Tuesday, March 29, 2005

The sun once again!

Our good weather seems to have returned except for some morning mist. We had a nice lunch outside by the pool and the thermometer was reading 30 degrees. Even though the weather didn't completely cooperate I think we have made converts of Susan and Alan for the way of life in France and they will be back. It really is such a good value too compared to the prices in the U.K.

We were very pleased to buy a wonderful coffee table book on Carquieranne that had been recently published. It has amazing pictures and text and everything about it is extremely well done. Rather surprising that a small village would produce such a book. Obviously a labour of love for the many people involved and will make a super memento of our time here. They describe the numerous winds here in great detail...lots of names for the various winds...rather like the Inuit and all their names for snow.

I went to buy a package of Gaullois cigarettes the other day so we would have some ammunition when people light up beside us. We do rather like the smell of Gaullois but not these other horrible American cigarettes that everyone smokes now. I was amazed to see a number of different types of Gaullois in fancy American packaging. When I asked the difference I was told they were 'light', 'extra light', extra,extra light' etc. The old vets would be turning in their graves! When I asked if you could get the original Gaullois, the clerk warned me that it was 'brown tobacco' and produced the package from under the counter...i felt like I was buying illegal drugs.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Chèrs Amis,

Richard called today to give us the news that my mother has died. We were prepared as she recently fell and broke her femur and was making a poor recovery from the operation. My Mom was 91 years old and while physicically very disabled for many years, she was bright and alert until her fall. Her positive spirit and attitude were admirable.

She did not want a service and all arrangements had been previously made so we will not be returning from France. We had discussed this eventuality with our son, Richard, and he will be dealing with what needs to be done with the help of my cousin, John.

Richard has been wonderful throughout this difficult time. He was with his grandmother during her last few days and told her all the things I would have wanted to say. It meant a tremendous amount to me that he was there even though my mother never really regained consciousness.

Our very good friends, Susan and Alan from Yorkshire, are visiting this week and it has been a great comfort to have them here.

My parents had many happy years on Gabriola Island enjoying their waterfront home. Being in this little village on the Mediterranean makes me feel very close to them.

The other day we saw a retired couple painting a railing together and they greeted us with the usual 'Bonjour messieurs, mesdames'...a very charming custom. They were obviously very happy and enjoying being together doing a simple task around the house. It reminded me of the pleasure my parents had doing similar things together and helped to make me feel at peace.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Paintings from the West Coast

I was very excited to get my cousin John's 'postcard' which was actually an attachment...I love it and think he should do more...painting sound like a good thing for retired photographers. Also today in my real mailbox were four postcards of wonderful watercolours that Fern did...wow, Fern, I was really impressed. Keep up doing your painting. Would you mind scanning them and emailing them to Richard then he could post them (rsexton@sfu.ca)? I don't want to give them up!

Will be starting my seventh painting today and will post off more pictures to Richard soon. Not much time today to post.

Come on you guys...let's get those paintings going.

Friday, March 18, 2005

Postcard From Home


John Denniston
www.dirtbikephoto.com
www.dennistonphoto.com

Port of Bandol.

Our villa.

Janice enjoying the rosé wine that the owners of the villa produced.

Living/dining room.

Our little sunroom in the living room.

We really appreciated this fireplace in the cool weather we had at first.

All ready with our boules and pastis.

La Maison des Combattants, Toulon where we had the Franco-Anglo Assoc. wine and cheese and where Jim will give his talk in April.

My first painting here: our villa.

My second painting: Mimosa & Cypress.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

The eccentricities of French cats

We are wondering if we can entice our French cat to eat...so far he has turned up his nose at chicken, cheese, smoked salmon, pate, tuna...cat treats I bought specially. He always comes quickly with great anticipation but turns his nose up and looks quite disdainfully at us. Obviously we just don't get it. Perhaps a smelly old fish head would do the trick. He spends a lot of time in our yard looking for birds and also drinking from the pool in a very precarious looking manner but I guess he knows best.

It's really warming up now and we lunched outside both days of the weekend and also lay out on our loungers by the pool. On Sat we went to Le Lavandou and had a wonderful meal of 'rougets' marinated like a ceviche (never had raw rouget before...great taste) then 'rascasse meuniere' with tartiflette and ratatouille. Both fish are local from the Med...rascasse is the very famous fish in bouillbaise here. Had a very nice Muscadet then finished with some red with a cheese plate.

Sunday we went to the Sea Urchin festival but obviously people have it all sussed out and come early with their wine and other picnic things. Tremendous number of people and loads of tables (all full when we arrived)and even with 3500 doz sea urchins they were beginning to run out and long lineups. It was really fun to see but we decamped to a beach restaurant and had moules/frites. We'll be taking Susan and Alan to Cassis next week and we'll get our sea urchin fix there. We're really looking forward to their visit! I have asked them to bring some good cheddar and tea...even with all the wonderful cheese here I miss my cheddar.

Trying all sorts of different olives, tapanades, and dry saucage they have on offer at the market. Today for lunch we'll have it outside by the pool and have a special fish soup from Carquieranne with rouille on toasts.

We had Francoise and Jean Pascale for (the people who own our villa) for a drink Sunday and they have invited us to their place in the country with a hobby vinyard next Sat. We're really looking forward to seeing their place and the area.

Finished my fifth painting...of Carquiranne market...I was quite pleased with it and managed to get in all my favourite things.

Cell phone battery went weird yesterday so that was some incredible hassle but fixed now for the moment...the height of frustration trying to deal with technical things in French.

Getting some great buys on wine at the Carrefour in the Grand Var (huge shoppping centre)

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Jim at the port of Carqueiranne anticipating moule/frites.

The arrival of the moule/frites!

These wonderful umbrella pine trees

I did my third painting yesterday with the main focus umbrella pines and mimosa and some palms. I'm in a little library in a small village close to us called Le Pradet. They newly have installed an Internet connection and the Mayor has made it free for everyone for the first year. And you can book two hours so it's great. I'm looking out over some magnificent pines as the local church bell is tolling one bell. It must be the end of the funeral I noticed about to start when I arrived. Lots of young people in the village square in front of the church waiting and most crying. Very sad.

I'm so glad we managed to get a place to live in this wonderful little village. It's such a pleasure to shop everyday for food but especially market day...people greeting each other and you can sense the absolute pleasure they have in buying these wonderful products that they are soon going to enjoy t the ultimate in an hour or two.This kind of food shopping is not a chore for anyone and what things cost seems irrelevant.

Big lineups at the old and tre vendors, but there are always a few new ones trying to break in. it ws interesting watching a new fellow trying to gain custom and doing all the wrong things. He started serving various people at once (not done!), gave an extra saucage to someone (good thing!) but then took a gram of potatoes away when he was weighing to get it exact (bad thing....the couple were incredulous!)

The opposite of this local shopping experience is in the Grand Var...absolute megastores...interesting in it's own way. We're going to do a big shop there this afternoon and looking forward to it. Some of the staff are on roller skates!

I may have managed to get one picture posted...very frustrating at the airport as the connection was intermittant. I've mailed some pix to Richard and will ask him to post them.

We have survived the first three weeks. Even though this is the third time we've done this and have travelled a lot in Europe, the first while is a continuous assault on nez information to process...just opening a door can be a problem because everything is so different. Or putting in a plug. Jim managed to shut down the electricity of a whole floor at the university plugging in an overhead projector. He's wary of plugging in anything now and has the students do it!

We went into Toulon Friday and managed not to get lost. Toulon does have its raffish charm and we sat outside in the sun for quite a while. We were invited to a wine and cheese put on by the Anglo_French society here. Jim has agreed to give a talk in April on Huxley's love letters so it zas nie to see what his audience will be. We though it might be rather like the Allance Francaise in Victoria where many of the members are either snob or gaga. We were very pleasantly surpised to find them a very active, lively, interesting, and welcoming group.
The meetings are held in a veteren's place with grenades for door handles!

Don, I see that pastis place has a website
www.lamaisondupastis.com

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Snow in Carquieranne!

Everyone here was very excited about having anbout an inch of snow here...university students asked to be let out of their classes so they could touch the snow! The sun does continue to shine most of the time and we are very cozy with our fireplace burning our grape vines and olive branches.

Have done two paintings No hesitation about what to paint first...it had to be this wonderful villa we're in. I've painted it with the shutters open and seeing into the interior. An orange cat is in the top window (neighbourhood cat who visits), in the living room the chairs we pull over to the window to sit in the sun having our drinks...like a sunroom. You can also see a Matisse print that's on the wall and that we enjoy a lot. In the dining room my travelling easel (thanks to Fern's mother)...this is where I paint...by the window basking in this wonderfull provencale sun.

I have included the pool and the arbour in bloom and the ocean with the sailboats I painted as my first painting the last time we were here. And of course the second painting had to be these wonderful mimosas that are everywhere in bloom here at tis time of year.

I have collected 5 different pastis that we can't get in Canada but it seems I have a long way to go. I read about a place in Marseille that is dedicated to pastis and absinthe and related products. They have 70 brands including 3 of their ozn on tap. You can taste and eat tapas. Don, do you think we should go there when you come?