Cannes



After the New Year in Paris I went down to Cannes for a few days. The weather
was lovely for the first two days, so I was able to eat outside on the beach
(see the photo above, taken Jan. 5th). I met up with Monique, the mother of one
of my ex-students and her partner Lionel, who introduced me to a friend, Sylvie.
 We all had a pleasant evening in an old restaurant I had spotted in a sort of
mini-Montmartre area. There was some live music and a lot of chansons sung by
Charles Asnavour on the hi-fi - a very French evening (and I had to speak French
all evening, so a bit tiring too).



On my last day in Cannes, I had a trip to Antibes with Sylvie, where we found a
lovely bar, with art exhibitions and a view of the sea.



We left it late to get back to Cannes and I missed my train, but luckily it was
no problem. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was another train in
about an hour and I was just issued with another ticket - no extra - I don't
think this would happen in the UK. It might even have been a good thing, as the
later train had plenty of empty seats, so I wasn't irritated by people on
mobiles, etc. In fact I was quite disciplined and finished my book - "Mind Wide
Open", how neuroscience shows Freud was wrong - of course - Steven Johnson,
recommended.

This took four hours. I then rewarded myself by going to the bar where I chatted
to the conducter and barman, who were a bit bored as there were so few people.
The conductor had lived in the US for a while, and spoke English well, but I
forced myself to get some more French practice. The barman had lived near
Bournemouth for a while, and quite liked some aspects of British culture, pubs,
etc. It was reassuring that they thought my French was OK and that I should have
little problem if I moved to France.

I arrived back in Paris at about 11 pm, checked into my hotel and then had a
late omelette in Cafe Phare at Bastille - where cafe philos started.


Sunday 8th Jan.

To another of Patricia's soirees, where an American woman gave a talk on
photography - in Paris and Provence. The photos were very good, but all rather
pretty, tourist images of France; there were no photos of bars for example, a
rather typical aspect of French life -  well, that's my excuse why so many of my
photos are taken in bars (see below).

Soon after I arrived Patricia noted that I was quite shy at first in a group;
which surprised her after my interventions in the discussion at the soiree about
Ansari's film on child labour, and my extrovert man-about-town attitude when
taking her and Kathy to the Trois Mailltez, etc. This time I got talking to an
extrovert New Yorker, who works as a design consultant, which enables her to
live in NY and Paris. But her good fortune had been interrupted by a serious
personal loss recently, which had made her, like me, determined to carpe diem.
But that doesn't mean a sybaritic life, shallowly interpreted; there is
intellectual pleasure too and (slipping back into lecturer mode) I recommended
my current reading, Steven Johnson's "Mind Wide Open", as well as Chomsky's
"Understanding Power" (sadly, like so many Americans, she wasn't familiar with
his work, due to the neglect of his work by the mainstream US media). I also
chatted briefly to Mike, a Canadian guy, who'd gone to school in England, and
was bright and  amusing in a rather British, self-deprecating way. I also made
sure to get Barney Kirchhoff's card, a reservoir of knowledge about Paris.

After the talk, two American women, Lyle and Felicia, came over and said that
Patricia had told them that I could tell them about places they could go on to -
already I am the expert here on the local night-life ! Being an English gent -
and aspiring bon viveur - I offered to take them. We went to the usual places -
to Trois Mailletz piano bar, where they played Happy Birthday for Felicia and
brought her a little cake with a candle at midnight, when her birthday started -
she was almost in tears.



Then she was embarrassed when Lyle seriously asked what language they spoke in
the UK ! - as she couldn't understand many of them there, though she could
understand me.



Dancing in the aisles at Caveau de la Huchette

Then we looked in at the Caveau des Oubliettes where there was a good jazz trio,
but it was rather crowded, so we went on, a mere hundred metres or so, to Caveau
de la Huchette. I think they had a nice time. Some of the people jiving were
quite impressive. Then Lyle got Ignacio - the barman, who's now my pal :-) - to
take photos of the three of us and then I took one of him with them, more
quickly, and Ignacio said: "Il est professionel" - fortunately it came out OK.



Monday 9th Jan

The talk on photography at Patricia's soiree inspired me to take even more
photos than usual on Monday, helped by the very good weather. But I tried to
take more of the kind of thing she omits, modern French life, adopting a more
documentary approach.



I felt I was getting into a routine (warned about in my talk at Patricia's the
week before) by returning to the usual places for my last night on Monday. But I
had been exploring the Left Bank for about five hours in the afternoon, so went
back to my favourites in the evening and had a really good time again.

Henrietta, the very accomplished Dutch pianist, was playing again and waved when
I came in (the "Cheers" effect). Later, as she left, she asked me how my talk
had gone at Patricia's (too long and complicated - old habits die hard). There
was a new, older guy singing opera - just for the love of it.



I was a bit annoyed at two young guys who came in rather  noisily. I thought
they were Italians, but they turned out to be Brazilians and the noisiest
quietened down and listened appreciatively to the older guy and applauded loudly
- and later he sang too, with a lot of Brazilian-style body movement and
gestures.



Then a young blond (a Russian, I think) came in with her child in a buggy ! -
and seemed to have had a bit too much to drink already. She really got into the
music and was amused when I took pics of her and the child, which was just
learning to walk and tottered/crawled around the bar. The  two young guys played
with the child then moved to her table. She then made my night by inviting me to
join them and seemed quite put out when I declined - there wasn't really enough
room - and she said to the two guys: "Le monsieur est si elegant." ! They didn't
seem to agree :-)



The cast of characters in that bar ! - an old lady with one eye, wearing a fur
coat and with a cigarette holder; a guy with beard, trilby hat and scarf looking
like an opera singer; the tall doorman; the pretty young blonde barmaid; the
petite, dark waitresses; another old, tall, ex pro-opera singer (I think) - a
baritone, elegantly dressed - Toulouse Lautrec would love it ! I imagine it gets
a lot of tourists later in the year, but for now it was mostly locals and
regulars.

Then I went on to the Caveau de la Huchette - again - and apologized to Ignacio,
the barman, for not bringing any women this time. Then an attractive blonde
woman came and ordered a drink next to me and stayed there, so I felt it my duty
to talk to her. It turned out that she was one of the singers - a trio of women
in bright berets and silver ties. She comes from Amsterdam but has lived in
Paris for 20 years and said she didn't know if she was Dutch or French and liked
my suggestion that she was a citizen of the world. Unfortunately my ego was
deflated as one of her friends introduced her to a young guy and she moved away.

Back downstairs a couple gave a fantastic display of dancing - just beautiful to
watch - like top athletes or tennis players, the guy very inventive and graceful
and the girl matching his moves wonderfully.



Then the three women did their second set, very good - and a big jazz band - all
this for a mere 10 euros - and drinks at reasonable prices - I love the place.



The rest of the photos:

Trois Mailletz

Huchette

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