91. All you ever wanted to know about chrysanths but were afraid to ask..

27th October 2010. Walking into town this morning to pick up the bread from our current baker of choice, I noticed that our local florist had a larger than usual display of flowers and potted plants outside. The star of the show was clearly the colourful presentation of beautifully trimmed chrysanthemums in pots - and that reminded me that this weekend is a good one to avoid on France's road network. this weekend is Toussaint (All Saints - 1st November) - a public holiday. On this day, it's customary to visit the family tombs and graves, wherever they may be. Chrysanthemums are the traditional offering at the graveside. Toussaint conveniently falls on Monday this year and, like so many salmon returning to their natal stream to spawn, many will be making, or at least trying to make, a long week-end out of it - notwithstanding shortages of petrol..

Normalement at this time of the year, the autoroutes and routes nationales across the country are heavy with traffic as Mamy et Papy return to their ancestral village d'enfance to pay their respects at the family tomb. Unfortunately, this mass migration brings with it a heavy toll of road accidents as septuagénaires and octogénaires, unaccustomed to driving long distances, take to the highways in droves. Be warned.. 

It should now be obvious why it's not advisable to offer French friends chrysanthemums..

Cazenave

I've just returned from a late afternoon walk with the pooch around town. It's thronged with tourists - mostly French - as it's half term and Toussaint all in one. Lots of white-faced black-clad Parisians (black being the new black) were much in evidence, bumbling about and swamping the chocolatiers as they indulge in the heady delights of a chocolat à l’ancienne or a  tasse de chocolat à boire moussé à la main (below) at Cazenave.

Hot chocolate as you've never had it..

Just as the carpet of yellow leaves underfoot signifies the approaching cold days of winter, the arrival in town of the hot chestnut man with his "little locomotive" with its blue mist of smoke rising from the smokestack is another sure sign that winter's here. There's nothing quite like a paper cone of marrons chauds to warm the hands on a cold evening. 

Finally, my answer to those who would argue that Man has no soul, that we are just an accident of nature, that we are just a "billion to one shot" anomaly that crawled out of the primeval sludge..

Further proof - if further proof be needed - here:

This final piece of evidence - Exhibit C your honour - by Rachmaninoff is something my father would play. I think Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 2 (with Geza Anda) was the first classical record he bought in the fifties. Despite it being played to death on Classic FM, it still retains the ability to hypnotise by its sheer lyrical quality. However, Yuja Wang's interpretation of the concerto takes the honours in my view: 

Watch on YouTube.

QED.

90. Surf Rowing

19th October 2010. Only did 5km (running total 273km) this evening - I went out in a 'yolette' with 3 beginners. They had quite a good row but it wasn't enough for me to work up a lather!

What I did do though was to sign up for a try-out of surf rowing on Saturday afternoon at Anglet.. The club has its own surf boat and it's something I've wanted to try for a long time. This video explains all.

21st October 2010. Very satisfying outing this evening in a well-balanced coxless quad sculler (IV). The crew had a good blend of technique and boeuf - evident in the distance between the puddles. Coming back, the river was quite lively due to the strong current towards the sea and an opposing wind, which gave rise to some waves.. so we came back a bit damp! 10km (running total 283km)

25th October 2010. 12km this chilly morning in a IV.. an outing that turned into a bit of a flog (running total 295km). But enough of that - after a quick lunch I returned to the club at 1pm and joined the five others who were going surf rowing with R & C. R is an Australian who works in London during the week but lives in the Pays Basque at the weekend - he commutes there and back via Ryanair. His wife, C, is French and rowed in the '92 Barcelona Olympics. R had looked at the weather and decided Hendaye would be a better bet as broken surf was forecast for Anglet. 

On arriving at Hendaye, we all changed and I couldn't help noticing that all the guys were letting it all hang out in the Cheeks Department! They were all wearing trunks that... well, look at the video above.. On inspecting the boat, I saw that there was no sliding seat to sit on - instead there was a slightly concave rectangle of plastic about 2 feet long by a foot wide that we were to slide up and down on - using water to lessen the friction between skin and seat. Except in my case it was between shorts and seat. 

We launched the boat and hopped in and started rowing through the small waves. I became aware that my seat/body interface (aka my backside!) was getting quite hot and fortunately we stopped at that point. I splashed more water on the seat and off we went again. The heat I was experiencing caused me to focus in on that to the extent that all I wanted to do was to stop, jump out and dip my burning backside into a bucket of cold water with all the sizzle you'd expect to hear when an old-time blacksmith dunked a red hot horseshoe in a tank of water..

On returning home, I found two burnt contact points - one on each cheek - that were still cooking! I'll be off rowing for a while..

89. Saturday row

16th October 2010. Great outing on a chilly morning in a competition VIII sculler - we did a quick and very enjoyable 20km. (running total: 268km) Made mainly from carbon fibre and fitted with wing riggers like these on a sculling boat (below), the VIII was very light and a pleasure to row.

Talking to the club president afterwards, he told me the boat was made in China.. (Is there nothing they don't make?) 

While rowing up and down rivers during the last 30 or 40 years, I've often mused over the possibility of rowing facing forward.. and other possible technical advances. Now it seems this too is possible:

And here's another technical advance that didn't catch on, for whatever reason:

And finally, a single sculler fitted with hydrofoils..

17th October 2010. The baker in the centre of town has a poster up in the window advertising a concert by Dorado Schmitt at the theatre here in Bayonne next Wednesday.. In case you don't know him, here he is playing Dark Eyes - a gypsy guitar favourite at a Django Reinhardt festival in New York. If you need a reminder of his virtuosity, take a look at this clip where he plays Gypsy Melody from the film "Latcho Drom"

:

And here he is again (except this time he's playing the violin) in another excerpt from the same film which looks like it was shot at the annual gypsy festival held at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in the Camargue:

Time for your annual reminder about the health benefits of drinking red wine - specifically Madiran..

There - that felt better didn't it..!