The House Where the Crickets Sing

While On Trees...

2012-02-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

...literally...mistletoe...anglo saxon for dung-twig...because the seeds are deposited by birds...sort of takes the romance out of kissing under it at Christmas...this celebration originated with the Druids...but ha! this is where the Greek comes in...as Drys/Drus is the ancient Greek word for Oak...and where doth one find the sacred parasitic ball growing?...and what are the names of those who worship it?...hmmm...but the custom of kissing under the evergreen globe is also a Roman custom practiced during the Saturnalia...celebrated at the winter solstice when the Druids also had their most sacred ceremony, during which the King climbed up an oak and severed the mistletoe with a golden sickle...this jives nicely with the birth of Aphrodite, born of the testicles of Uranos that fell into the sea when his son Cronus castrated him with with a sickle, given to him by his mother Gaia (the earth Goddess)...(the French word for mistletoe is Gui, the modern Greek word for the earth is Γη (Gee))...and just like Aphrodite the plant also symbolized fertility in all the various mythologies...indeed Pliny says the Celts believed it cured infertility in animals...but it also had a significant relationship to death (it is poisonous)... in other Greek myths it is used by Aeneas and Persephone to enter Hades...and herein lies it's magic duality the key to all it's holiness...for all who use it come back to earth...even Balder in Norse mythology as well, returns from the land of the dead...here another facet of the Druid rite has a Greek tint, at the same time as severing the mistletoe two white bulls were sacrificed to the moon Goddess...in Greek Mythology, the cow/bull was sacred to both Hera (the wife of Zeus, God of the Oak tree, think about what an acorn looks like and the fecundal attribute of the tree is clear, some say the mistletoe's white berries also relate to this image) and to Pasiphae the Moon Goddess, daughter of Helios, the Sun, who married Minos and bore the minotaur...all of this is clearly a plea for eternal balance...between light and darkness from the Gods of Heaven and Hell, Sun and Moon, Life and Death, Cure and Poison...absolution and resurrection...in France they say that the cross was made of mistletoe and it is also known as the herbe de la croix...but it still retains it's apotropiac quality in English households where after the fertility kissing over the holidays has been exhausted it is allowed to remain and dry until the next year protecting the house...and in Bretagne the children still go from house to house on New Year's day shouting "Au Gui l'an Neuf"for luck!!!

We Must Have Taken the Wrong Road Home....

2012-02-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

...where the Hell are we? -15!!!!

But Wait, There's More...

2012-02-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

...the Cloister! built on the vestiges of the Carolingian church...from the Greek word for closed Kleisto...is basically a direct descendant of the Roman villa which had a closed peristyle (peri-stylos, around-columns, gotta get that Greek content in somehow!!!) in it's center or as a forecourt...also inspired by the Moors with their enclosed gardens...Narbonne also once belonged to Cordoba...this is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen...guarded by a roguish collection of gargoyles...the word is supposed to be an onomatopoeic (onoma=name and poiisi= creation, in this instance a word that sounds like the thing) reflective of their function as water spouts preventing the erosion of the stones and mortar...gargarizo is in fact the ancient Greek word for gargling....but I think their real etymology (true reason) is the Gorgon's head...the apotropaic (turning away) toothful beauty sticking her tongue out at you from Athena's shield...the origin of our own cocky gesture of dismay or disgust...the original "Gorgona" was Medusa, so terrifying she would turn a man to stone if he even gazed upon her...she morphed over time into the mermaid, both the protector of sailors and she who may lure him to his death...the purpose was to terrify...the ancient greek word for freaking out is (phonetically) "gorgo-ohmay"...Greeks are just as concerned with protective charms now as then, such as the evil eye which was painted on the prows of triremes but now appears most often on bracelets, keychains and decorative wall ornaments...I've got a multi coloured one on right now, never underestimate the eye!!!...walking the cloister while chanting, lighting a candle in the cathedral in hopes of the saint's protection, crossing yourself or wearing a crucifix are just other apotropaic gestures...but these gargoyles really work!!!

...And What a Church!!!

2012-02-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and how nice to have a little tipple of bituricus every Sunday...the forefather of cabernet is probably what was in the chalis when the first Roman church was built here in 313...destroyed by fire it was replaced with another in the next century...in 782 it took the name of Saint Justus and pastor after two young martyrs...shortly after another was erected of which the spire remains but which also fell into ruin...until finally this enormous gothic cathedral was begun in 1272...but it is still unfinished because to finish it would have meant knocking down part of the city walls and the town council, apparently lucid, thought that destroying fortifications in the 13th century was folly...and indeed they were right as the city fell prey to numerous attacks in subsequent years...it's nice to think that safety came first, before bribery in those days...the ceiling is a staggering 41 meters and the cathedral is 60 meters long...quite a feat of engineering,
it took fifty years to build...it grandly monopolizes the skyline of this city that Martial proclaimed ''the most beautiful in Roman Gaul''...and the cathedral wasn't even built yet!!!

Of Wine, Wealth and Spirit...

2012-02-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

...when the Romans originally arrived they were big exporters of wine...the local Celtic population had been dabbling in wine for awhile, and the Greeks in Massalia had planted up most of the coast...but the Roman wine must have been pretty good as lots of Roman amphora turned up before the colonies...and just to make sure it would continue that way the Roman ripped up most of the vineyards in Languedoc Roussillon...then once the colony was planted they planted the vines again as well (hm, this strategy sounds rather familiar, destroy it and than rebuild it and take all the profit)...then Languedoc Roussillon became the big wine exporter to Rome...at first supplying them with drinkable plonk, pretty parallel to production there today after the phylloxera (Greek: friend of dryness) wiped out the vines in the 19th century...but eventually the colony even sent amphora proudly stamped with ''aged five years''...Pliny complained that they used additives to speed up production...plus ca change plus ca reste la meme...all this to say that where there is wine there is wealth and where there's lots of both the former and the latter there is the church...

Narbonne...

2012-02-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

...another place whose fate was changed by a river...this time the Aude which silted up turning this port on the Mediterranean into an inland town...fortunately just full of cafés for the Paliakri to choose from on the riverbanks...phew, otherwise I might have had to walk home...and I could have walked straight home on the Via Domitia, if it wasn't a meter underground, as it leads almost directly to our doorstep on it's way to Italy...the Roman Xth Legion who were rewarded with land in Narbo (the Iberian-Basque word for water or marsh) for helping to defeat Mark Anthony and Cleopatra must have gone right past our house on their way to the new capital of southern Gaul...and that's a long way in sandals!!!

Reversal of Fortune...

2012-02-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

...this was the toll gate into wine country and the residents of Saint Macaire charged everyone who entered (now there's a solution to the Greek crisis, a toll to enter the country...) and they did very well until the Garonne river changed course in the 17th century and took with it the wine tasters...the Romans called it Ligena, a shortened form of Alienigena, ''town of foreigners''...I wonder of Alienor of Acquitaine's ancestors came from here?...the name was changed to Saint Macaire after a Greek monk settled here named Makarios, Greek for ''blessed'', now colloquially meaning '' with any luck''...the last big event here was in 1461 when Madeleine, sister of King Louis XI ''the Prudent'', sometimes ''the Cunning''', and even ''the Universal Spider'' (wow!) married Gaston IV de Foix-Grailly...but Palikari ''the Caffeine Free'', thus ''the Totally Irritated'' and ''the Impatient to be Getting Along'' and his femme ''de Foie-de-Vin-Gonflée '' hurried on to the next town to find café...makari!

The Brainy Aphrodisiac...

2012-02-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

...from the Greek Goddess Aphrodite...and so apt as she was born from the "aphro", sea foam...this is the other delicacy for which Bretagne is famous....shellfish...oysters in particular...the word in English comes from the French Oistre which in turn comes from the Latin Ostrea which comes from (ofcourse!!!) the Greek Ostreon...also the origin of the voting instrument used in classical Greece, the Ostraka (ostracization also comes from this as they voted to banish people from the city, usually because the were "idiotis", people who hadn't voted, idiots, too bad we can't do that anymore...but then, where would we ostracize them to?) the ostraka was a peice of broken potsherd on which the candidates name was inscribed and chucked into a ballot box in the form of an urn...thus we know that the original object they used was a shell...but I digress...the Romans are alleged to be the first to farm oysters (I'll bet they copied the Greeks...they did for everything else)....in Bretagne they cultivated them on long ropes hanging from a mesh of other ropes...the technique has changed little...although they no longer use ropes...the expert on oyster culture was C. Sergius Orata who was Praetor in 97 BC...maybe that was the reason they colonized Bretagne...oysters are pretty low cal, compared to the other shellfish on offer like Lobster and Crab, but they're full of all the vitamins and minerals necessary to good health...in fact the discovery of the coastal middens of prehistoric people has led to the theory that the consumption of shellfish may have contributed to the enlargement of the human brain as well as improved intelligence...obviously I should have had more oysters and less Homard a l'Amoricain!!!

Crepes Florentines...

2012-02-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

...another way...make some crepes of either variety...butter a casserole...fill the crepes with well drained spinach (as in squeeze out the water...never boil spinach, just rinse it drain it and put it straight in the pot to cook, the water in the spinach is enough to cook it...otherwise half the taste is lost, toss it around while it's cooking so it doesn't stick on the bottom)...toss with cooked bacon or lardons, caramelized onions, and sauteed mushrooms...grate some parmesan on the top and add a filet of olive oil...bake at 350 for about 20 minutes...you can finish them under the broiler if you want them a bit crunchy...

variations on a theme...
bind the spinach mixture with an egg or add cheese to it or bechamel sauce...keep those ends of baguette in a dry place and make breadcrumbs...mix them with the parmesan to top

note to self: have some wine and try to improve your food photography skills!!!!

Crepes...

2012-02-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

...are one of the specialités of Bretagne...and definitely a prime contributor to the size of the wife of Vannes...and others who shall remain anonymous...there are two basic kinds and we had many of both...(erg)...herewith the recipes for crepes and galettes...so that you too may emulate the wife of Vannes...

Crepes Bretons
1 cup of flour
1 cup of milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of melted butter
pinch of salt
(some people put a bit of sugar, I don't)

mix all the ingredients together into a runny batter, be careful to add the melted butter slowly
butter and get your pan almost smoking hot, quickly swirl the batter over the entire surface of the pan to keep it thin, pour out the excess if there is any
when the crepe is bubbling on top it is ready to turn...with a flick of the wrist if you can do that (mine usually end up permanently folded...or on the floor)...or a spatula if you can't
stack them to keep them warm...
serve them with whatever topping you like folded into a quarter, sweet or savory...I personally like butter sugar and fresh lemon juice....the Breton drink cider with their crepes...

Galette Sarrasin

250 grams of buckwheat flour
1/2 litre of milk
2 eggs
a pinch of salt

Mix the milk and flour thickish batter...beat the eggs and add it in...let the batter rest for a couple of hours...if it's really too thick add a bit more milk
Butter and get your pan nice and hot...pour some batter into the pan and swirl it to cover the pan using a spatula to spread it if necessary into a thin layer...check to see when it is browned on the bottom and then flip it....
Traditionally you would place a galette in a pan, add a slice of ham, and some shredded emmental cheese and then break an egg in the center, folding in the four edges to make a square and leaving the yolk of the egg exposed in the center, then cook it until the yolk is done to your liking...

But I, the wife of Jacques Spratte, prefer to put a whopping dollop of creme fresh in the middle instead of an egg with a generous sprinkling of salt, fresh ground pepper and chives...

The Other Venetiens...

2012-02-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

...well not quite, but the residents of Vannes are known as the Veneti...the Romans built the place in 56 BC on their main thoroughfare from Lyon to Brest...they called it Darioritum, rito meaning course (pretty close to "rhois" the greek word for the same thing) perhaps Darius passed by here first?...the subsequent Breton Kings called it Gwened, the pronunciation of which bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the spelling...a ruse to confuse the enemy? or just a desire to be different?...the first King was Nominoe (what a great name) who was recognised as an "Ducatus Ipsius Gentis" a nice hybrid of Latin, Greek and Gallic...Duke of High Gentry...by the Emperor Louis - sometimes "The Pious" and other times "The Debonnaire"...(somehow mutually exclusive in my mind, but perhaps he had multiple personality disorder) ...and then was recognized as King in 845 by his successor Charles the Bald...the 9th century was such a descriptive era!...not much remains of the Roman city except for the ramparts but the 16th century wattle and daub town is in almost perfect condition, although some the houses do seem to be leaning rather precariously into the street...the remarkable preservation is due to it's unfashionable status in the last two centuries as a garrison town and the site of a large Jesuit college (fun times!)...but now it is full of delictable gourmet shops and fashionable boutiques...there was not enough time taste and peruse them all for Palikari "the Puffer" and his winsome bride "the Fatter"...and fatter...

Bretagne...

2012-02-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

...where the Palikari continues to puff and peruse...here in the small village of Damgan on the coast near the bay of Morbihan the tides are spectacular...the Breton immigrants to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia must have felt right at home...cold, rough and oysterful...the settlers who set out from Port Malo were a hardy and independent bunch...having resisted both Britain and France over the centuries...and in fact although Brittany changed overlords many times it was basically an independent state until 1532...once in France they often tried separate...perhaps separatism is an inherited trait as it appears to have crossed the Atlantic with them to Quebec...from whence and when the Celts settled these parts is unknown...but they had the same love of monoliths here as elsewhere, all up and down the coast the standing stones stand sentinel to the sea...there were six nations of Celts all speaking their own languages, related to Cornish and Welsh here Breton is still spoken by around 200,000 people way down from the 1,3 million at the beginning of the 19th century...(mid century it was forbidden to speak it)...we did pick up one expression while raising a glass of muscat and sucking on an oyster..."Yec'hed mat!"...to your health!

La Rochelle...

2012-01-31T00:01:00.000-08:00

...the site of so many "adieus"...most of the immigrants to New France were from La Rochelle...and many of them were huguenots!!!...now that's a page that went missing from my history book...Samuel de Champlain and the Sieur de Roberval were huguenots as were many other of the founders and business men that went to colonize Acadia and Quebec...they went with a charter from Henry IV to develop the fur trade...in fact most of the colonists were merchants driven to the new world by trade...or from the military that stayed on after their duties were over...very few of were peasants although there were some who financed their journey by being indentured servants for 36 months...in 1627 Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu had had enough of the protestants of La Rochelle and their brethren in the lucrative colonies...they set siege to the port for 14 months and simultaneously created the Company of 100 (Catholics only please!) Associates...which pretty much took care of the protestant problem on both sides of the Atlantic... those who didn't convert left both places for the Antilles and the American colonies...this port also saw the sad passage of myriad slave ships on their way across the ocean and the mythic departure of the Templars, said to have buried their treasure in Nova Scotia, but I think they actually went to establish the banks in Switzerland...and from here the German Uboats left to prowl the Atlantic as famously portrayed in the brilliant film Das Boot...the place has seen alot of action, but the best part of this visit for the Palikari was sitting in the harbour café puffing on his pipe contemplating far horizons...

Saint Emilion in the Mist...

2012-01-30T00:01:00.000-08:00

...tastes just as divine...and divine in fact it is..for although the Romans planted the vines in the 2nd century BC (and it was already lauded then)...it was an 8th century monk confessor named Emilion from the town of Vannes in Brittany who built the place...someone must have confessed that they couldn't resist the wine from Ascumbas so he trotted on down to deguste for himself...he must have been pleased because he decided to found his hermitage here by claiming a cave and settling down(hey give me a lifetime supply of Saint Emilion and I'll be happy with solitude in a cave too)...after his death in 767 his followers followed him diligently as they carved another 200 klm of subterranean galleries into the limestone (the largest wine cellar in the world?)...the whole village is constructed from it and they say it is the limestone that makes the wine so good...in 1199 King John (Lackland) (who cares what other land you're lacking if you've got this plot?!!!) created the Jurade, a governing body of vintners who maintained their power until the revolution!!!...Saint Emilion is not only the cradle of nectar but also the home of ambrosia...for the Ursulines (perhaps in a spirit of competition) invented the macaron in 1620!!! The only thing which inspired me to continue down the road was the next village of Pomerol...alas, the Palikari wouldn't stop the car, probably afraid that he would not be able to pry me from the gates of the Chateau Petrus!!!

Bastides and Chateaux...

2012-01-29T00:01:00.000-08:00

...in the Purple Perigord...there are four Perigords, named after the original inhabitant Petrocores ("stone girls" in Greek...am I reaching?...seems unlikely, but....) and purple because the region is wine soaked...but even letting a single drop of these vintages go to waste staining the earth would be a crime...the names of the Chateaux here read like the who's who of oenology(Greek: the reason of wine)...this Chateau on the edge of the Dordogne is opposite the "bastide" of Sainte Foy La Grande...although now a bastide is a large house originally it was a "modern town" of the XIII and XIV centuries, built on a rectangular plan around a central "place" with an arcade like a cloister around it...they were built as the frontier towns of the middle ages...merchant and military installations protecting and promoting the interests of France in the fragile region of Aquitaine...briefly independant under Charles the Fat...then taken from France by Alienor of A. when she married Henry II in 1152...Saint Foy was founded in 1255 by Alphonse of Poitiers (brother of he king) just after they cleaned out the last of the Cathares in 1244...centuries later the next Religious Wars would see the protestants take hold of the region...for awhile...but I think that religion was really just an excuse, they were probably really fighting over the wine!!! Now that, at least, is a truly worthy cause...

A Different Sort of Quaff...

2012-01-28T00:01:00.000-08:00

...or not!!... as apparently there is a Coiffeur called the Sainte Coiffe in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (!!! they must be Huguenots!!!) but here in the Cathedral of Cahors (I managed to nip into before the Palikari had finished his coffee to check out the lovely stained glass windows) is the real thing...The "Sainte Coiffe"...a kind of bonnet that was placed on the head and tied under the chin...this one is Christ's and it was given to Charlemagne...although there seems to be some confusion as to who actually gave it to him...I like to think it was the Calif but Empress Irene of Constantinople is also a good bet...there's alot of Greekness going on here...the two rotundas are the largest to be built after Sancta Sophia in Istanbul/Constantinople...and the Cathedral belongs to the Greek order of something or other...the original one was built by Saint Didier in the 7th century on top of the remains of a Roman villa and the present Cathedral was built on top of that in the 11th century...the 14th century frescoes in the dome are pretty fabulous...St. Stephen and some cohorts astride animals in, and I quote, "the Greek fashion"...I presume that is a reference to the manner in which they are rendered and not the way they ride!!!

J'adore Cahors...

2012-01-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

...a Lot...and the Lot is the river and the region of which Cahors is the capital...the Cadurciens (from the Gallic tribe of Caduques) are a lucky bunch...perched on their presqu'ile on a bend in the river and well protected by the surrounding mountains they have survived the depredations of the Sarrasins, the Vikings and even the Hungarians (according to French Wiki) perhaps they meant the Huns?...they have been ruled over by Julius C., Theodebert 1st (who torched the Roman city, although you can see the remains of the amphitheater walls in the underground parking...) Henri IV, Richard the Lionheart and even the Black Prince who was sent over by Daddy to weaken French defenses by pillaging the whole south west...no doubt the fact that they have been exporting their famous wines continuously since they started with the Romans in 50 BC lent a certain economic stability to the town during all these comings and goings...Pope John XXII was born here and he was kind to his natal town endowing them with lots of money, buildings and a university in 1331(one of the oldest)...the town was also a favourite of the Lombard bankers...I would have liked to explore it more and definitely quaff more of their fine wine but the Palikari sitting in the cafe where the Roman Forum (now parking lot) once stood was giving me the eye....

Ave Aveyron...

2012-01-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and what an unbelievably rich region...secreted between North and South and East and West it is just full of beautiful villages and a plethora of Chateaux of every style, size and description...it's capital Rodez has been around since it's inception as "Segodunum" in the 5th century bc...it changed names during the Roman occupation as the Romans named it after it's inhabitants, the Celt tribe of Rutenes...thus the Rodians are still known as Ruthenois...the surrounding countryside is hilly and lush and the wealth of the place is evident...many famous French families hail from these parts...including the Giscard d'Estaings whose ancestor built the stunning cathedral in Rodez in 14 something or other...I couldn't snap fast enough as we flew by and wished I could stop in every single village!

A Bridge With A View...

2012-01-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

...swinging 250 meters above the Tarn river valley this cable bridge is the tallest in the world...the top mast is 343 meters...it has a fantastic, if vertiginous view of 360 degrees and down over the town of Millau (which once supplied the best pottery in the Roman world for 150 years)...built in 2004 it was designed by architect Norman Foster and engineer Michel Virlogeux...before there was an impressive old bridge that crossed the river with 17 spans but one fell in the 18th century and the bridge was subsequently destroyed...my photos do not remotely express this bridge's elegance or grandeur...truly a spectacular ride!!!

The Road Through The Cevennes...

2012-01-24T00:01:00.001-08:00

...there is a mountain pass (well more or less) that goes from Alès to Millau through the hidden medieval villages of the Cevennes...the Cevennes are a southerly group of mountains in the Massif Centrale, the mountain range that runs north south dividing France into east and west...but even this mountain pass in the little Cevennes had some pretty breathtaking curves and turns...can't imagine what it would be like to try this in bad weather or at night!

Allez Alès...

2012-01-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

...originally a Roman town founded in 26 BC Alestum is more famous as a protestant stronghold...this whole part of France east of Avignon to the ocean was once a bastion of the Huguenots...the Peace of Alès was signed here in 1629 by Louis XIII and my unfavourite Cardinal Richelieu...this was an effort to back up Henri IV's Edict of Nantes (who was a protestant who converted to catholicism for the throne and for his wife La Reine Margot, curiously the Palikari bears a strong resemblance to Henri although I like to think I am aging better than my namesake) the edictwas signed in 1598 and in a spirit of tolerance promised that several cities and towns in this region would be safe havens for the protestants in hopes of ending the bloodshed of the religious wars...this was also a manouevre intended to stem the tide of protestant emigration as the majority were hard working artisans and merchants who left an economic void behind them...hundreds of thousands fled to Virginia, South Carolina, and New York via Holland and England, as well as Prussia and Switzerland...all these destinations benefited from their skills as well as their work ethic...most of New Amsterdam (NYC) was settled by them (including some of my ancestors)...back in the homeland however the rest were pressed to convert to Catholicism by Louis XIV who revoked the Edict of Nantes...and ofcourse the animosity continues even to this day in the hill towns and villages of the Sud Ouest...such a special species we are...

The Light Through the Pines...

2012-01-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

...I am very fond of pine trees having spent my childhood summers at my great grandfather's house aptly named The Pines...they were my entertainment providing sticky resin, rideable branches, secret hiding places and under them a carpet of soft brown needles in which I played "house"...the pine is an ancient tree, some of them can reach 5,000 years and there is an innumerable variation in the species, from dwarf pines to some that reach 81 meters...we are hoping ours would grow just a little faster, but they prefer loose ground and here they are mired in clay...they produce male and female cones and the birds eat the seeds and disperse them...funny, it must have been a pair of birds at our house because the pines in the front are in symmetrical rows of two...

Oh, Look There Go Two Rabbits...

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and really there's not much else to do!!!

Get back to Work!!!

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

...now that the studio is in full working order time to get back to the business of creating...a friend of ours was just wandering in the desert in North Africa, as is her wont, when she looked down and in the sea of sand found this tiny arrowhead, estimated to be around 8,000 years old the Palikari almost had a conniption making the setting for it...not exactly easy to replace if anything went wrong...but in the end he aced it...as always!

Where Beckett Lived...

2012-01-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and he must have known the village well in winter...this is the house where he holed up hiding from the gestapo during WWII while aiding the local resistance...he alludes to Roussillon in "Waiting for Godot" his most famous play...perhaps inspired by waiting for the war to end...or maybe for the winter in Roussillon to end... because here in the winter truly "nothing happens"...

The Village in Winter...

2012-01-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

Done!!!

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

...at last the atelier is finished...floor, ceiling, light and heat...a before picture for comparison and the Palikari does a jig of joy! Let the creation begin!!!

The Ochre Mines...

2012-01-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

...like the flying buttresses of Notre Dame the man and wind sculpted cliffs of ochre in Roussillon...have supplied the pigments for my mother's paints at the Academie Julian and centuries of other artists colours as well as the livelyhood of the Mathieu family who owned the mine...the results of both were a great success...hopefully they will work their magic on our canvases as well...

The Lustrous Lusterie...

2012-01-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

...is almost an homage to Regis Mathieu's father...the fabulous space where he designs contemporary masterpeices of light and restores antique chandeliers for chateaux and operas and the space across the street displaying his enormous and inspiring collection of museum pieces was once an "ochre" factory where the family refined pigments mined from the richly coloured soil of our little corner of the Vaucluse...the collection is open to visitors even when the Bugatti's are not in evidence and absolutely enchanting...even the website is well worth the visit...http://www.mathieulustrerie.com/accueil.php?lang=fr...I'm just pining for some of the elegant antique ones displayed...they make replicas so if I could just find a suitable space....hm, just off to find a chateau!

Academie Julian....

2012-01-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

...was founded as a private art academy in 1868...alot of famous artists taught there such as Bougereau and Fleury...it gained in reputation and eventually it blossomed into several schools...including the one on Rue du Dragon that Mum attended...she was in pretty good company, the list of artists who went there is endless, among them Rauschenberg, Vuillard, Louise Bourgeois and Suzor Coté...ironically it became Penninghen, the school I wanted to attend after spending my first year in Paris doing my all my roommate's projects who was in first year design there...I got an excellent mark....and two dozen roses as thanks!

Bugatti....

2012-01-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and here at the top is Derain's car...Andre Derain founded the Fauves with Henri Matisse...and was obviously on to a good thing...since when do artists have vehicles like this?...(coincidentally my mother went to the same painting academy as him in Paris)...this was an exposition of Bugattis at the fabulous Lustrerie Mathieu in nearby Gargas...the Palikari was rather taken with the Grey Green one...I guess he will have a to paint alot bigger and faster, or content himself with the jag...

Vlaminck Sky...

2012-01-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

...or at least that is what my mother and her friends used to call this sort of dramatic brooding sky...Maurice de Vlaminck was a musician and painter and one of the "fauves"...the "wild beasts" who eschewed any attempt at realism and gave themselves over to colour as dictator of painting...he lived in Chatou outside of Paris where I spent alot of time in college perusing the river and a young Turk...other famous Fauves are Van Dongen, Braque (before he threw it over for cubism) and Derain....

So much for the Resolution....

2012-01-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

...I seem to be on a roll, or forming another...so after all that melted butter last night how about a nice high calorie way to start the day...Oeufs en Cocotte...my food photography has clearly not improved since yesterday...the before picture actually looks alot more appetizing than the after...grrr

Put some fried bacon or lardons in the botttom of a buttered ramekin...put some emmental, mimolette, or cheddar on top of that...toss in an egg and then put a dollop of creme fraiche on top of that and sprinkle with salt and pepper...put that into a bain marie in a medium hot oven until the egg is cooked to your liking...have your Palikari go out for a baguette while you wait...

Spanakopita 2012

2012-01-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

...ok I am not the best food photographer but I can say that I make the best Sapankopita...well, except for maybe the Palikari's nanny, Kiria Harikleia, who taught me to make it...usually this would be enough for several people but he ate the whole thing...the key to spanakopita is fresh spinach...and good feta...if you live in Montreal the best Greek feta is at Akhavan...if not then try to get something not too dry or salty...

a whopping ammount of fresh spinach, leave the stalks on but trim the dead ends and cook them until just limp, drain 'em, squeeze out the excess water and chop coarsely
crumbled feta
chopped fresh spring or green onions
lots of chopped dill
mix all that up together
butter your pan or casserole and then layer six sheets of philo in the bottom brushing each sheet with melted butter before laying the next
put in the filling and repeat the process laying six sheets on the top
cut the excess of philo off around the edges to about an inch extending over the sides, then roll those in and brush with butter... (see photo)
with a very sharp knife cut through the layers to form squares...trying to cut through the crispy layers afterwards is hell...

bake in a medium hot oven for about 45 minutes
and then eat the whole damn thang with a nice salad of fresh tomatoes, red onion salt and olive oil! Kali oreksi!

Loofah...Before and After...

2012-01-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

...My God what an effort...peeling the dried skins off them is like trying to peel a potato without a Willy Waller...time to start a sponge business from my ridge gourd tree...it made about ten...hm, maybe not...

Sponataneous Art

2012-01-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

...Avignon is just an artsy town...even the buildings make art on their own...here the sun did a job on some reflective mylar...pretty cool as an installation piece and right beside the Lambert Museum...at first I thought it was intentional, but the Palikari, wise in the ways of reflective mylar corrected me...

Thanks for Dropping In...

2012-01-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

...now I understand why the neighbours have all those cars strewn all over their lawn...it's a magnetic field that attracts large metal objects, ah the sweet memories of watching the 18 wheeler moving truck from Greece slowly sink into the mire, and then the six hours in the rain with a shovel filling in the ruts... and apparently smaller moving vehicles as well...what a surprise to look out the window and see the same tow trucker that pulled out the moving truck back at it...this time retrieving some hapless driver who was pulled off the road into the vehicular vortex here...the tow truck guy just waved as if to say "See you soon"...what does he know about The Roussillon Triangle?( music from Twightlight Zone is now playing in your head....)

Georges Carmeille

2012-01-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

In honour of my LOVELY "French mother", Jeannine Carmeille, now 91, who during college auberged me in her fabulous Paris apartment, adopted my friends, listened to endless tales of romantic woe, fed me, loved me, regaled me with her fascinating life story, taught me La Gastronomie Francaise, great manners, and included me in her life and all it's attendant interesting characters...a vid I found on line featuring her husband who was a pilot for Air France...Thank you Ma'Nine!!!

http://www.ina.fr/economie-et-societe/vie-economique/video/CAF91031357/le-boeing-707-chateau-de-versailles.fr.html

New Years in Orange

2012-01-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

New Year...

2012-01-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

...really new year!...the reference to 2 Messidor in the second year on this inscription in Saint Saturnin intrigued us...during revolution the calendar in France was changed entirely to the Republican Calendar with months of 3 weeks of ten days, the days represented by Roman numerals and named after plants, except for the fifth and tenth days which were named after agricultural implements or barn animals...wow, that must have been a trip!...what a brilliant way to stop a revolution, just confuse the hell out of the population...too busy trying to figure out what month and day it is...just imagine trying to organize a protest!...what day is it anyway? ...rabbit, cucumber, tractor?...well actually today is the XIV day of Nivose (snowy month) which is sandstone day(!?)...but tomorrow is in fact rabbit day...no wonder they embraced Napoleon, just returning to the calendar must have been a gift the people never forgot!

Saint Saturnin...

2012-01-02T00:01:00.002-08:00

...it was such a beautiful day on Christmas day that we wanted to go for a walk...Saint Saturnin les Apt is only ten minutes away, so we decided to climb up to the castle...and what a view! The castle we see now dates from the 11th century...called Sanctus Saturninus it just seemed "apt" to visit it on this day as in Roman times it would have been the festival of Saturnalia...dedicated to the God Saturn, the Roman name of Chronos who is the God of time, it was a natural choice for a festival which celebrated the solstice and the beginning of the new year...which was celebrated on the 25th of December, the day of the solstice in the Julian calendar...as it was a festival of transition the people changed roles on this day(I let the Palikari wash the dishes for instance...although I was a bit recalcitrant about chopping wood!)...alot of the traditions of the Saturnalia are still with us...hanging figurines on lintels and in doorways, probably the origin of the santons of Provence and certainly parallel to our tree decorations, they also exchanged gifts and had a sumptuous banquet...and they did all that right here...a stone has been found in the church wall dedicated to Saturn...so I mean they REALLY did it right here...nest year we'll have to get the Palikari to wear a skirt!

Capon Cookin'...

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

...seven pounds of delectable bird stuffed with stale bread, sauteed onions and parsley...and the Palikari ate the whole thing in 48 hours! I don't see any difference yet...

Happy Hogmanay...

2011-12-31T00:01:00.000-08:00

...I was going to celebrate New Year's in the ancient Greek way...but when I looked it up it said that the Maenads drank themselves under the table and then tore the men apart...well, that's probably going to happen anyway...so I'm going for the Scottish tradition of Hogmanay instead...there are so many etymological explanations that I think I will ignore them all and posit the theory that the word comes from the ancient Greek word "ochma" meaning "joining together"...there are many aspects of Hogmanay that have a Greek flavour...the most popular Hogmanay custom is "first footing" which is to have someone tall dark and handsome cross the threshold (well, you know who that'll be) bearing gifts of salt, whiskey, shortbreads, coal and a black bun...(no doubt after that bottle is drained the women will pounce)...all symbolic gifts bringing good luck, health and prosperity to the household (everyone better try this this year!!!) ...almost all ancient Greek celebrations were accompanied by drink and the offering of baked cakes...salt was the best preservative and antiseptic...and well, if you live in Scotland and run out of coal it's going to be a long cold winter...among other traditions is piping the old year out of the barracks and piping the new one in...sort of parallel to the custom of throwing out a criminal representing the bad in Chaeronea mentioned in a previous post...and weirdest of all is the tradition of burning a viking ship because the present day "Christmas tree" in Greece is a lit up sailboat....hmmmm....shall I mention there is a town in Scotland named Latomia (the word for stone quarry)...but I digress...Happy New Year! Chronia Polla! Bonne Année!

After, During and Before...

2011-12-30T00:01:00.001-08:00

...in that order due to my technological infirmity...90 square meters of wood, a bucket of paint and a Palikari...and the atelier is almost done!!!

La Route de Napoleon....

2011-12-29T00:01:00.002-08:00

...on the way back from Nice we decided to take the mountain route, called the Route de napoleon because he traveled back to Paris this way after his little holiday on the Isle of Elba in 1815...he did the 324 kilometres in SEVEN days...he may have been short but he was clearly a fast walker...I wonder if he also stopped at the Restaurant Saint Louis to have an excellent mutton daube with fresh cepes and polenta with the locals too?!!!

Castellane...

2011-12-28T00:01:00.001-08:00

...from three different vantage points...not in order ofcourse because this damn thing puts them in whatever order it wants...but one is coming from the south, the other is below and the last is from the north...whichever way you see it is is one impressive Roc...in Roman times it was known as Salinae, and that is because there were two salt water springs here...from whence the Romans and the locals collected the water and made salt by evaporation...considering that the "salary" of the Roman soldiers was salt this must have been a pretty handy pit stop...the Saracens trashed the town which was at the base of the Roc in 812 so everyone moved up onto the top for a couple of hundred years until they deemed it safe to return to the valley below...it was a major stop on the historical route of transhumance and there is a festival every year when they still drive the sheep through the streets...frustratingly I have been unable to find out when...but fear not, that mutton daube just up the road is bound to lead us back this way sometime soon...

Am I Dreaming...

2011-12-27T00:01:00.002-08:00

...of a white Christmas...no it's real... and it's just as cold as Canadian snow...but wetter...

Joyeux Noel...

2011-12-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

...mais oui, et Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité aussi...peutetre un peu de champagne...un peu de foie gras...et trois nouveau kilos le lendemain...falalalala...la...la...la....et la...et ici...et surtout la!!!

Merry Christmas...

2011-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

...the Palikari ate 99 spaghetti pomodoro this year...but you'd never know it looking at him!!!

Nice Santons...

2011-12-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

...are a Provencal tradition...originally there are 55 of them that complete the creche, including various local occupations...there is a festival of santons in Marseille every year, but the window of the Patisserie Auer replete with it's chocolate fountain imitating the real fountain on the acropolis in Nice even impressed the Palikari, who as a generality doesn't go in much for figurines...the first santons were made by Jean Louis Lagnel during the revolution as the churches were closed and couldn't put on their nativity scenes...the profession of santon maker is passed down through families from generation to generation...I wonder from whom Monsieur Auer purchased his in 1820?

Nice Psychedelic Christmas...

2011-12-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

...well it is mushroom season...maybe they slipped a few "special" ones in with the cepes!!!

Nice Portrait...

2011-12-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

...of the marine artist as an almost young man in Nice at night contemplating the triremes on the horizon...

Nice Apothecary...

2011-12-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

...comes from the Greek word Apothiki, meaning storage...and what a beautiful storage of medicinal plants this one is...this pharmacy (and I'll get into that after) was built on the ground floor of the Palais Lascaris, now how convenient is that?!!The first historical mention of the existence of an actual apothecary is in 8th century Baghdad but healing with plants has been around since neolithic times...the term Pharmacist came into being, as did the profession only recently, but is based on the ancient Greek word Pharmaka, which can mean a witch, magic, heb, poison...but which during the festival of bringing in the new year meant a criminal who was used to purge the city by being thrown out at the town of Chaironeae while chanting "out with the bad, in with the good"...sounds like a great idea to me...

Nice Piano...

2011-12-20T00:01:00.001-08:00

...restored by someone who is famous for restoring pianos whose name now eludes me, but still a lovely pianoforte!

Nice Museum...

2011-12-19T00:01:00.001-08:00

...the Palais Lascaris was built in the 16th century by the noble family of Lascaris Vintimille...the family got their title in 1261 when Guillaume Pierre I married Eudoxia Lascaris...yes, we managed to find a Greek palace in Nice!!!...Eudoxia means the most graced, as in "by the grace of God"...she was the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Theodore II Lascaris...Poor Theodore was rather forcibly removed by Michael Palaelogus and thus the Lascarides were dispersed far and wide, this bunch having moved to Vintimille (Ventimiglia) in Italy...the family have produced counts, dukes, popes and even a secret agent of Napoleon's...but as he was a secret agent it is impossible to dig up anything more about him...the Palace was sold in the 19th century and fell into disrepair until it was purchased by the city...it now houses a collection of antique musical instruments...

Nice Coffee...

2011-12-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

...no I mean really nice coffee...and looked like fantastic breakfast too...smoked salmon and potato cakes...amongst other temptations at this fad bakery cum cafe opposite the opera...here the Palikari enjoys a traditional Greek Breakfast of coffee and tabacco...not Greek coffee though...perhaps the origin of the Greek versus Turkish coffee debate stems from the fact that coffee was banned in Turkey in the 17th century...coffee is thought to have originated in Ethiopia and was then passed into European culture via the Arabs...thus Cafe Arabica being one of the most popular...most probably the word comes forrm the arab "qahwah" which in turn was derived from the verb "qaha" which means "to dull one's hunger"...aha! perhaps this is the secret of the Palikari's svelte physique!!!

Nice Nikaia...

2011-12-17T00:01:00.001-08:00

...has been inhabited since Neolithic times...the name is from the Greek word for Victory..now more popularly known as a running shoe...Nike...(erg) and it is believed that the Phokaians of Marseille may have named it that after a victorious battle over the indigenous Ligures in the 3rd century bc...the original town is probably under the streets of the Vieille Ville on the side of the hill below the Chateau where the Acropolis once was...Caesar ousted the Greeks but the territory did not really become Roman until Claudius, prior to this the Greeks controlled the whole coast, and this is the reason that the Romans built the Via Domitia which avoids the coast (passing by our house instead) in order for the centurions to get to the Roman colonies of Narbonne...they built a town called Cemenelum here which was the capital of the Province of Alpes Maritimes...since then it has changed hands many times....belonging to Provence, Savoy, Piedmont, and France at various times...it must be the proximity to Italy that accounts for the absolutely fantastic pizza (obviously a permutation of the Greek pita) upon which we gorged ourselves accordingly...some of us will now be forced to diet over Christmas...or give their portion to the Palikari who remained utterly unaffected!

And...Winter

2011-12-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

Winter Colours

2011-12-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

Winter Stealth

2011-12-14T00:01:00.001-08:00

Roman Floor....

2011-12-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

...at last...but now that the Palikari's done his job it's my turn...to fill the space left for the mosaic on the kitchen floor...I plan to do a variation of "the unswept floor"...a famous Roman mosaic of the detritus littering the floor after a banquet...possibly also a great excuse not to sweep!!!

Portrait of a Young Chimney...

2011-12-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

...in the late afternoon sun with a copse of pine trees silhouetted in the background...Bravo Palikari!

We Were Wondering...

2011-12-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

...what this weird moon meant, and now we have the answer it means it's going to get bloody cold tomorrow...and it is! Below zero at night and a nice frigid ten with 90% humidity in the day...thus actually minus two hundred and fourty eight...thank God the Palikari got that chimney up!!!

And the Next Morning...

2011-12-10T01:25:00.000-08:00

...a new facade, without and with the Palikari...who as you can see is feeling pretty pleased with his handiwork...

And In the Morning...

2011-12-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

...you have a new level floor in the future diningroom and kitchen which is great if you like to keep things on the table while you're dining and makes it much easier to tell when you have had too much wine!!!

After Dark...

2011-12-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

...construction continues into the wee hours...love these fluid images of the Palikari making cement in the brand new spanking orange mixer...sounds just like a steamer at sea...sort of a comforting an solid noise...hope the neighbours like it too!!!

Toad in the Hole...

2011-12-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

...literally...and then it crawled into one of the open pipes in the unfinished plumbing project and called for it's beloved all night...magnified nicely by the maze of pipes in the bathroom it sounded rather more like a foghorn than a frog!!!

Palikari's Progress....

2011-12-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

...while moving all the stuff out of the atelier in order to lay the floor, we came across this little remnant of the Palikari's original foray into art 16 years ago...this one is from the second year's batch the first ones he did are nowhere to be found...too bad because then the before and after would have been even more impressive!

Let There Be Heat...

2011-12-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and a brand new wooden floor in the atelier...only the ceiling is left to do...now no excuse not to get lots of work done!

Hanging Gardens

2011-12-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

...of Avignon, though not one of the sevens wonders of the modern world still pretty wonderful!

Keep On Truckin'....

2011-12-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....!!!!....$$$$

The Progress Report

2011-12-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

The Travelling Tree

2011-12-01T00:01:00.001-08:00

Loir Tartare...

2011-11-30T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and I think he's got them all!!! Hey, remember those rabbit foot key chains? I've got a nice selection of loir tails....

Let the Building Begin!!!

2011-11-29T00:01:00.000-08:00

Cement...

2011-11-28T00:01:00.000-08:00

...is a Roman invention...ironically, or by way of karmic justice, marble dust makes the best and hardest kind...thus many of the ancient sculptures have ended up between the bricks...an18th century Voivode of Athens blew up one of the columns from the Temple of Zeus Olympias to make the Tzitarakis mosque and he got instant justice for that, exiled by the Sultan who had a soft spot for ancient Greek architecture...I was so hoping that when the Palikari opened up the "crack" to patch it (again) that he might turn up some roman remains...or at least a florin or two...instead all he found was an iron staple from some earlier attempt to correct the problem...hmmmm

Plus ca change, plus ca reste la meme....

2011-11-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

...faux marbre...how little our taste changes...a painted fresco of different exotic marbles from the Minoan town of Akrotiri in Santorini...the impressive frieze from the House of the Mysteries in Pompei...(thank you to volcanos)...a reconstruction of the murals in a house in Glanum...a drawing of the Myceanean Palace of King Nestor Pylos based on the remains found...and let's not forget all the entrance halls of the 1980s which I didn't photograph, our obsession with marble is eternal!

The Bull of God...

2011-11-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

...that taketh away the sins of the world...and damn, could we use a nice steady Taurean to lead us now...at top are the remains of a pillar at Glanum, below the recycled ancient stones of a temple in the walls of the Byzantine church of Theotoko Gorgoepikoos...since the beginning the sacred bull has made the journey across the centuries with man...the sign of Taurus crosses the sky between March 21 to April 21st and it must have seemed symbolic to the neolithic people that the constellation of the bull appeared in the heavens right at ploughing time, and right when the earth became fecund and green after the winter...the bull thus became a powerful symbol of strength, fertility and rebirth...myriad cultures have worshiped him, most notably the Minoans...in almost all pagan mythologies the bull has a significant role...most having to do with human domination over nature while at the same time invoking protection and blessing...in both these representations of the bull his horns are wound with woolen fillets or "februa" (thus February from the Roman celebration in that month when the houses were cleaned, the original "spring cleaning'') which symbolized purity and thus sanctified the animal prior to sacrifice...februa were also wound three times around other things to protect them or to cast a spell...ritual sacrifice has long been a part of religion...and most probably the first were humans...but the bull has been the beast of preference until Christian times when symbolic human sacrifice returned in a once and for all kind of a way and the power of the bull diminished, remaining only on the outskirts of the empire in the arenas and coliseums of the garrison towns of Iberia...

The Secret Well...

2011-11-25T00:01:00.001-08:00

...was hidden for centuries when the Romans paved over it to build their "basilica" and forum...the word comes from...aha..the Greek word for king "basileos"...(from whence come also the names Basil and Vassily)...originally the "King's court", or at least the large hall in which he would hold court...the only place of indoor assembly in the ancient world, it morphed over time into the Christian place of worship while keeping it's name...at Glanum the Romans built their basilica on top of the Hellenistic houses and over the Greek well, as they had aqueducts they no longer needed it...the 8 meter deep shaft (wow what a feat of engineering!) supplied all of the towns water for 600 hundred years...when it was unearthed during the dig in 1920 it was full of classical sculptures that the Christians had chucked in...without even throwing a penny the archaeologists got their wish, a veritable treasure trove!!! Hm, didn't notice any statues in ours when it ran dry last summer...clearly we need to import some Christians!!!

And Just in Case...

2011-11-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

...you didn't get the message at the arch or from the prisoner-Gaul statue on the fountain here's The Imperial Temple to Augustus towering over the main road with it's fantastic akroterion...it would have also had an impressive statue of Caesar...and just across the street his friend and son in law General Marcus Agrippa's dedication with the inscription still visible to the Glanic spring of Hercules the Healer of military guys just like him...Marcus was a great general and strategist...he outmaneuvered Mark Anthony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium...and he must also have been pretty wise generally as he survived the machinations of the senate, the Julii and even Livia, unscathed...he also had a fondness for Greece, like all wise people, and lived on the island of Lesbos for years...his monument here is indicative of just how important this little town at the crossroads of the Pax Romana really was...his only shortcoming seems to be that he was Caligula's grandfather...

Domination...

2011-11-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and how! The statue of the subjugated Gaul, well muscled and proud despite his subjugation is symbolic of the power of the state necessary to conquer such an admirable adversary...he decorated the fountain on the way out of town, just a subtle little reminder of what might happen to you if you went home and tried to foment revolt...and if that message didn't get through then the Triumphal Arch, the largest still extant in France, would pretty much ram it home...the facade was covered with representations of Caesar's conquest of the Gauls...Palikari is for scale...

The Mausoleum of the Julii

2011-11-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

...built by the three sons of Gaius Julius in around 40bc...it is one of the best preserved Roman Mausoleums in the world...on it's western facade is a nice bas relief of Achilles fighting the Trojans over the body of his best friend Patroclus...okay I won't launch onto the Iliad now...the monument reminds me of the Pharos of Alexandria, but apparently this form was very popular for mausoleum construction...it's quite huge and none of my photos show it to advantage!

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker...

2011-11-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

...well actually the sweeper of the baths...the olive presser...the butcher...the wine smoker (first time I have heard of that, but perhaps if the wood for the stove is as wet as last year's I will be able to test it out?!) and the twit that spends his whole day in the Agora gnawing on everyone's ear...

Glanis...

2011-11-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

...the God of Healing Springs is the origin of the name of the town...and these are the stairs that the worshipers would have walked down to drink the sacred water...although by roman times he had been jostled out of the way by Hercules of Health, sort of an obvious usurper of springs on a route used by the legions...Glan in Scot's gaelic means "clean" and the archaeologist on site was saying that the God is also responsible for great whiskey such as Glenmorangie or Glenfiddich...which seems apt as they are made of crispy spring water in the highlands but I think is more likely to be "Glen" as in valley...I have my own theory, I think Glanis is a parallel to Zeus, God of the Oak and the acorn, because the area is full of them and the word for acorn in French is "gland"...but maybe I reacheth too!!!

Glorious Glanum

2011-11-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

...is just 45 minutes away...and yet it took us a whole year and a half to get there...the Gallo-Celts started a village here in this tiny valley that passes through the Alpille mountains from the Rhone delta and the sea to Avignon and Cavaillon and other ancient cities of Provence...the Greeks then built the town...which was then built over by the Roman's, although they kept the good bits...sort of a historical lasagna....this is one of the few towns where the Greek ruins are this well preserved due in part to the fact that the Romans used the buildings as substructures for theirs, but also because it was abandoned by it's inhabitants during the dark ages when they moved to nearby Saint Remy de Provence to avoid the Barbarian hordes who kept decimating the town on their way through...only a Barbarian invasion could compel one to leave...is hard to describe the ethereal beauty of the place in the late autumn light!!!

Piet Engelman

2011-11-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

Angela Vertsoni

2011-11-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

Pomegranate...

2011-11-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

...the tree of life in Eastern culture...and the tree of both life and death in ancient Greece...here it is thought of as the tree that attracts butterflies...which is an interesting observation, because butterflies in Minoan religion represented the souls of the dead...the word for Butterfly in ancient Greece was Psyche, which then took on the literal meaning in modern Greek and now means the Soul...so it is interesting that in the myth of Persephone and Hades that it is the seeds of the Pomegranate tree that she eats...the myth is the explanation of the seasons...while picking flowers (also an allusion to the Elysian fields, and perhaps also the origin of burying people with flowers...) Persephone is kidnapped by Hades the God of the Underworld...Demeter is her mother, the Goddess of Agriculture...so when her daughter is kidnapped she gets depressed and thus Winter occurs...she tells her daughter not to eat anything in the land of the dead...but Persephone eats 4-6 seeds and thus must spend 4-6 months in Hades every year...perhaps though this is also the origin of the Pomegranate symbolizing the tree of life as Persephone has a rebirth every spring...we were very happy to be given this tree because in Greece today the pomegranate is a symbol of abundance and good luck, it is often given as a gift at weddings and as an apotropaic talisman for someone that you like!

Big Black Bee...

2011-11-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and big is an understatement...suddenly there are hundreds of them...stoking up on nectar for the winter?

Mistral Won - Gourd Zero

2011-11-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

Pewter

2011-11-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

...was once quite a popular metal...but as it is a mixture of tin and lead it was not a very healthy choice in tableware...nevertheless the Romans and all the colonies insisted on eating off it for centuries...this plate was probably used for more ceremonial purposes as there is a mystifying rim of symbols...possibly a secret society or a guild...the weird handshake existed even then...

Seal of Approval...

2011-11-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and that's just what the signet ring was for...to put one's seal on something and make it official, or approved, or secret...the Mesopotamians had clay rollers to seal things, mostly for labeling the contents of merchandise...the Minoans were famous for their rings, intaglios in gold or on agate, the stone of choice for centuries, depicting microscopic scenes of bull jumping and bare breasted Goddesses, the linear B script as yet undecipherable found on them probably spelled out the wearer's name...the Mycenaens tied them to their wrists with the carved side facing in so as to leave a raised impression on the skin...weird, sort of a transient proto-tattoo...the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans really went in for sealing in a big way and were the first to use the sealing wax still used some places today...unfortunately the symbol on the ring this hand in the Lyon museum has worn away...otherwise we might know whose arm it was....

11/11/11/11

2011-11-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
-Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, 1915

Simiane La Rotonde

2011-11-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

...and what a rotunda it is...if only we wouldn't have had to beat the tourists outta the way we might have actually tried to visit it!!! But at least I got this great photo op in the 17th century covered market!

The Banon Bunny

2011-11-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

so cute
so sweet
so funny
...and so terrifyingly friendly that we hope he doesn't end up as dinner!!! But maybe he just lifts the lid behind him and jumps down into the dungeon, luring his victim...this is getting very Monty Pythonish!

Banon

2011-11-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

...reminds me so much of Patmos...and weirdly there is an incredibly huge bookstore here called Le Bleuet, in Patmos the Library is second only to the one on Mount Athos in age and size...must be all those medieval arches and passages that seem similar...the Romans lived here, and there is a villa somewhere in the vicinity that I couldn't find...and a great stash of Neron coins were found that I regret having not found...the place is famous for it's goat cheese...more like a Camembert than your usual chevre, runny on the inside with a croute, they wrap it in chestnut leaves and tie it with raffia and dunk it in some eau de vie...we went though to see the church at the top of the Rue du Four Banal...now does that mean that the bread they make is rather tawdry or that it belongs to Banon? Anyway, we hope to have a Greek Group Expo there sometime in 2012...

An Eiresione?

2011-11-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

...leftover perhaps from the Pyanopsia or perhaps the Lupercalia...both festivals, Greek and Roman, include the Eiresione, a branch decorated with fillets of wool and other goodies, an Apulian red vase shows Dionysus holding one decorated with coloured balls and bells as well as strands of wool...during the Pyanopsia (the festival of boiled beans, otherwise known now as "Fasolada") children would carry them around and sing:

'Eiresione brings
All good things,
Figs and fat cakes to eat,
Soft oil and honey sweet,
And brimming wine-cup deep
That she may drink and sleep.'

...before putting the Eiresione in front of the door where it would remain until the next year protecting and bringing good things...the children would go from door to door singing this song and be rewarded with gifts...now in Greece they do the same, singing the Calenda after Christmas while playing a triangle...and they are rewarded with money...perhaps the Eiresione is in their house...in the form of a tree!

More Roman Towns...

2011-11-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

....and wouldn't Claudius Ptolemy have been proud...this hybrid Roman Greek Egyptian of the 1st century a.d. wrote the only treatise on astronomy (astro-nomia, star-law) in antiquity that has survived...and here on the curb of the Via Domitia in Saint Michel L'Observatoire is, well, just that, an observatory...which is open every once in a while to the public who might like to check out the sun and the stars...perhaps to see if there is some sort of celestial convergence that might mark the coming of a messiah (although I haven't seen alot of "end-timers" around) or explain the chaos of Greek politics...we have been looking to the sky for answers for a long time, since the Babylonians in fact, and at this point it might be the best way to figure out what will happen next in the cosmos! Both Saint Michel and the neighbouring village of Lincel boast an abundance of impressive architectural monuments to a star crossed child...the 11th century church of Mary Magdalen is just one of several rather nice examples of bricks and mortar testaments to our stargazing...

Manosque

2011-11-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

...sits perched on the Mont d'Or, so called because of it's wealth of wine and oil...the word comes from manec asq...the source of rivers...I couldn't find any info on the Roman town which evidently stood here as the Church of Notre Dame de Romigier is constructed entirely of blocks from a temple...the church was rebuilt in 974 after it's destruction by the Saracens in 900...the name Romigier comes from roumiguier from the word roumi, provencal for bushes...our lady of the bushes was found by a farmer ploughing under a bush who turned up the marble sarcophagus in which she had been hidden at the time of the Saracen invasion and then forgotten...the sarcophagus now serves as the altar and is no doubt also a Roman recyclage...at the time of her retrieval she was black and for years was renowned as the oldest Black Madonna in France...however lately they decided to clean her up and discovered she was polychrome...or it seemed like a nice idea for her to become so...who knows...apparently they didn't like the look of her much at first and kept leaving her outside the church, but she always managed to weasel back in...never underestimate a woman, especially if she's a Goddess...finally they gave up putting her outside and let her stay in the church...there's lots of other quirky tales about Manosque, clearly an old world town in more ways than one...this is a tale I like: The young ladies of the town who wish to know who their husbands will be take a laurel leaf off a laurier, and after writing the initials of all their suitors on their breast, rub the leaf over their chest and then try to divine the letters on the leaf to see which one will be the victor...hm, send over your daughters for a visit with a list of initials, I have a great laurel bush with lots of leaves...seems to me a reference to Appollo and Daphne...so maybe the Greeks were the builders of the temple? Perhaps it was a laurel bush they found the statue under, a distant memory of the original myth transmuted...maybe the Madonna moved into the temple of Apollo Daphnephoros...

Glesum...

2011-11-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

...is what the Romans called it, culling the name from the German's word for transparent...the first glass is supposed to have come from Syria in the 4th millennium bc...it was quickly adopted by all the neighbours for it's beauty and usefulness, also easy to clean it's only real drawback being it's relative fragility...the Greeks made lovely objects with it and were the first to mold it and invent the famous millefiori pattern by slicing multi coloured batons and embedding them in clear glass...but the Romans really went to town with it, literally, as they were the first to make windows....