France’s cherished countertenor will be performing at the Champs-Elysees Theater on Wednesday November 18th. I’ll be going, because I need an evening of grace in this brutish world. Thank god for artists.
Recorded in the Trinity Chapel at the Château de Fontainebleau, this is magnificent –
https://www.theatrechampselysees.fr/en/season/sung-recital/philippe-jaroussky-1
I love weekends. I don’t have to run out the door, a muffin or banana shoved into my bag, and catch the bus or train to work (or walk) to be at my desk by 9:30 am. No, weekends are quite a different thing altogether. Lounging in pyjamas all day if I’m not going out. (facemask free and makeup free.) My favorite programs on the radio. A big mug of coffee mixed with warm cream and coconut milk. And a real breakfast because I have the time to make one: toasted rye with lox, smashed avocado, topped with rocket (arugula) and sun-dried tomatoes.
Creamy oatmeal with date or maple syrup.
Or gluten-free pancakes that I made this morning because I’m currently on a gluten-free diet (I’ve lost 3 kilos/6 pounds.) Actually, I diet all week then eat what I want on the weekend. That seems to work for me, as I don’t feel deprived of my favorite things.
Here’s the recipe:
1 cup of gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt
1 large ripe banana
1 large egg
1 cup of coconut milk (I used almond milk by mistake, and it was just as good)
Try to buy real, organic coconut milk and not the stuff filled with stabilizers, thickeners, gums, or preservatives. Read carefully the ingredients on the side of the box or can.
Here’s a recipe for zucchini muffins that I’m going to make from an excellent website I’ve been following for years. Green Kitchen Stories is a creation of David (Swedish) and Luise (Danish) –
Zucchini Cupcakes
Poor Bruce. I love his sincerity, and I really feel for him. Take a look:
TURNER. Paintings and watercolours from the Tate.
There are times, especially after a pandemic and a lockdown, when I find myself craving art. I want to be in a beautiful setting looking at beautiful creations be it paintings, sculptures, crafts, ceramics, calligraphy, photography, or anything else.
In this brutish world, it’s important to nourish the soul and feel uplifted and inspired. Can you imagine a world without art? It would be a dark and desolate place … sort of like the inside of Trump’s head, bleak and vacuous.
So I will go to the Turner exhibition at the much-loved Jacquemart-André museum, I’ll book my ticket online and choose a Monday which is the late-night opening, and I’ll wear a face mask.
Undoubtedly the greatest representative of the golden age of English watercolor, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) exploited the effects of light and transparency on English landscapes or Venetian lagoons. Celebrated by his contemporaries, he continues today to move many admirers. This exhibition reveals the role played by watercolors in Turner’s life and art, from the youth works he sent to the Royal Academy to the fascinating luminous and colorful experiments of his maturity. For a modern audience, these are among his most radical and accomplished works. Thanks to outstanding loans from London’s Tate Britain, home to the world’s largest Turner collection, the Jacquemart-André Museum hosts an exhibition of sixty watercolors and ten oil paintings, some of which have never been seen before in France.
https://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com/en/home
Because the paintings are on loan from the Tate, I began thinking about great art and how it’s transported from city to city, museum to museum. I did some googling and came up with this interesting article written by Andrew Dickson. It’s entitled – How to move a masterpiece: the secret business of shipping priceless artworks
The article even mentions the transporting of the Mona Lisa from her home in the Louvre to Washington D.C.’s National Gallery of Art in 1963 … at the request of Jackie Kennedy.
Curators at the Louvre were aghast after they heard that Jackie Kennedy had charmed the French culture minister André Malraux into agreeing to loan the Mona Lisa to the US in 1963 (many threatened to resign). Even the director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC was unwilling to take it, apprehensive about the risks. In the end, ……
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/21/how-to-move-a-masterpiece-secret-business-shipping-priceless-artworks-art-handling
For a full-size slideshow, click on each image. Thanks for travelling with me to Porto. Obrigada.
I’m back in Paris on my noisy street (at either end there’s construction work going on: drilling, hammering and a lot of dust … ugh!) In my head though I’m still on that beach. It’s nice to have a go-to place, a peaceful haven somewhere in the world to which you can escape, if not in body then in mind. I’ll be back, Praia da Barra! A few final photos:
I started off my vacation in Porto, a city I preferred over Lisbon. It’s smaller, more compact and intimate. Some great graffitti –
The bridge, spanning the Douro River, is on two levels. You can cross it on foot. This waterfront area is a “feel-good” place. You can take boat cruises, have a meal or a drink, or just stroll and feel the wind in your face. It’s in a part of the Old Town called Ribeira.
There’s something pleasantly ‘Old World’ about Portugal’s cities, something I had felt in Lisbon two years ago: a simpler life from a past era, yet totally modern and contemporary.
I can’t tell you how relaxing it was to stroll the city center in the sunshine and the wind. I took an old trolley car ride then alighted in this square and bought a necklace from a woman. During the lockdown, she told me, she made dozens of them.
In a shop, I bought a long black dress on sale. No, I didn’t buy the boots!
Here’s why I fell in love with Praia da Barra. Coming from noisy, polluted, high-density Paris, I felt like I was in a dream. It was a cleansing of the mind, body and soul.
I’d begin my day with a brisk walk along this beach (strong wind blowing in off the ocean). Then I’d stop off at this place for caffe latte.
Then I’d move up to the wooden walkway and walk the rest of the way back to the hotel, the lighthouse and the pier.
Here’s the long jetty (pier? quay?) below. I’m not sure what to call it. But it makes for a great walk while the waves crash on the rocks below and the gulls wheel over your head. And the wind! You should’ve seen my hair by the end of the weekend. Full of knots.
I stayed here, at the Hotel Farol. I will return next year. The entire 11 days that I was in Portugal, the weather was perfection: hot, sunny and a constant cool wind.
Here’s the fantastic brunch I was served in the hotel restaurant:
I went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. The starter was olives, cheese and tuna pâté. The main dish was roasted cod served with potatoes mixed with olive oil, onions, peppers and olives. I’m not a fan of their young, slightly effervescent Vinho Verde (green wine.) Douro wine is best. Douro is one of the most beautiful wine regions in Portugal (and home of their famous port wines!)
The next morning I had this for breakfast, phyllo dough pastry filled with egg custard.
MORE PHOTOS TO COME. Thanks for stopping by! If anyone’s considering a vacation in Portugal, I wholeheartedly recommend it. No, I’m not commissioned by the Portuguese Tourist Board (but I should be.) 🙂
Here’s a 33-second video:
Had they told me in advance that I’d find myself entirely alone in an old Porto building, I would’ve booked elsewhere. Had they told me in advance that the beautiful back garden would be out of bounds due to a photo shoot, I would’ve booked elsewhere. I must admit that the garden was a big attraction for me, gardenless as I am in Paris. Had they told me that the back door wouldn’t lock ….
But no one said a word. When I descended the three flights of steep wooden stairs from my room at 5 pm, I saw no signs of life whatsoever.
“Hello?” I called out, my voice echoing in the high-ceilinged foyer. It’s an old house, high and beautifully refurbished, and entirely empty. I walked from room to room, hoping to come across a fellow traveler, a staff member, a friendly cat, a parrot in a cage. All that greeted me was the sound of my own footsteps on the polished parquet floor.
I don’t know about you, but part of the fun of travel is people-watching and sitting at the bar at day’s end enjoying a glass of the local wine while hobnobbing with the bartender or the person on the stool beside you. And then ordering dinner and having a nice meal in the hotel restaurant, if there is one. I can’t tell you the number of interesting people I have met and befriended while travelling.
So to find yourself all alone in a big old guest house in an unfamiliar city is kind of anticlimactic (and scary). It was the garden door that precipitated my move to the hotel across the road. It wouldn’t lock. After the photo shoot had ended, I went into the garden to look around. When I had finished, I couldn’t lock the door. I must’ve stood there for 10 minutes fiddling with the key and the handle, but to no avail. Already nervous at the idea of spending the night alone in that tall empty house, and now cognizant that the back door was unlocked, I just grabbed my things, walked across the street to the beautiful Baixa Bessa Hotel and checked in. Have I seen too many Alfred Hitchcock movies? Perhaps. But as I sit in this hotel garden enjoying a glass of crisp white wine from the Douro region while perusing the dinner menu that the waitperson brought me, I can say that I’m happier here.
The thing is this: human beings need other human beings; in the end we are social animals. I didn’t come to this lovely country to be a lonely guest in an empty guest house, I came to engage and mingle with others. And now if you’ll excuse me, the waiter has come out to tell me that my dinner is ready: cod fish confit with a crust of pine nuts and breadcrumbs over roasted asparagus, spinach and tomatoes. Served with a red wine from the Douro region. Photos taken with my tablet.
If you come to Porto, I highly recommend this sleek, brand new hotel. It has a spa and a swimming pool too.
http://www.baixa.bessahotel.com
The guesthouse that I left, directly across the road, is called the Malmerendas Boutique Lodging. It’s a lovely place, I don’t wish to disparage it. The Portuguese are lovely people and I fell in love with Porto (in the summer).
Juliet in Paris