francofiled

Chers amis, La première réunion du caféfrancophilo, a u Cercle français de Belfast, aura lieu le 26 février 2014 au Dark Horse Coffee House, Belfast à partir de 19h.3 0. Notre conférencier sera Jim Holland et notre thème: Traduire, c'est trahir? Nous discuterons le po è me, Quand vous serez bien vieille de Pierre de Ronsard et la version de William Butler Yeats. L’entrée sera libre. En espérant vous voir nombreux! Cordialement CfB Posted with Blogsy

Brilliant! The PARISIANER is here and well worth the wait. As explained in a previous post the project was to create a series of covers for an imaginary magazine about Paris. 100 artists were invited to take part and the result is first class. Affectionate; amusing; ascerbic; it is difficult to choose a favourite from the collection. Good then that as part of the crowd funded initiative my subscription included not just the book of covers but a print of one of them. That'll be framed before long. As for the crowd funding itself it surpassed its target. A great idea! Where next?   Posted with Blogsy

The next talk in the Cercle's programme will take place this Wednesday when Claudine McKeown presents her personal look at the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris, home to many renowned artists and writers. And of course, the famous church that gives the area its name. We'll meet up at the Dark Horse Coffee House at 7.30pm in Belfast's own bohemian and artistic Cathedral quarter. See you then?! À bient ô t! Posted with Blogsy

Last month's réunion of the Cercle français was a colourful and festive occasion. The tables of the Dark Horse Coffee House had been moved to the perimeter to leave plenty of space for dancing and the walls were draped in bleu, blanc, rouge bunting. Musicians from BalFeirste played Breton music on a variety of instruments including the bombarde. The atmosphere at this early stage of the evening was full of buzz and chat. Philip McGrory lived up to the MC in his name and soon had us organised for the evening. First up, he explained was a demonstration of a gavotte. Vanessa and Fergus took to the floor, others of the troupe joined in and our evening got into its rhythm. Following a spell of more music and chat, we were called back to order for a couple of magic tricks. Magic, Magi and the fête des rois. In a nice touch, one of the magician's tricks involved participants who were all French. He supplied them all with menus from the restaurants of famous French chefs and som...

There was a good crowd at the latest event in this year's programme from the  Cercle français de Belfast   when "yours truly" gave the talk on Grand Marnier.  As usual the Dark Horse Coffee House in the Cathedral Quarter matched the proceedings perfectly. I decided that it might be a fun idea to do a kind of Who Do You Think You Are? approach to the subject.  The concept of the popular BBC ancestry programme has made it into French, in Canada at least, where it is known as Qui Êtes-vous? The first part of the enquiry then looked into the origins of the drink and focussed on Jean-Baptiste LAPOSTOLLE who, in 1827, set up a distillery to make fruit liqueurs in Neauphle-le-Chateau near Paris.  The story moved to his son Eugene who returned from travels with bottles of "burnt wine" - brandewijn - from the Cognac region.  He is said to have offered a taste to his friend Louis-Alexandre MARNIER who hit upon the idea of adding his recipe for bitter o...

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