Christmas in Paris

Like every year my parents & I went to Paris to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Paris at my brother's. This time round though my niece G. was among us for the 1st time ! She's really a lovely & nice baby. She never cries !
My brother cooked us one of his speciality : "Le Gigot de 7 heures" - lamb cooked very slowly in the oven with a few vegetables.
Christmas Day we met up again to see an exhibition at the Geoorges Pompidou Centre : Mondrian (see : dhttp://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Manifs.nsf/0/BCC6CE781B245AA7C125777D0054F13D?OpenDocument&sessionM=&L=2&form=) Afterwards we had lunch in a local Brasserie. My brother was a bit in a rush because they didn't have a high chair hence he couldn't feed his daughter here & there. He went back to their flat and we joined them there for the coffee / tea.
My parents went back in the afternoon to Orléans. I stayed over myself as I was going to see my friend D. the following day.
I spent a nice evening on my own in Quartier Latin. I had a meal at "Le Balzar" rue des Ecoles. It's nice but they basically want you to get out as soon as possible ! Next to this traditional brasserie (although be aware it's now part of the group "Flo") there is a nonetheless famous cinema "Le Champo". They only show old films. I saw "L'Adolescence de Casanova" (Casanova's teenage years). See : http://www.lechampo.com/programme.php?titre=Casanova,%20un%20adolescent%20%E0%20Venise.
Funny & light : just what you want on a Christmas Day.
Sunday I had lunch with D. at "Les Editeurs" on Carrefour de l'Odéon. Nice, cosy, reasonably priced good food. D. was at my birthday in Sommières but it was nice to have a full day together to catch up on news and discuss about Life.
We then visited the exhibition André Kertestz at Jeu de Paume (see : http://www.jeudepaume.org/index.php?page=article&idArt=1312&lieu=7) before having a last drink in rue Royale. I would have like to go to Angelina's but there was too much queuing to get in and it was too cold !
So all in all it has been once again a lovely Christmas. I hope you had a nice time too whenever possible.

Last night : Tiffany's Christmas Dinner

That's how it had been advertised on the Meetup website : "A smooth and sultry Christmas evening at one of Nottingham's hippest joints. Afterwards we'll head on out into the city for more drinking, dancing, and general groovy-ing about.

Dress code. Gents: Strictly suited and booted of course for a main event like this. Ties optional but will get you points. Ladies: Stilettos, diamonds, hats and sparkly bits etc all good. Prize given to best dressed lady."

It turned out to be a nice evening. We were 8, not "tight-bottom" at all. The food was nice and we've been very reasonable : we had a hot drink instead of a dessert. There was as well a prize for the best dressed gent but I left them before they gave the prizes out at the pub afterwards.

Ready to go to the Tiffany's Club Christmas Dinner

Christmas Tree at home

Wallace and Gromite's Tea Party

Yesterday afternoon I joined my friend J. from WB at a Wallace and Gromite's Children Fundation Tea Party. (see : http://www.wallaceandgromitteaparty.org.uk/) It was hold in a café and there was on sale the usual raffle tickets, teas & cakes. But there was as well a very nice stall with fine handmade clothes and accessories. Some people were dressed in pre-20's costumes.

Last night : Meetup at the New Art Exchange

Last night was the opportunity to watch the 24 hours video (see :http://www.thenewartexchange.org.uk/BritishArtShow7.php) on Clocks. I only stayed for a short while and I was actually much more interested in the other 2 videos.

Birthday cards (2)

Birthday cards (1)

Montpellier by night : Esplanade Charles De Gaulle from Le Corum

50th Birthday Celebration in France

I celebrated my 50th birthday in Sommières near Nîmes. I rented a villa there for a week. I had a party on last Saturday. We were 10. Mostly from down south but I had as well a friend coming all the way from Bristol in England and an other one from Paris.
I song for them accompanied at the piano by my friend C. from M. We cracked Christmas Crackers and had Libanese food. The villa had an open fire and an outside swimming pool but for some odd reasons we chose the former !
My friends JF & E from N. were not available for the main party so we had a more intimate one last Tuesday.

Christmas Tree in Lille

View from my window in Nottingham last Monday

Christmas Tree in Nottingham

Christmas Tree in Montpellier (2)

Christmas Tree in Montpellier (1)

Origin of the name " Great Britain"

To start with it was only « Britain ». This term was derived from the Latin « Brittania » meaning « lands of the Britons ». And it referred to all the British islands. Eventually after the 12th C. « Britain was used only for History purposes. From then on the term « Great Britain » started to be useful to make up the difference between « Brittany » in France which is less bigger than its neighbour « Brittain ».

Nowdays « Great Britain » and « United Kingdom » are the same. In actual fact the full name of this northern european country is « United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ».

(From Wilkipedia)

Diner Gala for the Playhouse last Friday night

It was hold at the Hart's Restaurant so right across from home. After the meal Richard Shelton sang for us in his own concept called "iCrooner" (see : http://www.richardshelton.co.uk/?p=252) I had choosen "Cry Me River" but it wasn't picked up. Richard Shelton was very relaxed and gave us a funny and excellent performance.

Games Day with Meetup

I joined a meetup event again. This afternoon it was the monthly Games Day hold in a pub. I spent 3 hours and a 1/2 playing Dominion with 4 other people. We in fact played 2 different versions of it. By the way that's were the name is from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion
The fantasy behind the game : http://www.kamikazegames.com/dominion/ And how it is played : http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36218/dominion
Good fun !

It's behind there guys ! Good luck !

The Group looking at the Treasure in atonishement

The Treasure - I added a Paris Metro Ticket

Meetup & Geocache

Last Sunday I joined Meetup for a Geocache which is a modern version of a treasure hunt. See : http://www.meetup.com/nottingham-social/calendar/15074195/?a=cv1c_grp&rv=cv1c
And : http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=debebe6f-05c5-4575-b733-7c26c73912ce
It was obviously as well a good excuse to go for a walk. It was a bit chilly but not too much. Nice group. At the end while 2 of us were still looking for the cache - and they actually did - I found a mobile phone on the floor. It was still in working order so one of my colleague phoned the contact called "Mum" and managed to give the phone back to its rightfull owner here & there !
We ended up the afternoon in a pub back in Town.

Nottingham University Grounds (4)

Nottingham University Grounds (3)

Nottingham University Grounds (2)

Nottingham University Grounds (1)

Nottingham University Grounds : the Millenium Garden

Poppy's Day

See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day
It's interesting to say that probably about 85 % of people in the streets are wearing a red poppy whatever their age. I've only seen one person with a white one and that was my friend J.

This is a poppy

Bonfire Night

Last Saturday I was invited at a Bonfire Night Party at J's friends. (See explanation on : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night). J & I we decided to burn NS. He was in good company : TB was there too !

NS at a private Bonfire Party in Nottingham

Week end in Manchester (3)

Sunday I went round Salford. Salford is officially part of Manchester but has got its own identity. hence I do apologize if I have labelled photos "Salford" which might be outside Salford... There is a museum which opened last March : People's History Museum. See : http://www.phm.org.uk/. I saw their temporary exhibition on the death and the working class. Quite interesting. At some point there was like a jigsaw with several words & sentences to choose from to write down one's epitaph. Mine happened to be : "get sweet chocolate" (I like it very dark actually).
Manchester still have about 4 different railway station still in use. (4th one being Salford Central) From Nottingham you can end up at Piccadilly, Oxford Road or Victoria. I arrived at Piccadilly and on the way out I had to catch a train at Oxford Road. Although I didn't realise that it then stops at Victoria ! So I had lunch at the Malmaison Brasserie (quite nice) near Victoria and walked to Oxford Road.

Salford (4)

Salford (3)

Salford (2)

Salford (1)

Manchester at random

Week end in Manchester (2)

Saturday afternoon I explored Oxford Road neighborhood. I saw an exhibition at the CUBE Gallery. It displayed different projects by designer. Among the highlights : reinvention of the toaster, belt to experiment menstruation 5 times a day, old folks urine samples to study how to fight diabetes. I then add a piece of cake and a tea at "pure space", a bar with a roof terrace without a view as such.
I had my evening meal at the River Restaurant in the Lowry Hotel. It's by the canal in Salford. There is a spectacular bridge, Trinity Bridge opposite. Otherwise the view is quite grim.

Manchester : Palace Hotel Oxford St / West Whitworth St

Manchester : Manchester : Former Something Somewhere - Please help if you can !

Manchester : from Exchange Square - The timber building is Sinclair's

Week end in Manchester (1)

Do you remember I told you that I had been invited to sing in a festival in Manchester ? (see entry 9/9/10)Well, it was supposedly today but it didn't happen. I'm not sure exactly why but most probably on some problems over the organisation. I had already booked the hotel so I decided to spend nevertheless the week end in Manchester. I had already been once on a short visit while in L. with my friend from L. (see entry 19/5/10)
Last night I walked round the City Centre and ended up in Canal Street, the famous Gay Village HQ. It was dead specially compared to last May.
This morning I first headed off for the Northern Quarter where there are several noticeable small commercial Art Galleries. But the weather being so nice I keep on walking. I then went back to the City Centre and had lunch in the historic Old Wellington Inn (next to the nonetheless famous Sinclair's Oyster Bar.

Manchester : Arnadal Shopping Centre

Manchester : Former Market, Northern Quarter

Manchester : Former Police Station Blackfriars rd / Chapel St

The Social Network

This film is about Facebook. And how the co-founders ended up fighting each other. It's very dense and interesting. See : http://www.broadway.org.uk/events/film_the_social_network

Le Lièvre Gourmand in Orléans

Last week end I went over to Orléans to celebrate my Mum's birthday. We had a very nice meal at "Le Lièvre Gourmand". The chef is originally from Australia. He used to run his restaurant in the middle of nowhere at the south of Orléans. He got a one star Michelin. No doubt - because a star is attributed to a particular place not only to a cuisine - he will soon get it back in his new venue over looking the river Loire. See : http://www.lelievregourmand.com/en

Last Saturday evening

With my friends we went to the Playhouse to see "Twelfth Night" by W. Shakespeare. It was ever so good ! All the actors were excellent and they even gave us at the end a lovely choreographed song. See : http://www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/whats-on/drama/twelfth-night/

Last Sunday

I was in Wakefield. My friend J. is in the Yorkshire Philharmonic Choir and they were performing a "last night of the proms". For the London original one see : http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2010/
It was very good. High standard. They were soloists singers including Alexander Grove. See : http://www.alexandergrove.com/

Last Night of the Proms in Wakefield

Eastwood & Southwell

Last week end my friends E & J from W came over here. Friday we had planned to meet up at Chatsworth House but the weather was awful so we stayed in Nottingham. Saturday it was sunny again and we went to Eastwood to visit D.H. Lawrence's birthplace and Durban House which is a Victorian museum. Being a Saturday both were closed !?
We had lunch in Southwell where we visited the Workhouse. It was a place for paupers to live off the street. Very interesting.
See :
http://www.lawrenceseastwood.co.uk/durbanhouse.htm
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-theworkhouse/

Southwell : The Workhouse Garden

Southwell : The Workhouse

Eastwood : Durban House

Eastwood : DH Lawrence's birthplace

Waou ! Montpellier !

For a change let me share with you something happening in Montpellier. As you know I'm teaching French at an advanced level to one of my student (having an other one this Friday) and so every time I look out for him any interesting article. I saw this one in the September "ça m'intèresse". See : http://www.ecotron.cnrs.fr/index.php?lang=en

London St Pancras : Champagne Bar

Nottingham : Forest Recreation Ground (2)

Nottingham : Forest Recreation Ground (1)

Tamara Drewe and Soulboy

Last 2 films I saw. Tamara Drewe by Stephen Frears. It's a great comedy set in the writers world.
Soulboy by Shimmy Marcus. Welcome back in the 70's ! Nice story.
For more info see www.broadway.org.uk

2 of my Grand-father's sculptures in Nottingham

Last July I brought back those 2 sculptures from Montpellier. I just kept forgetting to photograph them !

Visage aux 2 mains (Face with 2 hands)

L' homme à la cruche (Man with a jug)

Last Day in the Lake District

Yesterday was the last day. In the morning we went to visit the Quaker Tapestry. It's the modern version of the Bayeux Tapestry. I mean as a media to tell true stories. See : http://www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk/. Then we had to do a detour to Lancaster Royal Infirmary as one of us was taken ill there the previous night. Fortunately nothing serious so we picked her up on our way down. Our last visit was for the Quarry Bank Mill. "The largest working waterwheel in Europe and lots of 'hands-on' exhibits" (from the National Trust leaflet)
All in all it has been a very enjoyable trip. Nice company. We even had reasonably good weather except for one day.

Quarry Bank Mill (Near Manchester)

Blackwell / Sizergh

It has been pouring rain all day so I didn't take any photo ! In the morning we visited Blackwell. There is a very homely feeling in this lovely house overlooking Watersmere. See : http://www.blackwell.org.uk/
We had lunch in the National Trust restaurant of Sizergh Castle. Very interesting historically wise and a good example of a Medieval place being transformed over the years. See : http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-sizerghcastlegarden

Hotel Bedroom Drawer (4) : et voilà !

Hotel Bedroom Drawer (3)

Hotel Bedroom Drawer (2)

Hotel Bedroom Drawer (1)

Townend : 16th - 18th C. House Farm (2)

Townend : 16th - 18th C. House Farm (1)

Hawskhead (2)

Hawskhead (1)