prendre le train

The train from Antibes to Montpellier is direct and takes just over 4 hours.
I caught up on loads of podcasts, ate my sandwich & drank my orangina, did lots of looking out the window and toyed with the idea of infact not getting off at Montpellier but continuing on to Bordeaux.

à partir d'une chambre d'hôtel

I've sneaked a couple of days in Antibes as F is here for work. The weather is beautiful and the beaches are full of people; although it has to be said not many are braving the water yet.
So far I've taken more photos of our 70s style hotel room than of the town.

hip hip

It's taken me quite awhile but this is actually my 100th post!
There's no specific point to this post other than to celebrate a little, by showing you some of the gorgeous evening light we're getting in the flat at the moment.

Hope you're all enjoying the joys of Spring and a huge thank you for all your comments & photographic support!

le pain quotidien

Recently I was given a book called 'Good Bread is Back' (Le Retour du Bon Pain) by Steven Laurence Kaplan. It's a history of French bread and is completely fascinating. My current bread obsession is being satisfied by our local Saturday morning organic market - Le Marché des Arceaux and by one stall in particular. Reading this book I've discovered that all French bread was originally sour bread or le pain au levain. This bread is making a comeback with the return to traditional organic practices. It's a denser bread full of taste and goodness, which keeps fresh longer than bread made from brewers yeast.

The above bread is made by a local man who sells his loaves to a long line of faithful devotees. It takes quite some stamina to get this bread as he chats to each customer with his twinkling charm. He's a man very happy in his work. Each loaf is a different size and shape and is all traditional pain au levain.

le cabanon revisited

Some more images from Le Corbusier's cabanon at Roquebrune Cap Martin.
The light and reflections in this tiny space were superb.

National Film Theatre

Going down to the NFT, home to the Bfi (British Film Institute) is probably the thing I miss most about no longer living in London.
It's been spectacularly renovated by Rick Mather Architects and there's now a great new bar and restaurant. Still I'm more than a bit nostagic for the days when the only bar was at the Thames side entrance. Like the Royal Festival Hall it was a place which wasn't trendy exactly, just a meeting place for film lovers young and old. I guess it's still the same but to me the NFT bar now feels a little bit self conscious.

In any case it was the place I first saw so many classic films. It all started with a screening of George Lucas's THX 1138. At each screening there are film notes to take away and I've kept every one of them. They're in a folder and with each film I see the notes go into the file. It's like a chronology of my time in London.
I used to meet friends at the bar and often arrrived early sitting at the high benches which looked out at the Thames, watching the world go by with a glass of wine and soaking up the atmosphere.

The last film I saw there was Hirokazu Kore-Eda's gentle film 'Still Walking'. But looking through my collection of film notes, some of my highlights include Wim Wender's 'The American Friend', Satyajit Ray's 'Pather Panchali', King Vidor's 'The Fountainhead', John Frankheimer & George Axelrod's 'The Manchurian Candidate', Alexander Mackendrick's 'Sweet Smell of Success', Ingmar Bergman's 'Fanny & Alexander', Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown', Martin Scorsesse 'Mean Streets', Terrace Mallick's 'Days of Heaven' and Billy Wilder's 'The Apartment'.

Long live the Bfi!