It's been months since I was in Paris last. November 2014. Aeons ago. I had a Paris Day in Melbourne last December. Last week I had a Paris Night in Sydney.
If you squint...
We went to Sydney to see Paris Combo. They were fab.
Walking down Castlereagh St was like being in Paris. Names, names, names.
Lèche vitrine seulement
Everyone wants to win a trip to Paris
Plenty of chocolate, comme Paris, but shaped like the Opera House.
Bubbles to start, sadly domestic.
Pre-concert dinner at Cafe Nice was a perfect choice.
I've been keen to see the Forgotten Songs artwork for some time now. This week I had my chance, and I wasn't disappointed. Forgotten Songs was initially a temporary laneway artwork program in Sydney in 2009-2010. Thankfully it wasn't lost to us and was recommissioned as part of an upgrade to Angel Place in 2012. Forgotten Songs commemorates 50 bird species once heard in central Sydney before European settlement. These birds disappeared from the area as Sydney developed. During the day the songs of these missing birds ring out above your head from their empty cages.
I saw one of these beautiful birds just last weekend
(not in Sydney though)
As we went to a concert that night at City Recital Hall I got to go back in the evening. It was raining though so we didn't really hang around. At night the nocturnal bird calls are played.
I'd long thought that Forgotten Songs reminded me of Dickens' Miss Flight in Bleak House. And what did I find in Dymocks that very same day?
Art imitating life?
Life imitating art?
Actually it looks like Penguin have a lovely new set of Dickens hard back editions. I might really need these. Forgotten Songs Angel Place (just off George St, near Martin Place) Sydney
Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly meme now hosted by WestMetroMommy
I'd never heard of the French classic Fattypuffs and Thinifers until I saw it on the (UK) Telegraph's recent list of 100 Best Children's Books Ever. Naturally I recognised that the author had a French sounding name, and my curiosity was piqued and so here we are, a few short weeks later, I've tracked down the book (not so hard actually with the recent lovely Vintage Classics edition) and read it. And what a delight it is. Two brothers, Edmund and Terry find a secret entrance to a subterranean world while out on a walk with their father. Naturally the two inquisitive boys are soon heading down a moving staircase into the depths of the unknown.
Edmund and Terry would never have believed that a staircase could be so long. Down and down they went for more than an hour; down and down, through a half-darkness occasionally broken by red and green electric lights.
The boys find themselves in a very strange world indeed.
The two boys were immediately caught up in the crowd. They passed through a doorway, and as they did so a fresh, cool breeze blew on their faces. They found themselves out in the open air and overlooking the sea, but although the light was very bright they could see at once that it was not sunshine. When they had another look they discovered that the whole countryside was lit up by huge luminous balloons floating in the sky.
This odd subterranean world is home to the warring nations of the Fattypuffs and the Thinifers. Fattypuffs are rather large as their name would suggest- they eat a meal every hour, and then sleep for a quarter of an hour. While the Thinifers
are an extraordinary race who inhabit the opposite side of the gulf. They are horrible to look at, being excessively thin, bony as skeletons and yellow as lemons. They live in the most ridiculous way. They scarcely eat anything, they drink nothing but water and they even work without being made to. But all that wouldn't matter if they weren't so downright nasty.
André Maurois was indeed a French author. He had a rather incredible life- running his family textile business, being an interpreter during the first World War, and becoming an author. Patapoufs et Filifers was first published in Paris in 1930, and translated into English in 1941. There are certainly echoes of the war to end all wars- while the prospect of Fattypuffs making trench warfare logistically difficult is treated with humour, Maurois does not shy away from the harsh realities of war, the senseless death, destruction and injury. Joan of Arc even rates a casual mention. There are still words very relevant to the modern reader.
'But all the same, just because two nations have different tastes, that is no reason why they should shoot things at one another, and wound people and burst their balloons.'
Fattypuffs and Thinifers remains a delightful read even though it is over 80 years old. I'm not sure if this is a modern translation though as the translator is not credited (another translator labouring in the shadows). Some have suggested that the Fattypuffs and Thinifers is an allegory for French German relations, it may well be, and it can certainly be read as such I think, but it is more than mere allegory, it's a great story- funny, thought provoking and entertaining.
The Vintage Classics edition is beautifully illustrated by Fritz Wegner, who sadly died in March.
Buzzfeed is always a great source of book lists. This one from May is no exception. 1. The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster 2. The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein 3. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales - Jon Scieszka 4. Matilda - Roald Dahl 5. Who Took the Farmer's Hat - Joan L. Nodset, Fritz Siebel 6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky (see my review) 7. Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh (see my review)
I'm going to read this soon. YAY.
8. Harvey the Child Mime - Loryn Brantz 9. The Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin 10. Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine 11. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White 12. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery 13. Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown 14. The Thief Lorde - Cornelia Funke 15. Holes - Louis Sachar (see my review) 16. The American Girl Series 17. A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicker (I've read at least the first one of 13) 18. Stephanie's Ponytail - Robert Munsch, Michael Martchenko 19. Are you There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume (see my review) 20. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 21. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon 22. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith 23. Danny and the Champion of the World - Roald Dahl
24. Harold and the Purple Crayon - Crockett Johnson 25. The Ordinary Princess - M.M. Kaye 26. Where The Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls 27. Guess How Much I Love You - Sam McBratney 28. Bloomability - Sharon Creech 29. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott 30. The Paper Bag Princess - Robert Munsch 31. Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Louis Sachar 32. The Moomins Series - Tove Jansson (see my review) 33. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor (see my review) 34. Hear the Wind Blow - Mary Downing Hahn 35. The Mrs Piggle-Wiggle series - Betty MacDonald 36. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll 37. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis 38. Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter 39. Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson 40. The Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling (read 1/7) 41. The Betsy-Tacy series - Maud Hart Lovelace 42. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 43. The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark - Jill Tomlinson, Paul Howard 44. The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963 - Christopher Paul Curtis 45. Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers - Laura Numeroff 46. The Ramona Series - Beverly Cleary 47. A Bad Case of Stripes - David Shannon 48. Love You Forever - Robert N. Munsch, Sheila McGraw 49. Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate DiCamillo 50. The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams 51. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle (see my review) 52. The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton (see my review) 53. Oh, The Places You'll Go - Dr Seuss 54. Hatchet - Gary Paulsen (see my review) 55. When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry - Molly Bang 56. The Trumpet of the Swan - E.B. White 57. Madeline - Ludwig Bemelmans 58. Ruby Holler - Sharon Creech 59. Number the Stars - Lois Lowry
60. Miss Rumphius - Barbara Cooney (see my review) 61. The Junie B. Jones series - Barbara Park 62. The Giver - Lois Lowry (see my review) 63. Princess Academy - Shannon Hale 64. Dragonflight - Anne MacCaffrey 65. The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett 66. The Little House on the Prairie Series - Laura Ingalls Wilder (see my review Farmer Boy) 67. You Are Special - Max Lucado, Sergio Martinez 33/67 excluding series, which is a form of cheating. September 2015 34/67 October 2016 36/67 July 2017 37/67
It's not every day that you get to cross something off your life list. But recently I did. I got a BridgeClimb Sydney voucher for my birthday last year, and time was running out to use it. So I had to make sure it got done.
Carb loading is important clearly.
Any excuse for another visit to La Renaissance is always welcome.
I just noticed it's pretty much bridge shaped...
There are many stairs before you even start.
The morning weather was a bit iffy
but our timing was perfect! It was a perfect morning for it.
BridgeClimb is a fantastic experience. Sadly you're not allowed to take your own camera because of safety concerns so they take your photo in all sorts of silly poses up the arch, and so I'm not able to bombard you with the millions of photos I would otherwise have taken.
You walk out under the bridge traffic initially and then navigate up several ladders to get onto the eastern arch of the bridge (on the Opera House side). You walk across the top and descend down the western arch. I'm not particularly scared of heights and was never even slightly anxious once. It's not scary. It's exhilarating.
Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly meme now hosted by WestMetroMommy
I saw Laurie Halse Anderson speak recently at the Sydney Writers Festival. She was magnificent. I've read one of her books, Speak, probably her most famous book, and I loved it. I read it quite a few years ago, way before blogging, so I remember loving it and a bit about what it was about, but don't have any detailed memories. Naturally I bought one of her books at the SWF, her most recent book, The Impossible Kife of Memory, which Laurie signed for me, and thankfully I read it straight away. The Impossible Knife of Memory tells a very powerful story. Seventeen year old Hayley Kincain has just settled into a new town and new school. She and her father have spent quite a few years on the road, trying to outrun his torment from PTSD. Hayley's father is a veteran, and living with the after effects of his war experiences. Hayley can never be sure who or what she will come home to.
I opened the front door and walked onto a battlefield.
PTSD, war experiences and substance abuse are all rather heavy topics and Laurie does not back away from the horror of any of this. Hayley's friends all have their own set of circumstances too. But it is all counterbalanced by Hayley's quirky and laugh out loud funny first person voice. Right from the start.
It started in detention. No surprise there, right? Detention was invented by the same idiots who dreamed up the time-out corner. Does being forced to sit in time-out ever make little kids stop putting cats in the dishwasher or drawing on white walls with purple marker? Of course not. It teaches them to be sneaky and guarantees that when they get to high school they'll love detention because it's a great place to sleep.
Hayley has seen more things than she should, and has a knowledge beyond her years.
Maybe that was why I wanted to slap so many of the zombies; they had no idea how freaking lucky they were. Lucky and ignorant, happy little rich kids who believed in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy and thought that life was supposed to be fair.
I always love an on form first person point of view. Laurie Halse Anderson has written a gripping, honest book that is a joy to read. These people and their lives feel so real. Flawed perhaps at times, but very real. On Instagram Laurie Halse Anderson wrote: I write books. I try to make them not suck. Newest book: The Impossible Knife of Memory. It doesn't suck. It certainly doesn't. I can't wait to read more of her books as I know they won't suck either. My library only has four Laurie Halse Anderson books but I'm rather overjoyed to see that they are all out on loan with reserves on some. I will donate my signed copy to them so that even more people can read her.
Prince Harry has just spent the last month or so in Australia and New Zealand. He has been in the news a lot. Initially he was here for Army exercises, and then more holiday making. The pressure is really off Harry now. Fifth in line to the throne. He rubbed noses. He went to a pub trivia night.He charmed babies. He's been a bit everywhere. He even said he wanted to get married and have kids. Right now. The girls went wild.
So I was rather amused to see this article proclaiming Harry as the "unwitting star" of a new French comedy. I hadn't heard of Camille Cottin before, but it seems she is a French comedian and actress with a recent sketch comedy show called Connasse. In her feature film Camille decides she is sick of ordinary life and she decides to marry "the last bachelor prince who is not deformed (even if he is a redhead) and who is the right age: Prince Harry."
The format seems a bit Borat with hidden camera and real people, but there is enough Paris scenery and Cross Chanel rivalry that it looks a must watch.
I can't wait to watch Connasse: Princesse des Coeurs. I'm not sure when it will be available. It was released in France on April 29. Sadly I'm not in France. I can't find it on iTunes, and there doesn't seem to be any other international release dates as yet.
Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme from Paulita at An Accidental Blog
