21 février 2014
Caféfrancophilo
10 février 2014
QFT screens Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
Louis Malle’s “Lift to the Scaffold” (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud)
Saint-Germain-des-Prés: mercredi 12 février
Around twenty of us braved the inclement weather and settled in the warmth of the Dark Horse Coffee House as Claudine McKeown presented her personal look at the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris, home to many renowned artists and writers and as we were to hear to Claudine herself in her student days
Claudine, ably assisted by husband Seamus in managing the technology, explained that her talk would be in French, supported by PowerPoint slides in English. This approach found favour with many present.
She started by locating the area geographically in Paris, highlighting some of the key landmarks of the 6th arrondissement. Claudine then focussed on the construction of the Abbey church in some fields outside the not yet then expanded Paris. The abbey and the fields explain the name. The church, she told us, reinforcing the point with a slide, is also the final resting place of René Descartes, philosopher, writer and mathematician.
On to history, and we were treated to pictures of and comments on various places that make up the patrimoine of the area. Here was the church of Sainte Sulpice, here La Sorbonne where Claudine as a student met up with her future husband and here the Luxembourg. Bright, sunny images a welcome counterpoint to the weather outside!
Sitting in a café, it was especially interesting to note how the talk progressed to café culture at its best by including brief, personal accounts of four famous cafés in the area: Le Procope, Brasserie Lipp, Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots and the writers and artists who frequented them.
Place named after writers Sartre and De Beauvoir |
Music was next on the tour and with the help of a series of posters and short videos we learnt how the area had danced through the post-war years. Music was our final stop and what better tribute to end on than Juliette Gréco's rendition of Claudine and Seamus's favourite song, Guy Béart's Il n'y a plus d'après ( À Saint-Germain-des-Prés).
01 février 2014
Fête des rois. Gavottes and galettes in Belfast
Last month's réunion of the Cercle français was a colourful and festive occasion. The tables of the Dark Horse Coffee House had been moved to the perimeter to leave plenty of space for dancing and the walls were draped in bleu, blanc, rouge bunting. Musicians from BalFeirste played Breton music on a variety of instruments including the bombarde. The atmosphere at this early stage of the evening was full of buzz and chat.
Philip McGrory lived up to the MC in his name and soon had us organised for the evening. First up, he explained was a demonstration of a gavotte. Vanessa and Fergus took to the floor, others of the troupe joined in and our evening got into its rhythm.
Following a spell of more music and chat, we were called back to order for a couple of magic tricks. Magic, Magi and the fête des rois. In a nice touch, one of the magician's tricks involved participants who were all French. He supplied them all with menus from the restaurants of famous French chefs and somehow managed to get them all to select dishes from the various menus, the cost of which added up to an amount he had previously written on an enveloped card.
Then on to the galettes, prepared by Amélie. They were délicieuses! And substantial. Each baked with a fève inside. Warned beforehand to be careful when eating, it was soon established that 4 femmes and 2 hommes were in the running to be selected queen and king for the evening. This was decided by ballot. Vive la révolution! More music and la reine and le roi took to the floor in a celebration dance.
Vanessa then distributed copies of a song and got the whole audience to sing-a-long. That finished, it was back to the floor for a demonstration of and a joining in a chapelloise. Cameras and phones flashed all around as people captured the festive fun.
It was a great evening. Thanks to all who joined in and made it possible.
12 janvier 2014
Décembre 2013 - Choix de poèmes
03 décembre 2013
Bulletin mensuel - décembre
The next meeting of the Cercle Français de Belfast will be on ….
Mercredi 11 décembre 2013 à 19h.30in The Dark Horse Coffee House
30-34, Hill Street Belfast BT1 2LB
Speaker : Nos adherents
...choose only one poem
...allow for approximately 6-8 mins to introduce and read it - or have it read for you if you prefer and
...please email details of your poem - Title/poet – to me by Saturday 7 Dec.
December seems the perfect time for such an evening and The Dark Horse will add that extra touch.
Fest Deiz
Take a break from shopping and sample the Christmas spirit French style by joining the December Fest Deiz onSaturday 14th Dec.
Amélie and friends form BreizhEire will be back in Madden’s Bar 74 Berry Street, Belfast from 5pm to 8pm with a session of Breton Dancing to set your feet a tapping.
French Films at QFT in December
Fri 29 Nov – Wed 11 Dec
From director François Ozon (In the House, Potiche), ‘Jeune & Jolie’ follows the journey of 17-year-old Isabelle (played impressively by model turned actress Marine Vacth) as she begins to explore her sexuality. After losing her virginity one summer, Isabelle embarks on a path of prostitution with mostly older men, ostensibly to pay for school, though clearly she is testing the socio-sexual boundaries set by herself and her family circle.
Dir: François Ozon
Cast : Marine Vacth, Géraldine Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot , Charlotte Rampling
English Subtitles
Sat 7 – Thurs 12 Dec
Blue is the Warmest Colour
Blue Is the Warmest Colour is an exquisite film; an honest and hair-raising study of first love, sex and a maturing relationship, capturing the confusion of teenage sexuality and the intensity of exploring its social taboos. Adele is a sensitive fifteen-year old student. Her days pass like many other until she realises that her sexual desires turn more towards her own gender than the boys who ask her out. After meeting a blue-haired stranger, the confident and assertive Emma, Adele soon finds herself tentatively visiting gay bars and, shortly afterwards, wrapped in the arms of her new lover. Then, her true journey begins.
Dir: Abdellat if Kechiche
Cast : Léa Seydoux, Adèle Exarchopoulos , Salim Kechiouche
English Subtitles
Mon 30 – Tues 31 De
Cinema Paradiso
A charming and heart-warming homage to the cinema, Cinema Paradiso is back on the big screen where it belongs. A real delight. The multi award-winning homage to the love of cinema tells the story of Salvatore, now a successful film director, returning home for the funeral of Alfredo, his old friend who was the projectionist at the local cinema throughout his childhood. Soon memories of his first love affair with the beautiful Elena and all the highs and lows that shaped his life come flooding back, as Salvatore reconnects with the community he left 30 years earlier.
Cast : Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannaval e, Anton ella Attili
English Subtitles
While this is an Italian rather than a French film it is one of my all time favourites so I just had to mention it. For full details of all movies showing at QFT in December see www.queensfilmtheatre.com
I hope it is not too early to wish all our members and friends - Joyeux Noёl.
Hope to see you on 11 décembre.
A bientôt, Philip
19 novembre 2013
The story of Grand Marnier
There was a good crowd at the latest event in this year's programme from the Cercle français de Belfast when "yours truly" gave the talk on Grand Marnier. As usual the Dark Horse Coffee House in the Cathedral Quarter matched the proceedings perfectly.
I decided that it might be a fun idea to do a kind of Who Do You Think You Are? approach to the subject. The concept of the popular BBC ancestry programme has made it into French, in Canada at least, where it is known as Qui Êtes-vous?
The first part of the enquiry then looked into the origins of the drink and focussed on Jean-Baptiste LAPOSTOLLE who, in 1827, set up a distillery to make fruit liqueurs in Neauphle-le-Chateau near Paris. The story moved to his son Eugene who returned from travels with bottles of "burnt wine" - brandewijn - from the Cognac region. He is said to have offered a taste to his friend Louis-Alexandre MARNIER who hit upon the idea of adding his recipe for bitter orange curaçao to the cognac. A perfect marriage.
Louis-Alexandre joined forces with the LAPOSTOLLE family business and also married Eugene's daughter Julia Regina. The alliance of Marnier-Lapostolle is still confirmed by the red seal and ribbon on bottles of Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge as you can see from the above picture.
At the time of the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1889, the drink was still referred to as Curacao Marnier, that was until Louis-Alexandre's friend César RITZ brought his marketing skills to bear. As someone who could spot a quality product likely to appeal to the rich and famous he prompted Louis-Alexandre to rename it Grand Marnier. The "grand" prefix went against the trend of the time in referring to things as "petit" - Le Petit Journal, Le Petit Parisien, Le Petit Palais etc. It caught on, quickly adopted by a well-to-do clientele. Among these was the then Prince of Wales, Bertie, who went on to become Edward VII and who would have a considerable part to play in the building of the Entente Cordiale.
Our story took a brief aside to look at the career of César RITZ and his colleague Auguste ESCOFFIER. There followed an appreciation of Crêpe Suzette with different suggestions as to how that dish originated and indeed how it is made.
We later considered how helpful Louis-Alexandre was to Ritz in helping him acquire premises in place Vendome to set up the famous Paris Ritz hotel.
The evening wouldn't have been complete without une dégustation and soupçons of Cordon Rouge were passed round for a sniff or taste. That provided an opportunity to look at some contemporary marketing of the product including a video on mixing a long drink cocktail.
Members were delighted to see examples of some of the specialist bottles produced by the company and the blue bottle of 2012 depicting the Parisian Skyline was a hit!
One of the members, Sandra, had brought along her bottle - in case it was needed - and we had a little more fun deciphering the number code on the bottle neck.
The first two digits indicate the year, in our case '13; the next three the day number of the year, so the 15th day of the year is 15 January and the last two digits show the hour in which it was bottled, in our case after 16h.00 and before 17h.00
Try this next time you pick up a bottle. It turns out that Sandra's Grand Marnier was in the bottle at 10h.00 that same day! Older!