Book review of Under a Riviera Moon by Helen McGinn

Under a Riviera Moon by Helen McGinn

Under a Riviera Moon by Helen McGinn

When a heartsick Maggie is sent on an errand by her mother to Cannes, she is keen to get it over with as quickly as possible.

She has been tasked with collecting a treasured box of photos from her late grandmother Elizabeth’s best friend, the impossibly glamorous Allegra Morgon who is desperate to tell Maggie all about the year she and Elizabeth spent in Paris. The sixties were in full swing, the air hummed with jazz, artists and students made the streets their own, and the City of Love was weaving its magic. And against this backdrop, two people were beginning a love story that would last a lifetime - but be over too soon.

As Maggie hears more about Allegra’s life, first in Paris, then New York, and finally on the Riviera, she is captivated and inspired. Was life always leading Maggie to this moment, this beautiful place so she could finally learn to stop living in the past? Because if she can, then another love story for the ages might just be within her reach…

Helen McGinn’s deliciously escapist, unashamedly romantic story is perfect for fans of Carol Kirkwood, Karen Swan and Erica James. 

Under a Riviera Moon by Helen McGinn

My review

Maggie is at a low, both personally and professionally, so as a favour to her mother agrees to a few days on the French Riviera, to collect a box of her late grandmother’s possessions. What she hopes will give her a change of scenery, turns into an adventure from the moment she meets the enigmatic Allegra.

As the sun sets on Allegra’s terrace in the old part of Cannes, the wine is poured, the stories begin to flow, and Maggie’s eyes are opened to a life lived in a different era. Paris in the 1960’s is alive with jazz clubs, art, but also political unrest. It is also where a chance meeting brings together four young people with passion and ideas, whose lives are on the brink of change. 

Under a Riviera Moon by Helen McGinn

Allegra now has the wisdom of old age, so as well as sharing the passions and heartbreaks she has experienced, she also encourages Maggie to open up about her heartache. This is a crucial step in helping her move forward from a traumatic period and begin her healing. I loved watching Maggie slowly come back to life as she enjoyed her time with Allegra.

This is a beautifully written dual time-line novel, whose characters piqued my interest, especially the wonderful Allegra, and I was easily immersed into their stories. Be warned, this book is not your usual love story, but it will make you think and reflect on the importance of living your best life every day.

I’ll be looking out for more books from Helen.

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Helen McGinn

Author Bio  

Helen McGinn is a wine writer, international wine judge and author of the award-winning Knackered Mother’s Wine Guide. She spent almost a decade sourcing wines around the world as a supermarket buyer and appears regularly on BBC1's Saturday Kitchen and ITV's This Morning as their wine expert. She writes about drinks for Waitrose Food Magazine among others and awards include Fortnum & Mason’s Online Drink Writer of the Year. Her bestselling debut novel This Changes Everything was published in February 2021 and her second fiction book In Just One Day later that same year. This Is Us, her third novel, was released in September 2022 and her fourth, The Island of Dreams, in February 2024. 

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Under a Riviera Moon by Helen McGinn

France Trivia Advent Calendar day twenty-four, the thirteen Christmas desserts of Provence

Advent day 24 a Blanc de Blancs dry white and a biere de Noel

Advent day twenty-four, Thursday 24^th December 2020

The last doors on our advent calendars have been opened and my Blanc de Blancs dry fizzy white and Adrian’s Biere de Noel are chilling in the fridge, and the calendars themselves are out in the cardboard recycling. 

 

They have certainly been good fun, although I do feel a bit of a lightweight as I have a third of my bottles still to drink. This does mean though that there will be a nice bottle of something fizzy to toast us at breakfast tomorrow, as well as a bottle each for our Christmas Day picnic, not forgetting some in the fridge for the evening. I got a lot more variety from my wine selections than Adrian did with his beers, but, with the exception of his biere blanche, which had no aroma and tasted of dishwater, I think all of his other beers had much more flavour and nose than most of the wines. While there was nothing wrong with any of the wines, there was nothing exceptional about them either, but I will miss the excitement of opening the calendar each morning.

 

There has been an overriding theme to the handwritten messages in the Christmas cards we have received this year, with “what a year!”, “let’s put 2020 behind us” and “here’s to a better year next year” being just some of them. While 2020 has been a year of highs and lows for us, losing our 22 year old nephew, six months with no work or possibility of furlough for Adrian, and not being able to travel to visit family in the UK, certainly being pretty low points, there has also been a lot to be thankful for. 

 

A 2020 family portrait

These two (nutters) make me smile, laugh and fill my heart with joy every day. For three pretty independent adults, who pre-Covid-19 were used to our own space and an often-solitary existence, I think we have coped pretty well being locked down together for most of the year and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. 

 

We have had more quality family time than we’ve ever had and enjoyed some fantastic experiences as we seized every opportunity to get out and live. This time last year we had no plans to visit Nice and the Cote d'Azur, which we did in June (thanks to Lou Messugo), for the first time in ten years, and then we topped the holiday with an awesome cycle up Mont Ventoux. In August we spent a week in the Pyrenees, our days filled with more epic cycling, good food and stunning scenery. We also managed to squeeze in one last adventure to lose ourselves in the golds and autumn colours of the Lot and Cahors vineyards, just before lockdown came back in October. Cycling makes me feel alive as it gives me the chance to push my legs and lungs to the max, whatever the weather, or location.

 

I am approaching year end in a happy and relaxed place and will treasure these memories made in 2020 forever. All would be well with my world if it wasn’t for the end of the UK’s transition period, prior to leaving the European Union, looming. Who knows what 2021 will bring? It may or may not have the total shock of the world shutting down due to a pandemic, but it will have very real challenges for many millions of innocent victims of a disastrous political decision. 

 

France Trivia advent calendar, day twenty-four, the thirteen Christmas desserts of Provence

This evening families in France will be celebrating Christmas and as we have no lockdown, curfew is suspended for the evening, and so long as we are sensible and keep to a maximum of six adults per gathering, there are no rules to obey. There are many traditions associated with the Christmas Eve meal, but if you are lucky enough to be celebrating in Provence, you will have to ensure you leave room for all thirteen desserts they serve. Tradition says there must be thirteen sweets served, for Jesus and his twelve apostles, and each guest at the table must take a small bite of each one. Luckily they are not the hearty and stodgy type of desserts favoured by the Brits at Christmas, instead the French prefer a selection of walnuts, dried figs, dates, different types of nougat, raisins, oranges and mandarins, marzipan biscuits called callisons, an orange flavoured fougasse (olive oil flat bread) and candied fruits. It might make the mincepie and satsuma that I’ve planned for tomorrow seem a bit tame, but my mincepies do contain dried fruits, candied fruits and walnuts so we’ve almost ticked all the boxes.

 

Thank you for reading along with our lockdown daily diaries this year and I hope you have enjoyed the France Trivia advent posts. I wish you all a merry Christmas and hope you will be able to join your loved ones, either in person, or online. Stay safe. 

France Trivia Advent Calendar day twenty-three, La Rochelle

Advent day 23 a Bordeaux red and a biere ambrée

Advent day twenty-three, Wednesday 23^rd December 2020

 

Final preparations for Christmas

This morning we waved our Ed goodbye, in the rain, his little car stacked with gifts and freshly baked mincepies, off for his French family Christmas adventure. 

 

I had a day of baking planned, the first batch of mincepies were out of the oven, the pastry for the second batch resting in the fridge and the naan bread dough doing its thing in the bread machine. Then we decided to do something really bonkers.

 

We are not ones for shopping, even on the quiet days, but especially not two days before Christmas, and in the middle of a pandemic. What we would normally enjoy however, is a quick visit to La Rochelle in the run up to Christmas. I’d pick Adrian up from the early morning London flight and we’d treat ourselves to coffee and a croissant at the Café de la Paix, enjoying their decorations and huge tree, as well as the elaborately painted ceilings, everything reflected back at us in the large mirrors that line every wall. With no overseas work, there has been no travel and no airport runs. This year we’ve also missed out on a visit to a big town centre to enjoy the Christmas lights, market and festive atmosphere.

La Rochelle, December 2020

 

Making the most of the freedom of no lockdown and being child-free once more, we escaped for an afternoon in La Rochelle. We were too early to enjoy the Christmas lights and the Café de la Paix was sad, dark and closed, but masked-up we enjoyed our La Rochelle fix, a change of scenery and some bracing sea air. Having left home in the gloom and rain, we didn’t bother taking the bikes with us, which we regretted as the closer we got to the coast, the brighter and sunnier it got. Even without the café terraces, La Rochelle is always a treat for people watching, bike spotting and seeing another side of French life. 

 

The pre-Christmas chores we should have been doing can wait for another day and although I might have been a bit late to my yoga class this evening, at least we made it home before our eight o’clock curfew, but only just.

 

Winter sun in La Rochelle, December 2020

France Trivia advent calendar, day twenty-three, La Rochelle

There is lots I could share about La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast, and its colourful history, but for many secondary school pupils in the UK, at least in the 1980’s, it was the towers in La Rochelle that had pride of place on our Tricolore French textbooks. 

 

La Rochelle was English from 1152 to 1226 (we have Eleanor of Aquitaine to thank for that) and again from 1360 to 1372. From the fourteenth until the seventeenth century it was one of France’s principal ports, meaning it was from La Rochelle that many French adventurers set off for new lives in Canada, America and the Ivory Coast.

 

For me, it is the place to go when I need a little bit more than village life can offer. 

France Trivia Advent Calendar day twenty-two, Gustave Eiffel

Advent Day 23, Biere Brune and Côtes de Thau rosé

Advent day twenty-two, Tuesday 22^nd December 2020

I may not have got my solstice sunrise yesterday, but today, the first day of lengthening daylight hours, I did, and as a bonus the sun was streaming into my yoga nook during this morning’s class. I can’t tell you how much better I felt for this.

 

The weather stayed favourable, so this afternoon we set off on bike ride searching for open skies and covered picnic tables. We are still hoping for a Christmas Day ride with picnic, but the forecast isn’t looking as good as the weather we had last year. It could be that wind will be more of an issue than rain, so somewhere sheltered to open the hamper would be nice. Our thirty-five kilometres this afternoon was a great way of blowing the cobwebs away and left me feeling full of life, even if we failed in our quest for covered tables.

 

Tonight will be Ed’s last night here for a while, as tomorrow he is off to Pearl’s family for Christmas. As a break in the routine, I have cast aside our Tuesday norm of lasagne and replaced it with our family celebration meal of choice, homemade meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce. To add to the celebratory mood, we will also be opening our family Christmas gifts this evening.

The Eiffel bridge in Voulon

 

France Trivia advent calendar, day twenty-two, Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923)

One of the world's leading specialists in the field of metal construction, Gustave Eiffel left his legacy all over France, and not just in the form of the tower in Paris named after him. We have often come across bridges and viaducts designed by him as we’ve toured France by car and bike, including the rather small and seemingly unloved one in Voulon near Poitiers. We think this is our closest Eiffel construction, but happy to be corrected on this. 

The Eiffel Tower, or la dame de fer, (the iron lady), was built for the Paris exhibition in 1889 and despite her many early critics, she became an official historical monument in 1964. Gustave also developed the framework for another impressive dame, the Statue of Liberty. 

France Trivia Advent Calendar day twenty-one, Marie Curie

Advent day 21 a sparkling rosé and a biere blanche

Advent day twenty-one, Monday 21^st December 2020

 

Winter solstice.

The arrival of the shortest day and the knowledge that from now on the hours of daylight will slowly increase, gives us much more reason to celebrate than Christmas, and last night we enjoyed our special solstice eve meal, which is the closest we will get to a traditional Christmas dinner. 

 

This morning we were up early, hoping to see a spectacle of colours as the sun rose, promising us that the dark days will become light. Just after eight o’clock, the sky began to lighten, but when the official sunrise of 8h40 arrived, there wasn’t even a hint of pink or orange to break up the grey. I think today must be one of the gloomiest days of winter so far and I couldn’t settle to anything, apart from soup-making. 

 

I don’t think I can claim another December recipe challenge victory for last night’s meal, as although I’ve never cooked guinea fowl before, I just did exactly what I’d do with a whole chicken. However, as the challenge was to drag our meals away from what had become routine, it did at least count as something new. 

Guinea fowl ready to cook in the slow cooker

 

I slow cooked the bird on a bed of leek tops, carrots and turnips with a little rosé wine and then served the meat on a Christmas vegetable risotto, and it tasted delicious. There is enough meat left for tonight’s dinner and the carcass was boiled for a stock, which along with the cooking vegetables and liquid, plus some other bits from the fridge, made a tasty soup for this week. 

 

Covid-19

The news at the weekend that there is a new strain of the virus in the UK and that all of our family over there are now in the Tier 4 category, seemed to come out of nowhere. Just to compound things, two of our close family members, who live in London, have had positive test results in today, having had coughs last week. They assure me they aren’t feeling too bad, but all this has meant their plans for Christmas have had to change. 

 

The world seems to be descending into a madness we could never have imagined a year ago. France (and most of Europe) has closed its border with the UK, we are living with an overnight curfew, and the more I focus on these statements the more it feels like things are spiralling out of control. It is way scarier out there now than it was back in March, but at least from today it is onwards and upwards and I can look forward to longer days, the arrival of spring and the strength the sunlight gives me to remain positive in a mad world.

 

Our Christmas greeting to you

Ed’s latest music video, his take on Lonely this Christmas, which I think is a pretty apt choice for this year, is now up on YouTube. All being well he won’t be lonely this Christmas, as he’ll be with his girlfriend, who he hasn’t seen since the end of October. The poor thing has been cooped up with his mad parents for almost two months and if you do decide to watch this video, you will see just how bonkers we are. 

 

This is our Christmas greeting to you all, wherever in the world you are and however you are celebrating this year. Thank you for following our French village adventures, and liking, sharing and commenting on my posts. Happy Christmas.

  

France Trivia advent calendar, day twenty-one, Marie Curie (1867-1934)

It was on this day in 1898 that French scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium, so it seemed fitting for them to be todays’ French trivia. Marie was born in Poland, studied in Paris, where she met Pierre and became a naturalised French citizen. She was the first woman to win a Nobel prize, the only woman to win one twice and the only person to win one in two scientific fields (physics and chemistry). They shared the 1903 Noble prize in physics for their pioneering work in radioactivity and during the First World War she developed mobile radiography units to provide x-rays to field hospitals. Pierre and Marie also shared a passion for long bicycle trips and as the saying goes, the couple who cycle together, stay together. 

French Trivia Advent Calendar day twenty, Aliénor d'Aquitaine

Advent day 20, IPA beer and Cabernet-Syrah red wine

Advent day twenty, Sunday 20^th December 2020

 

Père Noël visits the village

Père Noël visits the village

We had a bit of excitement in the village today as Père Noël was in town. Normally he would hold a party in the village hall, or salle des fêtes, where his helpers would have laid the tables with decorations, chocolates, mugs of hot chocolate, glasses of orange juice and trays of pastries. The room would be filled with around forty children and their parents, and Christmas music would be the backdrop to excited chatter as they awaited the arrival of Père Noël. Once seated in his chair next to the Christmas tree, he’d hand out the presents stacked beside it. But not this year.

 

One of Père Noël's helpers and her bike

The presents were wrapped, his helpers were ready, but the village hall remained dark and closed. Not to be thwarted by Covid-19, Père Noël found himself a van, his helpers decorated it, filled it with the presents and plenty of Christmas chocolates, and he set off to hand deliver the gifts to the thirty-one under elevens in the village. We must have looked a cheery sight as our slow procession made its way around the village and hamlets, three of us on bikes, ringing our bells, followed by Père Noël and then a second car with a few more helpers and the sound system blasting out festive music. At each house we stopped at, happy faces peered out of windows as they awaited our arrival. Some of the younger ones might have been a little wary of the big man in red, but the excitement in the eyes of those old enough to understand was magical to watch. I may not be an over-the-top Christmas person, but even Covid-19 couldn’t stop me from being one of Père Noël’s helpers in the village again this year.

 

Cathedral St Pierre, Poitiers

France Trivia advent calendar, day twenty, Aliénor d’Aquitaine (1122-1204)

Living as we do in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France, the name of Aliénor (or Eleanor) of Aquitaine, is one we stumble across quite regularly. Eleanor truly was a grande dame of the middle ages, who not only inherited the vast lands of the duchy of Aquitaine, which included the Poitou, Limousin and Gascony areas of south west France, but was also the queen consort of both France and England. Her first marriage was to Louis VII, who became king of France, but they separated when she was thirty as after fifteen years, she had yet to bear him a son. Her second husband was Henri Plantagenet, count of Anjou, duke of Normandy and future king (Henry II) of England. They married in Poitiers and the impressive cathedral, which is right outside Ed’s flat, was built at her request. During the next thirteen years she had eight children, including five sons, three of whom became kings. One of her sons was Richard the Lionheart. She died when she was eighty-two, which strikes me as a pretty great age to reach in the twelfth century. 

France Trivia Advent Calendar, day nineteen, the gorges of France

Advent day 19, a biere rubis and a Pays d'Oc rosé

Advent day nineteen, Saturday 19^th December 2020

I seem to have developed a weird Covid-19 related condition, where anytime something doesn’t feel quite 100%, my mind goes into free-fall panic mode. This first happened a few weeks ago, on a Saturday night, when Adrian opened his advent beer, a biere blanche. Up until that night, I’d enjoyed a good sniff and taste of all his beers, and their bouquets and flavours had packed more of a punch than my wines. The biere blanche, however, smelt and tasted of nothing and was such a contrast to all the others, I assumed it was my sense of smell. I counted back five days, we’d been shopping in Niort, I panicked. What if the masks, the hand gel, the hand washing and the keeping of distances hadn’t been enough and being out and about in town, mixing with others, had exposed me to the virus? A restless night gave way to a new day, where I could smell and taste just fine, and no new symptoms arrived. I scolded myself for over-reacting and carried on as normal, until the early hours of Friday morning when I awoke with a migraine. 

 

There was a time when I’d regularly be hit with migraines, but now it really is once or twice a year and I can usually pinpoint a reason; hormones, a very late night, too much to drink or being unwell. This time none of the above applied and it was also unusual for one to hit in the middle of the night. As I lay there waiting for the painkillers to kick in, fighting the nausea and violent swings in temperature that accompany every migraine, I counted back five days, and we’d been shopping, again, in Niort. What if this wasn’t really a migraine, but the virus? The pain eventually receded, sleep took over, and I when I awoke, although feeling a little battered, it was reassuring to know my head had cleared and all was well once more. Is this what life will now be like, where every ache, or symptom, or odd feeling pushes the panic button in my brain? I do hope not, but for now, I’m staying away from shopping in Niort.

 

Gorges de la Nesque, Provence

France Trivia advent calendar, day nineteen, the gorges of France

I thought today’s trivia could be all about gorges, as we have been going out of our way to drive or cycle some of the most spectacular gorges in France for over ten years now. In fact, exactly six months ago today we were cycling the picturesque gorges de la Nesque in the Vauclause, high on the adrenalin of having cycled up Mont Ventoux the day before.

 

Gorges are deep river ravines formed over millions of years by the water eroding through the rocks and creating spectacular scenery. France is blessed with a number of gorges that are simply stunning, from the deep and dramatic gorges du Tarn and gorges du Verdon, (the largest canyon in Europe), to the meandering beauty of the gorges de l’Ardèche with its stone arch carved out by the river. We will never tire of straining our necks as we look up the steep rock sides to watch vultures and birds of prey circling in the thermals, or peering over precipices into the ravines below, where tiny kayaks tackle the white water. A holiday is not a holiday without a bit of gorge spotting for us and these posts will show you just why we love them so much.

Cycling the Dolce Via (valley de l’Eyrieux, Ardeche) 

Cycling the Gorges de la Nesque, Provence 

Cycling the Gorges du Loup, Côte d’Azur 

Ardeche 

Les Gorges du Tarn 

The Gorges du Aveyron 

France Trivia Advent Calendar, day eighteen, les volailles de Bresse

Advent day 18 sparkling dry chardonnay and biere triple

Advent day eighteen, Friday 18^th December 2020

 

It is a week before Christmas and there was a lot to celebrate today, even the advent calendar seemed to be in tune with my mood, presenting me with a nice bottle of sparkling dry Chardonnay this morning. 

 

French Onion Tarte December recipe challenge

The first thing worth a mention is that I have successfully tamed the French Onion tarte and am delighted to report dinner last night was tasty, edible and with no soggy bottoms or uncooked pastry. It seems sticking to my favourite rectangle baking tin, rather than the round flan dish Hugh would have preferred I use, made all the difference. I will definitely be cooking this recipe again.

 

We enjoyed a little bit of normality this afternoon for the first time since lockdown began, meeting up with friends for a bike ride. It might have been fresh, but the sun did shine eventually and as we had a big (60) birthday to celebrate, we did our best with mulled wine, fizz, ginger liqueur, hot chocolate, cheese, dips, crisps, mincepies and cake. There were only six of us, and we stayed outdoors and kept sensible distances between us, but it felt like a real party with fun, laughter and face to face conversation. It is the little things like getting together with friends that we have been lacking this year and it felt so good today. 

At some point during our bike ride this afternoon I smashed the 5000-kilometre mark for this year on my bike, which is up by over one thousand five hundred kilometres on last year, even with over one hundred days in lockdown. I’m pretty pleased with that and will continue to keep pedalling, 2020 isn’t over just yet.

 

France Trivia advent calendar, day eighteen, les volailles de Bresse (Bresse poultry)

The chickens from Bresse in the east of France are so very French, with their red combs, pure white plumage and blue feet, and the quality of their meat has been celebrated by French gourmets for over two hundred years. A true Bresse bird must be raised in a specified geographical area, outdoors with access to grass and fed a strict diet of milk products and cereals. They must also reach at least four months old before being sent off to the butcher and the capons, castrated males, are raised for at least eight months. They really are the crème de la crème of the chicken world with their tender, meaty flesh that is free from antibiotics, hormones or chemicals. If you are looking for something a bit special in your chicken, maybe for a celebration meal, or for Christmas, try a bird from Bresse. 

France Trivia Advent Calendar, day seventeen, François Truffaut

Advent day 17 Colombard-Chardonnay white and Biere Blonde

Advent day seventeen, Thursday 17^th December 2020

I’m feeling a little nervous as I write this as in my kitchen are all the component parts for my second attempt at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s French Onion Tarte for this week’s December recipe challenge. The pastry has been blind baked, the onions gently softened and golden, and all I need to do now is fill the pastry with the onions, egg and cream mix and try (this time) to cook it thoroughly. Wish me luck.

Carrot cake and Adrian's clever idea to
keep the heat in the mulled wine pot

 

My kitchen has been my place of refuge today, which I am hoping is a good omen for an edible onion tarte. I have baked a carrot cake and another batch of mincepies and both went without a hitch. We have also topped up the mulled wine, to ensure we don’t run out, and the whole house smelt delicious and Christmassy this morning. Baking is a great distraction from Covid-19, although the news that the French President, Emmanuel Macron, has tested positive and that most of our family in the UK are now in Tier 3 zones, did filter through to my happy place.

 

The advent offerings today were a fresh Colombard Chardonnay white wine for me and a Biere blonde for Adrian. My wine is in the fridge, but I think it might be a mulled wine apéro for me tonight and I’ll save the white for a sunny bike ride when the weather is warmer. These little 185ml bottles are the perfect size to keep and reuse, ensuring all bike ride picnics will be that bit more refined and decadent next year. I can’t wait.

 

France Trivia advent calendar, day seventeen, François Truffaut.

We are delving into the world of French cinema for today’s advent trivia and I’ve picked François Truffaut, for the simple reason the college (secondary school) Ed went to in Chef Boutonne, is named after him. François was a mere film critic before becoming one of France’s best-known directors from the New Wave of cinema. Larousse tells me it was the strength of his storylines, and the sensitivity and the truthfulness of his characters that made him a master of the French cinema. Each of the classrooms at Ed’s school were named after one of his films, and here are just a few you may have heard of. 

 

Les Quatre Cents Coups 1959 [The Four Hundred Blows].

Jules et Jim 1962 [Jules and Jim]

La Nuit Américaine 1973 [American night]

Le Dernier Métro 1980 [the last metro]

Fahrenheit 451, his first non-French film

 

With Ed studying cinema as part of his degree, I asked him for his opinion on François Truffaut and he says that Truffaut is a very down to earth film director. Some of the French New Wave directors could be a little unconventional at times. Truffaut, on the other hand, made films that even though touched complicated subjects and may have hidden meanings, were told in a clear way and could be understood by all audiences.

 

He was such a harsh film critic before becoming a director that when he announced that his directorial debut Les quatres cents coups would be first shown at Cannes Festival 1959, other filmmakers were looking forward to having their turn finding faults in his work. Once the film had been shown, they found that… there was nothing bad to say about the film, thus making Les quatre cent coups the first French film considered of the New Wave, and Truffaut the most popular director of this cinematographic movement.

 

Thanks Ed. 

French Trivia Advent calendar, day fifteen, Simone Veil

Advent day fifteen, Bordeaux Merlot and Biere Ambrée

Advent day fifteen

A quick calculation informs me that here in France we have spent 101 days in confinement this year, living life under strict rules where every time we left the house, we had to complete an official document to prove the validity of our journey. Going out today with no paperwork, twice, just because we could, felt great. Our bike ride wasn’t subject to a specific time, or distance from home, the only constraints being the time we had to fit the ride in. The rain even held off for us and the temperature was mild too, which was nice, even if the main reason for the ride was to road test the extra warm socks and waterproof boots we’d bought yesterday. There is no such thing as the wrong weather for cycling, just having the wrong clothing. Mum and Dad have sent us some money to buy our Christmas gifts, so we treated ourselves yesterday.

 

For the first time my advent calendar has given me a duplicate wine today, a Bordeaux Merlot (same as day eleven, if you remember). I’ll be looking forward to opening it later, to go with my post-yoga lasagne. By the time my yoga class is over this evening, I will have done four classes in the last twenty-four hours, which is a bit of a yoga marathon, even by my standards, but it makes me happy.

Square Simone Veil, our village park

 

France Trivia advent calendar, day fifteen, Simone Veil

There are a few names that crop up a lot when you look at any town centre map in France. Général de Gaulle, Marechal Leclerc, Léon Gambetta and Jean Moulin, to name just the ones that spring to mind. The things they all have in common is that they are all dead (you can’t have a place or road named after you until you are dead), they were all important political figures and they are were all male. What you don’t see too often in France is roads or places named after females, although our village has done its best to redress the balance. The pretty little park behind the church has either been known as ‘le square’ (by the French) or ‘the park’ (by the Brits), until last year when it became known as Square Simone Veil. While many people have heard of Charles de Gaulle, Simone Veil is maybe a little less well known. Simone was born in 1927 to a Jewish family, who were all sent to Auschwitz during the Occupation. Simone and her sister were the only two of the family to survive and on her return, she studied law and became a magistrate. In 1974 she became the French minister for health and successfully campaigned for greater access to contraception and the legalising of abortions in 1975. She died in 2017, her coffin lies in the Panthéon and a small village in south west France remembers her forever.

Lockdown diaries day forty-six, Advent day fourteen, name the bottles

Advent day 14 Syrah red wine and Biere Brune

Day forty-six, Monday 14^th December 2020

 

The end of the attestations

For the last forty-six days we haven’t been able to leave home without a filled in form (attestation) detailing who we are, where we live, where we were born and why we were leaving home (and the reasons allowed for doing so were quite restrictive). Today was the last day these forms will be necessary. From tomorrow we will be free to roam and confinement (or lockdown) will be over (once more), although it is being replaced by an overnight curfew. 

 

If you do need to leave home after eight o’clock in the evening, or before six o’clock in the morning, you will need an attestation and the only reasons to be out are for work, family, medical, to assist those who have a disability, to carry out necessary deeds in the public interest or to walk a family pet. General exercise and sports are forbidden between 20h and 6h.

 

This second lockdown hasn’t been anywhere near as restrictive as the first, especially as so many more shops have been open as normal. Aside from the form filling, I can’t see much will change for us and I doubt we will notice that we will be living under a curfew at all. It’s winter here and dark by six o’clock in the evening. There are no village events on, and the village bar has closed for good, therefore we have no need or desire to leave home once the heating is on and shutters are closed. We know the virus is still out there, masks will still need to be worn whenever we leave home and although we can now see friends, no one we know is ready to party like it’s still 2019. An interesting benefit to Covid-19 is that France is reporting far fewer cases of the flu or the winter gastro bug that are normally rife in schools by the end of the first term. Keep wearing your masks, keep washing your hands and keep safe. 

 

Technically this post is my last lockdown diary entry, however, we still have ten days of advent left, so I’m not ready to quit daily blogging just yet, sorry.

 

Advent day fourteen

Things are beginning to feel a little bit more Christmassy, although you won’t find any flashing lights or garish decorations here. What did arrive today were two parcels from Adrian’s mum. Hidden within the layers of bubble wrap were an exciting mix of things like bike pedals and warm gloves, that Adrian normally keeps at her house for winter cycling commuting but will be far more use here this year, some post, some bits and pieces we’d ordered and some wrapped up Christmas gifts (which we haven’t peeked into yet). This inspired Adrian and I to set off once more for a Christmas shopping spree to Niort. Well, all I can say is that we’ve ticked a few more things off the list and you wouldn’t believe how grateful I was to come home to a warming and reviving mulled wine and mincepie. 

 

France Trivia advent calendar, day fourteen, name the bottles

In our advent calendars today were a red Syrah for me and a biere brune for Adrian. Keeping to an alcohol theme, my French Trivia for today is all about bottle names, specifically for Champagne.

 

Magnum, holds one and a half litres or the equivalent of two standard bottles

Jéroboam, three litres or four standard bottles

Réhoboam, four and a half litres, or six bottles

Mathusalem, six litres, or eight bottles

Salmanazar, nine litres, or twelve bottles

Balthazar, twelve litres, or sixteen bottles

Nabuchodonosor, fifteen litres, or twenty bottles

Salomon, eighteen litres, or twenty-four bottles

Souverain, twenty-six and a quatre litres, or thirty-five bottles

 

Some of those names look like they will be as tricky to pronounce as they would be to pour. I think I prefer the mini bottles from my advent calendar.