26 December, 2011 | 8 Comments

It’s been a bookish Christmas chez Anglofille. Of course, since I’m in the final stages of thesis frenzy, I don’t have time to read, but I will soon, just in time for the long winter nights to come. Here are some of the books that I received as gifts, though I should point out that I picked out all these books myself — it would be impossible for anyone to figure out exactly what I want to read. And while I’m mostly linking to Amazon here (since their descriptions are fairly thorough), I don’t buy most of my books from Amazon and try to support independent stores and websites as much as possible.

The first four books represent my female Modernist kick. I have no idea why these books all appealed to me at once. The first two are by Mina Loy:

Stories and Essays of Mina Loy

The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems

H.D. Collected Poems 1912 – 1944

Jean Rhys: The Complete Novels

I got a new copy of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman as well as Lyndall Gordon’s Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft

I love the film and have always wanted to read The Talented Mr. Ripley — I’m excited to finally have the book

And another by Patricia Highsmith — Little Tales of Misogyny

Edith Wharton’s The Writing of Fiction, which I’ve started reading and it’s brilliant

Joan Didion’s Blue Nights

Oh — and one book by a man!  Geoff Dyer’s Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence

I also have a gift certificate that I haven’t spent yet…

Did you get any books this holiday season?

21 December, 2011 | 9 Comments

My beautiful birthday cake!  I’ve had a lovely day — breakfast out, dinner out, gifts and sweet messages, and a browse around the Sundance store, where I was bought a beautiful turquoise necklace. Now it’s time to cut the cake (though I hate to cut it — it’s too pretty).

Sorry I haven’t posted since I’ve been back in the USA. Between jet lag, catching up with family, eating all my favorite foods and working on my thesis, my mind has been elsewhere. I hope you’re all enjoying the holiday season.

7 December, 2011 | 3 Comments

Conversation of the day:

Me to hotel receptionist (who said he speaks English): “Hi. My room smells like raw sewage. Can I change please?”

Receptionist: “Sewage?”

Me: “Yes, like a sewer. Do you know what a sewer is?”

Receptionist: “Yes.”

Anyway, I’m making my way to Paris CDG tomorrow and flying out early on Friday –> back to the USA on a very long but thankfully non-stop flight to where my parents live in the western part of the country. On my way up to Paris I’ve stopped in Cannes (where I’d never been before) and Avignon (which I visited last year).  I’ll share a few photos, but I haven’t taken many. I’ve lost my tourist mojo and have just wandered along the seaside in Cannes, browsed in boutiques and enjoyed the Christmas market in Avignon.

The photo at the top is La Croisette in Cannes. People have compared Cannes to Beverly Hills and I can see the similarities — a lot of snobbish designer boutiques and pretentious rich people whose skin is so over-tanned and leathery you could make a handbag out of it. But the beach was lovely:

Standing in the same spot, looking in the other direction, it looked like this:

It was a Jekyll-and-Hyde sky. The sunny and bright section was such a rich, beautiful blue — I suppose that’s why they call it the Azure Coast!

(more…)

3 December, 2011 | 5 Comments

I took a day trip to Saint-Paul-de-Vence today, which is a windy 5-minute bus ride down the mountain from where I’ve been living. According to Rick Steves, Saint-Paul-de-Vence is the most visited village in France.  It’s a medieval village on a hill filled with very narrow and steep cobblestone paths. Let’s just say I got quite a workout today. The town is full of art galleries, shops and cafes, though many of them were closed because this is, according to one shop owner, “the dead season.”  This is one interesting thing I’ve learned about the French Riviera. I always thought of it as the Florida of France, where people would flock in the cold months to soak up the warmth and Mediterranean sunshine, but it’s not like that at all. It’s too chilly in the winter to be like Florida.

Saint-Paul-de-Vence is chic and has a history of attracting artists, writers and actors. Marc Chagall lived there. The American writer James Baldwin lived and died in the town (I was too lazy to find his old home, which is apparently dilapidated and for sale). And for horror movie fans: the British actor Donald Pleasance also lived and died in the village. It was pretty deserted for most of my visit, which was nice, I suppose, but then a busload of Japanese tourists appeared to liven things up and spend money. I actually had to translate for a few of them in a shop (imagine that!), since the only non-Japanese words they knew were in English. One guy thought nougat was soap. That was pretty funny.

I’ll share a few photos from today, beginning with a photo of my favorite moment…stumbling upon the Alps!!!  This region of France is called Alpes-Maritimes, but I had no idea the Alps were so closeby. From my town, you can’t see them. It was such a thrill to see these snow-capped peaks — and from other vantage points in the village, you can see the Mediterranean sea, so it’s an interesting mix. [I should point out that this photo is through a zoom lens -- the mountains aren't as close as they appear.]

The next two photos are typical scenes in Saint-Paul-de-Vence:

I really loved this house:

A rare flat street in the village — you can see the swarming crowds too!

Sunset from one of the look-out points:

The cathedral:

I loved this scene at the entrance to the village — the whole area is like walking into a postcard:

Autumn vines (and a little kitty if you can spot her!):

Old men playing boules:

A public water fountain, out of which fresh spring water flows — they have these all over the region, in my town as well, though I’ve never seen one this cute:

2 December, 2011 | 4 Comments

I got my hair colored today. I just couldn’t wait till I got home — my hair looked, in a word, hideous. I knew the hair colorist didn’t speak English (very few people in this town do), but I stupidly didn’t brush up on hair-related vocab before my appointment. This resulted in some funny miscommunication.

I sat in the chair and she said: “Your hair is clear. Would you like it more French?”

Of course, this isn’t what she actually said, but it’s what I thought she said.  I was quite stumped by her assertion that my hair is clear — have you ever seen anyone with clear (i.e. see-through) hair?  And as for her question about whether I wanted French hair, I had no idea what she meant.

“Do you want it more French?” she kept saying.

“Well,” I said.  ”Ummmm….more French? I don’t know.”  I kept thinking…don’t French people have the same kind of hair as everyone else?  Then I thought she must have meant a French style. I started to panic, thinking that she wanted to do something cutting edge, like dyeing my hair platinum blonde.

She kept asking over and over again whether I wanted my hair French, until she finally blurted out, in English: “Darker.”

Ah. Turns out she wasn’t saying français, but foncé. I wasn’t familiar with the word foncé and the way she pronounced it sounded exactly like français to me. So of course I felt like an idiot. And she wasn’t saying that I had clear hair, but light hair. I didn’t realize clair also meant light. Thankfully I left the salon with the shade I wanted, which just happens to be très foncé.

Another interesting hair-related word: brushing. In French this means “blow-dry.” I’d love to know how that happened! This word must have been imported from English, but somehow the meaning was changed.

While I was having my hair done, I browsed through a stack of gossip rags. I read one article that said Kate Middleton is undergoing psychotherapy because QE2 fears she’ll end up like Diana. And another that said Demi Moore (and possibly her daughter) are anorexic alcoholics. Apparently, Beyoncé is faking her pregnancy and her father has bought a baby for her. Some of the gossip seemed a bit reckless and what was interesting is that one issue of Closer had a white banner across 1/4 of the cover saying something about how Charlotte Gainsbourg had won a judgment against them for something. I thought it was odd this was on the cover of the magazine — I’ve never seen anything like that before. Usually corrections and things of that sort are buried in the back where no one sees them.

Almost all of the celebrities were American, Canadian and British. I went through an entire stack of trash mags and saw maybe 3 French celebs — and Vanessa Paradis was only there because of Johnny Depp.  There were headlines like: “Justin Bieber est le père de mon bébé” and another that roughly translates to “Justin Bieber made my baby in 30 seconds.” There were also photos of Kim Kardashian and other z-list North American and Brit “celebs.” WHY? You French people have let me down again. Resist the evil anglophone empire!