296. Into the unknown..

31st August. This is a collection of photos from Flickr that shows many aspects of the High Pyrenees where we were a few weeks ago..   

30th August. We have something resembling a tropical jungle in our back garden with palm trees, bamboo, cacti, bougainvillea, rampant wisteria and much other nameless exotica  - and keeping on top of it all is giving us pause for thought. We have the ideal weather here for plant growth - warm days and regular rainfall. What's the problem I hear you ask? Keeping it all under control - that's what. As fast as we both cut back new growth in the back garden, the front garden develops a mind of its own etc etc. (At one side there was a hedge that was threatening to out-grow my efforts to keep it manageable - so I had to lop a foot (30cm) off the top of it..) This is a cartoon I posted a good few years ago - and it's just about right on the money!

What other options are there? Higher management is considering the removal of much of the 'green stuff' in the borders - to be replaced by cacti and other slow-growing things. My vote? I'd much prefer to see if we could find someone in the local area to come in and keep things tidy for a few days each month. 

Trimming all the bushes and keeping it all under control is pretty arduous in the heat - but when it's been done, it does look good with a glass of cold rosé in hand. The jury's still out.    

24th August. I went for a ride on my ebike after lunch - I followed the Adour to the coast before turning left and heading south for Biarritz. Mixing it with traffic though is not a good idea - and in future I'll go out first thing in the morning.  

23rd August. It was one of those bright, sunlit, cloudless starts to the day earlier that somehow reminded of when I lived in Greece a loong time ago. I suddenly felt the need for a Greek coffee - a few minutes later I was sitting outside on the terrace with a cup of Greek-Cypriot coffee (Charalambous Mocha Gold) in front of me.. Aaah.. mmm.

Mm-mmm! I found some grapes in the fridge (that took me back) and that whooosh was the sound of 58 years flashing past.

      

21st August. Christmas has come early for you this year! Everything you wanted to know about the Subjunctive - but were afraid to ask.. (I'll understand this if it kills me - or die trying..) 

 

For the subtitles, click on the button above that says Subtitles/closed captions.

  

16th August. I just realised that I'd forgotten to mark the passing of Françoise Hardy, a very special French singer from the sixties. She was poles apart from the instantly forgettable girl singers that we had foisted on us in England back then - her songs were reflective, personal, occasionally melancholic but always sincere. She was 2½years older than me and looked like no-one in my church youth club..! A young lad can dream..

  

13th August. Thought for tomorrow: many a good tune can still be played on an old 78!

I'd been watching a video entitled "Titanic: the nightmare and the dream" when, during its closing moments (at 46:03) I heard a few bars of Mozart that I recognised instantly. The choir I used to sing with (pre-Covid) had rehearsed this sublime piece - "Ave Verum Corpus" - and even our interpretation of it had the power to make me shiver. It was no "happy accident" when Mozart wrote it in 48 hours. 

Scientists would have us believe that Humanity evolved from creatures that climbed out of the mud millions of years ago - and that may well be true. However, when you hear such great art as the piece below, it's hard to escape the conclusion that our human spirits must have been touched by some kind of magic alchemy that made us, and us alone, uniquely capable of deeply creative thought - that somehow bypassed all the other species. Here's the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra with the Radio France choir as they interpret one of Mozart's finest compositions - written 6 months before his death - and conducted by Myung-Whun Chung:

    

10th August. One of the abiding memories of these Olympics (for me at least) will be the sight of innumerable medal winners biting down on their medals for the cameras. When did this start? It's been done before I know - but never on the industrial scale that we've seen in the last few weeks. 

8th August. This is where we were a few short weeks ago.. a beautiful part of France that needs to be at the top of your "to do" list:

 

PS No points for spelling here (Pyrenees) - one n.

We left the autoroute (A64) just after Pau and headed for Lourdes and as we neared it, the massive bulk of the Pyrenees started to emerge out of a blue haze. 

First, it was just as a series of pale blue outlines before they separated out into individual bulging mountains that jutted out one behind the other. Our size seemed insignificant by comparison and I felt that they possessed a nobility that the hills at our end of the Pyrenees didn't have.

  

6th August. I used to have this (above) on a record back when I had LPs and a record player.. a long time ago! It turned up by chance in my YouTube selection.

  

Scenes from a Retirement in France: This afternoon, I decided to take the car through a local car wash - one of those with a hundred water jets and the giant flailing rollers that sweep up and over your Pride and Joy. Not so fast though - a woman in the queue ahead of me was in a Twingo (about the size of a domestic fridge) and she had clearly paid for the "Super Presidential Everything Included" option as the great machines pulverised her P & J backwards and forwards ad nauseam - at one point the overhead display lit up to inform us that she was on a Massage cycle.

I was starting to lose the will to live when suddenly I heard the throaty roar of something very special indeed. Not five yards away from me, and edging along in the early rush hour traffic there was a concours-quality Ferrari 375 MM from 1954-ish with 4 exhausts jutting out from underneath the curvaceous bodywork - looking like the back end of a WW2 bomber. Powering this timelessly elegant beauty is a 4½ litre V12. No 70 year old car should look this good. 

 

To save you wondering, you would need a sum north of US$7m to own one of these legendary cars. More here on this beast. 

Ferrari 375 MM Pinin Farina Spyder 

Then, as I tangled with those leaving work early, I was held up in two lines of traffic crawling along - with a bike's width separating us all. Then came the enraged sound of a scooter on a charge - and seconds later a young girl weaved her way at speed through the miniscule gaps between the lines of cars as though she was on a mogul ski run. If ever there was an accident waiting to happen, she was it.   

30th July. A week or so ago, we had a short break in the High Pyrenees.. and we ticked off a trip that we'd been meaning to do for some years - and that was to take the cable car ride up to the summit of the Pic du Midi (9438ft). However, unlike in the video below, when we went up, the cabin was loaded to the max (which was 45 + 1 according to a sign on the wall). As you can see, the trip up is in two parts.. and there was little to set the imagination spinning up out of control until we switched to the second cable car.. when I made the mistake of looking forward and up. (this part starts at 4:00 in the video) Between us and the distant peak of our destination, there was just a slack cable that led - uninterrupted - all the way up to the top. Below us yawned oblivion. I felt a strong sense of vertigo and in an attempt to control it I forced myself to stare straight ahead. As a cable car approached heading downwards, I did briefly contemplate emulating Richard Burton's leap from one cable car to another in "Where Eagles Dare"..  

Suddenly, I could think of a thousand  - no, make that two thousand other things I'd rather being doing than trusting my life (never mind the 45 others) to a cable that looked to be no thicker than an inch. I could not bring myself to look sideways or down. I just wanted to get the hell outa there! The problem was - having made it up there we had to go back down again.   

   

We made up our minds to return before long to this stunningly beautiful area as it's only 2 hours from home. The sheer scale of the mountains made us realise that what we have at the western end of the Pyrenees are not mountains - but hills.  

27th July. When all the dust has settled, when all the record-breaking athletic performances have been analysed many times over - and when all the thousands of broadcasters, commentators and spectators have returned home after the Paris 2024 Olympics, what will be your abiding memory? What will remain to remind you in years to come of the Paris Olympics? 

It might be seen as heresy in some quarters for me to admit this but after enduring about two of the four hours of the bloated and sometimes incomprehensible opening ceremony, I called it a night.

The next morning I saw that the evening had been redeemed by Céline Dion's stunning rendition of Edith Piaf's immortal ballad - "Hymne à l'Amour" - sung on an unseasonably wild and wet July evening surrounded by the latticework of the old Iron Lady of Paris herself - the 135 year old Eiffel Tower:

 

(Original French lyrics by Edith Piaf, music by Marguerite Monnot. Click here for the lyrics in English)  

15th July. The Fêtes de Bayonne 2024 concluded with a midnight firework display that went on and on - to the point that I finally got up to watch the last few minutes of it. The hordes of raiding Visigoths left town this morning.. leaving the streets around us littered with empty litre bottles of Ricard - and other unmentionable detritus! I'm including a selection of videos to choose from here.   

Fortunately, we had the perfect weather for the "morning after" - a light shower that washed down the pavements and most of the toxic fumes away. 

10th July. This afternoon saw the opening of the Fêtes de Bayonne, brought forward by two weeks so as to deconflict with the Paris Olympics. This morning, the town was already awash with the first wave of white-clad fêtards (as Fête-goers are known). For security reasons, the opening ceremony had been brought forward to 5pm (it's normally 10pm) and it was followed by the usual window-rattling firework display. Normally, I can see the fireworks from Pipérade Towers - but today we had the noise-only variety as it was still bright sunshine.

This is a stunning advert for the upcoming Olympics by French TV  - they do these things very well here - see what you think:     

 

In searching for the one above, I came across this longer version - that has more of everything in it. Best in full screen:

 

4th July. Happy birthday America.. 248 years young!

Meanwhile, the UK is about to enter a strange period in its history - led by someone who has a number of different policies, enough it would seem for a different one for every day of the year. And as he keeps reminding us, his father was a toolmaker. 

 

2nd June. I discovered the forest of Pignada at nearby Anglet a good few years ago and even on the hottest of days it was always a real pleasure to walk with the dog through its shady sylvan glades. The trees were mainly mature maritime pines and the canopy of foliage must have been at least 20-25 metres/60-80 feet above ground level. The sandy trails that criss-crossed the woods were carpeted with pine needles and lined with lush ferns and the distant sounds of traffic etc were muffled by the vegetation. There was room for all there - dog walkers, joggers, families, horseriders and cyclists. (here it is as it was)

Then, in July 2020, a 16 year old disaffected youth set fire to the tinder-dry forest and the flames raced through the woods under the influence of a strong southerly wind. Over 165 hectares/400 acres of beautiful woodland were consumed in the inferno. Since then I've not been back to my usual spot to see the damage until today when I took Nutty (our cocker) for a leg stretch in what remains of the woods.

    

I'd been avoiding returning to this site as I couldn't face seeing what had become of it - all because of the actions of a mindless adolescent. 

Before - avant

Now, look at the photo of the woods (above) as they were - and compare it to the devastated landscape that it's now become (below). It's hard to believe that we're looking at exactly the same location. One or two small trees somehow survived the conflagration but all those lofty mature pines had had to go. In their place, the municipality planted thousands of small bushes (now about 3-4 feet in height) to avoid any further erosion of the top soil. Some replanting of trees has taken place as well but I estimate it will take decades for them to regain their former splendour.  

After - après

The trees in the distance above (approx ½mile away) are what remains of the old forest. Four years on, and evidence of the fire still remains - as evidenced by partially consumed branches and fire-blackened trunks - and it was heart-breaking to take in the loss of a once-superb natural environment. I would happily contribute towards a tree-planting scheme if one's available. 

23rd May. This morning I listened to a podcast of yesterday's BBC radio news and heard that Rishi Sunak (Britain's Prime Minister) had announced that a General Election will be held on 4th July - to which Keir Starmer (Labour's leader) responded with a pithy 'Churchillian' phrase (ahem) - "Time for change"*. And this from the man who is widely being touted as a Prime Minister-in-waiting. Starmer has been a barrister and therefore his training allows him to be able to represent the case for either the prosecution or the defence with equal felicity. However, as a PM, he would have to lead a government, implement his policies and inspire an electorate. From what I've seen and heard from him thus far, he doesn't convince me that any of these challenges are within his skillset. What are his core beliefs (beyond "I want to be PM") - I hope Sunak will be able to penetrate the blancmange that is Starmer during the one-on-one debates and reveal his hidden shallows.     

* Sadly, I jest. If ever there was a moment that cried out for a Shakespearean blast it was then - but I should have known better than to expect anything more memorable from him. He reminds me of John Major - but minus the charisma. 

The trouble is - who to vote for? I can't believe that the two principal contenders are the best that the UK has to offer. The choice reminds me of two bald men fighting over a comb..  

I spent yesterday in the garden wobbling about at the top of a stepladder cutting back some of the phenomenal growth that had taken place here in the last few weeks as a result of the early season warmth and rain. I practised my topiary skills (such as they are) on half a dozen bushes that looked as though they were thinking about making a break for it over the garden wall. In England, it's said that if it rains on St Swithins Day (15th July) then 40 days of rain will follow. Here in France, the spectre of St Médard (translation here) is invoked instead - although here the date that matters is 8th June. I'm starting to think that St Médard celebrated his Saints day at the beginning of the May.  

Mentioning St Swithins Day brings me on to David Nicholls 2009 novel "One Day". The story follows a couple who spend the night together on 15 July 1988, knowing they must go their separate ways the next day. The novel then visits their lives on 15 July every year for the next 20 years. I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed this book. 

22nd May. Are you dissatisfied with your mainstream news provider? If so, have a browse around this site - it pulls together news feeds from many countries aound the world - and provides them all in one handy place - either in their original language or in English. It's always a good idea to seek out a different perspective from your usual source of news. 

21st May. In something of a 'first' for me, next month will see me in prison! (who said "About time too.."?) The association I'm involved with had a BD published last year and it's attracted attention from people we seldom have the opportunity to meet. Last Thursday, the president of the association and I were invited to present the story of the WWII Comète Line to an audience of retirees at the Université du Temps Libre at nearby Anglet. 

Next month will see us behind bars at the Villa Chagrin (as the local prison is known) presenting Comète to a genuinely captive selected audience!😃 A couple of days later, we'll be taking an even more select group of inmates outside to walk over a part of the actual route taken by the Comète guides and the evading pilots during WWII. I hope it doesn't give them any ideas!  

The Olympic flame passed through a wet Bayonne yesterday.. Having once been soaked in the morning while taking the dog out, I was disinclined to walk into town for a second soaking to see the 'spectacle'..

 

14th May. Remember Cat Stevens? He made some very listenable-to music in the early '70s - this is one of his:

  

11th May. Just noticed that the hit counter for the blog is approaching the quarter of a million mark. I remember being excited when it hit 100! Who'd a thunk it?!

10th May. This turned up in my inbox the other day and it gave me a most welcome laugh. 

Apologies are due to my faithful reader(s) who might have been excused for thinking that the complete absence of posts since January was perhaps due to your Basque correspondent being forcibly restrained in a canvas jacket somewhere.. If only!😉 All I'll say is that we (the Royal 'we') have had a recurrence of health problems.. plus an unexpected surge in activity linked to the association I'm involved with.  

Here's a little video that I've not featured before that focuses on the line that runs between here (Bayonne) and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. We've driven along the road that parallels the railway line many times and each time we comment on how picturesque that particular part of the Nive valley is. The first stop on this line is at Villefranque where those with long memories might remember is where we spent 5 happy months in a gîte when we first arrived in this beautiful and verdant corner of France waay back in 2007. (Almost 17 years ago.. ouch!)

  

And before you ask, here's one that looks at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port: 

31st January. Walking into town this afternoon I was surprised to see Avenue Foch (the main thoroughfare into the centre of Bayonne from Pipérade Towers) completely blocked by maybe 20 huge 4x4 tractors each towing a trailer filled with old tyres although some appeared to be full of some organic vegetable matter (aka fumier). At the head of this line of farm vehicles, four policemen were standing there looking a little lost as all the tractor drivers had cunningly disappeared. As I walked by the lead tractor there was a deafening explosion from its trailer that came very close to causing me to have a wardrobe malfunction in the Trouser Department..! I have no idea what was causing these explosions but they continued at 15-20 second intervals. 

What was all this about you may ask? The recent inflationary price rises caused by higher energy costs among other things and the fact that farmers now have to pay the full retail price for diesel has meant than many farmers are working in the red. They claim that the supermarkets are buying in their produce from worldwide low cost suppliers. Madame saw some asparagus from Peru in the shops the other day. This is far too complex a subject to be dealt with here but it was reported recently that young farmers are killing themselves at the rate of two per day - and the farming community has decided that they have nothing more to lose and so they've taken to direct action - largely with the support of the French public. Yes, farmers may be land-rich but they are cash-poor. What hopes can a young farmer entertain for finding a wife and raising a family?      

On my return home, I was surprised to see Avenue Foch was open to traffic again. This was clearly just a token 'lightning' protest to demonstrate that they could easily close down the town if they so wished. France's new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has taken some measures to address the farmers' concerns - but will they be enough to satisfy the aggrieved farmers? Agriculture is a key component of French life as it feeds into markets and restaurants - and what would France be without these? We've not heard the end of this. I support the farmers.           

14th January. Watching ARTE this evening we were privileged to see Bruce Liu playing Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor at the magnificent Kurhaus, Wiesbaden, from the Rheingau Music Festival 2023. His is a new name to me and I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more from him in years to come. Unfortunately, the original video I posted was taken down (for copyright issues or some such) so I'm replacing it with the III. Allegro Scherzando movement: 

    

11th January. We made a flying visit to Grand Frais (noted for the freshness of its produce) this afternoon (just next to Biarritz airport). I was dispatched to examine the cheese department and in doing so I had to pass through the dramatically-lit displays of fruit and veg. 

Clouds of water vapour were drifting over the spot-lit displays of greenery and it occurred to me that all it needed was for Sherlock Holmes (played by Basil Rathbone naturally) to step out of the swirling mists. I shouldn't be allowed out on my own really!   

6th January. I was reminded by 50% of my global readership that The Shadows hit "Apache" deserves a mention - not too many records from 1960 have aged as well as this one. 

    

Original version here.

4th January 2024. With the news that last year (reportedly) saw the earth's hottest temperatures in 125,000 years, I can't help thinking that we - on board Planet Earth - have entered uncharted waters - but minus a steady hand or two on the tiller to guide us. And to make matters worse, wherever you look, the political landscape is populated with pygmies. The great Western democracies have become more factionalised than ever before - they are riven with bickering and power struggles. Governments  generally have 5 year terms, and even if they had long term policies and goals, these invariably are sacrificed on the altar of short term expediency as our political masters devote much/all of their time and effort in seeking and maintaining electoral popularity. And whether we like it or not, our politicians have to get themselves elected (and re-elected) if they are to function. Churchill famously once said that “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” Maybe the answer is a benign dictatorship - except that history has rightly taught us to reject anything with 'dictatorship' in the small print. Maybe it's the time for the UK to consider a National coalition government again.. it worked during WWII. The search continues.

I was searching through a number of stations on our internet radio the other day when I came across this minor classic tune by Duane Eddy - one that I hadn't heard for decades. When it first appeared in 1960 (I believe), it seemed to be ushering in a whole new optimistic decade.. With its distinctive electric guitar sound it became the signature tune for countless radio and TV programmes aimed at the youth market.

      

Meanwhile, across the English channel, artists such as France's Françoise Hardy and others initially flourished as they relied more on words than the amplified jangle of a Fender or a Rickenbacker. I heard just before Christmas that her life is sadly drawing to a close after a long brave struggle with illness.