francofiled

Le Cercle français de Belfast has just published its new season programme for 2021-2022. Some events will be streamed, others held in place when health restrictions permit and some will be in both formats thanks to live streaming. Participation in Cercle events has widened considerably over lockdown as many new members from further afield than Belfast have been able to join in its virtual presentations. For more details see  https://www.cerclefrancaisdebelfast.org/p/programme.html

  Spotted it straightaway on the cheese shelf of my local supermarket. Caprice des Dieux. It might be new here but I tasted it for the first time decades ago. It was one of those introductory tastes to the French cheeseboard and I would often eat it sandwiched in a baguette. Yes it's industrial and at a remove from the artisanal varieties I enjoy these days but it still holds a special place in my taste memories - a first embrace in this amour de fromage. 

 A Bastille day breakfast to start the day right. Couldn't find my French flags so improvised with fruit bowls of blueberries, yoghurt and raspberries. Croissants and apricot jam to follow, love it! Bonne continuation !

"Make sure," advised the museum art curator, "to always buy the catalogue of important art exhibitions you attend." She explained that a great deal of time and effort would have gone into bringing the various items together from different collections or galleries around the world. It would be fairly certain that those pictures would never again be together in the same exhibition. Since that talk to our French Cercle around 15 years ago I've heeded her advice as often as interest and wallet would allow. Pity I wasn't aware of her good counsel for one exhibition I attended when I had just turned 20 and when such advice was beyond my maturity.  Still, that exhibition left an indelible mark and an enduring appreciation. Surrealist exhibition It was 1971 in Bordeaux on a free day away from summer camp duties as  moniteurs a group of us visited the Galerie des Beaux-Arts which was hosting an exhibition on Surréalisme. We recognised of course some of the artists...

Old school French books retained from childhood days. They take me back. Funny to meet your younger self from decades ago by browsing the texts and seeing the fountain pen scrawls in the margins.  To see those words that gave difficulty; a story that took weeks to unravel through class reading and translation; not good enough to read ahead and needing the teacher to explain.  The damaged spine of the doodled upon French Book 5 suggests that the two-strapped leather satchel that had protected the beginner's books had been replaced by a grown up canvas bag slung carelessly over one shoulder.  Why did I not take more care with that book?  Was interest starting to wane? And if it was, how did it rekindle? Oh, I know the answer to that! In an all boys school, French suddenly became "fab" in order to impress the attractive assistante assigned to us for conversation classes.  And what synchronicity when only half a dozen years later, by then utterly enthused with Frenc...

Author's note: This article was first posted as 24 hours in Saint Émilion on www.cerclefrancaisdebelfast.org in August 2020.  It is a follow up to a post that appeared ten years earlier on francofiled in August 2010.  Click here for the previous post entitled Saint Émilion - Message in a bottle.  The plan to spend a night in the medieval town of Saint-Émilion was uncorked some years back. Nearly two decades ago we had been in the town and purchased a special bottle from the 1981 vintage of  Château Franc-Pourret  to commemorate our wedding year.  The idea, still not realised, was to crack it open at a special anniversary. It was on checking its current status for drinkability that we noted that the Château offered the opportunity to stay in the heart of the  vignoble  in highly rated  chambre d'hôte  accommodation.  The plan developed its aroma when last September, we arranged to spend a few weeks in France starting in Bordeaux bef...

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...