The Maxime Le Forestier Concert

Yesterday, not Friday as we had planned, Paul and I went to the Maxime Le Forestier concert at the Grand Rex in Paris. More about how I really screwed up later. 

The concert was wonderful. The first act was Daby Touré, a young singer with an absolutely crystal voice. He sang in French, in English, and in his own dialect. Listen to him! Then came Maxime le Forestier, who started out solo, with "Comme un arbre". I was already melting. His voice is just as clear and beautiful as it always was. Sometimes he sang solo, but most often he was joined on stage by young singers who either sang with him, or even solo. Even Adamo, who is by no means a newcomer, came out for a song. And Calogero sang "Les Jours Meilleurs" in duo, and "Mon Frère", solo. Beautiful! Daby Touré joined him for "Ambalaba" and "Né quelque part" and then started "San Francisco" in his own dialect, joined by Maxime and then the others, who all came out on stage. Of course there were other songs mixed in. There were some fantastic young women singers, too. 

I did something completely out of character for me. I was a fan. I printed a picture of S.G., from back in high school, before she became P.G. and wrote a letter explaining how we had a friend in common. We'll see if the production people actually give him the letter. I'm curious. In any case, as the audience sang "San Francisco", it felt funny singing the refrain. 

If any of you have a chance to catch this concert on tour, if it goes on tour, then go.

Now, for the story of how we almost missed it. 

Look at the date on the poster. January 27. It was announced as a one-night-only event. The kids gave us the tickets as a Christmas gift. You can imagine how excited I was. Paul, too, but not as much. In the seventies,  a newlywed in France, when I listened to the radio and Maxime Le Forestier was on all the time, especially "San Francisco", I was learning French. And he was one of the few singers I could understand. And as I understood, I liked the lyrics. My French is never going to be perfect, but Maxime Le Forestier played a big role in teaching it to me. So, the concert is on the 27th.

As soon as I got up, on the 27th, I went to look at the tickets to see what time the concert was. Shock. Our tickets were for the 26th! I was devastated. I wrote an apology to the kids. I moped all morning, through my art class. Aude suggested we go anyway and buy tickets from scalpers. I was ready to go with that idea, but when I got home, Emma told me she had been on the Internet and was waiting for an answer from someone who had posted his tickets, at cost. She also had found out there was another concert on Sunday, in case she didn't get a reply. Also, she'd be passing not far from the Rex and would inquire. Not long after she left, Claire called (from England) and said that she'd been on the phone with the head person at the Rex, Nanou, and had explained the situation. Nanou would be in touch with me if she could get us an exchange of tickets for Sunday. Then, Emma called from the Rex, a bit confused that Nanou was already aware of our predicament, but with the same message: Nanou was pretty sure she could get us in on Sunday. And if not, there were still seats for sale on Sunday. (Louis had also gotten in touch with his C.E. to see if there were still tickets available, and Anne was not yet aware of the situation because she hadn't seen the email, yet. )

Nanou called later and announced that the production company was sympathetic and would allow us to exchange seats. Yesterday, she led us to our new seats, way up in the upper balcony, with a perfect view of the stage. (I'm not posting pictures, because we were really too far away for that.)

My kids are the greatest. First for the wonderfully thoughtful gift and then for doing everything possible to correct my mistake.

The Wyeths, Three Generations

A little known exhibit gallery, the Mona Bismarck Foundation, 34 Av. de New York, Paris, has good shows. The one on right now is the Wyeths, 3 generations. Although Andrew Wyeth is known in France, it is the first time his father, N.C. Wyeth, and his son, Jamie Wyeth have been shown. It's an excellent show.

Paul and I had seen an exhibit of the Wyeths at the Brandywine museum a long, long time ago, the early 80s, I think. N.C. Wyeth is known for his illustrations of books: Treasure Island, for example. His paintings were mostly oil. 

Andrew Wyeth is well known for "Christina's World". What I paid attention to in this exhibit is his drawing, his watercolors and tempera. He paid such attention to detail. Some of his paintings seem almost hyper-realistic. There's a pine tree in one; not a single needle is missing and the bare trees way in the background are not missing any branches. Lots of his paintings have snow and the light seems to come from within the paintings. There are wonderful portraits. 

Jaimie Wyeth uses all sorts of techniques -- all perfectly. He, too, is a great portrait artist. He's known for his posthumous portrait of John Kennedy, which is in the exhibit. There are also some beautiful preliminary sketches and the final paintings of Rudolph Nureyev and Andy Warhol. There are also beautiful paintings of the Maine island where he spends summers.

Upstairs, there's a video of Jamie Wyeth working on one of the paintings, the Inferno. There are also some beautiful photographs of the Wyeths.

The exhibit ends in mid-February, so if you are in Paris these days, I recommend going.

Cirque du Soleil

A big, big thanks to the kids for the Cirque du Soleil show last week. I heartily encourage my friends in Barcelona, Belgium, and the Netherlands to try to go. There's a story, a Comedy del Arte. The acrobatics are impeccable. Seeing the show live is nothing like seeing Cirque du Soleil on a screen. 

And Paul and I went to the special exhibit at the Louvre on antique Macedonia, Alexander the Great.  The exhibit finishes today, the 16th, and I hope they maintain the site a bit longer so you can see the pictures of some of the most fantastic pieces. The gold, oak leaf crown is truly extrordinary. Many pieces (in fact, I think, the most remarkable ones) are from Alexander I and Philip II periods. They were Alexander the Great's grandfather and father. 

Otherwise, I'm still working on my painting. And planning my vegetable garden. I'm going to try the square foot gardening method this year. The French books on the subject, however, recommend 40 cm. squares rather than 30. Of course, 30 cm. is a foot. I'm making 3 frames. If I go with the 40 cm.² parcels, I'll have 9 per frame, 27 in all. If I choose 30 cm.², then I'll have 16 per frame or 48 total. I think I'll have enough work with 27! Not only do you have to plan what to plant, how much to plant, but also what plants will go together in a frame and what plants do you plant before or after.... Lots of planning. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 BONNE ANNEE

New Year's Greetings 2012

The Lebelles had a good year! If you click on the link to 2011, March, you'll find our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam and in April, our family birthday celeb­ration at Disneyland Paris. Back to March -- we linked two group trips to Cambodia and Vietnam in order to spend a full month traveling. It was a great, although we agree that we appreciated Cambodia more than Vietnam, probably due to the nature of the group tours more than the countries. We returned in April to celebrate a lot of birth­days together. Well, we all have a birthday every year, but for some of us, it was one of those spe­cial years: 10, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 75! We had a very warm and sunny spring, followed by a chilly summer and then a warm fall. Ellen got to babysit Aurelia in February when she had the chickenpox. We both visited in June and again in August for THE MOVE. The Hu­saunndees have moved to a big house just around the corner from where they lived before! Ellen re­turned in November for a short visit and we spent Christmas with them with Anne, in the new house. Emma, Louis and Gwen also visited in December. In November, Ellen also ventured up to Man­chester to catch high school friend, Beth Levin, in concert! What a treat! We also had nice visits here from the Pickars, Sleeths, Schallers, and Chaussemys. And now it's time to start a new year. We wish you the very best for 2012! _______________________________________________________________________ Les Lebelle ont eu une bonne année. Si vous cliquez sur le lien 2011, March, vous trouverez notre voyage au Cambodge et le Vietnam et, en April, notre fête d'anniversaire familiale à Disneyland Paris. Pour notre voyage en "Indochine", nous avons lié deux voyages en groupe. Magnifique. Nous avons mieux apprécié le Cambodge, mais c'est peut-être du à la nature des visites. Retour en Avril pour fêter beaucoup d'anniver­saires. Oui, nous fêtons tous chaque année une anniversaire, mais 2011 était spécial : 10, 30, 40, 50, 60, et 75 ans ! Nous avons eu un printemps chaud et ensoleillé, suivi d'un été frisqué, puis un automne doux. Ellen a pu garder Aurélia en février quand elle a eu la varicelle. Nous avons tous deux rendu visite en juin et encore en août pour le grand démé­nagement. Les Husaunndee se sont installés dans une grande maison tout près de l'ancienne. Ellen est allée encore en novembre et nous sommes re­tournés avec Anne pour fêter Noël dans la nou­velle maison. Emma, Louis et Gwen sont allés aussi en décembre. En novembre, Ellen est monté jusqu'à Manches­ter pour voir une copine de lycée, Beth Levin, en concert. Géniale ! Nous avons aussi reçu des visites des Pickar, Sleeth, Schaller, et Chaussemy. Et maintenant, une nouvelle année s'annonce. Nous vous souhaitons une très bonne année 2012 ! -------------- PS: Some of you may receive a hard copy of this in the next few days. Certains parmi vous vont recevoir une copie papier de ceci dans les jours qui viennent.