Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

May 25, 2019

Modern Times



J.-P. Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir (in 1940)

We've just learned from the Guardian (where else), that Les Temps Modernes shut down after 74 years today, the magazine founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in 1945.

Just one black-comedy thing from the article: "On another Tuesday afternoon [Sartre and Beauvoir kept regular hours at the small offices of the magazine at 5 rue Sébastien Bottin in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés] the receptionist rushed to de Beauvoir: a reader whose text had been turned down by the editorial committee had just cut open his wrists."

One more thing: we had always be wondering, although we never read the magazine, where the title (les temps modernes) had come from (Picasso designed the logo). It came from Charlie Chaplin's movie, "Modern Times").

(We read parts of Sartre's Critique de la raison dialectique, though, with very mixed feelings; we also read part of a de Beauvoir biography) (We also read "Huit clos", Sartre's signature play, several times even, and are quoting from it abundantly, always the same line, "L'enfer, c'est les autres") (We also think that the French is not correct there...it should be "...ce sont les autres", but who knows).(Comments welcome) (...)


Nov 23, 2018

What happens when your travel documents expire...

...and you live in France, and you have a Dutch passport, and it's late November...

Photo (as always) by Jason Yoon

...you have to go to Paris, to the embassy. It's the only place where you can renew your passport, and you have to show up in the flesh, you can't do it per mail. Fortunately, the Eiffel tower was in walking distance.


Oct 31, 2018

Portugal (15) -- Going home

Eventually, after a month and a half, we went back home. It took three days. Michael is fairly exhausted. We spent the second night in Carcassonne, east of Lourdes, north of the Pyrenees, a medieval fortified town and now a very French city. Here's yesterday's view of the city from the fortified town:



Pictures, as always, by Chang ("Jason") Yoon

Apr 17, 2018

Above the clouds: the view this afternoon



Very low clouds moving in this afternoon---feels like San Francisco:




It happens rarely, and when it does, it's typically in late April; possibly something to do with the contrast between water- and air temperature. Not photo-shopped, folks, NOT.

Feb 19, 2018

Yesterday --- Lunch at the Excelsior


So, we went for lunch at the Excelsior.




It's a hotel-restaurant located on St. Raphael's boardwalk, right next to the casino. We went there before, numerous times in fact, but only for drinks. Michael had taken notice of the menu-on-display, and observed that (1) it's printed, and (2) dated. And it all came back to him, an article read in DER STERN, a German magazine, more than forty years ago, about a German woman who had married into the Beaune society---Beaune, the capital of the Burgundy region---in order to live the life of the 19th century. And so she did, with price-winning recipes and a husband who owned a press specializing in printing the daily menus for local restaurants. Back then---when France was still living the tradition of "la table"---any decent restaurant would have a daily menu (your produce has to be fresh, fresh, and fresh), and it would be printed. 

Michael then explored the Excelsior a bit more, and concluded that all the vibes were pointing at said tradition---forgotten almost everywhere else in France (menus now being inspired by the specs of over-achieving freezers)---and so he began suggesting that one day (one day) we (we) might have lunch at this place. And eventually Chang consented, and yesterday was the day (Chang is a great lover of oysters):






Make love, not war!


Jan 11, 2018

Yesterday





Picture taken on the beach of Théoule sur mer, next to the site of the former Marco Polo restaurant.

Jan 4, 2018

Murder on the Orient Express



So we finally went to Cannes to watch the movie.The box office gal was very happy to see us, since we had tried four days ago, but then we'd gotten the opening hour wrong. 



Us (our hills) seen from Cannes; all pictures by Chang (Jason Yoon)


Well...not a bad movie, although I enjoyed the previous "Murder..." more---which I saw forty years ago. Kenneth Branagh directs this remake and stars as Poirot.



Still almost the same angle. It's about 3:10 PM. We're in a hurry.

Dec 30, 2017

Yesterday---a clear day

We went to Cannes to see the new Murder on the Orient Express movie, and this is what we got:



Yes, this really is Cannes, or at least the western part of it ("Cannes la Bocca"). The snowy background is the "Mercantour" which constitutes southern-most part of the Alps, with peaks up to 3,300 meters. It was a clear day.

Dec 14, 2017

Yesterday


We have friends of Chang coming over from Korea, and so we took them to Nice. Here's yesterday's view of it's beach, with an expansive view of the Promenade des Anglais (where modern tourism was invented during the 19th century).




Nov 1, 2017

Back home




The dogs of our neighbors, Chang, our hill, the "mont de Théoule," (still in the sun) and, in the background, "la baie des anges," (the Bay of Cannes)---the picture taken by Chang's Korean friend Kim (aka Alice, her German name; she lives in Hamburg).

May 15, 2017

This morning





(Yes, we're back in France, but we're not quite done with Pompeii, stay tuned)

Apr 29, 2017

Today...


...the view from the Pic de l'Ours across the bay of Cannes, with the city of Cannes on the shoreline and the city of Nice (next bay, in the background) on the shoreline of La Baie des Anges. The back-background is provided by the Alps. From here (500 m elevation), you get a view of the entire Cote d'Azur.


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...