The Festival d'Avignon is upon us again. This year's event, the 62nd edition, runs from July 4 to 26. Hortense Archambault and Vincent Baudriller are the Co-Directors of the "official" festival. Avignon is buzzing with people. Worthwhile to go there and do some people watching even if you don't want to attend one of the many performances.
The two "Artistes Associés" for this season are French actress Valérie Dréville and Italian playwright Romeo Castellucci. Dréville plays the role of Ysé in Partage de Midi, based on the 1905 drama by Paul Claudel. The ever controversial Romeo Castellucci introduces you to his interpretation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Castellucci likes to shock and rattle spectators. You would expect a tortured artistic mind behind this, but he is an affable and good looking 48 year old individual from Cesena, married, 6 kids. Nevertheless expect some spectators to walk out.
The Festival d'Avignon is one of the most important summer festivals for modern theatre and drama drawing thousands of visitors. It has a reputation for testing the limits with some very avant-garde pieces. But that's what it's all about, albeit it may not be to everyone's liking. Certainly more interesting than a season at the New York Met with its usual repertoir tailored for the monied "Troisième Âge".
For more information about the numerous events consult the Festival d'Avigon and Avignon Off websites. For those of you living in France but unable to attend the festival, reserve Saturday July 12 from 12PM to midnight and watch Arte TV's Journée Spéciale Festival d’Avignon.
July 4, 2008 | posted by Pat Harrison
...... no story, just two beautiful photos of this evening's rainbow in the aftermath of storm Wilhelmina.
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April 21, 2008 | posted by Eglantine Michalak
Expedia-Harris Interactive just published its annual Vacation Deprivation Survey. France continues to be the reigning vacation champion. In 2007 employed French adults received 36 vacation days, they used 34 vacation days. This is on top of the legally binding working hour maximum of 35 hours per week.
The Vacation Gulag of the industrialized world continues to be the US. Its vacation infrastructure is underdeveloped as compared to most European countries. A dismal situation which is unhealthy for the individual, families and society overall.
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April 19, 2008 | posted by Frank Kundrun
The 2007 grape crush in France will decline by about 6% with a total production of 49,2 million hectolitres according to projections made earlier this month by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing. Here in the Southern Côtes du Rhône Valley grape crush is down but quality should again be excellent. After a mild winter and unseasonably wet May and June, there was little rainfall from the end of July onwards; more favorable weather conditions than in the Bordeaux and Loire Valley regions. Organic growers did suffer from the mild winter followed by a prolonged wet season, as it became nearly impossible to control pests. Most dreaded is vine mildew or plasmopara viticola, a fungus thriving in damp conditions, which produces brown blotches on the leaves before rotting the young grapes. A real problem for .....
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2007-09-23 | posted by Ron Queheille
Over many years we have holidayed in southern France and around the Provence. In recent years we have spent time around the Cotes de Rhone Villages. Finding web sites that provide genuine local advice has always been a difficulty but this year we found yours and during our late August/ early September break we tried two of the restaurants you recommended La Farigoule, Ste.Cécile les Vignes and St.Hubert, Entrechaux. We stay in Cairanne and have passed by La Farigoule over several years thinking it an unpromising place. This year we tried it for dinner on your recommendation and we were very pleasantly surprised. The staff were great, attentive but not intrusive and the food .......
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2007-09-23 | posted by Steve & Elsiena Emmerson
What makes someone write a book? We asked Mike Aalders, aka Trencherman to the readers of the Var Village Voice. Mike was kind enough to send us this contribution:
How did it happen? What makes someone write a book? Apart, that is, from the possibility of financial reward, fame and a huge ego trip. In my case I can honestly say that it was not the money, should my publisher break even on this I am sure he will breathe a vast sigh of relief and take me out to a jolly good lunch. The fame aspect seems to be working, although only amongst people I already know, so perhaps a little redundant. "The huge ego trip"; well huge is a little overstated but it was the kind of ego trip that crept up upon me.
It started some years ago on a coach trip to Venice for the Carnival, the trip started down here in the Var and was organised by the Var Village Voice; naturally they sent representation, in this case the Founder/Publisher, the editor, the chief feature writer and the head of advertising. These four people turned out to be none other than ....
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2007-07-08 | posted by Mike Aalders/Ron Queheille
Once again the Festival d'Avignon is upon us, this firework of intellectual excitement. Tell me, what do you really expect of a theatre, drama and dance festival? Something you don't see at "normal" performances, right? Welcome to the Festival d'Avignon! France's premier event of avant-garde theatre, drama and dance, a huge multi-arts celebration. France's oldest and most prestigious cultural festival has been able to preserve its avant-garde character say its many adherents. Perhaps, but isn't this mainly due to the vivacity and creativity of Avignon "off", the official "unofficial" part of the festival?
The Festival d'Avignon was founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar (1912-1971), the controversial, yet well known French director. The city council of Avignon - this was 1947 - had the idea to stage a theatre and drama festival. Vilar was hesitant at first - dealing with public officials was not his thing. What convinced him probably was the unique setting of the Court d'Honneur, one of the two inner courtyards of the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes) - room for 2000 spectators! Plus the artistic freedom the city council conceded - they had little choice. Vilar agreed and directed .....
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2007-07-07 | posted by Ron Queheille
Technorati Profile
Menton, the city of lemons, oranges and English gardens, has developed a character quite separate from local cultural traditions. In a landscape of evergreen, hardy shrub (the "Garrigue") with olive and lemon tree groves in between, the eclectic late 19th/early20th century gardens established by its English owners look somehow out of place. But they are lovely, peaceful, romantic, exotic - any one of those attributes will do. They take advantage of the exceptional mild Mediterranean climate and Menton's sheltered position from the winter scurge of the Provence, the Mistral winds.
When Scotsman Tobias Smollett arrived here in 1763, he was impressed by the beauty of this coastal stretch. In his book "Travels through France and Italy" he writes:" I can myself remember ........
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2007-06-13 | posted by Pat Harrison
Here in France we like to kiss. You kiss your family members, your friends, your colleagues at work, never strangers. You give them two, three, sometimes four kisses on the cheek. But there are occasions and there are persons you don't kiss. Confusing? Yes, very much so. Why do they say "c’est simple comme bonjour" - it is as easy as saying "Good Morning"! For the uninitiated it is difficult to learn this French etiquette. In the US you just shout "Hi, how are you you?" not expecting an answer about your counterparts state of well being. Or simply "Hi" and you are done with.
Here are the four questions you need to ask yourself if you want to fine-tune your "la bise" skills: "Quand ? Qui ? Comment ? Combien ?"
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2007-05-28 | posted by Eve Collins
I will resist temptations to comment on the upcoming elections in France. Instead of my biased liberal views I recommend the blog French Élection 2007. Pretty level headed reporting from - as the author claims - "an American perspective". By the way, who is the blogger behind this one? Stupid question! Don't identify yourself or you get fired!
By the way the word "liberal" has become a swearword in France, a country whose voters left and right believe in statism. All of the three main candidates believe or at least make their voters believe that free markets are a plot by the Anglo Saxon world and must be resisted by La Grand Nation. This has become an ideology the common man on the street has readily embraced. Trouble is that even a country like China now marches to a different tune as do the very successful large French multinationals.
2007-03-16 | posted by Eve Collins
Domaine Sainte Anne is one of the best kept secrets in the Southern Côtes du Rhône. A medium sized producer, their wines are hard to get in wine stores. They are located in the hamlet of Les Celettes, 3km north of the small village of St.Gervais north of Bagnols on the right bank of the Rhône. By the way, the origin of the term "Côte du Rhône" goes back to the 17th century and applied only to the wine growing region around Uzès and Bagnols on the right bank of the Rhône. In 1650 the first regulations were introduced in France to guarantee origin and quality and by 1737 all the wine casks from this region had to be labeled with "C.D.R.". In the middle of the 19th century the wine growing regions on the left bank of the Rhône were added to this label and the Côte du Rhône became Côtes du Rhône.
The domaine belongs to the Steinmaier family, immigrants from Vienna, who settled in the Bourgogne in the 1930s and established a vineyard in Chalon-sur-Saône. In 1965 Guy Steinmaier purchased a 13ha vineyard on the hills .........
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2007-03-12 | posted by Eve Collins
The French government will permit wineries to use the label "Vignobles de France" for wines that originate from anywhere within France, irrespective of region and grape varietal.
In my opinion this is pretty much a non-event for the quality wine producers, even those outside the AOC terroirs.
Some newspapers and wine blogs in the US argue that this is a "timely move - wine consumption in France ......
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2007-01-31 | posted by Eve Collins
The booking season in the Provence is in full swing. It's high time to make your reservations for your favorite hotel, B&B or vacation rental. The photo says it all: Beware of surprises! It was e-mailed to me by a reader from Tasmania.
The Provence is a heaven for the individual tourist. You find a very appealing choice of small hotels, B&Bs and vacation homes in the countryside and some of the larger towns. You might want to check the Provence-Hideaways website, which recommends a number of hotels and B&Bs in the Provence. Their recommendations are pretty objective, they don't charge users nor the hotels and B&Bs they recommend. Reviews are done by a team of seasoned travelers from the US, Australia and the UK. Any accommodation we selected here has been checked out by us. They make sure that they are quiet, charming, all rooms with en-suite bathrooms and managed by friendly hosts.
Why do I recommend Provence-Hideaways? I write their restaurant and wine reviews!
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| posted by Eve Collins
ONERC, the abbreviation for Énarque French "Observatoire national sur les effets du réchauffement climatique", in short observatory on climate change, pointed out last year that even a minor increase in average temperatures should be a worry to many wine growers – not only in the US and Australia but also in Europe. They maintain that a rise of one degree Celsius by 2035 - as forecasted by one United Nations model - would see wine growing regions shift, on average, 180 km northwards.
Anyone familiar with wine growing knows that making a good wine is a not yet entirely understood interplay between soil, climatic conditions over a multi-year period as well as the current year, grape varietal and the wine making process applied. Even small changes in any of these variables can have a large impact.
Now we all have an inkling that climate change ....
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2007-01-21 | posted by Eve Collins
