Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Rain, Clementines and Mulled Wine


Image via Seabois

Yes, it's been like this all day, relentless.  I had plans to go to the big town today, I spent a couple of happy hours on Sunday Christmas shopping on the internet (nearly all done) but there are some things that you need your olfactory senses for.  The big town will have to wait until the rain stops.


So I stayed at home, did some work and marvelled at my clementines which have started popping up in the greengrocers along with other seasonal delights such as lychees and pomegranates.
  


Yesterday evening whilst I was toiling in the study I could hear MG rustling about in the kitchen, soon the whole house was filled with the most beautiful aroma, a while later I was presented with a glass of the most delicious mulled wine, MG had clearly been inspired by the arrival of the clementines.  He used Jamie Oliver's recipe which can be found here.

 Image via Jamie Oliver

I feel the urge for another glass coming on...


Sunday, December 2, 2012

The Cup Cake Lady




A touch of Christmas whimsy for the first Sunday in December.


Friday, November 30, 2012

Almost Advent



How did it get to be the last day in November?  Advent starts tomorrow and I am starting to panic.  Cyber Monday came and went, I have a feeling this weekend will be my cyber moment, I really need to get cracking to ensure delivery.  We are away for Christmas and the New Year so no tree but I will be putting festive touches around the house.


There has been much discussion on blogs regarding high street shopping versus on-line shopping, for me it's a no brainer, on my laptop, warm and cosy, dog at my feet, glass of wine by my side.  Modern shopping centres or malls filled with all the usual suspects are my biggest nightmare although I will make an exception for this beautifully restored Victorian shopping arcade which is crammed full of wondrous, interesting and mainly independent boutiques. I will be visiting it shortly before Christmas, I will not be able to resist a few extra stocking fillers, there is  no doubt they will be wrapped on Christmas Eve.

The Victoria Quarter, Leeds, Photo from flickr

 MG has asked me what I would like for Christmas I have requested a wide angle lens for my camera... but then I saw some exquisite evening bags...




Available from here


How are your plans going? Is all your Christmas shopping done?

Wishing you all a Wonderful Weekend.
XXX

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Simple Things



A beautiful painting of a simple thing...a bedspread airing through an open window.  I love this painting this is a typical French scene, the times I have driven from my village to the local town on a beautiful morning, houses with shutters and windows flung wide open, bedspreads, duvets, eiderdowns, dangling.  A simple morning ritual, played out all over France.

Elisabeth Baysset, the artist responsible for this painting, sadly passed away far too early, last month.  Elisabeth was an artist that I discovered through the blogging community, I think she was a huge talent, her beautiful works are a testament to her memory...





























Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Antique Books



Be careful what you wish for, yesterday I was bemoaning the fact that we have had endless warm, sunny days, which seems out of keeping for November, well today it has been damp, dull and dreary so it jolly well serves me right! Added to that I have been in a melancholy mood.

To try and cheer myself up I went rooting around in the cupboard under the stairs for the boxes of Christmas decorations, surely fairy lights and baubles would cheer me up! Of course it's far too early to decorate,  normally I like to decorate in the first week of December.  No, what I wanted was to mess around in my studio spare room with baubles, fairy lights and candles and try to make some pretty pictures but nothing seemed to be working for me today, the pictures were a disaster so in the end I gave up and went back to photographing antique books.

We are fortunate to have inherited a large collection of antique books, the top three books in the first picture are French books on natural history, they have some stunning engravings in them and are eighteenth century, I was trying to capture the patina on them whilst imagining who their original owners were, these books were around during the French revolution, how come we have ended up with them? What was the fate of the original owners? what kind of room or library might they have rested in?

In the second picture the books are popular British classics from the late nineteenth century, I know the history of these one's. The first four little books are Dickens and they also include wonderful engraved illustrations, I love the gold detail on the spines, I really should read them but they are so delicate I worry about damaging them and that would be awful, so I will put them back in their home on the bookshelf and admire them.


I am still resisting the urge to invest in a Kindle or Nook, I love books, all books, nothing gives me greater pleasure than a new book. My modern book collection may one day fall into the hands of someone who wonders about the original owner from a couple of centuries ago, I don't believe a Kindle or a Nook would last that long!

Wishing Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.
XXX

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Crusoe's Bucolic Constitutional

Every day here for the last few weeks has been lovely, almost too lovely!  I have been yearning for cold, crisp, misty autumnal days but it is not to be, all we have had is glorious sunshine and temperatures into the twenties an Indian Summer for sure, personally I think it's a bit eerie for November.   Every morning I take Crusoe out for his walk, today I thought, I would take you with me...

I know this herd is a happy herd, they belong to our neighbour Michel, he has a bit of knack when it comes to animals, he is dark and good looking our very own Heathcliffe, he rides his horses bareback and is always willing to lend a hand with his tractor in our garden and won't except payment. Every Christmas we buy him  a few of the finest bottles Bordeaux has to offer and I add add a few interesting home made chutneys, preserves and sometimes when I feel ambitious a special cake, I have learnt that's just the way things are done around here.

A view of the Château, I don't see it as a Château I see it as a Castle it dates from the twelfth century, it attracts droves of tourists and schoolchildren, inside its a museum, where they teach the history of Medieval France, most of the locals see it as a Walt Disney Castle it has been overly restored with the help of European grants and not necessarily remained true, most of the villagers tell me they preferred it as a ruin..they played amongst its crumbling walls as children, much more romantic but they admit it does bring much needed money into the local economy.

Ahhh Crusoe..."Come on, throw my stick"...

Proud dog, valiantly retrieving the stick

I am a clever dog!

Crusoe killing his stick

Eastern view of the Chateau

Can you see that egg shaped thing in the tree, what is it? A nest of some sort but what?

Autumn Colours

At the top of the hill you can see the highest peeks of the French Pyrenees and beyond those mountains lies Spain

The local Pyrneean goat herd, I love them Crusoe does not, I have to keep him on a tight leash when I speak to the goats in his presence, once he jumped into their enclosure, a battle ensued for hours, he would not come out and it resulted in this

After the Constitutional, Crusoe likes to relax in his favourite chair... and me... well this morning I made myself a large cup of coffee, changed the lens on my camera and practised some stylised shots of antique books of which there is more to come...




Sunday, November 11, 2012

Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day and while we honour all those who made the ultimate sacrifice, many of our boys and girls still risk their lives in the name of freedom.  War comes in many forms and there are many tales of selflessness and courage, both on the battlefields and off. I highlighted one story back in January and I thought it fitting to re-issue it today...

Irving Penn

"If one lives in exile, the café becomes at once the family home, the nation, church and parliament, a desert and a place of pilgrimage, cradle of illusions and their cemetery... In exile, the café is the one place where life goes on."

Hermann Kesten

I have always loved this quote as it rings so true, especially in France. Hermann Kesten was referring to the many German and Austrian writers, artists, intellectuals, political opponents, etc. Who with the rise of Hitler in the early thirties, left Germany and settled in France.

When France declared war on Germany in September 1939 German exiles were considered enemy aliens and interned in hastily constructed camps and prisons whilst they waited to have their cases heard and hopefully be released, this process took some time, if it happened at all.  In the meantime they lived  in appalling conditions with disease running rife, a few of them did manage to escape. By June 1940 the Nazis had marched into France and occupied Paris.  An armistice was signed and France was divided into two, German occupied France and Vichy France under the rule of the elderly Marchal Petain. The truth is both were very dangerous places to be and many French found themselves exiles in their own country.


 As the Nazis were marching towards Paris, thousands were trying to flee the capital, by any means, trains were full to bursting, all roads out of Paris were clogged, vehicles were abandoned when they ran out of fuel, thousands of people slept rough in barns and fields, there was no news but many rumours which added to the sense of panic, it was chaos.  Many were heading to the south or to the coasts, to try and get boats out or simply to stay with family or friends as far away from the Nazis as they could get, some had no clue where they were going, they just knew they had to leave.

Hitler put pressure on the Vichy government to round up all the German, Austrian and Czechoslovakian exiles, these people were now in grave danger, if they fell into the hands of the Gestapo they were imprisoned, sent to concentration camps or murdered by firing squads. Now thousands of French nationals also found themselves in danger, French artists, poets, writers and intellectuals were at particular risk, many of them were no longer in possession of the correct identity papers, trying to obtain the correct papers could result in arrest, they were aware they were on Hitler's list, many of them headed South to Marseilles where they shrank into the shadows, stayed in shabby back street hotels and met up with each other at the cafés, always looking over their shoulders.  They were now people without a state or a homeland, they had become in effect refugees. They needed a way out.

 Film Still from Casablanca

A Real Rick, Varian Fry

 Meanwhile in New York 'The Emergency Rescue Committee' had been set up, they had compiled a list of around 200 artists, writers and intellectuals who they considered to be at risk in occupied Europe, the list included Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Andre Breton, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp, the objective was to help them to escape. 

  Havard graduate and political activist Varian Fry was the man who was chosen to go to Vichy France to set up an organisation to help people escape, in fact he was the perfect choice, he was a man with a strong social conscience, he was an intellectual who had studied the classics and he spoke French and German.  He arrived in Marseilles on August 14th 1940 with a suitcase, sleeping bag and air mattress, $3000 taped to his leg and a list of around 200 names.  His return flight to New York had been booked for August 29th.  He had around two weeks to get the job done!

Varian Fry, Andre Breton, Andre Masson, Jacqueline Lamba and Max Ernst at the CAS office.

Fry set up his organisation which he named: CENTRE AMERICAN DE SECOURS, 'CAS'.  The Tom tom drums had been beating and word got out on the refugee grapevine, that a man had been sent from America to help, he soon had a long line of people queuing outside his hotel room, it was not long before he had to find an office and trustworthy staff. 

Eventually he cobbled together an excellent team including a young American art student who had formerly been studying at the Sorbonne, Miriam Davenport.  Varian desperately needed more funding, help soon came from the beautiful, thrill seeking American heiress, Mary Jayne Gold.  Mary Jayne rented Villa Air-Bel, just outside Marseille, it became a home to CAS staff and some of the refugees (CAS clients), artists and intellectuals came to visit, there were parties and auctions, which all helped fund the clients escapes and keep up morale.


Andre Breton and Jacqueline Lamba fooling around at the Villa Air-Bel, just outside Marseilles. Breton was convinced that all the surrealists must defy the spirit of Fascism "by singing and laughing with the greatest joy"


Even the Nazis could not stand in the way of creativity, whilst waiting at the Villa Air-Bel for various visas, Andre Breton had the idea of producing a collective work of art, they would invent a new deck of cards,  known as 'Le Jeu de Marseille'.  The original drawings were preserved and eventually came to Andre Breton's daughter Aube, she donated them to the Musee Cantini in Marseilles, where they are on display to this day.



 Max Ernst the Surrealist painter was one of the many artists imprisoned by the French in 1939 for being a German national, he was at this time living with his British lover, fellow surrealist painter Leonora Carrington, in a small French village in the south of France. With the help of Paul Eluard and the intervention of Varian Fry he was eventually released, only to be arrested again a few weeks later by the Gestapo, he managed to escape and once again helped by Varian Fry, escaped to America, with Peggy Guggenheim. 

Leonora Carrington, distraught at Max's initial arrest by the French was persuaded by friends to leave France. She escaped over the Pyrenees into Spain, where she suffered a breakdown at the British embassy in Madrid.  She was institutionalised in Santander where she received shock and drug therapy. Her wealthy parents intervened and sent someone to secure her release (Leonora claimed it was her old nanny) Leonora was convinced her parents would send her to a mental institution in South Africa or one of the colonies, one day she persuaded the nanny to take her shopping and managed to run away, she sought refuge at the Mexican embassy, eventually she managed to get to Lisbon, where she bumped into Max Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim who were waiting to leave for America.  Leonora and Max had both been through too much to rekindle their relationship.  Max went on to marry Peggy. Following the escape to Lisbon, Leonora arranged passage out of Europe with Renato Leduc, a Mexican diplomat and poet who was a friend of Picasso and who had agreed to marry Leonora as part of the travel arrangements to help her.  Leonora eventually found sanctuary in Mexico and went on to become one of Mexico's leading artists.

Max Ernst speaking to immigration authorities at Ellis Island, Peggy Guggenheim looks on, July 14th, 1941

A few of the people Varian Fry helped...
"Artists in Exile", Peggy Guggenheim's apartment, New York, 1942. Front row: Stanley William Hayter, Leonara Carrington, Frederick Kiesler, Kurt Seligmann. Second Row: Max Ernst, Amedee Ozenfant, Andre Breton, Fernand Leger, Berenice Abbott. Third Row: Jimmy Ernst, Peggy Guggenheim, John Ferren, Marcel Duchamp, Piet Mondrian. Photograph: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  

 The situation was becoming increasingly risky for Fry and his clients.  Obtaining exit visas for people was becoming impossible legally, the only way to get things done was to go down the illegal route, much to the chagrin of the American consulate and the Vichy government.  Fry became a thorn in their sides and they conspired together to do something about him (America was still neutral at this point). He had his passport confiscated and was told it would only be returned on the condition that he left Vichy France and returned to America.  He now knew what it felt like to be a refugee, his hand was forced, on 6th September 1941, almost thirteen months after his arrival in Vichy France, Fry boarded the train in Cerbere and embarked on the long journey back to America following in the footsteps of all those he had helped to escape.

CAS continued to operate but went completely underground, it's staff were now part of the resistance.

Over a period of one and a half years twenty thousand refugees had approached CAS for help, stretching his mandate as much as he dared Fry had extended the protection of CAS to more than four thousand people.  CAS had given direct financial support to six hundred refugees.  It had helped fifteen hundred people to leave France both legally and illegally.  It had also assisted in one manner or another in the evacuation of about three hundred British officers and soldiers.  CAS had set up a dozen communities around Grasse as well as woodcutting and charcoal burning enterprises in the Var forest that gave refugees not only employment but also a place to hide.  From 1942 until the end of the war, the clandestine CAS was able to facilitate the escape from France of another three hundred people.

Excert from Villa Air-Bel

Further reading...
 





(French Edition)

A Quiet American,  The Secret war of Varian Fry, Andy Marino




We shall never forget.