Since we last spoke what seems like months ago (it's all my fault! Bad blogger!) a new era has dawned in Franco-British (or is that Anglo-French?) relations. And who is responsible for this dramatic breakthrough, you ask? Who else but our Carla! To prepare for her first state visit to London, she just borrowed one of her mother's dresses and a pillbox hat from the Jacqueline Bouvier-Kennedy-Onassis historical museum and, voila!, the Brits fell in love. One of the Times (London) woman columnists grudgingly admitted to finding herself actually kind of liking the Premiere Dame despite her own deeply held political and feminist beliefs, and compared her to a wicked but fascinating countess in a Victorian novel. Looks like Prince Philip agrees. He hasn't been this excited since the opening day of foxhunting season.
"She stoops to conquer."
The Windsors weren't the only ones to welcome jet-setting beautiful people into the bosom of their family. We were visited by some exalted personages, too: 3/4 of the Cohen family from El Cerrito, California: Jeff, Renee (pronounced Rini) and Dapper Dan. Sister Rivkah couldn't make it - something about studying in Latin America or something. We did some of our favorite things - trips to Cassis, the Camargue, Isle sur la Sorgue, etc. We also took in a soccer match pitting the local amateur team, AC Eguilles, against some other guys from I can't remember where now. Our team lost, as usual, but the spectators grinned and bore it.
Sunset in the driveway:
Eguilles civic stadium - artificial turf and everything!
The following shots were taken in Cassis, one of our favorite places on the Mediterranean. Rick Steves calls it "the poor man's St, Tropez." With the current state of the dollar, we qualify, I guess. Heck, we may be OVERqualified!
Baseball season just started and Jeff, a true Oakland A's fan, dressed for the occasion. I could imagine the French passers-by wondering, "Hmmm. Now where do you suppose HE'S from, cherie?"
Below is one of the all-day boules games that go on, even on Sunday, which is when we were there. Look at those spectators. Imagine the pressure. The players drift from one match to another, teams change, people come and go, but the game is eternal. At least until sunset.
The day after the Cohens left for Paris, we flew to Portugal to visit Jim and Barb. Jim and I used to work together at Wilf's. Then he ran off to marry Barb, who is a violist (maybe the principal violist, I'm not sure) in the Gulbenkian orchestra in Lisbon. We loved Lisbon and its environs, which is easy to do as you can see from the photos.
A shadow came over, though. I want to pay loving tribute here to Anne Nofield, of whose peaceful passing I learned when we arrived. She was an important figure in the lives of both Jim and myself, among many others, and an inspiration to all who knew her.
This is the market in Cascais, a suburb.
Barb got us tickets to the symphony. The cellist, who performed a Dvorak concerto, was the young boy in the movie "From Mao to Mozart", which you may remember if you're of a certain age. Here he is now 35 or so years later, an established virtuoso. That's Barb just beyond his right shoulder.
Calouste Gulbenkian became one of the richest people in the world early in the 20th century by organizing the oil industry in Iraq and taking 5% of the profits. He established a foundation, a museum and an orchestra, and who knows what else, all of which are still functioning. The museum is breathtaking and the orchestra is fabulous.
This is the beach in Sao Joao do Estoril, near St. Pedro where our friends live. Although that's the Atlantic Ocean you're looking at, the climate is mild. You can tell by the palm trees.
More tile. This is how they make their street signs and house numbers.
We were there for 5 days. On one of them Jim took us for a drive to Sintra, where this castle, Pena Palace, is located. It was designed by the same architect who created Mad King Ludwig's extravaganza in Bohemia (or was it Bavaria? No. Bohemia.). It is said that the castle in Disneyland was inspired by these towers.
This is a different palace in Sintra. We didn't go in, just admired it from afar.
On the way to Sintra, we stopped here, at the westernmost point of the European mainland. Cabo something.
The next day, Sunday, we took the train to Belem, which is where all the Portuguese explorers departed from. Two other local items of note are the monastery of Jeronimo (Jerome), which contains the tomb of Vasco de Gama, and the popular custard pastries which were invented here. (See picture of empty plate below).
Portugal was the first European power to have outposts in India and Portuguese art shows that influence. A lot of the sculpture has elephants and the pillars, even those in the monastery church below, look a lot like Hindu examples, with multitudes of busy figures carved on them.
On Monday, when both our hosts were working, we took the train to Lisbon. Lois wanted to buy some small pottery objects and Barb recommended the shop below. I walked around in there VERY carefully!
This is a grand plaza on the river Tagus, which widens into an estuary a mile or two across.
The river is crossed at a narrower point by a bridge which was designed by the same person who designed the Golden Gate bridge, and it (the Lisbon one) looks just like it (the San francisco one).
Here is the Castelo St. George, which sits on top of a high hill overlooking Lisbon. It's the perfect spot for a fortress and has been recognized as such by all of the many overlapping waves of inhabitants, from the neolithic, through Roman, Visigothic and Moorish, to Christians of the reconquista. We hiked up to it. Lisbon reminds me of San Francisco: water, pastel colors, big modern buildings and, not least, really steep hills (not to mention, which I already have, the Golden Gate bridge). The most exciting part of the hike was Lois' thwarting of an attempted purse-picking (hers) by a three-member team of scruffy, vacant-eyed young dudes on a crowded flight of steps. She felt a tug on the latch of her purse, which she was carrying backpack-style (Okay, maybe we should have known better) but the strong magnetic catch didn't open. She whirled around and yelled, then I yelled, and they took off down a side street and disappeared into the crowd. None of the numerous bystanders and pedestrians batted an eye. Maybe they didn't notice.
I just realized that the following was taken looking down the very street which issues out through the arch into the grand plaza shown above, but from the opposite direction, the back side, so to speak.
It was a great visit. Most nights Jim and Michael barbecued, which satisfied both Mike's pyrotechnic tendencies and the Portuguese requirement for meat at every meal. Barb's mother lives in Portland so we'll be seeing them when they visit in August. I've promised to barbecue burgers.
My sister Kate is arriving tomorrow and we felt it our duty as conscientious and concerned hosts to call her to suggest that she bring warm, waterproof clothing. We've had more rain in the previous 2 days than we've ever seen before, but things are looking more promising - today was just beautiful. Although rain is forecast for tomorrow.
Lois and Mike are in bed, and I'd better go too, since we have to get up and drive to the Marseilles airport in the morning.
Until next time, Au revoir!
Tom
P.S. This is one of the friendliest dogs we've ever met, despite the (tile) warning sign. There's a little one in there somewhere, too, so there are usually two heads sticking out, like a junior Cerberus.
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