Of course there is wonderful food available throughout the domains of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales: smoked salmon, fresh trout, strawberries, properly roasted mutton (I guess), shortbread, and so on. Oddly enough, the Prince of Wales (Prince de Galles) conversion to organic farming at his estates was ahead of his time and has now been proven effective in reminding Brits of the wonders of fresh, beautiful food.
However, la belle France . . . . If I’m going to put on the weight, it better be with croissants or pain au chocolat in France, the Laduree kiss, the Ispahan (rose, raspberry and litchi), millefeuilles, gateau St. Honore, Pithiviers, and . . . you understand.
Cosmopolitanly yours (but with a definite edge for France), and in the hopes of still being invited over to share a potting shed near London,
Restez tranquille mes amis. It can’t be true. However, a new survey circulated by the French magazine, Madame Le Figaro, and the BBC’s food magazine, Olive, appears to give the British the victory in home cuisine. That is, the 3,350 respondents (2,000 French) reported that 50% of the British cooks spend over 30 minutes preparing a meal, while only 25% of the French cooks take that long.
Further, one respondent sniped at French food for being too “traditional”, citing satueed veal, wild boar stew, cannelloni with cheese (that’s French??) as examples.
Picture this: You live in Picardy, Paris, Rouen, Lyons, Bordeaux, Provence, the small towns near the Camargue (and so on). It’s lunch time – it’s dinner time. Cook or go out? Stroll the boulevards and sample that “traditional” cuisine? Stay at home and work in the kitchen?
Putting aside the amazing quality of Indian and Pakistani food available in London, would you stop for boiled cabbage? steamed mutton? tatties and neeps? bubble and squeak?
I say the Brits cook more in pure self-defense, if, in fact they do. It’s also possible that the true French domestic cooks are cooking, not filling out silly polls.
However, perhaps the best approach would be to make lots of friends in France, explain that you are on a scientific quest to defend the honor of French cuisine, and show them how they can help, with you standing by to time the effort, sample the food, and document the results.
Just a thought as the weekend nears here (and is already there, there. Am I channeling Gertrude Stein? It’s definitely time to go to France!)
Versailles Photographed 1850-2010 is an exhibit of 130 photographs, including both famous photographers and perhaps less famous ones. It closes 25 April 2010, and is hung in the North Wing [Galerie de pierre haute]. The curator is the head of the Versailles Museum Archives Department and may have been overwhelmed by the number and historic value of the photographs. At least one reviewer for Le Monde felt that the exhibit is poorly organized, with “documentary views, in-jokes, poetic vision, and glossy fashion snaps” (Claire Guillot, Le Monde).
To which I say: So what? Versailles is an incredible, overwhelming confluence of ego, art, ntaure manipulated into controlled beauty, magnificence, attention to detail, and history. I think Le Monde missed the point: this is an exhibit about Versailles using photographs as the medium, so the focus is on the wealth of images and perspectives. The photographers featured include the well-known all-stars: Eugène Atget, Man Ray, Brassaï, André Kertész, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Dora Maar, Robert Doisneau, Henri Cartier-Bresson. But it also includes newer artists: Robert Polidori, Raymond Depardon, Jean-Loup Sieff, Michael Kenna, Jun Shiraoka and Luigi Ghirri.
There is a thematic approach, loosely organizing the photographs around four themes: “Versailles at the heart of history”; “Stone, marble and silk” capturing not only the glorious architecture, but also the luxurious details of the decoration; “Nature tamed”; and “Dreaming Versailles”, a photographic record of visitors and films inspired by Versailles itself – perhaps somewhat self-referential.
However, for the photographers out there or anyone who happned to capture that perfect image, there is another feature linked to the exhibit: A contest organized with Flickr: “Reflections of Versailles Competition”.
Each contestant may submit up to 5 photos that “highlight the play of light, the colours of the water, and reflections of the chateau and its estate.” Photographs must be in landscape format, high resolution, and natural, i.e., not heavily retouched.
To participate, register in Flickr, download the competition rules, and go to:
The curators of the exhibit will be the jury. It’s definitely worth entering!
The first-place winner gets:
• “a privileged reportage assignment in the Chateau and its estate. You will be accompanied by a representative of the Chateau who will open for you the doors of the apartments, reception rooms and groves when the chateau is closed to the public.
• the online display of the winning photograph on the home page of the chateau de Versailles (including the author credits).
For the next 10 runners-up
Tamron zoom lens, catalogues of the exhibition “Versailles photographed, 1850-2010” and free passes for the chateau and the estate.”
Allons-y! Audace, audace, toujours l’audace!
Aussi, vite, vite, vite! The competition closes the same day as the Exhibit: April 25, 2010.
And now for a change of pace: France has everything, including the coalfields of the Nord-Pas de Calais, a far cry from sunny, bird-filled Provence. However, the French have applied to Unesco to add the coalfields, which closed in 1990, to the World Heritage List. The goal is to preserve the record of an industry and an industrial way of life: mining activities, slag heaps, pits, housing estates, churches, and the intangible history of immigration and the struggle of workers for a decent standard of living. There are more traditional monuments as well, including the stained glass and staircase in the town hall of Bruay (dating from 1931) and the nearby Cite des Electriciens, built in 1865.
Steampunk is an anachronistic combination of 19th/early 20th century and futuristic technology and is a genre of sci fi, seen in Warehouse 13 (TV) and the acclaimed novel Boneshaker. It’s easy to forget that grit is also part (perhaps the major part) of history and of human experience. Silk, lace, gold, perfume, fans, and even multiple changes of clothing were, until recently, available only to the very few. Go see for yourself – perhaps take pictures with your digital camera or share your thoughts via text messages or call home on Skype at an internet cafe and consider how the world has changed and what wonders are underway even as I write and you read.
And then go to France – and experience over a thousand years of vivid history for yourself.
The Flamingos might appear to you quite silly. Perhaps paranoid, heads snapping from side to side, or arrogantly cocky with a swaggering water-walk. Well, see for yourself.
