11th June 2011. We went to Biarritz this evening to see a new film just out - "Midnight in Paris", written and directed by Woody Allen. Regular readers of this blog (yes, both of you!) might remember I'm a Woody fan and although he doesn't appear in the film you can hear his unmistakeable views of life, death, love, sex and marriage through one of the actors. Something of a fairy tale - without giving the plot away - it's a charming film set in one of the world's most photogenic cities. Carla Bruni (or Madame Sarkozy - take your pick!) does well in her cameo role. I think it's his best film for a good few years. Well worth putting your knitting down for one night and getting your fancy duds on for a night at the cinema!
13th June 2011. I went down to the club late yesterday morning to lend a hand with the organisation of the "3 Rivières" event. We were going to drive the rowers (well over a hundred of them) up the Adour to Peyrehorade (try saying that while eating a Cornish pasty!) where the boats lay after Saturday's epic row on the Gave. But before that, however, there was the small question of lunch. We were all to have lunch in the brasserie (on the first floor above the club - more here).

There was just the one smallish pontoon and somehow we had to get about 30 IVs down the narrow sloping ramp one at a time and into the water and away. I was there to see the last couple of IVs in the water before jumping in a small speedboat to act as security in case of problems.
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Bec du Gave |
For some reason I've been humming this tune (to myself!) for the last few hours without knowing what it was - I do this all the time! Finally, I went downstairs where Madame was slaving away in the front garden now that it's cool. Earlier I'd cut down a vast overgrown nondescript bush that the previous occupant had allowed to run wild and some of the branches had died. Extracting the roots with the aid of a sledge hammer, a pick and a spade in the mid-afternoon heat had just about finished me off so I was indoors cooling off with this tune playing over & over in my head. Once I'd hummed it to her she told me it was "Parlez-moi d'amour" and that it had been in the soundtrack of Woody Allen film we saw the other night (which is where I must have got it from). Anyway, to cut a long story short, and to implant it in your brain, here it is:

