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Fiona Alderman: An August Story in France

It has been a busy month here. Principally, with work being done in the house. What was a simple painting job has turned into a bit of a nightmare, and all when it is still the holiday season. France really seems to close down in August.  However, I have managed to call a roofer, a plumber and a painter. I needed to call the house insurance company too,and all in French. I have learnt many technical words that otherwise wouldn’t have been in my vocabulary!!  All have their specialities in their work,, and I have been often been forcibly told in true Gallic fashion, Non Madame, je ne fais pas ca ! No Madam, I don’t, or really WON’T do that.

The plumber, for instance, installed a new toilet and fixed  a leak under the stairs replacing old copper pipes, but he knocked down floor tiles and perched the toilet over a hole in the floor. When I asked what he was going to do, I was dismissed with a curt shrug, le peintre va couvrir le trou ie  the painter will put on a new floor covering the hole! By the way, when I asked the painter, he said he couldn’t do it ?

Not a big hole or surface area, unlike my roof which is more of a problem. A very old tiled roof that has needed  some attention for quite a while. When it rains, as it does quite heavily sometimes, it floods down below. Storms can be brutal here. I have to dash through to capture the water in large buckets. I have now become more knowledgeable about canal roof tiles.From ancient times, until just 100 years ago, these terracotta tiles were made from local clay. The shape of them was either moulded around a wooden log, or a person’s thigh. Must depend on the size of the thigh , surely? The ones I have are not very fat.I have been looking closely at how they are laid on. 45 to 50 cm long and taper down to 15cm, they are a thing of beauty, and it is amazing to me how they stay up there.It all depends on the slope of the roof apparently.

A row of tiles are first laid and fixed with lime mortar, then others slot in with precision. I even have original glass tiles of the same shape and size that are being kept on.All this with sometimes dangerous looking manoeuvres by Alain , my roofer, who is a builder and carpenter, but is now retired. Ever working though, even in his own house, to maintain and care for these ancient buildings . August draws to a close, the tourists are going home and even the Cafe de la Place is taking a short break before the Autumn season begins and the run up to Christmas. Where has this year gone ?

Zizi Jeanmaire

Harry Pot, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

Zizi Jeanmaire Mon Truc en Plume (You Tube)

I watched the Olympic Games Opening in Paris last month and watched a neat routine by Lady Gaga of the song Mon Truc en Plumes.Dancing with 12 young men with huge pink feather fans. This had originally been done by the beautiful dancer and actress, Zizi Jeanmaire  many years ago. The name Zizi came from her mother who called her “mon petit Jesus “ that was shortened to Zizi.  Talented  from a very early age, she went to the Paris Opera Ballet, where she met her fellow student and later husband Roland Petit. She joined the Nouveau Ballet de Monte Carlo in 1946 and the next year went to dance in London at the last season of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. She became a star really when she danced with Petit, now her husband, in the ballet Carmen that was also choreographed by him . Their duet was both passionate as well as sensual. Her short haircut was her trademark from that time and it suited her personality so well. Vivacious and full of joy when she danced. She had a suburb technique and the most marvellous legs which she still had even when she was older. She danced in Broadway and in Hollywood starring with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Her Revues were a hit wherever she performed, her French style and elegance was a true delight to watch. The song by Peter Sarstedt in the 70’s pays tribute to her: Where do you go to my Lovely .”You talk like Marlene Dietrich, and you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire.”

Forever Delon

(Licio D’aloisio / Reporters Associati & Archivi / Mondadori, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Another famous star of French cinema has just died at the age of 88. Battling with illness for the last few years, and surrounded by family problems, he quietly slipped away on his beloved  estate of Douchy, in Le Loiret. He owned many dogs over the years and he had a special cemetery made for them on his land. He wanted to be buried beside them.  A beautiful young man in his youth, he enjoyed the company of women, and they in turn loved him. Romy Schneider was his first love and in the film La Piscine, in which they both starred, the chemistry is clearly there and shines out of the screen. Mireille Darc came later, then Natalie Delon who bore him a son, were also present for many years at his side. He had two other children with Rosalie van Breemen; his daughter Anouchka becoming an actress in her own right. He went to Hollywood, as he said at the time,”leaving  France to Belmondo “. His rival in some ways, but Jean Paul Belmondo was the stuntman, the action actor with a huge smile. Not so beautiful as Delon but more likeable perhaps. Delon worked with all the famous directors, including Fellini, Godard, Visconti, Hitchcock and Joseph Losey. His films are numerous and are legendary .On the day of his funeral I walked up to my local bistrot, and what was playing in the Cafe ? Paroles, Paroles, his duet with Dalida, that I wrote about in an earlier article. Touching.

Nice phrases. Tu veux une piscine ? Translates Do you want a swimming pool ? I didn’t know this one. A glass of wine with icecubes !

Amour is French. Translates Love is French. I saw this on the back of a woman’s sweater.

That’s it for now. Fifi’s stories from rural France.

1st September 2024.

This section: Fiona Alderman blogging from The Salignac Foundation France