Rachida and Thomas’ wedding et al.

Rachida and Thomas’ wedding in Banne with the reception in Rousson (near St. Ambroix and straddling the departments of Ardèche and Gard) was lovely. The weather held, and although the bride was late to the point that the mayor was becoming agitated, she was lovely when she appeared, and all proceeded henceforth smoothly. Thomas’ family is atheist; Rachida’s Moslem and from Algeria. Her father has disowned her, and a brother has threatened to kill her, but another brother who explained to me that “Rachida est exceptionelle” was the one who came to give her away while the father took her mother to Algeria the same day as the marriage. His opposition appears to be more ethnic than religious since he supposedly does not believe in ‘God’. Rachida’s sister, however, also came to the wedding.

The reception was held at the Chateau de Rousson with plenty to drink, delicious hors-d’oeuvres and a sumptuous meal that lasted until midnight. The party itself went all night, but not us. We also met Giancarlo from Italy and Jean-Christophe from France who both live in the Netherlands and who are, to use Freeman’s term, our ‘new best friends’. Both are attractive and lovely.

We drove back to Montélimar the following day in a car rental but then had difficulty trying to find a petrol station to re-fill the car before returning it. Finally we found one, but it refused my French credit card (the station itself was closed) as well as any others I tried. I kept re-inserting, and eventually the card was accepted. But then the hotel where I was to leave the keys of the car was closed. At the station, we were informed that due to technical difficulties  we would need to take a different train to Lyon and there switch to our TGV to Paris. On this last, there was no wifi service, and even the electricity for my laptop did not function. I was still able to do some work and writing.

In Paris we bade farewell to Françoise. After getting to the flat in the Marais, we walked to the Seine and sat in the sun at the down-river end of the Île de Saint-Louis. It could not have been more splendidly beautiful. We later purchased some gravlax and cheese and had dinner in the flat – retiring by 22:30 and sleeping soundly for ten hours. Today, our one full day in Paris, we had planned to ritualise for the Agonium festival and wander about but are instead confined to the flat thanks to heavy rain. Hence, why I am able to do this update.

Last month, April, we had visits from Woody along with his cousin Chris who were overlapped by Ralph and Françis. These last took us to the Bethanienklooster for a trio concert of works by Pierre Coleon, Wim Waag and Astor Piazzolla. The following evening was Saskia’s birthday celebration where we were able to enjoy conversations with Pier, Adam and Adaline.

Some negative things involved learning that Susan has breast cancer. Also that our neighbour in London, Shirley Robinson, died suddenly. Freeman was attacked in Central Park by a woman brandishing a broken bottle. I had a brief stomach flu, and both Richard and I have had colds. We also went through a long drawn-out process getting a blood test for Richard in connection to his positive hepatitis C reading. Eventually we were able to learn that he only has the antibodies but not the virus itself.

Saskia lent us Io Sono l’Amore with Tilda Swinton. We loved the film. Richard turned 74 during our April regime. One night we watched Hitchcock’s Stage Fright. Toward the latter half of April, we learned from Macha that she discovered she has a grandson when he phoned her out of the blue. She had given birth to a son when she was sixteen who she had to give up for adoption. In the late 80s she tried to find the child only to learn that he had died at age 26 from a drug overdose. She has always wondered. She met Ian the following day in Sacramento and is now simply ecstatic.

We celebrated Richard’s birthday itself with the Vinalia Priori on the 23rd of April doing a round of coffeeshops including Barney’s next door where we were treated to milkshakes. Ended up at Jimmy’s. On other occasions, we have had Stephan and Koen for dinner, visited Nick and Ilonka, visited also Thomas who had his toe removed but is otherwise recovering well, Saskia and Adam came for a dinner one night, and we had dinner with Warren and Gin at his place. We went to Joan Collin’s show, “One Night with Joan,” at the De La Mar Theater. She was utterly entertaining. Marco has frequently worked on my computer, television and telephone connections; also Eric from the hotel next door. Marco and Jim have been for dinner, and both returned the following week with Marco’s German girlfriend Julia and another dinner along with Joanne, Jim, Liliane and Renaud. The previous night to this last had been our dinner cruise on the Paradis. The final day of the visit from the Aupsois contingent, we had the buffet breakfast at the Winter Garden. We met Jake later that same day. Subsequently, while Margot was staying with us, we had a dinner for her that included Santima, Jim, his cousin Gary and Gary’s friends Karen and Mike, and Margo’s friend Bo.

Otherwise, I have done The Wild Hunt posting, a few others and some steady work on my ‘Divine Incest’ manuscript. For the 30th of April, the rains interrupted, and we were able to enjoy a flawlessly beautiful Konniningdag. We visited various coffeeshops and saw Erin at The Farm. It was a gently relaxed day. The previous evening we had enjoyed the Delftse Studenten Big Band around the corner by the jazz café, and on the day of the Queen’s Birthday celebrations itself, in the Jordaan, a spontaneous encounter with the samba drumming group Marancha which we found mesmerising and awesome. We ran into Eric at one point with his Polish girlfriend and his fascinating sister. Marco was at Betty Two. Eventually we followed the Prinsengracht boats, and I came to recognise the Amstelfeld as a quasi-secret holy place. It was here while watching all the jubilation that I was able to understand festive celebration as a mimicking or recreation of the pagan expectation of joyous welcome upon final entry into the heavenly otherworld. The gods certainly were present on the day and provided a hiatus in the otherwise inclement weather for the occasion.

Our first night in Paris we had a dinner at Anahuacalli with our incomparable Marie-Laure. Tony even provided us some extra free margaritas. Richard became more emotionally expressive than is usual and complained about hurts and disappointments within our family, but overall we had a great time, and his hangover was not dreadful the following day. And the sky is now brightening a bit, and the rains are subsiding to some degree, and we may be able to get out after all.