Fontevrault - Been There

Welcome to Fontevraud from Francis Cutter & Vincent Nguyen on Vimeo.

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan

Art, France, Music - What More Could You Want?

Fun with murals and music in France. Did I ever write a happier sentence? It's all zen until they get to Paris, and then its freakynuttyfun time. Enjoy!

That's New (I think)

Over at Paris 2e, there's a funny sign up at the corner of Rue du Temple and Rue Rambuteau.

Those 2 streets were our stomping ground in July, 2007, but I don't remember seeing the sign. Perhaps by gushing about the Bouldogue Cafe we've directed hordes of tourists there, ruining the neighborhood and causing the locals to protest?

Nah. But it's still amusing.

Enough with the Red Velvet

Mother and I went to the Louvre. Twice.

On our second visit, Mother was especially keen to see Napoleon's apartments. We misunderstood, assuming that they would be the apartments of the Napoleon. Not so. They actually housed not the Emperor who embraced the ancient world and its aesthetic values, but the Emperor who embraced ladies who amplified the size of their rear ends.

We walked through one room after another, marveling at how much gilt, carving, and ornamentation one family could cram into a single set of rooms. Finally, in the grand salon, a room where entire factories of red velvet came to die alongside potted palms and gilded chairs, I turned to Mother.

I opened my mouth (cue slow motion) and she said, 'it's the proverbial French whorehouse.' No need for me to speak, obviously.

So let's revise history a bit. Napoleon III lost his crown and his country not because he met defeat at the hands of the Germans. No, the French kicked him out for one reason and one reason only. He was tacky.

Chez Kjerulf

Is really pretty. Note the blue shutters. They work. Note the slate walls. That's right, the walls are about a foot thick, made of slate stacked like dinner plates. Angers produces slate, and Trelaze was a mining town before the mine closed. Brian and Dominique say that the house remains about 65-70 degrees year round because of its walls.


This rose was a gift to Dominique about four years ago. Number one, how pretty is that? Number two, if you enlarge the image below you can see the stem in relation to my hand. It got that big in 4 years. Wow. And Stick said it was climbing up the house. They had to cut it back. Amazing.

'OMG cointreau . . .'

. . . comes from here!' exclaimed Fiona upon being told that it does in fact come from St. Barthélémy d'Anjou. (That is essentially right next door to where we are in France right now BTW.) How happy is she? Let's just say very. If we manage a distillery tour she might just expire from joy.

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