SUMMER READING, BREGANÇON, PARIS-PLAGES, LA RENTREE

SUMMER READING

August is traditionally the month when everybody is on vacation (doctors, dentists, lawyers, therapists), many businesses close and nothing much happens. Vacationing is taken seriously here, as is the matter of summer reading. Politicians are happy to tell you what they read at the beach or by the pool, and publishers make sure that "novelties" come out just in time for this lull in activity when they have everybody's attention. The slightest scandal or hot topic is sure to be rushed into print in time for the summer holidays.

So it is that Le Monarque, Son Fils, Son Fief, which came out on June 14th, quickly became "the book that everybody is reading this summer". A whiff of scandal, the usual denials, a sudden "career change", and astute timing are the perfect ingredients for a successful summer book. Le Monarque, written by Marie-Céline Guillaume, fits the bill as it tells the story of her four years as chief of staff of Patrick Devedjian, a French politician in the UMP party, close adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy, and head of the Département des Hauts-de-Seine (Sarkozy's fiefdom). She paints an unvarnished picture of the infighting, threats, power plays and deal-making in Sarkozy's entourage as well as the vengeful nature of Sarkozy himself. Guillaume calls her book a "novel" but the thinly disguised characters and their real-life political roles leave no doubt who she's talking about. Just to make sure, the book's cover shows Sarkozy's unmistakable profile in the title.

Under pressure from Nicolas Sarkozy and his ambitious son Jean (the Fils of the title) Guillaume was fired by Devedjian and threatened with reprisals. She says she wrote this story not for revenge but as a form of therapy, in an effort to put behind her the hardships and the violence she endured these past four years. The book's record sales should make her feel better already.

Another summer success is Les Strauss-Kahn, the recent book written by two journalists about Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his (soon-to-be-ex) wife Anne Sinclair. Even though much about this couple was already public knowledge - the money, politics, sex and secrets - the book reveals that more than once DSK's risky behavior put his allies in an awkward position but that his wife, his peers, and politicians (including Sarkozy when he was Interior Minister) protected him by discarding police reports or discrediting sources. DSK had such a good shot at the presidency that those in the know preferred to accept his apologies and remain close to this potential winner.

Others in socialist circles kept their distance. During a visit to the Strauss-Kahns' large house in Marrakech, Jean-Louis Brochen, husband of Socialist Party leader Martine Aubrey, expressed his disapproval of the "ostentatious luxury" with which DSK surrounded himself, unbecoming a socialist. And Martine herself is quoted as saying: "Listen, Dominique, when you are rich like that you have to be generous. You should create a foundation. Find a good cause and create a foundation". Perhaps DSK's definition of "a good cause" was different from Martine's.

The French daily Le Figaro judged Les Strauss-Kahn "impossible to put down", a guarantee to propel the book to bestseller status this summer.

BREGANÇON

Even François Hollande took some time off in August and decided to spend his summer vacation at the presidential holiday retreat of Fort Bregançon, a small island off the Mediterranean coast, connected by a short pier to the town of Bormes les Mimosas in the Var. Easy to protect, Bregançon has been an official presidential retreat since Charles de Gaulle first used it in 1968.

As the "normal" president he promised to be, Hollande traveled by train rather than by presidential jet, and was seen happily shaking hands with fellow travelers, followed by First Girlfriend Valérie Trierweiler who stayed discreetly in the background. Wishing to be close to the people Hollande then proceeded to walk the beach, shaking hands left and right and good-naturedly accepting to be photographed with all who asked. He and Valérie sipped a drink at a terrasse, ate ice cream and did as normal people do. So far so good.

But the day the couple decided to go swimming at the public beach rather than the private pool at Bregançon things turned sour. When they were photographed entering the water, Valérie sprung into action to try and control publication. Claiming a right to privacy she had her lawyers threaten legal action if the photos were published, but to no avail. In spite of (or because of?) the threats three well-known gossip magazines defiantly printed the "bikini photo" on their cover, and Paris Match, the magazine Trierweiler still works for, published it inside. 

The fact that as the unmarried partner of the President she has no official status does not help, but - as the various editors argued - she knew that the press was there (having posed for photographers days earlier), and that former presidents had also been photographed in bathing suits (including Sarkozy with his then-pregnant wife Carla Bruni). Besides, as a journalist she should know that vacation shots of celebrities sell well and are not protected. "She did not like her picture", said one editor, "and thought she could pull it at will". Her actions are indeed hard to understand, especially since she is creating a certain amount of resentment in the journalistic community. But the girl can't seem to help herself in drawing attention where she does not want it. Unintentionally, she made the photo famous and talked about. And once again President Hollande was overshadowed by his girlfriend.

PARIS-PLAGES

This month of August has been a particularly hot one, with heat-wave temperatures these past few weeks throughout western Europe. Most private homes in France are not air-conditioned, and many smaller hotels offer only ventilator columns or overhead fans. In 2002, the city of Paris came up with an excellent idea to make summers more bearable for those who cannot get away. For one month starting on July 20th, the municipality closes the river banks to traffic, trucks in tons of sand and creates several "beaches" along the Seine, complete with parasols, deck chairs, refreshment stations, and entertainment. The three Paris beaches (Louvre/Pont de Sully, Port de la Gare, Bassin de la Villette) cover many kilometers and include two pools, a watersports complex, play areas, a rollerblading stretch, and a concert stage.

Open daily from 8 a.m. to midnight, the beaches are a huge success and several other cities, including Lille, have copied the concept.

LA RENTREE

The term La Rentrée (The Return − to work, to school, etc.) is on everyone's lips from mid-August on. Vacationers return from their holidays, businesses offer special promotions, and publishers begin leading up to the Rentrée Littéraire (*) in September when they announce this year's crop of new books. Booksellers, librarians and publishers are interviewed on radio shows to discuss new developments (e-books) and trends, the difficulties of bookshops in high-rent city centers, the folding of some small publishing houses and the surprising emergence of others, and of course to whet readers' appetites for the new releases in September. Among the 646 new books to be announced next month, some are eagerly awaited, such as "Rien Ne Se Passe Comme Prévu" (Nothing is happening as expected), written by Laurent Binet, winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2010, about the presidential campaign of François Hollande.

Allocation de Rentrée Scolaire (ARS)

And then there is La Rentrée Scolaire. Every year around mid August the government announces the amount and the payment date of the Allocation de Rentrée Scolaire − the cash premium given to low-income families to help pay for their children's school supplies. This year, President Hollande increased the premium by 25 % over last year. It now stands at:  €326 per child 6-10 years old; €376 per child of 11-14; €389 per child of 15-18, and will be paid out as of August 21, 2012. Following this announcement, television news channels invariably begin to show mothers shopping with their school-age children for school supplies in supermarkets. About as exciting and as "new" as the predictable traffic back-ups at toll stations on summer weekends. It's a prelude to the early-September television "news" showing La Rentrée Scolaire, the back-to-school ritual of crying children, anxious mothers and soothing teachers to be seen on all TV channels for days on end.  Zzzzzzzzzzzzz... Wake me when it's over.

(*) Read more about La Rentrée in Taking Root in Provence by clicking here:

SUMMER PLEASURES, SUMMER WOES; HEDONIST=EGOTIST; EGGS EN PROVENCE

SUMMER PLEASURES, SUMMER WOES

After a particularly busy month of July and first week of August, the next few weeks promise to be somnolent by comparison. A good time to catch up on our siestas.

Too many cultural events take place here during July but we like them all and try to take in as much as possible, which means six operas during our Aix festival, an average of three mid-day Master Classes per week and an occasional evening concert. And then there's Avignon where in a span of three days we saw one late-evening play and five daytime productions. We ended the month of July with a two-day visit to Paris to meet up with our American daughter and son-in law where we "enjoyed" a few unseasonably chilly and rainy days before traveling south together to the dry summer heat of Provence and a week of local tourism in early August.

A calanque near Cassis

It is less stressful than you might think when the tourism includes driving your guests through beautiful countryside in a peppy convertible car, taking them on a boat ride in the calanques near Cassis and to a winery cum art center, letting them loose at the artisanal markets where they load up on goodies, and have them take off on rented bikes to go and explore on their own and bring back magnificent photos of places we have never seen! And of course we always enjoy hearing their raves - as though we had any merit in the matter.

Vacationing is indeed easy in the south of France where beaches, mountains, lakes and gorges offer a wide variety of leisurely or sporty activities for all tastes and ages. And when our young guests pedal out into nature and cool down in ice-cold mountain springs, we leave our hot apartment for an air-conditioned matinee movie and perhaps a brief snooze.

HEDONIST=EGOTIST

The French are hedonists with enough paid vacation days to take winter and summer holidays. Their hedonism becomes ugly, however, when you know that during holidays they often abandon their pets rather than pay a kennel. Dogs are regularly left (without identifying collars, of course) at gas stations or food stops along highways and byways, or tied to the gate of an animal shelter. In France, 100,000 domestic pets are abandoned this way every year, 60,000 of them during summer holidays.

According to the local SPA, during holidays pets are abandoned far from home in touristy and heavily traveled areas such as Provence. This summer has been the worst ever, it appears, perhaps due to a newly passed law that officially allows home owners and campsite managers to prohibit pets on their properties. Only three beaches in Provence are dog friendly; all others prohibit dogs during the months of July and August when they are packed with people. "There is no excusable reason to abandon your animal", says Michèle Dottore, founder of the Aix animal shelter, who favors a reduction of the dog and cat population as a start. Systematic sterilizations in animal shelters, for example, and - as Stéphane Lamart of Assistance aux Animaux proposes - the cost of sterilization should be tax deductible to pet owners. He would also like to see that private individuals no longer be allowed to sell their litters. This is probably unrealistic and at best would take years to enact, while the nasty habit of abandoning pets continues to claim thousands of "man's best friends".

Curious side effect:  pet adoptions peak in late August/early September when animal shelters are full and some parents take their children to pick out a cute little dog, to love and to cherish... until next summer?

EGGS EN PROVENCE

During the gigantic Sextius-Mirabeau urban renewal project in Aix-en-Provence that started in 1997 and lasted more than a dozen years, a large number of dinosaur eggs was found that confirmed the paleontological Aix-en-Provence Basin along the foot of the Montagne Sainte Victoire as one of the richest dinosaur egg deposits in the world. The eggs, estimated to be about 7 million years old, are thought to be those of the titanosaurus, a large herbivore with a long neck that could grow to ten meters which allowed him to feed on tree leaves.

Titanosaurus

At that time Provence had a tropical climate and a large river ran through the area. The dinosaurs laid their eggs in this river bed and probably covered them with vegetable matter and earth. When the area flooded the eggs drowned and got covered with multiple layers of sediment which preserved and protected them. The 106-hectare Aix-en-Provence Basin has revealed numerous dinosaur nests with 3-8 eggs each, as well as other fossilized remains and a small number of dinosaur teeth of up to eight cm long.

Dinosaur eggs uncovered

Paleontologists at the Museum of Natural History of Aix-en-Provence are studying the sediments found inside certain eggs as well as some remains of embryos in order to determine which of the three known species of dinosaurs of the area laid the eggs.

Over the course of the Sextius-Mirabeau project nearly one thousand dinosaur eggs were found, earning Aix its nickname of "Eggs-en-Provence".

SUMMER RECIPE 

During the hot summer months we usually eat fresh fruits for dessert. For variety, these fruits can take the form of a fruit pie. Here follows a recipe from my book Taking Root in Provence:

Tarte aux Figues (*)    

Figs are plentiful in Provence, with two summer harvests (usually late June and late August), and because fig trees do not require much care or pruning they are very common in provençal gardens. In fact, friends who have fig trees will often give you home-made "confiture de figues" because ripe figs will not keep well and need to be eaten within a day or two or be preserved as jam or chutney. Of course, figs are also available at our daily farmers’ markets and I like to buy the very ripe blue figs to make a fig pie. It is a naturally sweet fruit that requires no added sugar and is extremely easy to make.

Ingredients:
Fresh very ripe figs (blue or green), soft to the touch and fragrant
Puff pastry – either a round or a square sheet to fit a pie mold with a 1-inch standing edge
Buy enough figs to cover your pastry sheet with tightly packed halved figs, the cut side facing up.

Preheat your oven to 430 F and bake your pie for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned.
Serve it lukewarm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

If ripe figs are not picked they will fall off the tree and either be eaten by birds or rot away. But you can collect these figs on a shallow tray, cover them with thin gauze to keep the flies off, and leave them to dry in the sun. They’ll shrink and wrinkle a bit in the process and become an intensely flavored delicious snack that keeps all summer.

(*)  For more recipes from Taking Root in Provence, click here:

BASTILLE DAY, TOUR DE FRANCE, CHURCH HOLIDAY, FIRES, BLACK CAT, GUNS AND CHEESES

BASTILLE DAY

France celebrates its national holiday - Bastille Day - on the 14th of July. On this day in 1789 an enraged mob attacked the Bastille prison, symbol of royal power, killed its warden and, with the consent of the newly established National Assembly, burned it to the ground. The French Revolution had begun. 

Bastille Day Parade

Today, the event is celebrated with a huge military parade as some four thousand members of all branches of the armed and civilian forces march down the Champs Elysées, with hundreds of mounted cavalry, vehicles, flyover planes and helicopters, jumping parachutists and marching bands as part of the show. And an impressive show it is as it unfurls for several hours down the most beautiful avenue in the world before an admiring crowd of thousands of spectators. Here is the France that they feel proud of, the France of La Gloire, the France that helps them forget the shameful sell-out of General Pétain to Nazi Germany. These are the victorious forces of General de Gaulle, of Bir Hakeim, of battles engraved forever in the Arc de Triomphe. It is a proud moment, this Défilé Militaire which opens a long day of festivities that end with spectacular fireworks at the Eiffel Tower which this year rocked to disco music. 

TOUR DE FRANCE

Another July event is the Tour de France, a three-week-long grueling cycling race through flat and mountainous stages that include fearsome Alpine and Pyrenean passes, two individual races against the clock, and weather that can go from mountain snow to valley heat in the space of several hours. This year the Grande Boucle was nearly 3500 km long, starting in Liège, Belgium, and ending in Paris.

La Grande Boucle

The 2012 Tour was won by Bradley Wiggins who wore the leader's yellow jersey for most of the Tour. His team mate and fellow Brit Chris Froome came in second, which made this a solid victory for the Sky Team and a first ever for Great Britain.

Accidents do happen and are sometimes caused by spectators who get too close or a dog that runs into the cyclers' path. It's stupid and irresponsible and, given the millions of roadside spectators, almost unavoidable. But when someone throws carpet tacks onto the road, as happened this year in the foothills of the Pyrenees, it is clearly malicious and meant to cause havoc. Fortunately, no serious injuries resulted here.

Tour winner Bradley Wiggins

Doping scandals have long plagued the Tour de France, and this year again saw two riders (out of 198) expelled for positive drug test results. Seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong was disqualified from participating this year because of unresolved doping issues in the United States.

The Tour de France has a fervent kind of following that cuts across age groups and social classes, and many a French fan can cite past Tour records and winners the way Americans can spout baseball statistics. Live television coverage attracts millions of viewers worldwide, and numerous businesses (banks, insurance groups, telecom, mining, sportswear, broadcasting, the French lottery, etc.) sponsor the competing teams, while "official suppliers" eagerly hawk their products all along the route. It's a BIG business. That background hum you're hearing is not just the whine of fast-spinning wheels but the singing of cash registers as well.

CHURCH HOLIDAY


This sign on a church door in Aix-en-Provence stopped me in my tracks. It reads: "The Church of St. John the Baptist will be closing for the summer. Last Sunday service on 21 July. Next service on Sunday, 12 September." I knew the French have long holidays. But the Church?...

FIRST SERIOUS FIRES


The first serious summer fire has just claimed four lives and 23 wounded in the Franco-Spanish border area of La Junquera. The fire was fanned by very strong northwestern Tramontane winds that made the intervention of firefighting planes and helicopters impossible. The heavily travelled border-crossing highway between the French city of Perpignan and the Spanish town of Figueres was closed for hours due to thick smoke and stranded cars that were abandoned by people fleeing the approaching fires. The deaths occurred just off the French coastal road near Port Bou where people had left their cars to run down a steep hill toward the sea. A father and his 15-year old daughter jumped off a cliff to their deaths to escape the flames. Their bodies were found the next morning but the mother who jumped as well has not yet been found. Another French victim died of burns, while a Spanish man died as the result of a heart attack as he watched his house burn down.

Flames leaped sky high during the night and could be seen all the way from Barcelona, 150 km away. According to Spanish press agency EFE, the fire was caused by a poorly extinguished cigarette, which - helped by strong dry winds - was all it took to torch the bone-dry countryside which had just experienced the dryest winter in 70 years. Four days after this initial spark the fire was finally declared under control on both the French and the Spanish side, after 14000 hectares had been burned.

BLACK CAT

The French daily La Provence has published a full-page article on a large feline that was recently seen in the Hautes Alpes de Provence. Five witnesses have reported seeing a black animal with a long tail and yellow eyes, which they thought might be a panther or a puma. One man in the small town of Oraison spotted the big cat drinking from his swimming pool. As he tried to photograph it, the animal sprang across a dirt road, leaving footprints of 8-10 cm in diameter in the mud. After studying the footprints, experts have ruled out a dog or a wolf but have so far not confirmed that it was a panther.

Black panther?

The mystery recalls the incident near Marseilles in 2004, when the entire National Park of the Calanques between Marseilles and Cassis was closed to the public for three weeks in mid-summer while a track was organized to capture the panther that turned out to be a large black cat. Ridicule was heaped on the authorities, reminding them of the famous sardine that blocked the port*.


L'Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune has been presented with the evidence, but given its mistake in Marseilles in 2004 remains cautious and has not confirmed the black panther theory. Meanwhile Michel Vittenet, the mayor of Oraison, stands by his witnesses and is convinced that this time we're not dealing with a domestic cat but with a dangerous animal that may have escaped from a circus or been released by a private owner because it was getting too big.

"I would rather be ridiculous than regret a serious incident later," says Vittenet.  



GUNS AND CHEESES


The recent shooting in Aurora, Colorado, caused an American friend to send me the very telling statement below that, methinks, says it all.

(*) To read A Long Hot Summer about the Black Panther and the Sardine in Marseilles, see my book Taking Root in Provence.  Click here.

ECONOMISTS, FESTIVALS, JEAN VILAR, DSK

ECONOMIC FORUM

The Rencontres Economiques d'Aix-en-Provence (*), a three-day annual meeting of international big players, took place on July 6, 7 and 8 this year under the banner: What if the Sun also Rises in the West... The New Global Dynamics. A wide range of subjects was discussed by representatives from the worlds of finance and economics but also politics, government and industry − among them Mario Monti, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Hubert Védrine, Mikheil Saakashvili (President of Georgia), Mario Draghi (President of the European Central Bank) and his predecessor Jean-Claude Trichet, Pascal Lamy (WTO), as well as professors from various universities including Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, Columbia and Princeton.

One memorable guest was Nouriel Roubini (NYU) who as usual did not mince words and painted a very bleak picture of the future. Many speakers had raised concerns about today's great imbalances, migration, out-sourcing, the role of government or industry or civil society in responding to the challenges of globalization, and of course about the crisis of the Euro in which they continued to have faith. But Mr. Roubini was unwilling to accept the "cautious optimism" that prevailed. What's there to be optimistic about? was his response. So last week in Brussels Angela Merkel finally agreed to use the European bailout funds to recapitalize struggling banks. Et alors? You have been talking for ten years and never took the necessary measures that would have avoided today's crisis. And now you are patting yourselves on the back because you took a tiny step back from the brink? Yes, that was his tone, and in case you still did not get it he predicted that Greece would leave the Eurozone in 2013, that others may do so later, and that the current situation is a slow-motion train wreck if we don't take drastic action in the next TWO WEEKS! Moreover, he sees a global perfect storm gathering and when it hits it will be worse than the 2008 financial crisis.

Nouriel Roubini in Aix-en-Provence

Doomsayer or prophet? It seems hard to believe his gloomy scenario, but we should remember that Roubini saw the American housing market's collapse coming long before it did and that he accurately predicted the financial crisis of 2008. 

FESTIVALS

So what can we do? Well, if we only have two more weeks before things go to hell, I say Carpe Diem and hie for the opera. Our season got off to a great start with Mozart's Marriage of Figaro (I liked it, the Parisian press did not) and Charpentier's David and Jonathan conducted by Franco-American William Christie (I loved it, the press did too). We also saw the opening production of the theater festival in Avignon, The Master and Margarita, based on the once-banned novel of Mikhail Bulgakov, directed by English actor/director Simon McBurney and performed in the magnificent Cour d'Honneur of the Papal Palace.

(The press: Masterpiece! - Me: Too long and convoluted, but saved by the fantastic special effects and the unique setting).


JEAN VILAR

This year we celebrate the centennial of the birth of Jean Vilar (1912-1971), founder of the Avignon festival, who in his day was not universally appreciated but has achieved a god-like stature since. His dream of bringing great theatre to the people was looked on with suspicion, in particular by some Parisian intellectuals (read Sartre) who interpreted Vilar's notion of popular theatre as theatre for the proletariat. With stubborn perseverance and some savvy soothing of southern and northern sensibilities, Vilar (who was born and raised in the Mediterranean town of Sète) managed to reassure his detractors and open his first "Avignon" in 1947. Four years later he was named Director of the famous Théâtre National Populaire at the Palais Chaillot in Paris.


Actors loved him and he is credited with forming one of the best acting companies ever, with Maria Casarès, Jeanne Moreau, Philippe Noiret, Michel Bouquet and of course Gérard Philipe - all of whom played with him in Avignon. Today in its 66th season, the festival has grown beyond Vilar's wildest dreams and come to include a number of foreign directors (a third of all "In" plays this year are performed in a foreign language with French surtitles), and many original and avant-garde productions. Vilar famously wished the theatre to be considered a public utility, just like gas and electricity. The month-long artistic effervescence in Avignon with its thousands of devotees seems testimony to the fact that culture, including popular theatre, is indeed an essential human need.

We have four more operas to go and as many plays in Avignon as we can pack in before the end of July and hopefullly before Mr. Roubini's predicted blowup.

DSK-SINCLAIR

Another blowup − although one of lesser consequence to all of us − is the end of the Strauss-Kahn-Sinclair marriage that was announced by AFP and the French daily Libération on July 2nd, just days after the Strauss-Kahns had sued French gossip magazine Closer for invasion of privacy when they published a similar claim. Sources close to the couple have apparently confirmed that after 20 years of marriage Strauss-Kahn and Sinclair have been living separately in Paris for nearly two months now. 

This is another setback for DSK who is still facing serious legal problems in France and the United States. Although Sinclair's decision to leave him seemed predictable and inevitable, I confess to a pinch of pity for this brilliant modern-day Icarus. I know, I know, it's his own fault, and yet... This must be what the Stockholm Syndrome is like.

(*) For more on this Economic Forum, click here:

SUMMERTIME, FESTIVAL TIME

OPERA, JAZZ, ROCK AND THEATRE

Summer means Opera in Aix-en-Provence. Six operas are performed here during the month of July (two world premières), and this year Master Classes for Voice, Chamber Music, and Direction (mise-en-scène) are held three times a week from mid June throughout July as part of the opera program. Also this month, the town of Orange presents two operas as well as Mozart's Requiem, all staged in front of the majestic backdrop of the Roman wall of the Théâtre Antique.

Opera in Orange

It's heaven for those who like opera, but for those who don't there are many other musical offerings in the area, such as Les Nuits d'Istres with the great Jessye Norman who will sing jazz, blues and gospel, and artists such as Gilberto Gil and George Benson.

In Marseilles "Jazz from the Five Continents" presents saxophonist Sonny Rollins, the band Earth Wind and Fire, and more. The Roman arena of Nîmes hosts Bob Dylan and Elton John, as well as the English group Radiohead, and the tiny island of Gaou just off the Riviera coast features Sting, Gossip (remember the fat girl at the Cannes Film Festival?) and Ben Harper.

Piano festival in La Roque d'Anthéron

This year, the international piano festival in La Roque d'Anthéron will pay tribute to one of its favorite and more frequent performers, pianist Brigitte Engerer, who was expected to play again this year but who died on June 23, 2012 at the age of 59.

THEATRE IN AVIGNON

Music lovers are particularly well served with summer festivities in Provence, but the most popular of all events may well be the annual Theatre Festival in Avignon (*) where during the sole month of July more than 1000 plays are produced in venues ranging from the vast courtyard of the Papal Palace to little makeshift theatres for some 30 spectators.

Palais des Papes, Avignon

Here you are likely to see big stars − most recently Jeanne Moreau and Juliette Binoche − in the major theatres at night, but also plenty of young talent during the daytime "Off" festival who may become tomorrow's big names. This year's Associate Artist is actor-director Simon McBurney, the first Englishman so honored, who will open the season at the Palais des Papes with The Master and Margarita based on the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov.

To give you a little taste of these festivals, here's a chapter from my book Taking Root in Provence:

OPERA FESTIVAL

The Opera Festival in Aix-en-Provence is the local highlight of the year, and as opera lovers we consider ourselves fortunate to be living here. The fun starts in early June when about three dozen young musicians arrive from all over the world for Master Classes—an honor they have won in an international competition. These master classes are open to the public and are a wonderful opportunity to see up close the hard work and the difficulty of the art of singing, cello playing, violin, piano, etc. Some of our past masters have included Isaac Stern for violin, Teresa Berganza for voice, and Pierre Boulez for percussion and conducting, but every year brings an interesting new crop. Some of the young singers may perform in the chorus of the operas to be performed in July, but all will give recitals and concerts in one or more of the lovely squares and courtyards in the old center of Aix in the evenings. A €15 “passport” gives access to all master classes and concerts during the month of June as well as to some dress rehearsals.

            The serious excitement starts in July with the opening of the Opera Festival. Six operas are performed throughout the month in four different locations, and the city literally fills up with opera lovers. Hotels are full, as are restaurants and the terraces along the Cours Mirabeau—the Champs Elysées of Aix-en-Provence.

            With a bit of luck you run into stars, but you don’t need any luck to see famous faces in line at the various venues. I have made it a habit to have dinner at one of the two outdoor restaurants on the Place de l’Archeveché before the opera. With my tickets safely in my pocket, I can take my time to eat and watch the crowd gathering while I savor my dessert. I am sure to see current or former government ministers, well-known newscasters and other famous faces of politics and television, and even Gérard Depardieu with Carole Bouquet. Most of them have summer houses in the area and the air snaps with air kisses as they find each other and thrill at seeing and being seen.

            Opera tickets go on sale in early February, and living steps away from the box office you might think that getting tickets is a cinch for us. Well, not quite. There are  a limited number of inexpensive, subsidized tickets that sell out fast, and in hopes of getting any of these you have to get up early. Very early (*). When Oscar got in line at 3:30 in the morning (the box office opens at 10:00 AM) he was number sixty-five in the queue, and when I replaced him at 7:00 AM the line curled around the block. I recognized a number of stalwarts from previous years and found the same convivial atmosphere of shared hardship in anticipation of our reward. Some people sat on little stools wrapped in blankets, others in heavy coats with woolen scarves halfway up their faces stamped their feet to keep warm, some read, others chatted. Snippets of family life floated on the still night air, and once in a while some lucky “liner” would be relieved by a mate and allowed to go home and to bed.

            Surprisingly, people seem to be getting up earlier every year and this time there were two couples who had camped out all night with folding chairs and sleeping bags to be first in line the next morning. Perhaps not unusual for a rock concert but this is a crowd of retirees with many a grandmother among them. Tough little grandmothers who will wait stoically in the February night for seven to eight hours so that they can get tickets for themselves or a beloved grandchild at the affordable price of €28 (approx. $40). For those of us who buy everything, i.e., all six operas, these inexpensive tickets are manna from heaven.

            Around 9:00 AM “breakfast” appeared in the form of trays of croissants and hot coffee, tea and orange juice, offered free of charge by the Office de l’Opéra to the chilled ticket line. It thawed the frozen crowd and sparked a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation. The end was in sight, the prize within reach, and the ordeal almost over. Another long night had been offered to the opera gods who would soon reward our devotion. Murmurs of “See you next year” were beginning to be heard and all of us bound for a night by our shared passion for opera were soon to disperse for another year. Perchance to meet again at one of the performances, where with a knowing wink we would proudly pat the “cheap” ticket in our pocket before finding our places among the expensive Orchestra seats. We can’t suppress a secret feeling of superiority over all those who paid full price, before we sit down to enjoy Wagner’s Walkyrie with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic (no less), or Mozart, Monteverdi, or Janacek. Forgotten the long wait in the chilly night. What long wait?!

(*) Today some tickets are sold by telephone and Internet.

(*) To read the chapter about the Off Festival in Avignon featured in Taking Root in Provence, click here.

FETE DE LA MUSIQUE, NEW BOOK ON HOLLANDE CAMPAIGN

FETE DE LA MUSIQUE

Thirty years ago, then Minister of Culture Jack Lang introduced the Fête de la Musique in France, to be celebrated on June 21st, day of the summer solstice. Musicians of all kinds and all ages -- from symphony orchestras to one-man bands -- take over the city streets and play throughout the night to the delight of enthusiastic crowds. This popular event was soon adopted elsewhere and today is known as World Music Day in 32 countries worldwide.

This year for the first time since its inception, musicians in Aix-en-Provence were required to obtain a license to play at the Fête and were then given a designated spot to perform. Thus, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Pays d'Aix had the Place de l'Archevêché all to itself while a hard-rock band set up its boom-boom boosters at a safe distance on the Cours Mirabeau. This was the city's solution to the cacophony of recent years when youthful enthusiasm and excessive amplification sometimes caused more pain than pleasure in some of the tighter parts of the old town with bands playing within feet of each other.

One other novelty this year:  the city appointed animators to mingle with the crowds and keep an eye out for drunkenness, while at the same time handing out free breathalizer tests, ear plugs and condoms. The condom part came as a surprise until I found out that AIDS Solidarity Day celebrated its 20th anniversary on June 21st this year. 

NEW BOOK ON HOLLANDE CAMPAIGN

A new book has just been published (21 June 2012) entitled "François Hollande President: 400 days behind the scenes of a victory." It is a photographic record of the campaign that identifies Stéphane Ruet as the photographer and Valérie Trierweiler as the journalist who wrote the photo captions.

Voices have already been raised that her captions lack the neutrality of the professional journalist and are too often written in the first person singular of the narrator who, of course, does appear in a number of photos herself. "He takes me in his arms, safe from view. I cry. He laughs," she comments on the last photo. Under a photo where a smiling François Hollande and Ségolène Royal appear side by side on a stage at a rally in Rennes, she writes: "Yes, the man I love had a woman before me. [...]  I have to live with it." Royal's response in news weekly Le Point: "That's an inversion of roles. It was me whose family was wrecked" (when Hollande left her for Trierweiler), adding that it was she who might have reason to carry a grudge.

Ségolène Royal and François Hollande at Rennes rally

At the Rennes rally Hollande gave his supporter Ségolène a peck on the cheek, whereupon Trierweiler whispered to him : "Kiss me on the lips" and Hollande dutifully complied. The film of this scene was commented on by lip readers and the "Embrasse-moi sur la bouche" moment made the rounds of all news channels.

Trierweiler has not been heard from since her tweet and the prime minister's advice of greater discretion, but now that her jealousy is a matter of record she has lost credibility as a commentator on the political scene and even as an impartial observer.

Ségolène Royal, on the other hand, is picking up the pieces after her unexpected defeat in La Rochelle and will certainly be looking at a comeback of sorts. She has survived some tough battles before and managed to come out victorious after the Trierweiler attack by winning the sympathy of a majority. Quipped one observer: "Trierweiler has managed what nobody could before:  to make Ségolène Royal likeable."

These two strong characters are bound to cross paths again. Hollande may be well advised to step out of the way when they do.

LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS, LE CESAR

LES LEGISLATIVES

In the second round of the French legislative elections on June 17th, the Socialist party won an absolute majority in Parliament which gives President Hollande a great boost in passing his announced reforms. The voting results contained some surprises, however.

Parti Socialiste in the pink

Old-timer and former Cultural Minister Jack Lang lost in Les Vosges, as did Marine Le Pen in her fiefdom of Hénin-Beaumont. Both were narrowly defeated, while young Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, Marine Le Pen's niece and Jean-Marie Le Pen's granddaughter, won convincingly in the Vaucluse. At 22, this law student became the youngest member of Parliament in France's history. François Bayrou, former presidential candidate and founder of the centrist MoDem party, lost out to the socialist challenger in a three-way battle in his district of Pyrenées-Atlantiques.

But the most shocking defeat was surely suffered by Ségolène Royal in La Rochelle, where she was soundly beaten in the second round by local dissident socialist Olivier Falorni who had refused to step aside in her favor. The outcome was no surprise and was generally seen as a tactical error by Royal and socialist party leaders for having catapulted her into Falorni's territory where this "diktat" by Paris was not appreciated.

A defeated Ségolène

It was a heavy blow for Royal who called this a betrayal by Falorni who won with substantial help of the center-right UMP party whose candidate had lost in the first round and was happy to block Royal's expected nomination as Speaker of the National Assembly. Seventy-five percent of Falorni's votes in La Rochelle came from the right, said Royal, which disqualifies him as a left-wing candidate.

The bombshell Twitter message from Valérie Trierweiler, François Hollande's partner, in support of Falorni certainly did not help but could not be blamed for this upset. It simply added to the miseries of Ségolène Royal whose partner of 30 years and father of her four children left her in 2005 for current girlfriend Valérie Trierweiler. Nevertheless, Royal supported Hollande throughout his presidential campaign, a favor Hollande returned when he declared his support for Royal in her face-off against Folarni -- thereby provoking Trierweiler into a fit of jealousy. Politics in France just got a little bit more complicated.

CESAR IS BACK!

Remember the story of the withdrawal of Marseille's old ferry boat Le César in 2008?  (blog of 9/23/11). It was replaced in 2010 by a catamaran named Le Ferry Boat.  [Yes, Ferry Boat is its name, which the locals pronounce ferry bo-AHT].

Le César back in service

The chug-a-lug César (named after the Marcel Pagnol character) had been making the short 900-ft crossing between the north and south banks of the Vieux Port for 55 years before age caught up with it and made it unsafe. The municipality decided that new technology was called for and introduced a sleek solar-powered catamaran that soon proved unable to handle the mistral wind and had to be retired from ferry duty. Red-faced City Fathers promised a solution and -- surprise! -- this week announced the return of Le César which after an extensive renovation had just passed its last test and was found fit to resume ferry service soon. But first it will be moored in front of City Hall in the Vieux Port as part of the Marcel Pagnol trilogy that actor/director Daniel Auteuil is adapting.

MUCEM

The catamaran will be assigned a new job of taking passengers from Le Vieux Port to the new MUCEM (Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerrannée) a short distance away along the same bank, thereby avoiding the sideways gusts of wind that can apparently incapacitate it during a crossing.

The people of Marseilles are happy to welcome old César back, which to them was as much part of Marseilles as the cable car is part of San Francisco. Even if the catamaran shaved some two minutes off the crossing time, what's that to a Marseillais? Remember their motto: "Doucement le matin, pas trop vite le soir." (*)

(*) To read about Marseilles in Taking Root in Provence, click here