30 June 2010

Playing in the park

We had lunch in a nearby park, Aurore, myself and one of her colleagues and on the playground nearby we found a slide! I had to try it - of course!!

22 June 2010

Au revoir les Bleus?


Coupe du Monde de la FIFA 2010 : France


France1:2Afrique du Sud-
France0:2Mexique-
Uruguay0:0France-
Groupe AMJGNPBPBC+/-Pts
Uruguay
321040+47
Mexique
311132+14
Afrique du Sud
311135-24
France
301214-31



(Photo Anelka and Domenech copied from: http://www.thesiteoueb.net/uploads/anelka_domenech.jpg)

Fête de la musique

This day is dedicated to music in the whole of France, meaning mostly spontaneous music executed by everyone and noone.

Fête de la Musique has been celebrated for years in France and in La Châtre as well.

We started by listening to a rock group in a park near Place de l'Abbaye ("Ici, pas d’Abbaye mais un beau panorama sur la vallée de l’Indre où George Sand aimait à se promener en compagnie de son ami botaniste, Jules Néraud." (Text taken from: http://www.pays-lachatre-berry.com) but unfortunately they were no good at all.
The drummer played in own way, the bass player in another and the other followed as well as they could.
The singer, after a while, said to the audience: "Thank you for being so indulgent, having mercy on us!".
We met eight of Aurore's workmates there and also some of the musicians playing the other day at the inauguration party of Pascal's and Cécilia's chambre d'hôtes (see earlier blog post) and we also met Pascal and Cécilia 'in person'. They soon left but we stayed on for a while, mostly talking to our friends and less listening to the music.
As having been a singer myself I always try to show performers respect, focusing on them and not others but in this case, oh, la, la!

Place de la marché
Aurore and I continued to the market place were we met Pascal and Cécilia again.
Here we listened to one singer and one musician playing french schlagers and as their performance didn't improve the original, Pascal invited us for some refreshments at their place instad. A very good idea we thought.

Place de l'Abbaye
After this we went back to Place de l'Abbaye and this time there was another group, playing music being a combination between jazz and folk music and not bad at all.
Again we met other employees at the company where Aurore works and we stayed on until almost 00.30.

The schedule in french:

Fête de la Musique à La Châtre Samedi 19 juin 2010

Concerts dans les rues de la ville.

10h30 à 12h : Animation du marché par l’harmonie Municipale

15h à 16h30 : Concert de la Chorale du Collège sur la terrasse du Musée George Sand, proposé par l’Association des Amis du Musée

17h à 19h30 : Défilé en ville des Sonneurs de la Vallée Noire et de l’Harmonie Municipale : départ place Jean Toury, aubade dans les jardins de la mairie et place de la République

18h30 à 19h30 : Concert de l’Ensemble Vocal en l’église Saint Germain, avec la participation de Sébastien Gion à l’orgue

20h à 21h : Concert de l’Harmonie Municipale et des Sonneurs de la Vallée Noire, place du marché

21h à 23h : Concert de Fred Janvoie, chanson française « de Brassens à Cabrel », place du marché

A partir de 21h : Concert et animation, place de l’abbaye, par l’association « Un point C tout »

A 23h : Feu de la Saint Jean, par La Châtre en Fête, place de l’Abbaye

Concerts gratuits

- - - - -

It continued the 21 of June but then we were occupied with other activities.

(Picture poster copied from: http://www.magazine-avantages.fr/data/photos/F0/7da41bf150ue2010.jpg)
(Photo Place de la Marché copied from: http://image-photos.linternaute.com/image_photo/550/paysages-d-autrefois-la-chatre-france-1117787671-1160930.jpg)
(Photo Place de l'abbaye copied from: http://martinealaplage.blogspot.com/)

20 June 2010

La tête en friche


This is a film directed by Jean Becker, with Gérard Depardieu (Germain Chazes) and Gisèle Casadesus (Margueritte) in the two principal roles.

Germain is a man who was born 'by mistake' after a five minute rendez-vous between his mother and father the 14th of July.
His mother always has always looked upon him as being an obstacle in her life, no good and with no future.
She never gave him love or attention and in school even the teachers made fun of him and his lacking talent, or at least superficial lack of talent concerning not least the theoretical subjects.
He lives in a caravan on the lot of his mother, while she lives in her house, more or less an alcoholic and more and more senile, bitter and mean.
Germain meets Margueritte ("with two t:s") in a park on a bench, reading The Plague (La Peste) by Albert Camus.
As Germain never learned how to read and write properly, she starts to read for him and gradually the words come to him.
His friends at the local restaurant find him gradually changing into another person, using expressions they never thought he knew off.
When he talks about Camus one of his 'friends' asks him if has read Camus and Germain answers: "Well not all of them, only 'The Plague', 'The Stranger', 'The Fall".
Judging from his reaction, this was however more than his 'friend' obviously had read by Camus, a 'friend' being a man who boasts about being very well-read.
At the same time Germain lives out a love affair with a much younger woman - Annette (Sophie Guillemin) who actually is in love with him but parallell to this he finds Margueritte more and more attractive in another way.

The film tells the story about love and the lack of love, that it's never to late neither for love or for learning, the need of valuing people not so much after how they look or behave but how they function on a deeper level.
This is of course nothing new but the film tells this story in a charming way, not least when it comes to the relationship between Germain and Margueritte of course.
Depardieu is sometimes to much Depardieu and in some scenes one gets the impression that he is to familiar with the content of the film and his own cues, making it look as if he has the answer before a question is posed.
On the whole a very 'cozy' and amusing film, not to profound but touching in many ways.

19 June 2010

The Wedding: Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel

We spent a major part of this day looking at the royal WEDDING in Stockholm between Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling - now being Prince Daniel.
The broadcasting (SvT Play) started at 13.00 and continued throughout the day til 01.00 and we spent our day in front of the computer screen from 13.00 til 20.00.
Everything seemed to work out according to plans and Stockholm and all its inhabitants could enjoy a sunny (some clouds) and fairly warm day.
Whe are not going in to details concerning this event but only bring you the speach the Crown Princess held before the people from the balcony in the castle, before the big gala dinner.

17 June 2010

Viva Mexico!














Tonight France lost against Mexico and through this loss their chances to advance are microscopic, if even that large!
They started the match better than against Uruguay, higher tempo among other things but gradually they seemed to become more and more slow thinking, slow playing and disorganized.
Mexico played very well and deserved to win.

C'est nul! - from a French point of view, of course!


Equ.MJGNPBPBCPts
UruguayUruguay2110304
MexiqueMexique2110314
FranceFrance2011021
Afrique du SudAfrique du Sud2011141

14 June 2010

Copie conforme


'Copie conforme' by Abbas Kiarostami is a film we both appreciated, starring Juliette Binoche (in the role as 'Elle', a woman without name) and the opera singer (baritone) William Shimell (as James Miller).

James Miller is an author visiting Italy in connection with the release of his latest book, a book that deals with questions about originality and imitations or copies, both in art and maybe also in real life.
Elle enters the room with her son and they take a seat, the son standing in a corner, bored wanting to leave, playing with his small computer game machine.
After a while Elle leaves - as her son is getting more and more impatient - but before she go, she hands over a sheet of paper with her telephone number to James' agent.
Afterwards at a café her son confronts her, saying that he saw how she looked at the author and that the only reason for her leaving her telephone number was because she fell in love with him and therefore wanted to meet him.
She denies this but her son says: "I saw how you looked at him, you didn't listen to a word he said".
Later on Elle meets with James and they start to talk about originality, first from the standpoint of art (in all its diversity) but later on adapted to people and their orinilaity or conformity.
After a while we understand that Elle and James has been married for 15 years and that her son also is his son.
They start to accuse each other and on the same time she tries to reach out a hand to James, in order to restore their relationship.
He seems uninterested in starting all over again, seeing their relationship as something of the past, finished and over with.
While walking from one place to another, meeting people on the way, people serving as 'relational guides', their life stories reveals itself.

The transition from strangers to being a former couple could have been a jump in time but this is not interesting, the interesting thing is their conversation, their encounters with others.
Within this framework their conversation about superficiality and profundity, copies and originals develops and this is performed in a way that makes you think of a greek tragedy, somewhat reminding me - even if I don't know why - of the ambience in movies by Theodoros Angelopoulos.

William Shimmel - in his first role for the movies - was really impressing and he almost outdid Juliette Binoche, who otherwise is one of my (our) favourite actressess.
When Aurore saw Shimmel she growled pleased and when I saw Binoche I did the same!

13 June 2010

Fête d'inauguration. Chambres d'hôtes chez Le Bihan






















Together with Aurore and my mother-in-law, I was invited to Pascal Le Bihan and Cécilia Roiu to celebrate their opening of a 'Chambre d'hôtes', a french term corresponding somewhat to Bed & Breakfast in English.
I met Pascal and Cécilia when participating in the tourist- and cultural heritage-education (Visa Accueil Tourisme) in La Châtre last year.
This is the third 'chambres d'hôtes' in La Châtre:
My mother-in-law has two appartments (she was the first one to open this kind of facility in La Châtre I think), a lady by the name of Maria Deidda (who also participated in the above mentioned education and this evening) proprietor of one chambre d'hôtes and now Pascal and Cécilia.
They are all very different in style, equipment, location (all within La Châtre) with only breakfast or breakfast and lunch, giving visitors the possiblity to choose the one corresponding to their needs and wallets.
My mother-in-law offers the visitors, not two rooms but two appartments (40 and 25 square meters).

Concerning the chambre d'hôte of Pascal and Cécilia the idea is to offer live music for those interested and this through the simple fact that Pascal - besides having worked as a lawyer and being an amateur painter - plays the saxofon and other instruments and in the neighbourhood, there are friends of him being musicians willing to cooperate around this idea. These friends were invited this evening too, of course.
On a summers evening at sunset, sitting outside on the porch or in the garden, drinking something refreshing, listening to live music at your choice, is a nice idea I think.
In connection with weddings there could be a possibility to enjoy music when returning back to the rooms perhaps.
How this is going to be realized in the future, in detail, I don't know but as this 'chambre d'hôte' is newly opened - they have had and do have guests already - wherefore the future will tell.

Before my mother-in-law opened her chambres d'hôtes the only options were the hotels, a hostel and a camping site.
If you don't want to pay for a hotel and also want something more personal than a hotel or a hostel, this is a much more attractive option.

When we knocked at the door friends of Pascal and Cécilia had already arrived and we also got to meet his daughter and later that evening one of his sons.
We started with an apéritif, of course, introducing ourselves to each other, then it was time for the music to start.
Later on there were some very delicious hors d'oeuvre and an extremely tasty dessert, a chocolat truffle made by Cécilia's daughter who also functioned as the hostess, attending us in the most charming way.

In this photo we see Pascal - the Sidney Bechet of Berry - waiting for the other musicians to arrive.

In this photo we see one of his
friends - the Django Reinhardt of
Berry.
For those of you interested in guitars,
he plays on a Gibson!




















Or is this perhaps the Django Reinhardt
of this group? On the loudspeaker we see
another guitar name: Ibanez.

This flutist played some
very charming pieces of Irish music...

...together with his guitar playing brother:

More pictures depicting the very same musicians:


Taking a pause in reality as well
as in the musical notation.















On the table in front of Pascal and his musician-
friend we see the delicious chocolatetruffle made
by Pascals daughter. I ate ten or more? Lost count.


It became a very nice afternoon and evening (we came at 3.15 pm and left at 9.15 pm) with a lot of encounters, laughters and of course - the music!
We wish them Good Luck! Bonne chance!

11 June 2010

La France - Uruguay 0-0, c'est nul!

We did actually watch the match between France and Uruguay and I can't say it was impressing, fram from it.
Both teams played bad and the tempo was so low that one sometimes thought they were showing the match in slow motion.
The French team lacked fantasy - besides tempo - and one of my favourites - Franck Ribery - didn't succeed playing as well as he actually is able to do.


(Picture poster copied from: http://coupedumonde-football2010.com/football/FIFA-coupe-monde-football-2010-afrique-du-sud.jpg)

08 June 2010

Sound of Noise - France 5 - Cinémas de Serge Moati

Sound of Noise - France 5 - Cinemas de Serge Moati from jim_burma on Vimeo.

Exposition " Nuances, lumières et reflets" - Hôtel de Villaines à La Châtre Du 5 juin au 27 juin 2010

This is an exhibition we haven't yet visited and I (Gunnar) will probably visit this one on my own, as Aurore is no fan of photo exhibitions.

Christian Saint-Louis is a photographer who, in his photos, tries to capture the light in all its diversity, depicting both Indre and Loire but also making journeys to Germany and the Nordic Countries.
In the only photo displayed on the internet site of Hôtel de Villaines (the exhibition hall) one can see a mill that very much resembles the mills on the island Öland in the southern part of Sweden, the same island where my mother was borned and raised, the very same island I used to spend my summers during the 1960's and 1970's.
If it's a photo from this island, I can't say but I will 'investigate' it.

Information in French/Information en Français:

Exposition: "Nuances, lumières et reflets" - Hôtel de Villaines à La Châtre".

Exposition de photographies de Christian Saint Louis

Exposition d’une cinquantaine de photographies de paysages de l’Indre, de la Loire jusqu’aux contrées plus lointaines de l’Europe du Nord avec pour fil conducteur la volonté de saisir et de capturer les variations de la lumière.

(Photo taken from La Nouvelle Republique with the information: Christian Saint-Louis et Maurice Bourg, adjoint à la culture lors du vernissage. - - Photo NR)

07 June 2010

Imogène McCarthery


This is a film about a woman with the above name (information in French: Imogène McCarthery), a mixture between James Bond, Chief Inspector Jacques Closeau and one of Louis de Funès characters.

Imogène (Catherine Frot) is Scotish and very proud of that, although living and working in England. She loves rugby and bagpipes.
She works as an secretary at the British Admiralty with a superior who she detests and of course this feeling is mutual. They quarrel all the time and one day her superior tells her that the Big Boss - sir Woolish (Michel Aumont) - wants to talk to her.
She prepare herself being dicharged from her job but instead he assigns her for a secret mission to Scotland and notably her hometown Callander, where she was born and where she lived for many years.
Her mission is to deliver a secret document containing a plan for a new war aircraft, to one of their contacts in Scotland.
On the train down she encounters three Scottish men with whom she becomes acquainted.
Unfortunately it turns out to be three Russian spies, inviting her to drink her favourite alcohol, whiskey.
This leads to that she falls asleep. Meantime they steal the plan.
When arriving she is met by her gouvernante (who later turns out to be her mother) and she also meets her first love Samuel Tyler (Lambert Wilson).
He is now working as a police man - or at least that is what it seems as.
She becomes aware of that the plan is stolen, in connection to her meeting the contact person and now the hunt to find starts, confronting her with 'tough' Russian agents among others.
In a way I found that this film couldn't really decide whether it should be a straigth forward, silly comedy or somewhat more 'serious'. It ended up in between I think.
This might be due to the fact that there where comical hints that I didn't understand, connected to the fact that England and France to some degree has been enemies over the years and that they like to make fun of each other (this in spite of the fact that they helped France during the Second World War and also protected France 'war hero' no 1 - or coward - Charles de Gaulle).
All 'British' characters talked French and the only French woman in the film talked French with a British accent!
The French sense of humour?

Well I can't say that I always understand French humour mais c'est pas grave!
A kindheartedly film with some good laughs and maybe more so among the French audience, better understanding the 'blinks'?

Directors: Alexandre Charlot and Franck Magnier. This two have also collaborated - as writers - when making the films R.T.T.; Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis and Astérix aux jeux olympiques.

05 June 2010

Pique-nique in June

We try to use the sunny days to our 'mandatory' pique-nique's and as the day was sunny and warm we left the house at lunch bringing our vegetarian meal and snacks.

These crackers were very tasty containing cheese and seeds of pumpkin.


Aurore's homemade makis (makisuchi) were delicious....


...and the cherry tomatoes as tasty as they were read!


Of course we should have brought white wine not Perrier and Coke but one can't have it all?!

When lying in the grass after the meal, four young men crossed the small bridge, passing us on their way to prepare for a barbecue on the other side of this small 'island'.
Again I established the fact that it's still a great difference between most French young men and women and most Swedish young men and women, concerning their behaviour.
These young men passed us saying 'bonjour' - even though we didn't know each other - and this would never happen in Sweden!
They arranged with their barbecue and listened to music but not - as with Swedish youngsters - at 120 decibel but in a very moderate way.
This is extremely nice for me as a Swede being used to the rude behaviour of not least people living in Stockholm.