French 45s

Sunday before last, the little town where I am staying was having a "vide-greniers" - a sort of huge flea market. For the occasion, the whole seafront was lined with little stands. I strolled it for a bit but never covered the whole thing. It really spread for a couple of miles. But I hit a stall of old 45 rpm records, and found a few interesting ones:

I'll have to wait to be home to hear them on a turntable, but for now, here are a few of the titles, courtesy of youtube - enjoy!

Françoise Hardy, J'suis d'accord (one of her first songs, that I used to cover...)

Jacques Brel, Jacky - from his final farewell album, Les Marquises. I love that song, along with almost everything else he did, really.

Petula Clark, Chariot (in French!). The video is so dated! (and so funny...)

Nino Ferrer, Le Sud, a French classic. His earlier hits are also worth a listen - straight up 60s rock, like Mirza, Oh!Hé!Hein!Bon!, or the ever popular Le Téléfon

Serge Gainsbourg's controversial Lemon Incest

And finally, Les Compagnons De La Chanson, Le bleu de l'été

They were a 50s men's choir group, I love their vocal arrangements. I had a conversation with Van Dyke Parks once, who told me a story about how he told a French journalist that they were one of his main influences. The journalist was appalled and told him it was very unfashionable - they are somewhat out of fashion nowadays, I'd say most people would think of them as straight up cheesy, or 'ringard'. But after the article was published, an 80 year old member of the group wrote Van Dyke Parks a letter to thank him for mentioning his choir. And Van Dyke concluded - 'isn't this just the reason why we do what we do?'

Deer territory

Some of the gems collected on a recent little trip to the country, where I was visiting more family:

A walk in the forest,

The view from the door of the cottage where I was sleeping,

And a drawing from my cousin's thirteen year old daughter after I played some songs in the living room:

I played them this song, you see.

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Speaking of, don't forget about the Deer Convention Project. There is only until the end of the month to contribute and reserve your awesome rewards!...

go here:

http://kck.st/cjWe5e

Some of my favorite foods

Of this I already had three times on this trip and I can't get enough. My dad made it every summer when I was a child, and back in the US, when I was thinking of coming here, this is what I was fantasizing about: grilled mackerel.

They come from the fish market in the morning, fresh, line caught and never kept on ice. You can press them with coarse salt and herbs ahead of time:

Once you got your fire just right they can go on the grill:

And after a few minutes...voilà:

Eat them with potatoes in the skin with a lot of butter, and some dry white wine - it's a feast!

Dinan

I had some visitors last weekend, which allowed me to do a little tourism in these parts. A lot of good times were had, and I'll probably have a few more posts about them... On saturday afternoon we headed to Dinan, a little city on the banks of the river Rance. It's perched on cliffs and surrounded by ramparts, and most of the medieval town center is still preserved - very well preserved I should say. We strolled around the tiny streets and visited the shops. Found some delicious salt butter caramel, and sat for a crêpe mid afternoon, while watching street musicians carrying on the jester tradition.

I like how the wooden structures are sagging a bit and making everything look askew. See that tower?

Stripes, stripes and stripes.

Inside the covered market, La Cohue.

One of the few very fine looking engraving shops we encountered.

From the ramparts you can see the little port, nestled on a bend of the river:

Wouldn't it be nice to stay in one of these houses and take a few days to explore the river on a boat? maybe sail all the way to the English Channel...

A breton explanation of heaven and hell through topography

The little town where I'm staying has two funny little street signs:

(Hell Street)

(Heaven Way)

I happen to live on one of them, fortunately (I suppose), the latter one. Besides being located right behind the church (one would think, a surer way to heaven), it's also on a pretty steep incline:

Whereas Hell Street, as you might have guessed, goes down:

So there you go, heaven is up, hell is down. Pretty simple, no?

My own notion of heaven this morning was riding my bike to the beach for a swim. Turquoise water, soft pebbles, yellow rocks. Kelp. Gulls. And the cove to myself, all before lunch.

Looking for the silver lining on a bike

Staying with family is not always easy. After the first few days, all the things that might have annoyed you about a person at some point start to resurface. The way they do certain things, how you get into arguments. You might have thought you had changed but there it is, the same kind of confrontations, again. In a way it's good it happens because - at least for me - it forces us to confront the issues. In my case, I feel like I'm learning more about who they are. I try to see them in a different light, and to give them the same respect and clemency I would grant anyone else I am led to meet in my life otherwise. It's quite eye opening, also challenging, very difficult at times, yet I'm grateful for the experience...but it can all get a bit exhausting!

So for a change of pace I went on a bike ride. My Dad has just fixed up an old bike I fell in love with, so I defied the grey skies and chilly weather and headed inland to the fields and country lanes. I bumped my way along the rocky paths and had a pretty good time. I found cows, wheat fields, corn fields, fallow fields filled with wild flowers, and even a bumblebee at work on a thistle.

On my way back I rode by the seafront, and up to a house I used to fantasize about as a child. It's been redone into apartments but still looks the part (of the romantic summer mansion). From there a small lane goes down to a creek where I found my silver lining. I sat there for a while and watched the tide.

July apples, and an update on the Deer Convention Project

La photo du jour: sweet yellow apples of July ("Pommes de Juillet") from the garden, one of which I had for lunch:

this is where they live:

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I've also been working on the Deer Convention Project - or so I call the drive to fund the album - and it had a wonderful start. I'm amazed that we're already a quarter of the way to our goal...but there is still some way to go! If you were thinking of pledging but haven't done so yet, just visit the page here and you'll be on your way in a few clicks. 
A million thank yous to all who have already contributed. I feel very fortunate to have so many people involved in the process already. Updates on the project's progress will be here but also on the kickstarter page. I can't wait for the Deer Convention to literally take flight! (as the song goes...)

And please please if you can, spread the word. Blog about it, repost, retweet (the page has very easy-to-use share buttons) or forward to your friends and family. Thank you thank you. And thank you.

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Meanwhile, I'm still thinking of what the cover will look like. What do you think of using this photo?

or one of those?

???