254. Spring has sprung..

30th April. I've been aware, almost subconsciously, for some time that the most prevalent car colours here differ from those in the UK. When I was out earlier, I looked down a long line of some 30-40 parked cars and noticed that the colour of every last one lay somewhere on the monochrome spectrum between white and black. I'd say that most were various shades of grey.

When we used to come down here on holiday years ago, if we saw a red car coming towards us it could almost be guaranteed that it would be displaying a UK registration. Then when we were in England a couple of years ago, it was noticeable that electric blue was now the "couleur du mois"! (Or as they have it there - the colour of choice). I'm not sure what this proves - if anything. It's just an observation. Now we have "expert colour psychologists" who can decrypt our colour choices.. If you wish to lose the will to live, read this! You've been warned. (I'm not an Express reader by the way.. ☺)

28th April. For 4 years in the mid-1990s, I had the great good fortune to be working in the vicinity of Venice. At least once or twice a month throughout the year, I would manage to find the time to visit this most wonderful of cities, even during the chill month of January, when the bitingly cold wind off the sea had the ability to freeze one's face into a rictus. At times like that, Venice would be almost deserted and, looking out across the misty lagoon, it seemed that all an artist would need to render a faithful image of the view would be a thousand shades of grey. I would walk and walk until I had to seek refuge from the cold in the warmth of a café. There, I'd order a hot chocolate which was almost of a blancmange-like consistency and if it was really cold, I'd have a brandy with it. Once warmed up again, I'd set off once more. The intervals between stops would become shorter and shorter as the cold bit.

At the other extreme lay August. I was there once on 15th August (an Italian holiday) under a burning sun, with humidity to match. Groups of tourists were being marshalled through the narrow streets by guides - each holding a whip aerial with a distinctive object tied to the top of it - a pair of luscious red lips, a toy rabbit, an inflatable duck, the more bizarre the better. These groups of tourists appeared to arrive in waves - and the heat and the humidity combined with the jostling to make for a not very pleasant experience.

I was there with a friend one day during one such occasion and we were walking along the waterfront with its row upon row of gondolas bobbing up and down on the choppy waters. We walked past the Hotel Danieli (highly recommended) and after a few yards, we came across a restaurant that overlooked the lagoon. A card in its window announced a seafood buffet lunch for 55,000 lira.. This worked out to something around £22.. It was "an offer I could not refuse"! One of those lunches that will live long in the memory. Some time later, we emerged blinking into the sunlight and waddled off in the direction of Harry's Bar*.. for one last attitude adjuster before heading back to the train station.

A visit to Venice has to be made at least once in a lifetime. There really is nowhere else quite like it anywhere in the world (including Las Vegas!). And no, in all my visits there I have yet to experience any of the smells that generations of hack writers ascribe to Venice.. (the video is best in full screen)
Seems like we've turned the clock back again.. as we've had rain, rain and more rain. We were out at a dog obedience class this morning - as Nutty's behaviour needs modification. It's almost as if he has a split personality. He's no longer allowed out in the garden unless he's on the lead as he constantly demonstrates destructive tendencies.

This year, our long-suffering lawn was finally looking as it should (especially as it's been well watered these last few months) - but Bulldozaire decided it could be improved with the addition of a large hole scraped in the middle of it. This was just one of his party tricks.. Others include rounding off the corners of a Persian carpet in the study; rounding off the corners of the bedspread; ripping holes in the pillowcases; retrieving savoury & unsavoury items from the laundry basket and chewing them. He seems to have a contrary nature: he will do things as required of him - but only if he wants to. Madame broached the surgical option with me but, as a card carrying male, I'm reluctant to consider that option until we've exhausted all the others. If only I could tell him!             

19th April. Spring came and went in a week.. yesterday we had some of Madame's relatives (from Andernos-les-Bains) for the afternoon. We ate outside and the temperature was a whisker under 30°.. I was down at the beach this morning (yes, in shorts and a t shirt!) with our 4x4 cocker spaniel at 9.30 and it was like summer. Cloudless blue sky, blue sea and white breakers. This weather changes everything. I think I'll be going for a ride on my ebike this evening along the Nive. 

11th April. "Allez, allez, allez!" (if you have to ask what this refers to, you wouldn't understand!)

4th April. I removed the cover from the table on the terrace yesterday - always a good sign - and we had lunch out there for the first time this year. Think it was about 20° - give or take a degree. It looks like a morning for a ride on my e-bike as well - as the forecast seems to indicate that rain could be on the agenda this afternoon.

The arrival of warmer weather changes everything here - my shorts (!) will soon be making their first public appearance of the year, our plancha (right) will be dragged out and then we tend to live outside until late October/early November (fingers crossed). I'm surprised that the plancha has still to make an impact in the UK as they really do lend themselves to impromptu eating outdoors. I'd've thought they'd be perfect for those unpredictable (polite term!) British summers. From the decision to eat outdoors to starting cooking takes no more than 5 minutes - that's as long as it takes to heat up the cooking surface - plus the cooking surface is far less messy, more versatile and much more convenient than that of a barbeque. They excel at cooking fish for example. Eating food cooked on a plancha is highly enjoyable compared to the forced smile of eating something part-cooked or overcooked (ie, burnt) on a barbeque. Here's someone showing how it's done in the US. There's a business opportunity here for someone.  

Hibiscus

2nd April. We've been busy in the garden tidying things up after the last wet three months. I noticed the wisteria (known as glycine in French - you'd never guess) is out. And after 10 years of effort, the lawn finally looks dense and green (with no burnt patches from you-know-who). The hydrangeas (hortensia in French) are off and running too.. and our small palm tree (left) in the front garden is pushing out these large buds and is poised to sprout its yellow blossom and shower everything with pollen. There's also a couple of hibiscus trees (with 5" trunks) that produce spectacularly blue flowers that have just started to bud. Everywhere we looked today, nature was in motion - at last.

Here's something I caught on the radio earlier today.. It was new to me and it sounded as if it could have been an old Irish air. But - it's called "The Ashokan Farewell" and surprisingly, it was written by Jay Ungar back in 1982. Well done to him! It was also used as the title track to the PBS series "The Civil War" (which I've just started watching.. really excellent so far).

If ever a tune was written for a 5 string banjo and guitar it was this one.. See here. 

253. Two down, one to go!

31st March. There's a Franco-Welsh couple a few doors away and we were talking over a drink a couple of months ago and comparing notes. In an astonishing coincidence, it turned out that we'd both lived in the same avenue in north west London at the same time in the mid sixties. Not only that, but they too used to stay at the same delightful hotel/restaurant in Ascain as us.

I had a similar experience during my first visit to the US in the early 1980s. I'd been invited to the Virginia Beach home of a retired US Navy captain one Sunday for a barbeque and to meet his wife and daughters (an invitation that was impossible to refuse!). We were relaxing with a cold beer and a hamburger with all the fixings (!) and talking about our origins when he suddenly said that I should meet his neighbour.

We walked down his garden and he called to Joe (his neighbour) over the garden fence. We shook hands and he asked where I was from in the UK. I named the city and he said "Me too..". It turned out that he'd grown up about 400 yards away from my childhood home.

29th March. Bulldozaire, aka Nutty, our 10 month old cocker spaniel, has an inventive turn of mind. To set the scene, I'd better explain that our downstairs hall is tiled and a small rug sits in the middle of it. Nutty's latest game is to hurl himself down the uncarpeted stairs, going around the 180° turn at breakneck pace in a confusion of paws scrabbling for grip, before finally springing off the third or fourth step up from the bottom and landing on the rug.. He then 'surfs' across the hall on it at speed before crashing into the far wall. This isn't a 'one-off' - he waits until one of us resets the rug where it should be and then he repeats it.. What have we got?!   

25th March. Here's one of those quintessential photos by Dorothea Lange of rural America taken in 1939. It's very close to being a Norman Rockwell painting. More details here (plus some interesting comments).  Click on it to see it full size.

'Bulldozaire' and I were down at the beach this morning in between rain showers - or so I thought. The decision whether or not to take him is a 'no brainer' - he has to go. Staying at home isn't an option.. We'd got about 10 minutes into our walk when the first spots of rain appeared. Seconds later, they morphed into a full-on downpour with winds to match. The 10 minutes back to the car seemed to take forever and we ended up back at the car totally drenched. This is one of the few downsides to dog ownership - the indoor facilities just don't work for him!

21st March. If you haven't seen someone flying precision glider aerobatics, leaving a trail of sparks in the night sky - in perfect synchronisation with classical music, then you haven't lived! This is Toronto's very own Manfred Radius showing how it should be done:
The music is the Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (or Rustic Chivalry).

We've just booked a break in early June at a small village high up in the mountains overlooking Lake Annecy. It's a part of France I've not visited before so I'm really looking forward to it. Looking at the video, it seems that rowing boats are available out on the lake.. it'll be good to get out on the water again. Watch in full screen!

20th March. There comes a moment during any prolonged grey, dank and gloomy period of the year - such as we have now - when drastic measures are called for to blow the dust away. Here's Jonathan Scott playing the finale from Saint-Saëns Symphony No 3 in C Minor, Op 78 - aka the "Organ" Symphony. Crank up the volume!
I was at the rhumatologue yesterday for the third and final injection of a silicon-based product into my knees. This should enable me to be relatively creak-free for another year (it says here). I'm not sure exactly how much good this technique actually does. Yesterday's session turned out to be one of those 'grit your teeth and bear it' treatments. It felt like the doc was using a sharpened knitting needle - it was one of those character-building moments!
 
18th March. We were up in Paris on Wednesday for the funeral of M, one of Madame's oldest friends. She studied at the Sorbonne with M and his wife C and we remained close friends with them for 40+ years. Very, very sad.

We travelled via the TGV. The southern extension of the special high speed track to Bordeaux was inaugurated in July 2017 and so the total journey time - Bayonne to Paris - is now only 4 hours. Between Bayonne and Bordeaux, the train travels at reduced speed over the standard track and thus it takes 2 hours to cover the 120 mile section. Once clear of Bordeaux however, the train really flies (300km/h, or 186mph) the rest of the way to Paris, taking just over 2 hours to travel the remaining 360 miles. 

It was a train composed of double-decker coaches (above) and it was state-of-the-art, spotlessly clean, air conditioned, quiet, spacious, comfortable, free WiFi, rock steady at speed - and affordable. So impressive. I think we paid 120€ each for the return Bayonne-Paris ticket (approx 480 miles each way). We took the first class option as there was very little difference in price between that and a standard ticket. It made me want to drag British politicians over here by the ear to experience a modern high speed rail service. The TGV entered service in France in 1980. 
Meanwhile, across the English Channel (in the country that invented the railway for Pete's sake!), it appears that, after decades of talking, a consensus has finally been reached between the main political parties and that the target date for implementing the first phase of the UK's High Speed train service - linking Birmingham with London is 2026. You couldn't make it up. Whatever happened to that optimistic surge of national self-confidence, dynamism and energy that created the Industrial Revolution and transformed Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries into the global powerhouse that it became? Powered by inventive engineers, risk-taking entrepreneurs and venture capitalism, the foundations of the world's first modern transport infrastructure were laid down - first, a canal network that served industry, then followed less than a century later by a national rail network  and then a global merchant shipping fleet (33% of the total global tonnage was British, even in 1939). And then we stopped.

12th March. I'm told this was a true story - but if it's not, it deserves to be.  

Two French deputies had an unseemly shouting match via their headphones in the European Parliament to the consternation of the assembly. The translators tackled words rarely used in civil society.

Another French MEP, attempting to protect the honour of France, made a moderating intervention:

"Messieurs, nous avons besoin de la sagesse normande". (la sagesse Normande is an old French expression recognising someone's common sense)

The English translation fired back: "What we need is Norman Wisdom".*

Every British MEP, for no apparent reason burst out laughing to the bewilderment of the French.

* memory jogger: Norman Wisdom was a British comedian in the 1950s.

Amid all the gloom that emerged on several fronts from a dismal sporting weekend, I forgot to mention that before the France - England match started, mein host offered me a Japanese whisky. I'm still trying to find the name - it came in an earthenware bottle - I've looked here but I don't see it.

Glentogouchi!

Edited to add: It was Togouchi.. (left) and according to this link it's a blend of Scottish single malt whisky and Canadian blended whisky.. That sound you can hear is the sound of Rabbie Burns rotating in his grave at 500rpm. (This is heresy on an industrial scale.. almost as bad as the French owners of Glenmorangie who now age that great Scottish single malt in Sauternes barrels. Words fail me..)

What was it like? Well, to me it tasted like a distant cousin (twice removed) of a Highland single malt.. It wasn't unpleasant - far from it - but it didn't have that distinctive whiff of the Highlands about it. (and why should it?) Unfortunately, having lived in Scotland for a few years, that taste is imprinted on me and it's one of the reasons I enjoy a whisky (blended or a malt) so much. I enjoy things that have a solid connection with where they are made. It's for that reason that I'm not interested in a Polish Burgundy - even if there was such a thing.. or a Mexican Rolex. I've worn US-made Florsheim shoes for many years but I was not happy to see that the last pair I bought online were made in India of all places. The first pair of Florsheim black brogues (I think these are known as wingtips in the US) I bought in the mid-90s are still like new (above). I think they'll be going strong long after I'm not!

As a drink, this Japanese whisky was enjoyable - but was it whisky as I understand it? I prefer my whisky to have originated from somewhere I can visualise in Scotland's blue misty hills. Speaking of which, I bought a bottle of 10 year old Talisker (from the Isle of Skye) a few months ago and unfortunately it had suffered the fate of being "tidied"! I found it lurking in the shadows down in the cellar and it's since been restored to its rightful place. I dusted off the bottle the other evening as I wanted to offer a dram to a neighbour. It had all the complexity you'd ever want from a Single Malt - it had taste in spades.. I learnt in Scotland to add a splash of water to my whisky to lengthen the taste.. According to Robert Louis Stevenson, Talisker is the "King o' Drinks". I've read that the 18 year old is the one.. (Note to self: add to Christmas list!)

9th March. It's the big one tomorrow..! France vs England at the Stade de France.. We'll be enjoying the match at the Biarritz home of a retired fighter pilot from the French Air Force. It's always a lively evening. (understatement of the year!☺)

4th March. I took Bulldozaire, aka Nutty, our cocker spaniel (who formerly did puppy impressions) down to the beach again this morning - it felt quite warm at 14°C. Here he is assessing the various options for a frictionless Irish Border.. It shouldn't take him long!

Brussels Got Talent...
aka Juncker, Tusk, Barnier, Verhofstadt 

2nd March. Listening to the noises coming out of Brussels in the lead-up to Theresa May's speech today it became increasingly clear that, with every utterance from Jean Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk, Michel Barnier and Guy Verhofstadt (right), that they have little genuine interest in negotiating with the UK. Dictating yes - but negotiating? No.

In my view, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the UK concluded that no deal was better than a bad deal and walked away from the negotiating table. The problem is that the EU appears to view the UK as supplicants in this process.. whereas the reality is that we are a partner nation of equal status. It seems that the EU wishes to punish the UK for having the temerity to want to leave a political construct that it joined of its own free will. The charge of 'cherry picking' has been levelled against the UK for its negotiating stance - but it is entirely reasonable for any head of state/prime minister of a country to seek to obtain the best deal possible for itself in any negotiations with a third party. I can't imagine any leader of a country doing otherwise.

It occurred to me that there's no effective opposition in the European Parliament that I can see. The serried ranks of MEPs in the European Parliament (below) are merely there as window-dressing or nodding dogs - to give the symbolic appearance of a parliamentary system while in reality being largely toothless. In effect, its only role is to rubber stamp the policies and legislation that cascade down from the unelected EU Commission. Question du jour: Do you know the name of your MEP?

No views contrary to the received wisdom can be accepted in Brussels. The EU's movers and shakers live in the Brussels bubble where their views are unchallenged and the idea of reforming the EU is heresy. They envisage a 'one size - fits all' Europe - a mindset that conveniently ignores the reality experienced by anyone who has ever travelled around Western Europe and enjoyed the diversity of its economic, cultural, geographic and historical riches - all of which combine to form each country's unique national identity - its DNA.

The UK has always been an outward-looking maritime trading nation, first exploring the globe and then settling vast areas of it and implanting the seeds of our democratic systems. Given that, it's therefore hardly surprising that our world view is significantly different to that of other countries within the EU, some of whom have markedly different histories. It was only when the political dimension of the EU's mantra of "ever-closer union" started to supplant its initial emphasis on economic integration (the EEC) that the UK decided that this was a step too far - and one that was incompatible with British concepts of its democratic values.

There are other tensions swirling around in the muddy waters of the EU. The question of language came up when the UK formally declared its intention to leave the EU. The immediate reaction of the ever-tactful Jean Claude Juncker was to point out gleefully that English would soon be of lesser importance as the EU's working language and that French would replace it. To him, the UK's exit didn't represent a catastrophic failure of the EU to represent and accommodate all its member nations - no, his instinctive reaction was to play the language card. His outbreak tells you all you need to know about him. You have to wonder at these people.

President Jacques Chirac

It reminded me of this astonishing incident when President Chirac (right) stormed out of an EU Summit in 2006 because a Frenchman had addressed the meeting in English..! When senior EU politicians act in this fashion, it raises serious questions about the mental stability of some of its leaders and the real aims of the EU.

I've always thought that the EU was designed to give France a voice on the world stage - in French. The EU was formed to create a Francophone geopolitical bloc. France had been marginalised during WWII and so in the post-war years it sought to leverage its influence to better effect by being actively instrumental in the formation of a succession of supra-national alliances - namely, the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, followed by the European Economic Community in 1957 and then the European Union in 1993. We are asked to believe that the current situation marks the end of the EU's expansionist ambitions; that the idea of a United States of Europe (USE) has been shelved. But as long as the phrase "ever-closer union" remains on the EU's statute books as its primary aim, then that desire for a USE is parked in the Commission's pending tray. It only needs only the arrival of a charismatic and ambitious European politician (where have we heard that before?) to trigger the process and if the UK remained in the EU, then following the introduction of Qualified Majority Voting in 2014, the UK would have been powerless to veto it. It's clear to any observer that there's a massive democratic deficit between the politics as practised in the EU and the more accountable democratic political structures of the US.

The only bright spot on the horizon today was the far more realistic and practical contribution from Hans-Olaf Henkel, a German MEP and former president of the Federation of German Industries - I don't agree with all that he says but it's refreshing to hear an influential German identify where the EU is going wrong. As he said in the video, the departure of the UK from the EU is equivalent to 19 countries leaving.

I'll shed no tears for the EU apparatchiks mentioned in the first paragraph - they need no outside assistance to demonstrate that they are political pygmies who are out of their depth in the shallow end of international politics. Because the UK questioned and challenged the onward blind rush to federalism, we were treated as pariahs - and, in an act of monumental pettiness, found ourselves relegated to the second rank in all official photographs. Our role was clearly to pay up and shut up. It's taken a while for the wheel to turn full circle but our day will come. 

Thought you'd seen it all? Thought that nothing could surprise you? Then think again, pilgrim! We discovered that we have a channel on our TV called DOG TV.. Monsieur (Nutty) sits on his bottom wedged in between Madame on one side and the arm of the couch on the other and he leans back and watches this channel.. In human terms, there's very little action but he becomes totally absorbed and if he'd been a bit wild, then this seems to calm him down. (I can't believe I'm writing this!)    

There's more here. It really works..

A rare sight!

Those of you with long memories may remember that in previous years I've had to visit a rhumatologue (a rheumatologist) to have my knees injected with a gloop-like substance to help with absorbing shocks (apart from the shock of losing to Scotland last weekend!). 

I was there again this morning to have another set of injections in my knees. For anyone contemplating the same thing, I'd say that while it's not especially pleasant, it's not that painful.  

1st March. It was only yesterday that I woke up to a snow storm at 6am that lasted most of the morning. This was our garden (right) yesterday..

Today - you would not believe it.. 18°C and the snows's all gone. I was just stowing some logs in the garage and when I came out, there was a warm wind blowing and it felt like early summer. Very odd.

The "Two down, one to go" title of this post refers to January and February.