286. 'Twas the season to be jolly..

31st December. As we stumble wearily towards the midnight hour and a brand New Year, who would have thought just 12 short months ago that tonight we'd all be masked up and isolated. Plus, the long drawn-out saga of Brexit has finally been concluded to the satisfaction of both parties.. sign of a good deal (or maybe that we just haven't read the small print!) So, to all the readers of this blog - whoever and wherever you are - let's make 2021 the year when we restore our way of life back to the way it was. Happy New Year one and all!      

30th December. I grew up to the sound of my father playing the piano - and endlessly practising pieces like Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" - played beautifully with great passion here by Claudio Arrau. I don't think I've ever heard a better interpretation: 

        

We saw Gautier Capuçon, one of France's greatest cellists, here in Anglet a few months ago.. Here he is with Édith Piaf & Marguerite Monnot's "Hymne à l'Amour". Think this is one for full screen: 

     

I'm having my final session of physio this morning prior to the knee 'op' in a week's time. I'll be spending most of January behind bars - 4-5 days in hospital then 2-3 weeks in a sinister-sounding 're-education centre'.. so you'll have to talk among yourselves for a while!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish both of my long-suffering oops -standing readers my best wishes for 2021.. Let's hope these new vaccines are effective (now there's a New Year's wish you don't often hear..). 

28th December. I woke up early (5.40am) this morning to the sound of a deluge of rain running in the gutters - and winds howling around the house. Fortunately we have these solid wooden shutters at the west-facing back of the house that keep the winter storms at a distance. Grey skies, lashing rain and gusting winds.. it's still blowing hard now. Probably not what you might imagine our lot to be here.. Fortunately we seldom get any snow - and if we do, it's usually gone by lunchtime. 

It's now 8.30pm as I write this and it's still blowing a gale and raining as hard as it was this morning.  

27th December. I was just returning from walking Nutty along the beach this morning when I put on the car radio - France Musique - and it was an interview with someone talking about their childhood musical influences and she happened to mention Louis Armstrong's "When it's sleepy time down south" and - whoooosh - that took me straight back 60+ years.. My father had an old 78 record of that very tune - and of all the music he played, I'd say it was right up there in his top three. I must have heard it a few hundred times! It's strange - I haven't heard that song or thought of it for decades - and yet - boom - the memory of it brought him back instantly.. so here's the same version (on a 45) of that great old song that my father loved so much:

25th December. A picture's worth a thousand words - so here's the lad himself getting into the Christmas spirit.. (a friend gave him the tie..)

I hope that you all have a happy Christmas - even if your friends and family are at the end of a Zoom call..  

22nd December. Time for a Christmas Carol - here's the choir of King's College, Cambridge with "The Angel Gabriel".. (sometimes known as the Old Basque Carol):

 

It was unseasonably warm here yesterday with 17°C.. and today the forecast is for 19°.. It's definitely not woodburner weather. However, with the current Covid restrictions in place - restaurants, cafés and bars all closed - means that some of the usual pleasures of going out for the day - a seat outside somewhere or a little lunch - are unavailable. I'm not looking for sympathy! (just as well because... fill in the rest yourselves!)    

I've been having 3 sessions of physio a week on my right knee in preparation for the forthcoming 'op' in January. My usual physio has taken a week's leave over the festive season and so it was her replacement that I saw yesterday. She gave my knee an intensive work-out and it would be fair to say that your correspondent is presently at the 'ouch' end of the pain spectrum. I have further sessions with her today and tomorrow. (gulp!)

18th December. If only Life was like this.. 😉:

16th December. The house is looking very Christmassy now - Madame has been busy and she has worked her customary magic - and finally Christmas seems real again. If I stood still for long enough I'm sure I'd end up with holly and ivy wound around my extremities!☺

I was in town yesterday evening to collect Nutty (our cocker) from Allo Toutou (the dog groomers). As he wasn't quite ready, I walked down to the Comptoir Irlandais to look at the mouth-watering display of Scotch single malt whiskies. Talking to one of the assistants, she suddenly darted off to the desk and poured me a wee dram of Glenrothes 12 year old.. And a very impressive drop o' the cratur it was too - and very different from Glenmorangie, my preferred single malt. I must have a look in the Spanish shops on the border to see what they charge..  

15th December. I picked up an early Christmas present from our local pharmacy the other day.. Yes, a racy pair of aluminium crutches.. although it would no longer surprise me if they had a fancy new name these days - such as "personalised augmented stability system". They'll come in handy when I'm released back into society at the end of January after my replacement knee has been fitted and I've negotiated my way through the 2-3 weeks of post 'op' physiotherapy. (Thinks: there's never a parrot when you want one is there?)    

By the way, for the benefit of any Brits in France, here's a helpful newsletter from the British Embassy in Paris. 

I'm late with my Christmas shopping this year and I'm struggling for inspiration - especially for those small stocking fillers. Normally, I'm done and dusted by the end of November but for obvious reasons, this wasn't possible this year.  

13th December. There was a short feature on TVPI, our local TV station, this morning about the paramotor club at nearby Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle. I watched the short film in a kind of suspended fascination and fear all at the same time.. I've previously experienced flying viewed from within a metal structure - and so I must admit to feelings of vertigo while watching the video below and, as I don't bounce well, I found myself wondering just how strong the equipment was.. Sitting up at 2-3,000 feet is not the place to be having thoughts like these..

    

9th December. I guess there's no putting it off any longer - I'll have to start writing my Christmas cards very soon. I've just brought our Made in China Christmas tree* up from the cellar where it's been skulking since January. It just doesn't seem like Christmas..

* I never thought I'd succumb to an artificial tree but they're more manageable than the real variety.    

8th December. We've had rain and lots of it over the last few days. Yesterday though, the weather gods decided to crank the dial round into the red zone and what had merely been heavy rain blown by strong gusty winds turned into rain the like of which I've never seen before. From the study window upstairs, the noise was deafening and the intensity of the downpour significantly reduced the visibility across the avenue outside. The poor dog would go outside and come straight back in again. I did manage to take him out at one point when the rain slackened off a touch.. The sky is still heavy with grey storm clouds. My Barbour jacket has rarely been used so much here!      

4th December. For many of us, this year's Christmas will be very different - due to Covid - to ones we have known previously. For me, one of the elements that used to 'make' Christmas was the Christmas Carol Service in the centuries-old country church in the Herefordshire village where we used to live. The annual Carol Service was always a special evening in the life of our village as people came together to sing the old carols - and afterwards to enjoy a hot mince pie and a glass of mulled wine with friends and neighbours before heading off home in the dark. 

The magic of Christmas is all wrapped up with childhood memories - and yes, they are unique to a time and a place. This is now our home - but even though we are content here, inevitably there will be one or two of the old Christmas rituals that can't be replicated here. Hemingway once observed that "you don't know what Christmas is until you lose it in some foreign land.." - but our experience of Christmas is that it changes as we get older - and so it's no good harking back to days of old - because those Christmasses of yesteryear live on only in our memories - and are unrepeatable.  

3rd December. We enjoyed an unexpectedly moving evening here in town a year or two ago - a riverside Chinese lantern festival. Watch this in wonder - like the many goggle-eyed small children who were present that night. It was later reported that around 50,000 people were present in Bayonne's narrow streets - and its very success means that it is likely to fall victim to the confinement this year. (Edited to add: yes, it's official - sadly, no mass release of Chinese lanterns this year..)  This video is from 2018.. it was an incredibly moving event.. 

285. A timely reminder..

29th November. We've been sampling the Beaujolais Nouveau (right) over the last few days.. (a tough job but.. etc etc) My recommendation - for what it's worth - would be to try Georges Duboeuf's offering..   

28th November. Prior to the arrival of the Covid 19 pandemic, the choir I used to sing with had been rehearsing this sublime piece by Mozart - Laudate Dominum (KV339) - but sadly Covid 19 shut everything down and we were never able to perform it in a concert*. The Laudate was a really satisfying piece to sing - the choir comes in at 2:45 in the recording below (needless to say this wasn't my choir!). Here's Barbara Hendricks first with the Laudate followed by Handel's Hallelujah Chorus:

    

* My memory's going! I bumped into one of the ladies from the choir yesterday and she said that we had performed the Laudate at the last concert that preceded the lockdown.. My memory's like a Swiss cheese!  

27th November. In a broadcast to the nation on Tuesday evening, President Macron loosened the grip of the current lockdown, which will be replaced by a curfew from 15 December. He announced that the easing of restrictions would not take place overnight but in three phases until January 20th. He warned that its implementation will depend on the evolution of the epidemic.

Phase 1: The easing will begin on Saturday, November 28: the lockdown will remain in place, but the certificate that people currently use when they leave home, will allow people to travel 20 km from home instead of one, and for three hours instead of one*. He also lifted the constraints on Christmas shopping by reopening all so-called "non-essential" shops such as bookshops and clothing shops until 9 pm. Restaurants and bars, however, will remain closed. 

* Nutty, our cocker spaniel, will be happy with this news as it means we can give him a good run on the beach!

Phase 2: The second stage is set for December 15th, the day on which "the confinement can be lifted" if health conditions permit. It will be replaced by a curfew from 9pm to 7am throughout the country, with an exception for Christmas Eve  and New Year's Eve, when people will be free to travel. A 'truce' at the end of the year has also been agreed upon by several neighbouring countries, such as the United Kingdom, which on Tuesday authorised family reunions from 23 to 27 December, while Germany plans to limit the number of participants in family celebrations to ten people.

From December 15th, cinemas, theatres, and museums will be allowed to reopen, but gatherings and festive events will continue to be banned.

Phase 3: The third phase will begin on 20 January with the potential reopening of restaurants and sports halls. However, no date has been set for the bars and discotheques.

Vaccines: The vaccination, which will not be compulsory, will be able to start "in late December-early January" for "the most vulnerable people". France, together with the European Union, has "secured the number of doses" needed to secure the population, he said.

After the first vaccines became available at the end of December, a second generation of vaccine is expected in the spring.

More here.  

25th November. Hard to believe but Chr****as is but a month away.. Normally, by this time, I'm just about all shopped-out - but with all the shops having been closed, the secret hiding place for presents on top of an old armoire has yet to be used.  

Here's Joe Pass with his jazz guitar version of "Autumn Leaves" - New York magazine wrote of him that: "Joe Pass looks like somebody's uncle and plays guitar like nobody's business." (You can listen to more of his beautiful playing here)

    

21st November. We're definitely heading into winter down here. Yesterday, I put the all-weather cover over the table that stays out on the terrace and I raked up another pile of leaves from the red maple down the bottom of the garden. The plancha has already been greased and put away and the hortensia (hydrangea) shrubs / bushes (which is the right description?) have been pruned. The lawn is looking healthy and it's still growing.

I think we're just about ready for winter and the westerly gale-force winds that will soon be blowing in from the Bay of Biscay (known as the Golfe de Gascogne here). It will be interesting to see how the new west-facing garage door will stand up to the pounding. We'd replaced the original doors with a new set of wooden sliding doors about 10 years ago - but as they too were starting to fall apart, we replaced them a few weeks ago with a roller-type system (with another remote control to lose!). 

Lit the wood-burner last night - and its comforting warm glow was very welcome. It's another indicator that winter's on its way. We seldom get snow here or even frost - but we do get storms in from the sea and they blow really hard. Over the years, we've gradually sealed off all the possible entry points so now, even when it blows, we're toasty warm.      

20th November. As the dog-grooming service in town that we normally use is closed due to the current Covid restrictions, we took Nutty to Jardiland (a ginormous garden centre at Bassussarry) where a self-service dog washing facility has recently been installed inside the mammoth store. I'd like to say that he enjoyed the experience but while it was very convenient and practical for us, he made it clear that once was enough for him.. 

    

16th November. Here's something for late night listening - perhaps with a glass of something Scottish - John Coltrane with his "My Favorite Things" recorded in 1961:

  

And if we're talking about the wee small hours, if sleep is hard to find, when the mind insists on running through endless replays, when it seems your watch has stopped - there's nothing better than Chet Baker and his instrumental version of "My Funny Valentine". By the way, my patented late night shuffle around the dance floor was made for music like this! 

  

15th November. With so many retail outlets being shut down, it's going to be harder than ever to find original Christmas presents this year - but if you love this part of south western France (and if not, why not?!) then you can't do much better than to browse Perry Taylor's site. He's a talented cartoonist living in the Gers - and the rural way of life there clearly inspires him. He has something for everyone on his site - all of which are related to life (and ducks!) in la France profonde. I'd be extremely surprised if you can't find that special something for your special someone from his well-observed and very funny collection. 

13th November. Jean Castex, the French Prime Minister, gave a briefing on the Covid 19 situation yesterday evening. He said there were early signs of a tapering in the Covid-19 figures in France but that current lockdown measures, set to last until December 1, would remain in place.

Any loosening of restrictions after that date would be "strictly limited" to certain businesses and would exclude bars, restaurants and sports halls, Castex said. One in four deaths in France were now due to Covid-19. The number of people in hospital care for Covid-19 in France is now higher than during a previous peak in April. Castex told the news briefing that there were now more than 32,000 Covid patients in hospitals, adding that a new Covid-19 case was admitted to hospital every 30 seconds and one into intensive care every three minutes.

The government will impose further restrictions if the coronavirus outbreak worsens in the coming days but could also decide to loosen restrictions over the holidays if the situation warrants it. 

France is two weeks into a new national lockdown that has hit the economy but some politicians are hoping that if the country's Covid-19 figures improve the country may be able to re-open major shops and businesses for Christmas.

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said earlier Thursday that the economic boost provided by the crucial Christmas shopping season could be salvaged — provided people abide by the health restrictions until then.

"What I wish is that we can save December for retailers ... What will dictate the decision of the prime minister and of the president is the protection of the safety of the French population," Le Maire told BFM Business radio. "We could have a dynamic December" if the population sticks to current guidelines, he added.

(If hospitals down here in the South West are accepting patients in intensive care from elsewhere, I doubt now that my knee replacement surgery will go ahead as scheduled for early January.) 

10th November. Day 13 - the 'confinement' continues..   

Meanwhile, here are some views of Bayonne taken during summer here..

    

The video below really gives a good idea of the town behind those quirky riverside properties: 

     

7th November. Yesterday we went to our local pharmacy for our annual flu jab.. In something of a "first" for me, I didn't feel a thing as the needle went in and I have no after-effects - no lump, no soreness, nada. It was one of the girls behind the counter who did it - and talking to her a few months ago, she told me that her pharmacist's training in France took 6 years.  

Later in the day, we walked to the local hospital for an MRI scan of my right knee.. It was to ensure that the prosthetic replacement will be exactly the right size - and shouldn't need too much percussion adjustment with a ball peen hammer. I suspect though that my op planned for early January might well be postponed due to the second Covid wave..     

En route to the hospital, we saw three more formations of cranes heading south - all more or less in vee formations - with their distinctive squawking.   

5th November. About a year ago, I was outside in the garden with the dog at around 3am (when you've gotta go, you've gotta go) (him, not me) when I heard the flapping of hundreds (if not more) of wings as a ghostly formation of cranes flew overhead in the moonlight on their way to sunnier climes.. 

Last night I heard some raucous squawking from on high - and sure enough it was a mighty vee formation of cranes on their way south.. 

2nd November. This atmospheric piece is another favourite of mine: it's the 2nd Movement from Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 - close your eyes and let your mind soar..

We (finally) had a warm weekend here.. with temps in the low to mid twenties. So - leaves were raked up, the grass was mown, trees and bushes were pruned - after which all the garden detritus was whipped off to the nearby décheterie (waste/recycling centre) - having first remembered to complete and sign the latest form, duly timed and dated, required for excursions outwith the home - and to pick up a mask. I don't have a problem with these latest measures if they'll reduce the Covid infection rate. No-one knows how long this latest confinement will last. 

I must say I have the utmost sympathy with the hundreds and thousands of small business owners who are constantly on the back foot - how can they plan for the future against a moving target.. do they order stocks for the festive season - and beyond - or not..? Bookshops have been closed yet wine shops are open. I think many small businesses will go to the wall - never to return - leaving us only with the online retail giants.   

I've finally cracked - I've just ordered a tablet..   

1st November. In another media feeding frenzy, legions of European chatterati are in the US right now waiting to tell us what the 'mood' of the American people is before, during and after Tuesday's Presidential election. It's worth bearing this advice in mind: "People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people."

284. Especially when the October wind

25th October. Here's Yuja Wang (a favourite of mine) with her interpretation of Rachmaninov's Prelude in G Minor, Op. 23, No. 5:

 

Here are some other great performances by her. I don't think I've ever heard a more beautiful interpretation of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus18 than hers (the second piece on the above link). 

21st October. This evening, President Macron delivered a moving homage to Samuel Paty in the courtyard of the Sorbonne. Samuel Paty was the teacher who was foully murdered outside his school a few days ago. The President's words are worth reading. 

14th October. We can usually still eat outside during October and sometimes on into November - but not this year. Threatening skies, intense showers that blow through, low temperatures - October feels more like mid-winter. On the plus side, The "vitrification"* work we had done on the stairs and the cellar has dried off - so we can sleep upstairs again. 

* I think this means something different in French.

11th October. I like the originality of Glen Baxter's quirky old style cartoons:

7th October. The diary is filling up quickly with dates for various events.. The wooden stairs and the joists in the cellar have both needed treatment against woodworm - the stairs needed sanding first before they and the joists were treated with a toxic-smelling product. One of the outcomes was that we had to sleep downstairs as the product was still soaking into the stairs. Then next Monday, the stairs will be treated to what they call here a vitrification process.. so another restless night sleeping on the floor downstairs looms! 

We're also looking at changing the car - and trying to find our way through the mass of information presented by the concessionaires. We have a few test drives awaiting us - the main aim being to assess whether there's enough leg room for me - and also to check on the compliance of the suspension over the sometimes bumpy roads here. Our current car seems to bump and jolt its way over the slightest deformations of the road surface. We're looking at a petrol-engined car as we don't do much driving. I'm more than happy to stay in this corner of France with only the occasional trip elsewhere!  

Then after 10 years or so of various treatments to my knees, the scope for further treatment has reduced to zero and so I'm booked in for a replacement right knee in early January. First, I have to have 15 sessions of physio (3 per week for 5 weeks) to prepare my muscles for the surgery (to improve my recovery time) - then the "op" - after which I'll spend 4-5 days in hospital - before going to a centre for "re-education" (ie, more physio!) for 2-3 weeks. Madame seems to think I'll need a tablet of some kind to keep on top of my emails (and a couple of my blogs) - French daytime TV being just as dire as that in the UK.

Something to look forward to then!

3rd October. Driving rain and thunderstorms this morning.. I went out briefly to buy some logs - and returned soaked. Meanwhile, Nutty is waiting patiently for a gap in the rain for his morning walk. He's checked the garden over a few times but it's not the same. 

2nd October. Never has Dylan Thomas' poem about October seemed more relevant.. Over the space of a handful of days, we moved from a "shorts and t-shirt" summer straight into mid-Autumn (and worse) without the respite usually offered by those golden days of September. 

Before September was out, I seriously thought about lighting our wood burner but I was talked out of it. Great leathery leaves (a foot across) from platanes have been swirling and drifting down the avenue for days now - and burnished conkers abound under the chestnut trees and beech nuts are all over the pavements (sidewalks).  

The wonderfully resonant sound of Gautier Capuçon's 300 year old cello that we heard during the concert at the Château de Baroja in August has been on my mind of late too. It was the first time I'd ever heard a solo cello live (so much more alive than a CD) and the clarity of that sound cut straight through all my mental baggage and registered directly with my emotions. It was something I'd not experienced before and I lost myself in the performance.  

Max Bruch's Kol Nidre is arguably the finest piece ever written for a cello - and it's played here by arguably the cello's greatest virtuoso - Jacqueline du Pré, who contracted MS (of all things) and from which she died tragically young at the age of 42.