What’s On

If you would like to join us for lunch please contact Marietta.

If you have any computer issues or questions please email us beforehand so we can be best prepared to help. Otherwise, just come along, preferably with your computer, and we will be available to help fix your problems or help you improve computer use.

I am extremely sorry to disappoint you, but our proposed restaurant in Ansouis has extended its winter closure and this year, this includes 3 February. Foiled yet again.

I am taking the easy way out. February's Gourmet lunch will be at my local restaurant up the road from me:

We have been there before and this restaurant is consistently good. We have the following choices (all without wine):

22 euros plat and cheese or dessert
30 euros entree, plat, cheese or dessert
32 euros plat, cheese and dessert
52 euros five courses

The play reading for February will be Oscar Wilde's ‘The Ideal Husband’ which will take place at the home of a member. Car sharing might be a good idea so use the Members List to contact those who are near.

Everyone needs to have their own copy of the play so I suggest that you order copies from Amazon; many of them are second hand and going for a song.

Pop in for a couple of hours or bring a snack lunch and join us for the day as we dig out new things to make and share skills. I will be attempting to knit with a new kind of ‘wool’ that is more like a fabric than a yarn, having left my main project in the UK! Jill will provide coffee, tea and snacks. See you there!

Meet us for coffee and if the weather is fine, we could have a walk around the Pharo gardens afterwards and enjoy the wonderful views! If you would like to join us please contact Marietta.

Because we like to discover different cultures, we will discuss the 1938 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Pearl S. Buck and read her classic ‘The Good Earth’. Born Pearl Sydenstricker in 1892 in Hillsboro, West Virginia, she grew up in China, where her parents were missionaries. She went to Randolph-Macon Woman's College and returned to China after her graduation and lived there until 1934, with the exception of a year spent at Cornell University, where she took an M.A. in 1926.

She began to write in the twenties; her first novel, ‘East Wind, West Wind’, appearing in 1930. It was followed by ‘The Good Earth’ (1931), ‘Sons’ (1932), and ‘A House Divided’ (1935), a trilogy on the saga of the family of Wang. The biographies of her mother and father, ‘The Exile’ and ‘Fighting Angel’, were published in 1936 and later brought out together under the title of ‘The Spirit and the Flesh’ (1944). ‘The Time Is Now’, a fictionalized account of the author's emotional experiences, although written much earlier, did not appear in print until 1967. She was a prolific writer and her novels continued to deal with the confrontation of East and West, her interest spreading to such countries as India and Korea. Her fascination with the interplay of East and West also led to some activity in political journalism.

Pearl Buck was active in many welfare organizations and set up an agency for the adoption of Asian-American children, Welcome House Inc. and took an active interest in retarded children. In 1929, she travelled from her home in China to settle her own severely handicapped daughter in a New York institution using borrowed money because she could not afford the fees. The parting was excruciating. She was, she recalled, “nearly destroyed by grief and fear”. The house felt empty on her return to Nanjing, but she knew precisely what to do: “this, I decided, was the time to begin really to write”. She felt her story already formed, at the tips of her fingers, and so it must have been, as only five months later she submitted the completed manuscript of ‘The Good Earth’ to her American publisher. It spent two years at the top of the best-seller list and she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Buck later became the first American to win a Nobel prize for literature. Her vivid descriptions of the harshness of life in China in ‘The Good Earth’ were a complete revelation to her American readers but a serious embarrassment to China which promptly banned the book. Like many political innocents, Buck had found herself in trouble, accused of being a Communist in the US whilst being denounced as an imperialist by the Communist Chinese. Time Magazine banned her from its pages and China forbade her return with Nixon in 1972. She died in 1973.

I’m sure we will have a lively discussion about the old China and the booming China of today and we will discover there is still not much changed in their mentality! Please let Mary or me know if you would like to join the pot luck lunch with perhaps, a Chinese dish!

Warm and cosy in winter, please join us for tea and fun conversation at this restaurant. And, if we feel like it…..lots of nice things to eat! Please call me to reserve a place. Hoping to see you there.

Who has seen the new film of David Fincher ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’? Just out with Daniel Craig as our hero and the unknown but brilliant Rooney Mara as Lisbeth, it has been called a "controlled, mesmerising, beautiful thriller". I suggest we read the Steig Larsson book and discuss its film adaptations - the latest Hollywood one and the Swedish adaptation two years ago. Discussion could include the two other sequels ‘The Girl who Played with Fire’ and ‘The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest’. As usual, I invite everybody to present, in addition, anything that has interested them during the month; art, cinema, politics, literature or society.

Please contact me for further information. Please do let me know if you would like to come!

We shall meet in the southern quarters of Marseille and from there proceed with as few cars as possible to the Calanque. From the point we start actually hiking, we will take the direction to the Cap de Morgiou where we shall have our picnic and then return to the cars via the same path. There are no particular difficulties, but please wear proper hiking gear for winter conditions and bring enough food and water. For further information please call me.

As the weather is still likely to be very cold this month, we have decided to continue having our food indoors rather than picnicking. This month we shall walk in the morning for approximately 2½ hours and then enjoy a pot luck lunch chez a member, thus incorporating two of the Group’s favourite events. Also, as a happy consequence, we will not have to carry our picnic and belongings on the ramble as we shall leave our things at their house. Because we shall be in a member’s house and the food has to be organised, it will be necessary to reserve, so please contact me at least a few days before if you would like to come.

The walk is not very difficult and is therefore suitable for all ages, and of course, well-behaved dogs. As usual, walkers should be prepared with good walking shoes and clothing suitable for February weather. We are fair-weather walkers, so if it is raining the ramble will keep for another day. However, the pot luck lunch will go ahead regardless, we shall just arrive at a later time and maybe walk a bit after lunch if the weather permits. If there’s any doubt on the day, please give Caitriona, Annie or me a call for clarification. For those who have not been to a group pot luck lunch before, each person is required to bring something (a salad, savoury dish, cheese or a dessert) for three to four people; the Group will provide the bread and wine. We will decide what food each will bring when reserving. Lastly, if you need a lift to get there, please call either Annie or me a few days before and we’ll try to help.

The address alone is enough to say that the Musée is a very special place and to quote Miguel de Cervantes in his famous book ‘Don Quixote’ this Musée is “within a stone’s throw” for most of us. There is a lot of history within the walls of this Palace which has been a part of the exceptional legacy of Aix-en-Provence since the Middle Ages. We will hear about its long history as we walk through its elegant corridors. Lynne Alderson accompanied me on a recent visit to the Musée and she has written in more detail about the history of the Archbishop’s Palace in this edition of the magazine. We are very fortunate that Christel Roy, director of the Musée, has kindly allowed us to have a private tour in the morning as it is normally open only in the afternoon in the winter months. This will ensure us a very private visit with our English speaking guide, Cloe, who has worked at the Musée for many years.

Don Quixote plays a rather large role in our visit, as the Musée contains the Don Quixote series of tapestries which were commissioned in the mid-18th century and have been hanging in the sumptuous former Archbishop’s Palace since 1905. They tell, in brilliant design, nine stories of the famous knight and his adventures with Sancho, his erstwhile partner, and are unique in the world.

Our visit will also include the four tapestries in the series ‘The Russian Games’; and six tapestries known as ‘The Grotesques’. Why do they have this name when they are really beautiful? I‘m sure our guide will have plenty of stories to tell us. One of the beautifully decorated rooms shows scenes, set models and costumes for Mozart’s Don Giovanni. All of the tapestries in this collection were woven in Beauvais in the middle of the 18th century. Beauvais was one of the three major centers of French tapestry production, the other two being the Gobelins in Paris and Aubusson about 200 kilometers south of Paris. Our visit will conclude with view of the Musée’s private collection of 20th century art.

After our visit, which will take about an hour and a half, we will walk 200 meters to eat lunch at the Spa Thermes Sextius in the Hotel Aquabella. No, lunch is not in the Spa, but in the elegant L’Orangerie restaurant just adjacent to the baths. For your lunch you may choose between an entrée or a dessert plus meat or fish for the plat principal. You will be offered 25cl of wine or mineral water and the cost will be 23€. When you contact me to make your reservation I will be able to offer you the menu choices for that day, which must be confirmed before the lunch.

After lunch we have arranged a short guided visit to the Spa’s Aquabella. We will hear the history of one of the oldest thermal water centers in France where one can see the ancient Roman walls and the rock foundations that are under the modern establishment. A sip of warm mineral water from the ancient well should put us all in good health, especially those, they claim, with circulatory problems. Afterwards, those who wish can stroll over to the Pavillon de Vendome which would be entirely in keeping with the period of architecture and history of Aix that we will have followed in the morning. This is by choice and there will not be a guide for this visit.

Cost for this day’s outing: Musée des Tapisseries/guide - 7€.

L’Orangerie lunch 23€ - so the total cost of the day will be 30€ per person. It is important for the reservation at the restaurant that I have your check by February 15th at the latest. Please call/email Liz to make your reservation. Once I have received your check, your place will be confirmed.

This month we shall be discussing ‘The Fry Chronicles’ by Stephen Fry. To cover costs we shall collect 4€ from you! If you would like to join us please contact Marietta.

Come and join us for lunch at a French restaurant tucked away in the middle of Aix. It is thanks to Catherine that I tried this restaurant and I, along with fellow AAGP members, was not disappointed in the slightest. Quite by chance, I chose the vegetarian option. The goat's cheese and aubergine millefeuille starter was delicious and the main course mushroom risotto was exquisite. There was an alternative, but I forget what it was! It was also inexpensive, the formule plus a glass of house red and change from 20€ can't be bad! Please contact me by 21st February to book your place. Looking forward to seeing you. If you have a favourite restaurant that you would like to share or would like to organise a lunch, please let me know.

Directions are printed below as GPS does not recognise the address!

We have a new venue for our first Pot Luck in 2012 and Elaine is opening her home for us to enjoy our meal this time, and for that we thank her. We hope to have our apéritif outside on the terrace but will be inside for the meal. As usual we are limited for numbers so it will be a “first come, first served” basis this time. Call Jan.

Come and join us for a language afternoon tea! Please contact Marietta.

It’s that time of year again. Time to get your brains working and prepare for the annual quiz. Time to find out if you’ve learnt anything in the last year, or have you in fact gone downhill?

As usual we shall have teams of five and each team should be ideally, but not necessarily, a mixture of different nationalities. If you want to enter your own team of five then do so, but we always have teams looking for additional members, so we can accommodate anyone, somewhere. The quiz itself will move back to the original format, with teams marking each other’s answers; last year’s method of marking didn’t work! This year, I’m preparing music clips, lots of photographs and a much shorter general quiz; the intention being to finish at a civilised hour. As is normal, there’ll be prizes for the first three, the inevitable wooden spoons for the last placed and maybe your photo in the Magazine.

The cost of the evening is again 25€ per person, which will include a choice of two main courses and two desserts, wine à volonté from the start of the quiz, coffee and of course the prizes. Vegetarian meals are available, also soft drinks for those who prefer not to drink alcohol. Please call me to put your names, or teams on the list. Further details will be given when reserving.

As well as all the specials listed above, don’t forget the Regular Activities that offer new skills, fun and friendship all year round. Contact details are in your yellow Members’ List book.

Tuesday: Bridge 14:00

Thursday: Coffee (Croquemitoufle) 10-11:30

Thursday (first or second): Computer Club 14:30

Friday: French (Aix) 14:30

Friday (last): Poetry Corner
Held in conjunction with Book In Bar

Saturday: Coffee (Croquemitoufle) 10-11:30

Sunday (first): Pétanque 10:30