The signs of the coming autumn

 This post is another autumnal chronicle or, rather, a pre-autumnal chronicle. Because for the last few days, I have seen the signs of the upcoming autumn. I have made a list here, because I am in an autumnal mood already (being my favourite season and all that) and because I want to savour each moment, each manifestation heralding its arrival:

-After weeks of heatwave, the temperatures have finally gone down. Oh, it's still in the lower twenties and it's not auutmnal yet, but it's a welcome change from the year. And you can feel a coolness in the air, especially in the evening, that really feels autumnal.

-The breeze. It gives you a slight shiver when you feel it, and it smells moist and ever so slightly not quite summery.

-Dusk. The sung goes down way earlier and you can finally see it. Even my wife noticed it yesterday. 

-The leaves have already started changing colours on some trees.

So there you have it. We are not there yet, but I am starting to feel the season coming. And that makes me very happy.

Les enseignes de Salzbourg

 De retour de Salzbourg depuis deux jours, je me permets de mettre sur le blogue quelques photos de voyage. C'était la première fois en plus de trente ans où je mettais les pieds dans la ville. Elle n'a pas vraiment changé, enfin selon mes souvenirs. Sauf pour une chose, circonstantielle: c'était très pluvieux lors de ma première visite alors qu'il a fait une canicule cette fois-ci. Mais il y a une chose qui n'a pas changé: les enseignes des commerces dans la ville. On dirait que Salzbourg est un peu figé dans le temps.

Mozart Everywhere

"Oh my God, the dude's everywhere!" This is what my wife said on our first day in Salzburg. She was referring to two things: first, the iconic image of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which was indeed everywhere, albeit mostly in a dignified form, tall, handsome, commanding. Not exactly how I imagined the hot kid from Salzburg to have been in real life. Second, the Mozartkugeln, which are sold everywhere, in every shop, in every form. With Mozart to promote them, of course. They use his image shamelessly. And, I must confess, we bought the chocolates shamelessly. But anyway, what my wife said deserves to be a new great unknown line and I will not end this blog without a bit of Mozart music. So here's the fourth movement of hos Jupiter Symphony, which I think I never shared until now. Enjoy.

L'affiche du Salon du livre 2025

 J'ai été en vacances ces derniers temps, alors je n'ai pas eu le temps de bloguer sur un sujet qui est maintenant peut-être une vieille nouvelle. Enfin bref, j'ai appris via la page Facebook du Salon du Livre du Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean qu'ils ont leur nouvelle affiche. Et franchement, je ne suis pas certain. Celle de 2024 m'avait laissé froid, mais celle-ci a l'air vraiment désuète. J,avais vraiment aimé celle de 2023, j'imagine qu'elle était difficile à battre, mais quand même, celle-ci,on dirait un catalogue d'un magasin des années 50. Enfin, qu'en pensez-vous?

Back from Austria!

 Well, home sweet home, we are back from our holidays. If you were wondering why I was blogging more sporadically, it is because I was busy being away: we spent about two weeks in Salzburg and Vienna. I'm glad to be back, but the holidays were in a way too short. We really enjoyed it there. Anyway, I will blog more about it these coming days, so watch this space, as there is a lot to tell. I will try not to turn this blog into a travelogue or a tourism blog, but I think I will speak about Austria fairly often.

Gelée de pommettes

Signe que l'automne approche: mes parents ont fait de la gelée de pommettes. Il m'a envoyé des photos. Si j'étais chez eux, j'en mangerais sur mes toasts le matin et je commencerais à rêver à l'automne qui arrive.

Lovecraft

Today is an important date in my personal countdown to Halloween calendar: it is the birthday of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The father of modern and of cosmic horror. I first discovered him via the role playing game Call of Cthulhu, based on his work. I will try to read him today and in the upcoming weeks, it's one of my reading rituals in the months leading to Halloween.

Autriche/autruche

Je sais que je vais commettre un autre calembour atroce, mais je l'ai en tête depuis un bout. Toujours est-il que j'avais enfant un camarade de classe que je n'aimais pas beaucoup. Il était un peu (beaucoup) nono.  Il confondait la Grande et la Petite Bretagne, notamment. Quand il a appris qu'il existait un pays appelé Autriche, il l'a appelé Autruche. Il n'a jamais été foutu de comprendre que l'Autriche n'avait pas le nom de l'oiseau. Et même alors, je le trouvais crétin.

News about my godson

I spoke to the mother of my godson recently, via messenger. I hadn't taken news from her in a long, long while and I thought it was about time. I learned that my godson, who turned 20 this year, is going to study engineering in another city, a few hours away from his mother. I know I'm not his dad and I'm already living an ocean away from him, but it shocked me all the same. On the one hand, I'm really proud of him. Nevertheless, it's hard to know he grew up so fast.

Question existentielle (398)

Une question existentielle sur un mois parfois mal aimé, y compris par moi:

-Quels sont les aspects les plus plaisants du mois d'août?

Je crois que je ne l'ai jamais posée...

Caffè Nero (coming soon)

I blogged back in February about the Caffè Nero that was going to open soon in our town's high street. Well, in six months or so, it hasn't opened yet, which is kind of baffling. That said, word of mouth said the opening is now imminent. It's official enough that there's posters announcing it. Some residents are cynical, because we already have plenty of coffee shops. It's not like we needed another. That said, I'm welcoming it, because I quite like the atmosphere in their shops. Also, the building it is going to be in has been empty for at least a year, so it's going to fill an empty space that looked pretty depressing. Anyway, I'll probably blog about my first visit there, so I'll keep you posted...

Retour sur un calembour atroce

Je reviens sur mon billet du 16. J'avais alors commis un calembour atroce: "mi-août, miaou". En fait, c'était pas le mien, mais le calembour involontaire (mais quand même atroce) de bien des connaissances quand j'étais enfant. Or, j'ai vu que Stéphane Laporte l'a commis dans une chronique, La nostalgie du présent. Et en plus, il l'a commis volontairement. Je ne sais pas quoi en penser, sauf ayoye. Outre cela, je ne suis pas vraiment d'accord avec ce qu'il pense de ce mois-ci ou du suivant, mais ce sera (peut-être) pour un prochain billet.

Summer Blast

How's summertime where you are? In continental Europe, it's been akin to hellfire. And I mean, really. There's been a heatwave that has been doing my head in. I read that it's the same in Québec and in many other places in the northern hemisphere. I was hoping to have a cooling month of August, like we sometimes have. Instead, we got a proper summer blast. Anyway, I hope it cools down soon.

Des requins blancs dans le St-Laurent

Grosse nouvelle pour les baigneurs et les amateurs de requins: on a observé l'apparition de requins blancs dans le Saint-Laurent. Je ne sais pas si la nouvelle vous remplit de terreur, mais moi je la trouve fascinante. 

£5 on a book

Wolfie and I went to the local bookshop about a week ago or so, just so I could buy him a book for the holidays. I ended up buying him two, but never mind that for now. I saw a young boy and his dad, the boy must have been five or six, all happy about purchasing a book of his choice with the £5 bill that his father had given him. I don't think you can find many books at this price range nowadays, even children books, but I applause this family policy. It reminds me of my own childhood: my parents often gave us a few dollars to buy a new book at the beginning of a holiday, to celebrate it. It's a good tradition, which I intend to follow. 

Mi-août, miaou

Nous étions hier la mi-août. Que je prononce mi-ou. Mais quand l'étais jeune, il y avait des camarades de classe qui disaient "mi-aou". Comme miaou. Je trouvais la prononciation un peu colonne et le calembour, bien qu'involontaire, partièrement atroce.

New (?) local police station

I noticed it recently when I was walking through the business estate: we have a new police station there. Well, I say new, maybe that's not quite right, but it's the first time I noticed it. A bit less than a decade ago, we used to live near the "old" police station, which was a rather quaint and old fashioned building. It looked really nice, but not exactly the kind of place I would expect to have a professional constabulatory force, working against crime in a small English town that can surprisingly... I'm not sure of the word. Criminalised? If you read this blog, you know what I'm talking about. It can be a dark place and the ideal setting for a crime novel or two. But anyway, this new (somewhat new) local police station looks suitably modern, from what I could see from the outside. Which is kind of reassuring. I think it's also at a more strategic place, giving a police presence where there was none before. So yes, good news. And if I need to find inspiration for my stories, I know where to walk by.

"Le 12 août", etc.

Un rappel de l'expatrié que je suis pour tous ceux qui peuvent. Oui, c'est vous là, mes lecteurs du Québec. Ma mère, mon père, mon frère et sa petite famille et c'est sans doute pas mal tout. Enfin bref, le 12 août, achetez un livre québécois. 

Catholics VS Protestants (Derry Girls)

 Has anyone here watched Derry Girls? I'm late to the party, but I discovered it recently on Netflix and binge watched it with delight. Really enjoyed it. The sitcom first caught my attention during our trip to Belfast last year. There was this chalkboard a the Ulster Museum, which I thought was funny. It was taken from the show. In context, it's absolutely hilarious. Anyway, you can watch it here. But I cannot encourage you enough to watch the full series.

De la broue

Mon père a acheté de la bière de la Brasserie Port-Alfred. Celle-ci est une Blonde de Soif. On ne le dirait pas sur cette photo. C'est beaucoup, beaucoup de broue.

Blood Safari/The Invisible

I learned some very exciting news from the newsletter of South African crime writer Deon Meyer: there will be a TV series adaptation of his novel Blood Safari. Incidentally one of my favourite novels of his, with maybe my favourite character, Martin Lemmer. Except that he will not be named Lemmer. I don't know much about it, except some of the confirmed casting (promising) and that it will be called The Invisible, as per the original title of the novel in Afrikaans. I must confess, I prefer the English title, which ismore violent, nasty and well, bloody, but hey. Now I just hope when it will be released, I can find a it streaming somewhere here. In any case, it is something to look forward to, crime fiction wise.

Choco Accro

 Mon père m'a appris l'existence d'une chocolaterie à La Baie. Je ne la connaissais pas avant. Elle s'appelle Choco Accro, qui est une jolie petite allitération. Ils font un chocolat aux bleuets, chocolat noir, au lait et chocolat blanc. Je ne sais pas s'il est aussi bon que celui des Pères trappistes, mais j'essaierais bien.

Night Terrors

You must think I'm obsessing about Halloween already and you are right. But we are in Augtober after all. And sometimes, chance or fate seems to confirm it. Like when my son and I went to a small fayre last weekend. There were toys and books on sale, including this E.F. Benson's anthology, aptly titled Night Terrors. I'm going to surprise you: I did not buy it. Oh, not because I decided to behave: I already have it, this very edition in fact, with the spider and all. I even have started reading it, one of my many books of classic ghost stories I tend to read this time of year. But I thought it was funny that it showed up like this. I hope it found a buyer.

Saumon sur planche

 Je partage encore une fois une photo du saumon à la plancha parce que... Ben, parce que.

Brenzett (a ghostly pilgrimage)

As you probably know, if you read this blog for long enough, I love the stories of E. Nesbit, especially her ghost stories, and most of all Man-Size in Marble, one of the very first horror stories ever set on Halloween. It is the perfect scary story for the spooky season. Well, I discovered last year, during the official countdown to Halloween, that the village of Brenzett was not invented by Nesbit, but really exists, in Kent. So it's now on my list of places to visit in the UK. From the pictures Ihave seen, it looks beautifully eerie. I will blog again about the story in the following weeks (well of course), but until then, if some of my readers have visited Brenzett, or even live there (you never know), please let me know in the comments.

Orangina (nostalgie douloureuse)

Vous vous souvenez de l'Orangina? Une boisson à l'orange (enfin, il y avait pas peut-être pas beaucoup d'orange dedans) que j'aimais beaucoup quand j'étais jeune. C'était comme boire un jus d'orange et un soda en même temps, je trouvais ça un brin sophistiqué.J'ai acheté cette bouteille dans un dépanneur pas loin d'ici. À ce prix-là, ce n'était vraiment pas donné, mais je voulais revisiter mes souvenirs. (Et parenthèse sans rapport direct, mais avez-vous remarqué que l'étiquette a du français dessus?) Verdict: je ne sais pas si c'est parce qu'elle a été sur les tablettes longtemps, mais franchement le goût est au mieux ordinaire. Je dirais même assez fade. Morale de l'histoire: parfois la nostalgie est trompeuse.

Coffee Zone on the railway

 There is something I really like when we travel by train. I mean, there are lots of things I like, even love, since I love train travel, but one of them is stopping by one of the coffee shops and get a hot or a cold drink and maybe something to nibble. Now I don't like coffee and I wished they'd call it tea shops or something, but I love the ambiance and the whole buzz of these places. Sometimes I buy things just to try the shop. So when we were waiting for our train at Three Bridges, I was happy to find a new shop I hadn't seen before, called Coffee Zone. But as it wasn't staffed, I did not buy anything. I love the name though, Coffee Zone. Even though I hate coffee. It's the Zone bit I like.

Un cellulaire c'est pas un walkie-talkie

 Petite perle d'humour trouvée dans les internets. Je crois que c'est un autobus de la STM, bien que la photo soit sans doute retouchée. Dans tous les cas, c'est vrai.

Snake and Ladders?

Sometimes, you find strange things second handed. So anyway, we went to a sort of very small, neighbourgood's local fayre, people selling tea, cakes and, well, second hand stuff. Mostly toys, games ans books. And this game of  Snakes and Ladders, which I did not buy, even though I love that game since childhood. Because we have one set already, which really looks much nicer (see here), but also because, well... Have you noticed it? Pretty obvious when you see it, isn't it? No wonder it's on sale.

Saumon à la plancha

Si vous lisez ce blogue depuis un bout, vous devez savoir que je suis friand du poisson, surtout du saumon. Et je suis toujours heureux de découvrir de nouvelles manières de l'apprêter, même si je ne le cuisine guère (ma femme est végétairenne, mon fils n'aime que le saumon fumé). Or donc, mes parents ont mangé chez des amis un saumon à la plancha. Un saumon cuit sur la planche, comme de raison, une planche de bois humide, ce qui l'empêche de brûler (le saumon, pas la planche). J'espère l'essayer un jour.

Augtober

 I came across this neologism, Auctober, on various social media recently. From what I read, it means when temperatures in August feel more like October. It is the case now. It might not last, but it does feel cooler and very autumnal for August. In extension, it also means the state of mind and the way autumn and Halloween lovers deal with the month of August, like a big, long countdown to Halloween. I was embracing it before I knew the term existed, unconsciously. But now, I have decided that Augtober will be part of my vocabulary and my official state of mind this month. I am now reading horror stories. And Augtober is also, as you have guessed, the word of the day.

Le 12 août dans une semaine

Dans une semaine exactement, nous serons le 12 août. Ce sera donc le temps pour ceux qui peuvent d'acheter un livre québécois. Ceci est un rappel.

"Back to School"? What?

I have seen this last weekend at the local Mountain Warehouse. A discount for a child's coat, half price, yadda, yadda, yadda. The excuse for the 50% discount? Well, you guessed it. The school holidays have barely started here, it's early August, there is still a month to go. I know, I see it every year, in one shop or another. And it always gives me the blues to read somewhere "Back to School". It's as if a part of me never grew up.

Un sorbier

 Photo prise il y a quelques jours, d'un sorbier dans notre petite ville anglaise. Vous savez en lisant Vraie Fiction que j'aime les sorbiers, pour plusieurs raisons, surtout à cause de leurs couleurs en automne. Et aussi parce que l'on peut voir la saison arriver en regardant les feuilles des sorbiers changer de couleurs. Ce n'est pas la première fois que je blogue sur le sujet. On peut voir ici que, les feuilles étant encore vertes, l'automne est encore loin. Hélas.

Railway Mysteries

Oh the treasures one can find at the National Railway Museum in York! When it comes to books in general and crime fiction specifically, their souvenir shop is just as good as many bookshops. So yeah, I found there The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White, which was adapted into the movie The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock. The source material might be a tad too cosy and soft for me, but it's set on a train and I enjoyed the Hitchcock film, so I should like it enough in a few months, after I am done with my spooky reading list, which I have started. Anyway, I could have spent hours in the souvenirs shop and really misbehave, there were so many crime books that caught my attention. Railway and crime just make the best cocktail.

Morceau de gâteau

Je partage une nouvelle photo du gâteau à la crème sûre et glaçage à l'érable que mon frère PJ afait il y a quelques jours. Petit loup veut que je lui en fasse un, ce que je compte faire dès que je peux. J'ai la recette (de ma grand-mère), j'ai de l'essence d'érable de mon dernier voyage au Québec, j'ai pas mal tout sauf les oeufs. Et tant qu'à se sucrer le bec, je préfère que petit loup mange des desserts frais, faits maison que des trucs achetés.

A Barrel of Bourbon

I took this picture during the family gathering on my wife's side at a Smith and Western restaurant. I enjoyed my time not so much for the food (although it was all right) than for the company and the ambiance, very much western themed. It was like stepping in a giant playground looking like a saloon. And there was this barrel at the entrance. Wolfie wondered what it was, so I had to explain what bourbon is. It's funny, I didn't notice untilrecently how bourbon was associated with westerns. I don't think I ever drank any, except maybe in cocktails. Some of you ever drank bourbon? How is it? Leave me a comment.

Brasserie Port-Alfred

Petite nouvelle brassicole québécoise et saguenéenne: mon père m'a appris l'existence de la Brasserie Port-Alfred. Port-Alfred étant bien entendu l'ancien nom (plus ou moins) de La Baie. Mon père l'appelle d'ailleurs encore Port-Alfred. Mais enfin bref, je suis toujours heureux d'essayer de nouvelles bières de microbrasseries (parfois de nouvelles bières tout court), alors je suis heureux de découvrir qu'il y a une nouvelle bière en région. Ou en rérion.

"There comes an autumn sickle..."

 And as the daylight's fading
When Lammas has come in
And gleamers go to work among the stubble
There comes an autumn sickle
To cut the summer's throat
Before the season knows it is in trouble

Martin Newell, Black Shuck

 We are Lammas Day, and as it is a tradition here, I quote this poem. The first day of August and this lovely evocative quote about it are a reminder of two things: 1)autumn is on its way, closer than before, 2)so is Halloween. So I am getting in an autumnal mood, and I have already started reading horror stories.

Gâteau à la crème sûre

 Mon frère PJ a fait un gâteau à la crème sûre avec glaçage à l'érable. Je partage ben, parce que.