Prague Progress

This weekend I visited Prague with G and his parents, supposedly for his mum's 60th birthday, but in fact we had a great time too and felt more like a present to us than to her.

Prague is a truly extraordinary city. I visited it ten years ago during my student days on the obligatory month long trip around Europe on interail. I know I have grown up a lot since then, but Prague has changed beyond all recognition. The only things I recognised were the old town square and the Charles Bridge.

Otherwise, the city has had a total facelift. The one thing that struck me most is how much the Czech people have understood about tourism. At the hotel the service was top quality, in restaurants the wait staff were polite, smily and efficient, and overall everyone we met was totally open to new ideas, new people, new ways of doing things.

I love France very much, and I wouldn't change it, but when I think about the arrogance there is for all things French: wine, cheese, sauces, monuments, I can't help but think that the French are going to get a harsh wake-up call sometime soon.

Service in France is pretty chilly to say the least. Occasionally there are exceptions, but generally speaking people working in the service industry will do as little as possible to help if it means extra work for them.

The city of Prague is blossoming with new restaurants, bars, museums and parks all over the place. There are fusion restaurants sprouting up with glossy menus, crisp white table cloths and huge crystal wine glasses. Our hotel was modern, gorgeous, designed by Eva Jiricna and with a Philip Starke bathtub in one of the suites. No poky dark rooms there, and a far cry from the gloomy £6 a night apartment I rented for three days the last time I visited. It's a city with a sparkling future for sure.

On a personal note it was lovely to spend some quality time with G, he's been living in Chablis for two weeks now, and I miss him a great deal. He's back again tomorrow and I'm trying to think of something nice to do. It seems we've both been running around so much, perhaps I'll treat him to a little English fusion cooking at home.

Butter wouldn't melt...

How cute is this little bundle? Chloe is almost two months old now, I can't believe how quickly time is flying by. My sister assured me about two weeks ago that her offspring was smiling on command - or at least in reaction to tickles, smiles and songs - and that it was unbelievably cute. Having said that there was no photographic evidence. Now there is, and here you can see my gorgeous niece performing for her close-up.

Life in Paris is extremely busy at the moment. Tonight I just returned from a concert with Voices in Boutigny-sur-Essonne, a delightful little village with a post office, a restaurant, a bar and a church. We sang in the church which was packed to the back, and even the Mayor was there; he sat behind the alto section, so I'm not entirely sure he enjoyed the whole concert.

Yesterday we had a gig with the Mumblers, my band. This time the action was in Gif-sur-Yvette, another small place with the claim to fame of being home to the CAES, which as far as I understood is the playground of the nuclear scientists from the CRNS who spend their days working with nuclear reactors and complicated theories. The CAES seems to be an organisation which takes care of the scientists leisure time. The Mumblers are made up of several employees from the CRNS, and whenever work is mentioned it goes completely over my head.

The gig went pretty well, it was freezing cold and we had to dance like maniacs to warm up, but overall the people liked it. I was quite surprised by the way that they knew line-dancing, rock'n'roll steps and what looked suspiciously like a quick-step. It's always a great pleasure to play for an appreciative audience, and even though they were probably dancing only to keep warm, there was a great atmosphere and they seemed to be having a good time.

So now there are two more concerts to go before the end of the "year" - of course in France the year finishes in June and the new one starts in September. We have one more with Voices - in Magny en Vexin (can a place never have just one word in its name?) and one on the 21st June with Mumblers for the Fête de la Musique, as we did last year. Lovely Lola is no longer a part of Mumblers - the weekly commute from Hong Kong for rehearsals would be a real pain - and so we have to go on without her. Her replacement Angela is doing a great job, but I really miss practicing with L. A January Hong Kong trip is in the pipeline and an Asian karaoke experience is definitely in the top five of my to-do list.

Burning at both ends

Yet again I'm in the throes of a concert - rehearsal - concert - translation - work cycle. G is still living in Paris (until next week) so I'm also trying to make the most of him before the world of wine-making absorbs him forever.

With The Mumblers we have a concert on Friday, so it's all hands on deck to get the ooos in the right place and the belty voice ready to pounce.

Exams in three weeks for my translation certificate and I don't really feel like I'm making progress. I've decided to read Annie Ernaux's Une Femme in French as a way of convincing myself I'm doing something towards bettering my language. In the mock exam I had 9/30 for written French translation, which I am utterly ashamed about, but it gave the kick I needed - or so I thought. Since receiving the results I haven't really done anymore than I did before.

Procrastination is making its home in my schedule and it looks like it's here to stay.

Cereal with a side of cotton anyone?

I had a successful shopping spree today and the sales guys at H&M, Zara and Etam were pretty pleased as well. The reason for this was not any particular boost in my income, but that I managed to ruin at least ten items of clothing from my (and G's) wardrobe.

Last Wednesday, G and some friends of his were sharing an apéro and waiting for a roast chicken to, well, roast, and he heard a banging sound not unlike the noise metal makes when it gets hot. So, without thinking anything of it, he assumed it was the oven.

The next morning I put a load of darks into the washing machine and set it going. Arriving home that evening, I spun round the drum of the toploading washing machine and heard a sickening crunching sound. Now, even with my limited experience of washing machines I am bright enough to know that crunching and machinery do not usually make a good combo.

Opening the machine with intrepidation, I discovered that there was a box of cereal inside the drum. The cardboard from the box had totally disintegrated, leaving shreds all over the dark clothes. The plastic inner bag was slightly open, and a few handfuls of cereals had managed to escape from the packet and onto my lovely new tailored shorts. They were obviously having a great time because they'd stuck with such enthusiasm that I couldn't pick them off without yanking out clumps of material.

The bang that G and his friends heard must have been the box of cereal landing into the open toploading washing machine. I still have no idea how. Suffice to say that most of the clothes from that particular wash are now on their way to some landfill in a rubbish dump.

The cereal was Special K by the way. I have no idea why that's important but everyone I've shame-facedly admitted this story to has asked me the same question.

The moral of the story: always check the interior of the washing machine for children, pets, garden tools and of course, cereal boxes.

Paris Subway warms up...

I found this heart-warming video today, even though Sarkozy will probably ban it soon, métro music can still be good. I have to say that this group is professional and were on a tour of Europe. Their name is Naturally7 and I'm sure we'll be hearing more from them.

Yes, old Sarko made it, as everyone thought or feared he would. His first duty as President was of course to take a holiday, in true French style. Still, he wanted to make a point: money is not a shameful thing to have. All those single-parent families are very grateful to him for pointing that out, I'm sure.

As I said in my previous post, I'm neither for him nor against him and there are parts of his programme which do worry me. I just think we can't forget that he's been minister of the interior for the last 5 years and there has been little radical change.

Let's calm down and listen to the cool metro music...

La France Présidente

The pun in her election campaign tag-line roughly translates into "France presiding" or "France on top" but with the added bonus that présidente is the word for a woman in that job. This doesn't really gel with how the media has been portraying Ségolène Royal in the last few weeks. I'm not totally sure, but I get the impression that France will be pretty crippled under all her generous reforms and I'm beginning to wonder where she's planning on getting all her funding for the projects she assures us she'll put in place.

On the other hand there is "Ensemble, tout devient possible" from Nicolas Sarkozy, which is really just as scary. Anything is possible, indeed. Where will he stop with his threats to clean out the rough suburbs with a power-jet washer? Economically he is the polar opposite to Ségolène Royal, choosing to emphasize the fact that France doesn't work enough.

I have to admit that there he may have a point. Today we are enjoying a very sunny 1st May public holiday, and there are more to come. Next week will be the same, Tuesday is a bank holiday, and like this week, Monday will be a pont (bridge - word used for a long weekend) so the week will only contain three real working days. There is another pont the week after that, on Thursday and Friday, and then a full week, then on the 28th a lot of companies still give Whitsuntide Monday off, although it's no longer a public holiday (since 2004).

It's hardly surprising then when we hear that the French resent their potential president telling them that they have to work more. Being used to 5 weeks holiday a year, plus all these public holidays, they consider them part of life, and a right.

Being English, I don't have a vote in the presidential election, and with the current selection of second-round candidates I have to say I'm almost glad. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to lie in the sunshine and do nothing.

Country Bumpkin

The gorgeous sunshine is still beating down and it's making me want to get out of the city. A lot is going on at the moment and things are changing rapidly. My sister has given birth, my mum will be 60 in a few weeks and G is moving out to Chablis to make wine.

Yes, he has decided that the city is not for him and he's going to don his dungarees and get ready for a life among the vines. Chablis is not so far away (just 1hr and a half) and I'm sure he'll manage to do some of the non-dirty fingernail work from Paris. During the week we are both so busy with work running late, me with my rehearsals and other stuff that we barely see each for an hour in the evenings anyway.

He's going out to Chablis to his uncle's domain, Louis Michel et Fils, and will try to learn how the business works from A - Z, then he's going to identify which parts of the process he's most interested in, and then he'll do some official training at a university, probably part-time. For more info on the wine of Chablis, pay a visit to the wine doctor.

This will all start at the end of May. As for me, I'm staying in Paris and keeping my independence... at least for the time being. As a child of the seventies I have been brought up to think that I should be as independent as possible. It's going to take some imagination, but when I do finally go out to Chablis to live there permanently I'm determined to find a way to at least contribute to our finances.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to look out my flowery dress and apron.

Scorcher

It's thirty degrees in Paris today. I rode my bike from Vincennes to the métro stop Odéon (about 5 miles) and even though I tried to stick to bike paths and pavements I found that there were so many people milling around it was almost impossible. All of Paris crawled out from under their baguettes today, to take in the beauty of their city.

I went to meet my friend Silvia for brunch at a delightful little place called Forêt Noire in the 6th arrondissement. We had cakes, eggs, toast, salad and fruit salad washed down with delicious grapefruit juice and tea. The descriptions of the place say it's very cosy in winter but with the windows open onto the garden next door it really was a perfect place to spend a couple of sunny hours.

My sister isn't having quite such an easy time. There are no bike rides and brunch in the land of babies. As gorgeous as Chloe is, and as happy she is about her arrival, I think the sleepless nights are beginning to grate on her. It's to be expected, and of course she's taking it in her stride, but I hope that after a few more weeks she will stop waking up 5 times a night! She told me it is ten times harder than she thought it would be, and she had a very realistic view on things to begin with.


Well I think I would change places with her at least for tomorrow, I have a group to lead from 9am to 12pm and I'm feeling very nervous about it. I have that Sunday evening feeling that I haven't had for a while - like before an exam or driving test. Better get back to the prep.

Chloe Louise

I've fallen in love with a little girl. My niece Chloe is so beautiful and gorgeous, I can't believe how delightful she is. My sister is exhausted but happy, her husband is very much in control of the situation - changing nappies and calming her down - Chloe and my sister. They are a vision of a young family.

What I am really surprised about is that I'm not broody. The birth of my niece has only calmed my desire to have a baby. Not because gorgeous Chloe is not a perfect little bundle, she is. Perhaps it's because my ridiculously practical nature disallows any kind of desire for a lifestyle too far removed from my own.

In any case, regardless of my lack of broodiness to have my own children (at least for the moment), I'm totally besotted with Chloe. Tomorrow will bring another precious visit, then I'll have to wait another month before coming over for my mum's 60th birthday party. Or Chloe's Presentation Party TM as it has started to be called.... Her grandparents are so proud, not to mention her great-grandmother, but my mum's party will bring a bevvy of great-aunts, great-uncles, second cousins as well as friends from all over the country (and France) who will all be jostling for a view of the new arrival.

I'm a happy aunt but I can't believe what my baby sister has gone through the last 48 hours and all that with a smile on her face.

Baby Chloe

Bang on time as always, my sister gave birth to a gorgeous healthy little bundle of love this morning at 9am - right on her due date.

Chloe Louise was born this morning and she's doing very well. As far as I know they can leave the hospital this evening and so my sister won't have to be in hospital overnight. She went in at 4am this morning and should be home pretty soon. Chloe is really gorgeous and very placid - for the moment she hasn't cried very much, she just sleeps and looks around a little. I'm certain there is more action to come, but for the moment she's extremely happy and calm.

We were only allowed an hour of visiting today because of the hospital rules and because my sister is exhausted, but we'll go over tomorrow at some point and try to help out with cooking or something. I'm a very proud auntie!