The PONs are still getting used to the clock change. Bright when we head off along the lane in the morning but pitch dark by seven thirty at night.
Bob waits impatiently for his sister to join him in the back of the car. He's ready for a trip to the cafe and the bakers.
Sophie is late. She can be found sitting on the lawn glaring at an owl that is perching on a beam in the barn. The owl glares back at her. This PON - owl standoff lasts some time.
We find a parking spot on the square. The florist has spread her stock of chrysanthemums onto the parking spaces by the pharmacy. It's the time of year when the locals go to visit their family graves for All Souls Day. Back in the village a constant stream of visitors parking by the church and disappearing into the churchyard with rakes and shovels. Weeds removed and gravel freshly raked. The Old Farmer informs us that he will be off to visit his wife and daughters graves on Wednesday.
This was brilliant radio : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0009ryj
9 comments:
I had suspected your Greek getaway was Santorini, but since I haven't visited all the Greek islands, I wasn't 100% sure. But today I opened the New York Times (electronically) to a story about a quirky English-language bookstore in Greece. If the story references weren't to summer and if didn't take months for a travel story to be published, then I would have guessed your name is really Jason Horowitz, author of the article.
I am surprised you would be reading le Figaro and not l'Équipe, or at the least la Dépêche, at the café. You are probably getting side-eye from the other patrons. Public displays of intellectual curiosity are generally frowned upon in these parts.
There was a time when Les Echos was my morning fare but the newsagent had to order it in. The supplements never arrived. Quickly understood that that was not a SW France journal. I shall go to the NYT and look up Santorini. What we did discover is that Santorini makes the best wines in Greece from vines that are 200 years old. Grape varieties that neither of us had ever heard of.
Just a bowl of water, plonked down with no acknowledgment?
Really, this is not on.
Toodle pip!
Bertie.
I'm a big podcast fan. Planet Money does an excellent job on economics (check out the episode "The Giant Pool of Money") and I find it more palatable than the libertarian Freakonomics. In French, there's Spla$h, by two economics profs, which gives a VERY different perspective than, say, Freakonomics.
Re the NYT article, there are many photos of the bookstore, including several that feature the long legs of the Harvard student working there during the summer, but none of the actual owner. I can only assume his legs aren't as photogenic, but I do think that should be up to readers to decide.
No curly croissant ends either - what is the world coming to? Not a promising start for a best day ever!
Were you tempted to buy any books at the above-mentioned bookshop, and if you did what books did you choose?
The Font bought some Mary Oliver and Angus bought a very dry history of Belgian foreign policy in the 1920's. The Font made the better choice.
Fear not. No day goes without a curly croissant end at some stage !
Just listened to the podcast you recommended and I it was great! Thank you Angus.
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