Archive | December, 2009

Paris Street; Rainy Day

23 Dec

Dave’s family home was recently sold off and as a result we ‘inherited’ a few pieces of furniture that we needed to shoehorn into our flat. It’s worked out quite well, surprisingly and it’s looking pretty good in here, if a bit cramped.

One of the good things is that moving a bookcase freed up some space for the lovely print of Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte, that Dave bought for me LAST Christmas! It looks pretty good hanging in its new home and I have just been admiring it, while drinking Green & Blacks hot chocolate and listening to the sound of heavy rain falling on the sky light above our mezzanine.

It’s a powerful and oddly beautiful piece, depicting a street near the Gare St Lazare in Paris, sometime in 1877. It’s just right for this time of year but perhaps in Summer I will replace it with a Monet poppy field.

It looks fabulous, though with the snow from the WordPress ‘falling snow’ feature drifting across it, like some amazing animation of a wintry day in 19th century Paris. Have a quick look!

It’s a sleepy day here. Felix is ill and asleep on the sofa. I’m working and watching Miracle on 34th Street and Oscar is having a nap in his cot, after ingloriously falling asleep head first in his macaroni cheese. Can’t believe that it is almost Christmas!

What I did at the weekend…

22 Dec

We went down to Bude in Cornwall on Friday, to spend a few days with Dave’s family before the chaos of Christmas and whatnot. It was a weird couple of days, which I imagine is usual after someone has died and everyone tries to work out how to do things like Christmas without them.

Anyway, we got there on the Friday evening and went out for dinner, which was nice. I had my first sloe gin in ages, which made me feel very flushed and jolly. Felix extorted a pound coin from a total stranger at a fruit machine and put it into one of those toy grabbing games, whereupon he promptly won a toy Father Christmas and Snowman that ended up tangled together to much acclaim and astonishment.

The next morning we had breakfast then exchanged presents with Dave’s family while snow fell outside. Dave got comedy books and DVDs and I got cookery books:

Oscar got some lovely presents but the main attraction was the amazing Playmobil Pyramid that Felix received!

How awesome? It has a mummy, guards, ‘treasure’ and loads and loads of rather morbid Egyptian stuff with it. Dave is currently putting it together as I type this and I am wondering where it is actually going to live! It has trap doors with scorpions and a hidden sarcophogus and all sorts of excitement going on. I think I am going to get him a couple more of the ‘Egyptian’ sets, maybe starting with the Sphinx.

After we had finished with the presents, we drove down to the Eden Project at Saint Austell for their Christmas event, which was absolutely superb! The site was open until nine o clock at night, so we were able to see the amazing biomes lit up and also walk around them in the dark! A lot of effort had gone into decorating it all and lights twinkled on every tree as we walked around. There were also choirs and trees and banana and rum smoothies and loveliness everywhere that we looked.

Felix decided that he wanted to try skating and so his uncle Andy bravely took him out onto the lovely rink. He didn’t do too badly and even let go of the side eventually! I decided that it was all too cold and took Oscar off for a walk around the Mediterranean biome, which was lovely and dark and fragrant, with strands of lights on the trees and a stars effect projected onto the roof.

The rain forest biome was even more spectacular – it was SO amazing to walk around it in the dark and gloom while in the distance you could hear the sound of the waterfall and the distant singing of a choir. Words just can’t express how fabulous it was, seriously. I loved it and if you ever get a chance to go around Eden Project at night, then you absolutely must take it.

We had a quick stop for some parsnip and apple soup:

We then went off to the shop in search of a sun jar, as I have wanted one for ages! I am very excited about my sun jar and am probably going to get a few more as I love them so much. Basically they look like normal jars but have a rechargable battery and solar whatsits inside so you pop them on a window sill during the day and then when it goes dark, they light up with a lovely mellow glow like candlelight.

There was also time for a lovely wander while admiring the lit up biomes. I was expecting the Christmas event to be really crowded and busy but actually it was very quiet and we saw hardly any other people as we wandered about. It was lovely and very magical.

The next morning we all had breakfast together then went into Bude for a quick poke around the shops before having a cornish pasty lunch and then retiring back to the cottage with the boys while Dave went off to play snooker against his brother. Oscar and Felix had lovely long naps and I managed to lie on the sofa and start tackling Wolf Hall, which may well be the best book that I have ever read. I’ve never been too keen on Thomas Cromwell, but wow I really warmed to Hilary Mantel’s depiction of him! What an unexpected hero!

After a nice snoozy afternoon, it was time to go out for dinner again, which was rather nice even if the boys were a bit out of sorts and so consequently weren’t exactly well behaved. After dinner, Dave went off with his family to watch a film while I went back to our cottage with the boys to get them ready for bed and watch Cranford, which was extremely weepy or rather heartwarmingly dismal. I love it but it really, really makes me cry.

Had a fairly decent night’s sleep then got up early to pack our stuff and say goodbye before heading back home, via a brief but fun shopping trip to Exeter, where I acquired the gorgeous petrol coloured Fly London Mes boots that I have wanted for AGES. They really are beauties:

There was time for a quick mooch around All Saints, where I decided on a few tops that I will be getting on payday to kick start my Only Buying Clothes From All Saints resolution and then a quick gingerbread hot chocolate in Starbucks before we had to carry on to home.

Very tired now!

An Imperial Viennese Winter, 1765

17 Dec

Christmas has come so quickly this year, I can hardly believe that it is here again.

Amalia, Carolina and I all went sledging yesterday evening at Schönbrunn, which was just the most delightful thing imaginable. The gardens were lit up with hundreds of torches and the whole scene was quite magical as the light flickered across the yellow brick of the palace, the glittering, snow covered gardens and the icicle covered statues, which seemed to shiver and tremble in the torchlight. I wore my new fur lined blue velvet coat with matching gloves and big fur hat.  One of Joseph’s friends said that I looked just like a snow princess out of a fairy tale, which made me feel even more warm inside. Finally, some compliments!

Tonight, after dinner, Josepha lit the first candle on the Adventkrantz and we all sang carols again as outside the snow swirled through the air and settled on the stone windowsills. Joseph was in a very good mood and made us all a special spiced punch, which made me feel very warm inside and rather jolly. I danced with Ferdinand and Maximilian and also with one of the Swiss guards while Joseph took Josepha’s hands and spun her, laughing madly, around the room while the footmen and ladies in waiting all laughed and clapped their hands.

I asked the Christkindl for a puppy and also that Amalia be allowed to marry Karl.

One of Carolina’s maids, Klara offered to share some of the special fortune telling rituals from her village with us. I was wary at first, remembering what a disaster St Thomas’ Eve was but Amalia was enthusiastic about the idea and promised that if it was as horrible as last time she would put a stop to it.

‘Although, you do know that it is all just harmless fun don’t you, Antonia?’ she asked, looking unusually serious just for a moment. ‘It doesn’t mean anything at all.’

I tried to shrug nonchalantly. ‘Oh, I know that. Yes.’

In the end it wasn’t so bad although Josepha decided not to take part. Klara had told Carolina to write as many male names as she could think of on pieces of paper and then place them carefully around the edges of a bowl of water, which had a candle stump floating in it. ‘The first name to start to burn will be the name of your future husband,’ she said with a wide grin. ‘It never fails.’
Amalia went first and we all watched with bated breath as the candle bobbed around the bowl, looking at one moment as though it would burn a piece of paper before suddenly floating away again until finally it singed the very edge of one of them.

Amalia fished it out. ‘Urgh, Ferdinand! I hope he isn’t as annoying as our brother, Ferdinand!’

Carolina was next: ‘Oh drat, Ferdinand again! Maybe it is the same one and we will end up sharing him?’ she joked to Amalia, who burst out laughing.

‘I do not think that Catholic princes are in such short supply as all that!’ she said. ‘Mama would be quite undone if that was the case.’

I went up to the bowl and watched as the candle floated this way and that, illuminating the names on the pieces of paper: Henry, Rupert, Fritz, Karl, George, Ludwig, Maximilian, Wolfgang, Augustus, Joseph. ‘Oh, please let me not get Wolfgang,’ I silently prayed as I watched the candle come perilously close. I did not think I could bear any more teasing about poor Wolferl Mozart and his alleged fancy for me.

‘Aha!’ One of the pieces of paper began to slowly burn and Amalia swiftly plucked it out of the water and held it between her fingertips so that she could read it. ‘Ludwig!’ she announced with a flourish. ‘Oh dear. I was hoping for Wolfgang.’ She winked. ‘Poor Wolferl will be quite heartbroken when he hears that you are not his little fiancée after all.’


From The Secret Diary of Maria Antonia.

Our Lady of the Potatoes

17 Dec

Duncan Sprott’s amazing, entrancing and magical novel Our Lady of the Potatoes has been one of my all time favourite books, ever since the very first time I read it shortly after its release in 1997 and I can think of few other books that evoke so wonderfully, the luxurious and arcane world of eighteenth century Versailles and Paris.

Our Lady of the Potatoes tells the story of Louis XV’s enigmatic adolescent Irish mistress, Marie-Louise O’Murphy (21st October 1737 – 11th December 1814) who was briefly installed in Versailles in the sunset of Madame de Pompadour’s years at court and went on to bear the King an illegitimate child before being summarily married off and sent to the provinces.

‘Everyone turned to look at her, as if all Versailles had been advised that today the new mistress would be delivered; as if they had made a special effort to come and stare and make instant judgements on her suitability.

Ladies came running to look and made loud remarks about her old fashioned dress. She stood out at once. She was like nothing they had seen before. With lornettes raised, curiosity and desire aroused, gentlemen craned their necks and murmured admiringly as she floated past.‘ – Our Lady of the Potatoes, Duncan Sprott, 1997.

It really is a wonderful book and a worthy addition to any historical fiction fanatics reading pile!

Paris in the snow

17 Dec

I would love to see Paris under snow. I wish there was some way of accurately predicting exactly when there is likely to be snow so that I can book my flight!

I’ve been a bit quietly lately as Christmas has sneaked up on us a bit and suddenly I don’t feel like there are quite enough hours in the day to do everything that I both need and want to do.

Felix finished pre-school for the year today and has a Christmas party tomorrow morning before we head off to Cornwall for the weekend for a Christmassy weekend with Dave’s family. We’re hoping to get to the Eden Project for one of their late night openings on Saturday – I am so excited about the prospect of seeing the famous biomes at night!

Juliette Benzoni – Catherine, One Love Is Enough

11 Dec

Everything I know about relationships and sex, I learned from the Catherine series of books by Juliette Benzoni. I remember the terrible thrill of reading my grandmother’s collection of ‘Catherine’ novels as a little girl. They weren’t at all suitable reading material for a small girl but I was a voracious and precocious reader and had tired of my own books at an early age before turning to Austen, Frances Burney and my grandmother’s huge collection of historical fiction.

While my peers were still reading Enid Blyton, I was staying up late at night, devouring dozens of books by Jean Plaidy, Georgette Heyer, Anya Seton, Margaret Irwin and Norah Lofts. They were all great books but in my mind now, I feel the most nostalgia for the lurid, sexy world of the ravishingly beautiful, golden haired and violet eyed Catherine Legoix as imagined by French novelist Juliette Benzoni.

The Catherine series follows the various misadventures of the beautiful Catherine and her noble lover, the hot headed and rather abusive Arnaud de Montsalvy who, now I come to think of it, is a sort of fifteenth century version of Edward Cullen with his moody looks, scorching kisses and unfathomable behaviour.

The books begin in 1413 and follow Catherine through a series of unfortunate marriages, countless near fatal encounters, a passionate relationship with Philippe the Bold of Burgundy, a perilous brush with the villainous Gilles de Rais, a friendship with Jeanne d’Arc and, perhaps best of all, a stay in a harem when Arnaud is captured on crusade and kept as the sex slave of a sultan’s sister so of course Catherine has to go after him and become the sultan’s favourite mistress in order to rescue him.

They truly are amazing books and it is such a shame that they aren’t more widely known and available. I found this site with amazing collections of the often really quite horrible covers, which should tell you everything that you need to know about what lies within.

Delaroche discovery

9 Dec

Ah, I love it when lost masterpieces are rediscovered! This amazing painting, Charles I Insulted by Cromwell’s Soldiers by Paul Delaroche was hidden in a mansion belonging to the Duke of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland at the start of the Second World War and has remained there, forgotten and presumed lost forever, ever since.

I love Delaroche’s paintings and am pretty thrilled that there is to be an exhibition of his work at the National Gallery, London from 24th February to 23rd May 2010, focussing on his most famous painting, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey.

I think everyone must love this painting! I was interested to learn that Delaroche’s paintings were inspired by the events of the French Revolution, even if they didn’t depict them.

This is his work: The Conquerers of the Bastille before the Hotel de Ville. He also painted some great depictions of Napoléon, preferring to paint him as looking somewhat folorn.

I really like this painting of the deathbed of Elizabeth I as well:

I’m going to be in London for a few days next Spring, mainly to hang around Spitalfields looking purposeful but I think I may well have to fit in a trip to the National Gallery as well!

A dress, today.

9 Dec

This gorgeous Dior dress, as worn by Lily Cole, always makes me think of Christmas. Maybe it is the sumptuous Dairy Milk purple or perhaps it is the diamanté stars in her hair. Either way, it is just perfection.

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