the massed holiday traffic from Ascain where we had lunch at Restaurant Larralde with a friend who's going through a rocky patch in her personal life. There were a few long tables set out under the trees for family parties of Basques - very traditional.
It was warm and heavy until, with a sudden rolling crash of thunder up in the mountains behind us, the spattering of drops turned into an instant downpour - forcing groups from unprotected tables to scurry indoors clutching their glasses of wine.. while the waitresses quickly stripped the tables that were bearing the brunt. We were dry under a big umbrella.. Minutes later, it was all over and the garden dried out quickly under a hot sun.
It normally takes us ½ hour to drive there - today, it took 1 hour 20 mins.. I don't think I've seen holiday traffic as bad as this for a loong time. It was a tad grey so I think people had decided to give the beaches a miss - so the roads were full - as were the restaurants. Fortunately, we'd booked.
This was playing on the radio earlier..
11th August. I wouldn't have thought this was possible - but - never say never. Here's the Joscho Stephan Trio in a dazzling display of technical virtuosity as they present their acoustic version of Jimi Hendrix's epic sixties single "Hey Joe" as you've never heard it before.. (the few bars from 2.49 to 3.05 do it for me) Caution - do not try this at home!
Make yourself a cup of tea/coffee/whatever or pour yourself a cold one and relax with this video (no music or commentary - just the sound of the sea) of the endless motion of the Atlantic as it surges up against the beaches and rocks at Biarritz:
5th August. No prizes for guessing the title of this next piece - it's catching!
("Dark Eyes" - it starts at 0.50 if you want to cut to the chase!)
Just back from a trip to Grand Frais (just by the airport at Biarritz) - a supermarket chain that specialises in f-r-e-s-h produce. I seldom make reference here to food shopping in supermarkets but to anyone planning on visiting France I'd say make sure you pay Grand Frais a visit.. they have stores all over France. They're unlike any other food shop that I know of and it makes shopping a pleasure.. rather than the stress of hunting down what you want in France's crowded giant-sized supermarkets. Their fruit and veg is incredibly fresh, with some of it gleaming as clouds of water vapour drift across the spotlit displays. It's also human-sized.. If I wander off to look, say, at the cheese - then unlike at the ultra large supermarkets that straddle a few post codes, finding Madame again was a simple matter. Needless to say, I have no connection with Grand Frais other than as a satisfied customer..
4th August. Stuck at home but feel like an early evening stroll around Biarritz? Try this (I suggest you ignore the first 55 seconds) and see what you think.. it's best in full screen (with something cold!). Our favourite place for wave-watching (and people watching) is the Bleu Café - it shows up at 9.20:
* it sounds like an Italian DJ attempting to pronounce the title of the Beatles first record..😎
1st August. Here are images of a migrant encampment set up in the Place des Vosges - one of the most glorious locations in all of Paris - filmed just before the French authorities moved them on.
The EU seemingly does not have a policy for dealing with the issue of uncontrolled migration. We've seen the people-trafficking gangs exploiting those who wish to move to the EU - and those who wish to move from the EU to the UK. This is one of the major human tragedies that affects us in Europe and yet the EU seems unwilling or unable to address it. Despite it being a Europe-wide issue, there's a deafening silence from Brussels.
Unfortunately for those in Brussels who are studiously looking the other way, this problem isn't going to disappear. In my view, the migrant crisis owes much to the Schengen Agreement - which, as you know, led to the abolishment of the signatories national borders, to build a Europe without borders known as the “Schengen Area”. In an ideal world, this was all very laudable but in reality it was and still is an impractical policy that ignored the darker side of human nature. It was obviously dreamed up after one too many exotic cigarettes.. but the EU being the EU, it will continue with Schengen as to do otherwise would be an admission that one of its key policies is not fit for purpose.
According to this, the EU is the largest donor of development aid in the world. It is committed to increasing its contribution, and to donating at least 0.7% of its gross national income a year. But financial aid alone is not enough to sustainably reduce poverty.
Political action is needed to overcome challenges in governance, trade regimes and geography, and to make best use of the opportunities arising from globalisation.
So - what is the EU doing to bring a halt to the number of migrants who are mobile in Europe? What is the EU doing to ensure that its development aid reaches those for whom it is intended?
Meanwhile - where's summer?
