another day at the office
The wedding anniversary celebrations found their way to a small turquoise inlet down the rugged coast from Marseilles.
A colleague, when I had expressed an interest in walking in the 'Calanques' but clueless as to where to park because of forest fire restrictions, suggested the little fish restaurant in the Sormiou calanque which had secret parking. A little apprehensive of my master (many recommendations have gone terribly wrong - the guide's 'ultimate simple fish restaurant', for example, perched high on the coast with 'imprenable' sea views to which we drove miles from one of my concerts, turned out to be no more than an average pizzeria under a dirty plastic awning), I was pleased when it turned out to be the untouched haven of leaning twister pines, party dress yellow cactus flowers, a myriad of blue and green aquas and twittering goldcrests I had hoped for.
We lunched, being on an adventure, on flan d'oursins and a grilled local fish whose name I cannot remember but which had very fierce teeth, and then we went to work:
Julian perched under the shade of a wavy pine tree and, though he lacked the necessary veridian and hoggar blue for the true colour of the mediterranean in this jewel-place, did his painting for the day whilst I perched slightly lower in the sun and studied my score of Rameau's 'Les Boreades' with the help of my ipod, figuring out 'french baroque style'; which quavers are swung and which note the trills start from...
On the way home we stopped on the A7 to photograph the painting for the day before the light faded. It sold within an hour of posting to a guy in Massachusets. It Almost payed for lunch!
That - my brilliant, talented and innovative husband - is my kind of guy.
(Another day at the office.)
3 Comments:
Ruth - there seems to be a mix-up - I'm not Jean and didn't meme you - but I was memed (is there such a verb?) and did put up Jordi Savall and the divine Monserrat F. Glad if I introduced you though. Do try the Merula in particular. She and he do lovely stuff with Sephardi music too. And a host of other things.
Your blog always leaves me feeling HUNGRY. It's so sensual. This time was slavvering over fish and landscape both.
PS, If Julian wants to paint a landscape extraordinaire, he should try this one. The wine valley here - volcanoes either side, each vine plant in a little black dimple - + odd lone palm is unlike anything else.
PS2 Talking music. Radio 3 has just started playing through my headphones piano transcription of Bach - 106 - Actus Tragicus. Something else makes me melt.
That has to be the office at the end of the universe. I can't imagine how it could be improved upon.
It is such fun to see Julian actually "doing" the painting while you are "doing" music ...
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