francofiled

It was a rare afternoon out with friends. Cafés and restaurants had started to reopen after stringent lockdown measures and safety precautions were much in evidence. The waiting staff at our lunch spot wore masks and were getting used to a new way of meeting, greeting and presenting our food. We didn't stay long indoors however and instead made our way to a nearby open air terrace which was situated beside a bus stop. A farewell glass of wine before heading home? Who knows when we'll get out again. Turns out it was a very public glass of wine.  That bus stop was a busy place with passengers pulling off or putting on masks as buses arrived or departed and others waiting for theirs. You know how people say they love to sit at a pavement café in Paris or other big city and watch passers-by? Well this time it was the other way round, the passers-by and passengers were people watching us! The wine we had chosen was a 2016 Louis Latour Pinot Noir from the Domaine de Valmoissine in th...

  La Fête des Pères and an after dinner browse with Julia Child's My Life in France.  There's a celebratory taste of another indomitable spirit, that special cognac - the 1738 from Rémy Martin.  Music in the background too, French of course as it's also La Fête de la Musique in France and there's a lovely playlist working its magic. Life's simple pleasures à la française.  Bonne Fête !

My little battered Clairefontaine  carnet definitely stood the test of time but now all of its pages are used up. It was a delight to use as the pen just seemed to glide over its weight of paper with virtually no "bleedthrough" of ink. Bleedthrough? That means that each of the 96 pages, made from 48 sheets of doubled and stapled paper, could be fully used with no ghosting of writing showing through from the other side of the page.  I hate it when that happens; I like each new page to be pristine. Douceur de l'écriture  - Papier velouté - are the marketing descriptions for the product and the paper does have that soft, velvety touch that makes writing a pleasure especially with a fountain pen. Looking through it now and checking the items noted there the thing that strikes me is just how serviceable it was - contact details, numbers and emails; flight references and booking codes; quotes and books to read; meeting plans, agenda and follow-ups; vocabulary items ...