June & July 2022

June & July 2022

After virtually three-years of pandemic restriction and lockdown in London, the scorching heat currently in the Midi is actually welcomed and appreciated. The irony is that at the very same time, London is experiencing identical weather if not something even hotter. Since we arrived en face d’Espiguières, we have had Sarah Pike and her delightful friend Ursina as guests. They were to be preceded and overlapped by Andras and Deirdre Arthen coming from Italy. But while in Florence they contracted Covid and had to cancel. Barbara McGraw has come next and is here for the whole month of July. We refer to her as a ‘fixture’. On the 18th of July, Marie-Laure and the honeymooning couple, Toby and Camille, joined us, and the next evening we all went to Stephen’s for dinner (with Daniel, Penny and Wendy & Eben) and the following night it was dinner at Penny’s that included among the many both Sibylle and Jessica.

Since being here, Richard and I were able to do our solstice sunrise dip into the lake – not at our usual spot, but it was still lovely and holy. With Andras & Deirdre’s cancellation, Richard and I dined alone, just the two of us, at Laurent & Meia’s La Table – always a highlight. With Sarah and Ursina, we enjoyed a dinner at the Hotel Provençal. In memory of her husband Hamish who died within the past year, Penny celebrated his birthday with about eighty friends and family (Stephen, Caroline & Guy and their son Louis & his girlfriend Jasmine, Richard & Jo, Tony & Jacky, Margit [who fell] & Jan, and I met Virginie who I wish to have replace Adele.). The occasion was both moving and enjoyable. Richard and I stayed late into the early evening, and Penny insisted on driving to our place to bring Sarah and Ursina to join us all for an evening meal of leftovers.

The one downside from the gathering was that suddenly on the way home Richard could not walk. He had seemed to have recovered from the moment he set foot on Tellus, but now his back has gone out, he has come to live with paracetamol, had been to Cathy, our manual therapist (Poyet method) twice, and did not seem to improve. We have seen her again after the medical facility but before our scheduled x-ray that Cathy had suggested. Richard has ended his paracetamol use and actually – and finally – become much better. His x-ray showed nothing broken or fractured, and his next day blood tests only indicated an iron deficiency. Otherwise, as Marie-Laure puts it, he is in “mint condition.”

In Paris, it had been his knee and not his lower back. We still were able to visit the marvellous house of Maurice Ravel in Montfort- L’Amaury. We lunched there first with Marie-Laure, Toby & Camille. And then in the evening we had our margarita dinner at our favourite Anahua Cali with Margot & Marie-Eugenie greeting us wonderfully, and beautiful Robin & Pili joining us. The next day, we had our first 5:2 at Marie’s with Jonathan & Camille. On the Monday 5:2, at the Résidence Medicis in Maison-Alfort we had some time with a very diminished Françoise. I think she recognised us – at least after I had her switch to English. Marie-Laure went with us. It’s a good place that she is in – at least, but depressing all the same. Later, Richard and I lustrated the memorial oak on the Place de la République and then had cappuccini before walking back to Oberkampf. The Machu Picchu et les trésors du Pérou – Cité de l’architecture exposition at the Musée des Monuments français that we visited on the Tuesday in Paris was of course fascinating, and in its own way showing how a

cultural that is interrelated to both the earth and the heavens could be. After the museum, we lunched outside at the Bambini restaurant of the Palais de Tokyo. On the 15th, we cast our stercum into the Seine and then went to the Tea Caddy. After that, I had a meeting at the Poitou flat to discuss the continued leaks from the roof. The discussions with the architect were productive, and I met Richard afterward for coffee at Au Petit Cheval de Fer. Dinner that night was with Robin & Pili at the Caribbean restaurant (Le Coco de Mer) of a friend of Robin’s (JF/Jean François). Rum, beer, champagne and more rum.

Our Uber was a hassle to the Gare de Lyon, but we made it amply in time. Slept some, ate some and computered some on the train, and Penny met us in Les Arcs. We shopped en route home while she fetched Hamish’s ashes. The Tellus house was a bit chaotic after nearly three pandemic years away and with mice and moths. Planet Brico has helped us with these last, and we now seem to be okay.

Having been in and out of our Provençal village for what is now approaching to a half-century, there is an endless flood of memories at every turn that bring to mind people gone,often long gone, but associated with one spot or another. It amounts to a slow-moving tsunami for which inclusion in the sweep appears to be increasingly imminent. Hauntingly, the setting remains much the same but is now crowded with the recall of countless events.

Time continues for now with her perpetual kiss.

One by one, I managed to clean each room and cabinet at a time over the next week. Adele and Joanne came to visit on the Sunday. Later we visited Liliane and a frail Renaud. The next

day, the solstice, we connected with Petit Claude, Audrey and Pierre. At the Wednesday market, it was Mira, Margit and Jan. I was able to phone Marlowe in Palm Springs as we walked with Sarah and Ursina to the Hotel Provençal for dinner. With the gals, we did the round of the lake (Bill’s beach, temple of Apollo, village of the legendary star, the gorge). On the Monday, Petit Claude and I went to Draguignan and managed somehow the labyrinth of

successfully getting the car insurance and carte gris.

Adele came by with Mariam one morning. Later that day Frits phoned from Amsterdam after having received only two offers on the sale of the house. I accepted the higher one. During this time, Penny fetched Barbara from the train station. From Paris, Marie-Laure sent the keys to the wine shed, garage and safe deposit box, but they got lost and/or misdirected and only after several days were we able to get our hands on them at Adele & Pascal’s. On the last day of the month, Richard and I had a delightful visit to Marie Jacob, the podiatrist. We ran pleasantly into Pascal at the pharmacy. Later, Richard & I had a pre-nefastus ritual. We stopped briefly at Renaud & Liliane’s – seeing Pâris, meeting Ocean, seeing Renaud’s daughter as well as Lorna & Fedrich – before Calalou with Barbara and Joanne. Margaritas & a carnivalesque dinner it was.

When I took the Golf to Petit Claude’s, I learned that his mother had just died (several weeks short of becoming 100). I was asked not to leave the car. Did see Petit Claude a bit later while we were having coffees at the Grand Café du Cours. The next day, Saturday, we were just about to have dinner when Becky phoned. I had forgotten about the pizza dinner. We rushed over and joined Peter and Jason and met their little 3-year-old Oliver. Penny came over on Sunday to offer her services as a power of attorney at the bank. That afternoon, Richard & I went briefly to Lilliane’s family reunion (Birgitte & Claude, Christine & her partner, Micheline,

Lorna & Fedrich, Jean-François, Sylvie, Liliane & Renaud, several children and grandchildren and Joanne). The next day I had a nap that ended with a dream in which Richard was crying when I hugged him after an incident in which he rolled down an incline

after first tumbling in the wagon when I let go of it when he was fooling about. We were going to an old restaurant maybe to meet Joanne (?) – though I had to phone her first. We had not been sure of the restaurant place. I think it was another block though we had passed one that looked like it. When I caught up and grabbed Richard, I had to move a tiny child with its father aside to not knock it down. I put Richard’s face against the side of my neck and he was crying. I kept repeating, “You know I love you,” and then added, “I know you are not sure that I do.”

For ‘cinema night’ at Penny’s, it was Fernando León de Aranoa’s A Perfect Day. I had mixed feelings; the acting was excellent but the story situation was depressing. Another dream: Stravinsky’s hands were just lovely when I sat down after his talk and talked with him. A bit later I saw and asked George Clooney if he and Stravinsky and some other noteworthies could form a circle to demand world change. He, however, snapped that the world’s stateswere too different from one another. I countered by saying not the states but to focus on the globe’s urban conglomerations. But he was preoccupied and was not interested.

I have finally managed to finish reading Robert Muchembled’s L’Orgasme & L’Occident: Une Histoire du Plasir du XVIe Siècle à Nos Jours that Gunter had given me in Amsterdam. What was most interesting was his consideration of the 1968 student revolt in Paris as pivotal in the liberation of both women and gays. I am now reading Oberon Zell’s GaeaGenesis: Conception and Birth of the Living Earth (2022) for a review in Bron’s Journal for the Study

of Religion and Nature.

The feux d’artifices were cancelled, but the champagne and Mont Blanc went ahead anyway. I think we were 23 in all: Steve & Annie who had come for the night; Petit Claude & Kati; Stephen; Guy & Martine; Pierre & Catherine; Dieter & Cindy; Liliane & Renaud; Becky, Peter, Jason and Oliver; with Jessica, Paddy & Keir, as the last to arrive. It was all successful – especially for Richard.

Our second cinema night at Penny’s was Sophie Hyde’s “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” with Emma Thompson. The film was fabulous. Emma is terrific. It was funny/hysterical at times and yet moving. After we watched the Nalvany documentary. Powerful but could still for me be fake news. Even if it is not, how effective is it?

We have also had another meal chez nous on the Ides of July for which Joanne brought everything including lamb and peach pie. We met her friend Yvonne, and it was a perfectly lovely, though late, evening. I did manage to forget the next day’s Soteria. And the day after that I overslept and missed my Zoom with Lanna. After Richard’s x-ray in Draguignan and before taking Toby & Camille to Les Arcs, we visited the Pierre de la Fée and then had

coffee at the station. We have since been to the lake with Marie-Laure and later enjoyed a Saturday night meal (M-L’s cold courgette soup, Barbara’s tomato & mozzarella salad, the chicken from the morning’s market [a bit overheated] and Richard’s fried bananas for dessert) and to which we invited Penny and had negroni and then red wine. Since it was the Neptunalia, Richard and I had ritualised.

And that sums us up at present. I lit a candle in memory of my brother on the 19th. The day before, the Amsterdam house was sold. Tomorrow Marie-Laure returns to Paris, Tuesday I attempt to Zoom with Lanna, Thursday we dine at Pierre & Catherine’s going early for a swim, and Saturday Barbara departs and moves to Joanne’s. It all remains a very hot whirlwind but delightful, even joyous. I may not be in full accord with Oberon’s Theogenesis

/ GaiaGenesis and his mythographical distortions, but he writes well and clearly and has been interesting even if and when redundant. The curtain continues to descend, but how quickly remains the question.