From The Good Life France

Colourful Collioure in the far south of France! It's very sunny and famous for its art de vivre. Picasso, Chagall and Matisse loved to paint here...
Photo by Carla Day

My favourite artists and one of my favourite things...les points!

Just back from The Sylvia...

Red Truck Ale and split a fish and chips....even better than ever and they served some rather wonderful baguette with it.  Celtic music tonight.  Great to see the ocean and hear seagulls!

Back home in record time....

We touched down at 3pm and we were home just before 4pm...so deplaning,  no wait at customs,  baggage within 10 minutes,  no wait for taxi,  and even though it was beginning to be rush hour,  traffic was light.  Now enjoying a glass of wine and our wonderful ocean view and looking forward to a fabulous sunset.

The best departure lounge in the world!

Leaving today....think I'll have time for one last swim

Had a pastes for our last drink on the patio.  Took a few photos when I got up this morning.  Well,  we are going to our other paradise....

These photos from this morning.

Last time at Bill's Pizza until the Fall....

Brian and Susan joined us at Bill's today.  They also think it's the best pizza they've ever tasted!   Great seeing them and lots of fun conversation in the sunshine.

Nice to have our doves back....we do love listening to them.   Usually they're up on the roof but today they came down to the patio looking for scraps from our lunches I guess.

Heading back into the storm....

Another big windstorm in Vancouver and Victoria....ferries cancelled,  power out.  I'm hoping we bring the good weather!

It will be quite a whirl of activity when we arrive.  Doing all the usual settling in and really looking forward to seeing Susan,  from Yorkshire,  on Friday and just learned Kerry and Katie and the kids will be in town for a few days.  I hope to see the new baby, Noelle!  And seeing Richard and Grace on Sunday.

And really looking forward to going to Catfé.

Tree dweller Lex was our 58th adoption!

Update:  Well,  maybe we are bringing the good weather.  Just looked at the Vancouver forecast and it's mainly sunny Wed-Sat....mid 50's.   Palm Springs  is also sunny in the high 80's.  I'll enjoy some Westcoast freshness and there should be some spectacular sunsets over the water!

Super dinner at Wangs tonight

We had a panko encrusted perch with a wonderful hot and sour sauce and Wang's Treasure....beef,  chicken,  scallops,  and every veggie imaginable....yum!

Jim wasn't overly thrilled with his Buddha bottle beer....very light and somewhat tasteless.  We'll know to give that a pass....cool bottle, though.

We took home half of the "treasure" and they threw in extra rice to take away....nice touch.

Planning our trip to Europe 2017

Well,  we were just going to focus on Spain but....how can we go to Europe without seeing Paris and  all our wonderful haunts in the south of France?   No can do.  We'll make it our 50th wedding anniversary celebration.   It's one year before but it will be 50 years since we got together...close enough!

So,  Air France flies non-stop to Paris so we'll stop for a few days there.  Then fly to Granada and from there get to Almeria.  After the conference,  we will take the train to Seville.  It's almost a 7 hour trip but will be great to see a lot of the countryside.  So,  a couple of days there.  Then,  there is a non- stop flight to Marseilles.  From Marseilles,  we will go to Bandol and make that our base to see Cassis,  Sanary,  Carqueiranne,  and Hyeres.  Then overnighting in Marseilles and take the TGV to Paris and back home.  Great plan,  non?

A photo album taken in France 2005.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsexton/sets/72057594121544741/

Treasures

My Canyon Sands bookclub is a treasure.  I will miss the ladies and our wonderful coordinator,  Kathy.  She comes up with just the greatest ideas for discussion and always has lots of materials.  We met yesterday and I think we all agreed it was probably the best yet.   We were to talk about a memoir we had read and also to think about the memoir genre.  Also,  we were to write a six word autobiography for ourselves.  Of course,  Kathy provided examples and materials for both.

I talked about "My Life in France"  by Julia Child.  What she did was so amazing since she arrived in Paris and didn't speak French,  cook,  or know anything about the country.  Also,  she was 6'2" tall so would have been a rather odd figure amongst the petit women in black dresses in Paris.

My six word autobiography is:

shy, wild, centered, explore, create, enjoy

Kathy said she was going go protest when she heard "shy" but then she heard "wild"...

I was looking on my shelves for something to read and noticed "Four Seasons in Rome" by Anthony Doerr.    I remember buying this at a book sale last year but didn't recognize that he was the author of "All the Light You Cannot See" as I wasn't familiar with him then.  It just sounded like a fun book to read.  It's about the year he spent with his wife and new twins in Rome,  Italy, as  fellow for the American Academy of Arts and Letters in Rome.  He had won a prize to spend a year writing there and the book he is writing is "All the Light..."

So,  another treasure!

Itty Bitty Book Review: "The Light of Day"

"The Light of Day"  by Graham Swift

This was one of my Christmas books and I really enjoyed it.  A mystery,  a love story,  and a serious novel....what could be better!

Thursday sunrise, Palm Springs.

-  Eric Norland photo

Dinner at Lulu's tonight with Erna and Marvin

Great fun,  great company,   and great food!

 Vichysoise.... yum, yum,  yum

And this amazing pork chop....absolutely fabulous.  Wonderful maple glaze and sauce and so tender and juicy.

This morning in Palm Springs

It only rained for half an hour so got my swim yesterday.  Back to fabulous weather.   I will be savouring all the more my morning swims in the sunshine.  Hard to believe we'll be back in Vancouver a week tomorrow.

Snow, sunshine, palm trees and bougainvillea in Palm Springs paradise. 3/8/16.
-Eric Norland photo

It's actually raining!

It was predicted but I was hoping I would get my swim in before it started.  It would be a good thing if we got quite a bit but that's not predicted for around here.  Other areas not far away will get more.  Stan and Nicki arrived home safely yesterday but had rain for most of the drive and it seems it will be raining all week at home.

Skype success with Spain!

Jim got on Skype with Jésus today.  (Thanks to Linda for helping Jim get going with this)  It was fun to see him.  He was such a great host in Almeria when we were at a conference there in 2010.  His university is hosting the Huxley conference in Almeria  in April 2017.  Jim has been asked to give the keynote address and so we will be going and also taking some time to travel to parts of Spain we haven't visited like Seville,  Cordoba, etc.

 So,  we are both working on our Spanish....Jim,  more diligently than me.....

It is their 25th Anniversary so some board members underwrote free tickets.  We went to see these Canadian films.

The documentary was excellent and we saw a lot of footage of the community.

Native FilmFest

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March 4, 2016 5:00 PM

Tungijuq – Canada, Experimental, 2009, 6 minutes

An immersion into the deep significance of the flow of nature and humans’ relationship to it, this work is a testimony to the eternal reality of hunting for the Inuit. The haunting background music and the role of the hunter’s wife are performed by jazz throat singer Tanya Tagaq. The hunter is played by filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk.

Directors: Feliz Lajeunesse, Paul Raphael

Producer: Igloolik Isuma Productions

SOL – Canada, Feature Documentary, 2014, 76 minutes

While investigating the suicide of Solomon Uyarasuk, the film richly presents the life of this young Inuit man and follows his growth by using footage from a film project he participated in as a child and documentation of his active involvement as a teen with a circus troupe. SOL is an inquiry into the high suicide rate of Inuit people in Nunavut, and how it affects people in these small communities; and, in celebrating a life lost, the film focuses on their resolve to create a better future for their youth.

Directors: Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Susan Avingaq (Inuit)
Producer: Arnait Video Productions, Igloolik

http://www.accmuseum.org/native-filmfest

Ah....our paradises!

This fellow who does these wonderful travel posters for the south of France (and other places)  came up again as a suggestion on Pinterest so just had to post them.   Some of our all time favourite places there and one of Paris.  I just took some photos of our wonderful bougainvillea that greets us every day here and that I view while reading the paper.

His blog:
monsieurz-zielenkiewicz.blogspot.nl

This is where the university was where Jim taught.

We often drove up to Saint-Tropez on the weekend and stopped in at various flea markets along the way mainly to find pastis glasses,  pitchers,  etc.

And of course our absolutely wonderful little village where we lived when Jim was teaching those three winters.   Our visitors always asked us "Why are we going anywhere else when this is paradise?"  The Thursday morning market....the best in the world!

My favourite city in the world!

Hyeres was only about 15 minutes away from Carqueiranne and we went to movies there,  also a wonderful Saturday market,  lunches at the port,  and usually stopped to watch the amazing wind surfers at Almanarre along the way.

Many,  many wonderful lunches at the beach restaurants of Mourillon.

Our bougainvillea in Palm Springs.

I just loved this "kitchen" a mother made from cardboard boxes !

My favourite all time toy was a "stove" my father made from four wooden butter boxes.  These were probably about one foot square and were used to transport pounds of butter.  I see they are now a collector's item and for sale on various places on the Internet.

For my stove,  they were stacked up into a square,  old metal jam lids painted black were the stove elements,  and empty thread spools were the stove knobs.  My dishes went into the boxes and I had hooks for cups.  I loved it and cooked while my neighbourhood friends played with my dolls...which I was never very interested in.   Linda,  do you remember that stove?

http://www.boredpanda.com/diy-cardboard-kitchen-recycle-toddler/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=BPFacebook

Itty Bitty Book Review: "Purity"

"Purity" by Jonathon Franzen

Well,  this is my first Franzen novel and will probably be my last.  I think he's basically a lazy writer. Things began relatively well in the first part with  the character, Purity.   She's the only character that is of any interest really but he dumps her and brings her back for a bit in the middle and at the end to wrap things up in a fairy story way.  She has miraculously changed but he was too lazy to develop that.  Mostly we're stuck with over the top uninteresting characters and a bit of ham handed social commentary on the Internet,  the current state of journalism,  feminism...blah,  blah,  blah.  He is fairly good at creating suspense to keep you reading but so are a lot of writers and the reader doesn't have to wade through a lot of self indulgent tripe.

I'm willing to admit this review might be a bit unfair.  Blame it on reading this after "All the Light You Cannot See"  where every word was a gem.   The author did spend 10 years writing it.  I think Franzen spewed this novel out pretty quickly.

El Mirasol for lunch then scored with bread and peach pastry at our French bakery

This was our first time at El Mirasol and I especially liked the chile relleno....red and green sauce..great!

We were pleased to see they have demi baguettes....just perfect for the two of us.

Around Palm Springs

The Plaza Racquet Club  is losing its lease much to the dismay of its members.  I was curious to see it and it looks like a very nice place to play tennis for folks.  Love the hammock!

And one of my favourite buildings in PS.

And these photos are from a store with lots of mid-century modern stuff.  I didn't see a price on the old pink bathtub and sink but the lamps are selling from $2,000 - $2500 each.