From Russia With Love

As I am reading spy fiction for this year's #Noirvember, it just struck me that some James Bond novels would be really suitable for it. And more enjoyable than what I'm reading, as Ian Fleming is a genuinely good writer. He writes more colourful and itneresting characters, in any case. Anyway, one of the Bond novels I would suggest for Noirvember would be From Russia With Love, which may be one of Fleming's darkest. Not to spoil anything, but its ending is dramatic and very different than one you would expect if you have only seen the movies. It's borderline Noir. Oh and, on a side note, for train afficionados like myself, a fairly lenghty portion of the action is set on the Orient Express. That last point is not Noirvember relevant, but it just makes the novel even cooler.

Il neige. Mettons.

Il a neigé hier. Enfin, un peu. Hier matin, on prévoyait du verglas, on nous avait avertis, puis finalement, ça été trop doux pour la glace. Mais juste assez froid pour qu'il tombe une neige fondante. Ici, dans le sud de l'Angleterre, on est chanceux si jamais on a de la neige à quelque moment que ce soit en hiver. Que ça tombe en plein novembre, même de la neige tombante comme celle-là, c'est presque de la science-fiction. Je ne me plains pas, en fait ça a fait ma journée. Je m'ennuie de la neige à chaque année.

Bourne: The Montreal Connection

As you may remember, I started reading  The Bourne Identity for #Noirvember. As a spy thriller, it's very solid and it keeps me entertained, if nothing else, even though I pretty much know what will happen. As a literary experience, it's a mix bag: Robert Ludlum writes too many words and his dialogues are often stilted and not very natural. He's better at writing plots (albeit with a high number of contrivences) and develop interesting concepts (a man who lost his memory is pursued assassins) than creating believable characters. But anyway, there is one thing that caught my attention, one element that was absent from the the movie adaptation: Marie St-Jacques, the romantic interest of Jason Bourne, is actually French Canadian and studied in Montreal, at McGill. She's a bit bland (then again, so is Bourne, and many others), but I thought this was funny. It's nice to have Montreal being mentioned in a famous spy thriller.

Le retour du pain choco-canneberge

Bonne nouvelle trouvée sur la page Facebook de Première Moisson: ils ont remis sur les tablettes leur pain choco-canneberges. J'ai déjà blogué sur le sujet en 2024. C'est plus un gâteau ou une brioche, en tout cas (entéka? atocas?), c'est un dessert en bonne et dûe forme. Je suis un fan depuis que je l'ai découvert il y a p;us de ving ans et j'espère pouvoir le faire découvrir à mon fils un jour.

730 Posts

 Well, well, well, this is my 730th post on Vraie Fiction this year. So it means that I posted for every day of the year already, one post in French, one post in English. I know blogging is now the least popular of all form of social media expression, but obviously, I really enjoy it and I try to write daily. I guess I pretty much succeeded. I also find that the more you blog, the more you find inspiration to blog. Anyway, I wanted to mention this benchmark today.

La neige au Saguenay

 Autre photo prise par mon père de la neige au Saguenay.

Bradley's Railway Guide

We went to the local bookshop today, just for a quick stop to see if we could find any present ideas for Christmas. Yes, it's early, but Christmas will come soon enough and it's nice to be prepared. Within two minutes, I saw two books about trains that I would love to have. One of them being Bradley's Railway Guide. My wife told me: "You are really too easy to buy presents for." I think it deserves to be a new great unknown line, although she might have said it before. In any case, a quick visit to the local bookshop should get her sorted regarding my presents.

Ciné-cadeau 2025 (observations)

Je voulais commenter à propos de la cuvée Ciné-cadeau 2025. J'ai trouvé le calendrier en ligne, grâce à la page Facebook Souvenirs de Ciné-cadeau. Vous voyez l'horaire ici. Tout d'abord, ça a vraiment changé depuis ses débuts: quand j'étais enfant, il y avait un film Ciné-cadeau en soirée, offert en reprise le lendemain dans l'après-midi, pour ceux qui l'avaient manqué. Maintenant, Ciné-cadeau commence dès le matin. Et ça commence très tôt: dès neuf heures. C'est moins une émission de soirée, d'ailleurs le film de soirée arrive tôt lui aussi. Il y a aussi beaucoup plus de films de nos jours, enfin une plus grande variété. Ou c'est peut-êtreune fausse impression. Dans tous les cas, le format de Ciné-cadeau a beaucoup changé. Qu'en pensez-vous? Vous pouvez me faire part de vos observations dans les commentaires.

Aquila on gemstones

I know I said it before, but I am saying it again: Wolfie receives the best mail. So, yes, he received this month's of Aquila Magazine (tagline: "Big ideas for inquisitive kids") issue and I have been wanting to blog about it for a while now. And this November's Aquila is all about geology. There is a whole section about gemstones, which is pretty cool. He's already been through it more than once, so I can now pick it up and read it myself. Wolfie might not become a geologist, but he loves learning about diamonds, rubies and emeralds, not to mention gold and other metals. So this issue was a winner. Again.

La remise sous la neige

Mon père m'a envoyé des photos de la neige qui est tombée, dont celle, obligatoire, de la remise. Une banale remise prend tout un cachet sous la neige.

The Helicopter Heist (#Noirvember read)

I blogged on the 8th about Netflix tv series The Helicopter Heist for #Noirvember. It's a Swedish caper thriller based on a novel by Jonas Bonnier. The novel it itself itself by true events. Since I blogged about it, I found out that The Helicopter Heist has been translated in English. Obviously, the adaptation is giving it a fair deal of exposure. So if I enjoy the series enough (so far I am), I might get my hands on the book. Not for this Noirvember, but maybe next year one. Scandinavian crime fiction is maybe one of the genre trend I have most neglected, so I intend to correct this. But if you have other suggestions, please let me know.

Première tempête de neige à Montréal

Photo prise par mon frère PJ de la neige après la première vraie tempête de neige. Comparez avec sa photo prise la veille. L'hiver prend vraiment le pas sur l'automne. Et ce n'est pas moi qui dit que c'est une vraie tempête de neige, c'est la météo. Et le 11 novembre, il paraît que c'est tôt, en tout cas pour Montréal. Il fût un temps, quand j'étais jeune, où une bordée de neige pareille ce n'était pas inhabituel au début de novembre, en tout cas pas au Saguenay. Dans tous les cas, je commence à me permettre d'espérer qu'elle durera et que ça ne tombera pas en sloshe. Qui sait, on aura peut-être un hiver d'antan cette année.

Narco-Sub

I do like to read a bit of crime news from time to time, and one caught my attention a week ago and I wanted to blog about it: there is a narco-sub that has been intercepted by Portuguese authorities in the middle of the Atlantic. By narco-sub, you must understand it as a submarine carrying 1.7 tonnes fo cocaine. A submarine. Carrying drugs. It's not the first time a submarine carries drugs, but it's rare enough to catch my attention. I am not saying it is cool, but busting certainly is impressive. And this could be the basis for some really neat crime thriller. A bit like an helicopter heist. I would read a novel about it for  is #Noirvember, if there was one.

La neige à Chicoutimi

 Mon père m'a envoyé des photos de la neige qui est tombée sur Chicoutimi. J'en suis vraiment heureux: nous ne sommes même pas encore au milieu de novembre et il neige. C'est pratiquement hivernal au Saguenay.

Poppies in Wallingford

Today is Remembrance Day. I commemorate with a picture I took recently in Wallingford. They had figures like this of soldiers with a poppy at the breast. Simple, beautiful and touching.

Première neige à Montréal

Mon frère a pris cette photo dimanche dernier (je crois). Une première neige est tombée sur Montréal. Nous sommes encore le début de novembre, même au Québec, ou en tout cas à Montréal, avoir de la neige en novembre, c'est un peu tôt. Je ne m'en plaindrai pas cependant, parce que ça pourrait annoncer un hiver blanc. Et puis j'aime ces moments en novembre, de plus en plus rare de nos jours, où l'hiver commence à se montrer et l'automne est toujours là. Ce moment de transition qu'amène la première neige.

Travelling to Antarctica

No, no, don't worry, I don't intend to do it. Not yet anyway. But you may remember back in May 2024, I mentioned that I discovered thanks to Where'd You Go, Bernadette? with my favourite actress Cate Blanchett that you could take holiday trips to Antarctica. Well, a few days ago, during the school run, I heard on the radio an advert about such holiday. I didn't hear much about it, except that they were advertising travelling to Antarctica, but it must have got some traction to be advertised on the radio. If you have ever been, or are considering it, or have seen similar adverts, please let me know in the comments.

La cuvée Ciné-cadeau 2025

 Bonne nouvelle: j'apprends aujourd'hui que la cuvée Ciné-cadeau 2025 est maintenant disponible. Je suis tombé dessus par hasard en googlant, mais c'est bien officiel. Elle a été dévoilée aujourd'hui, ce qui est assez tôt. et elle commence le 5 décembre, assez tôt également. Je vais commenter plus en détails dès que je peux, d'ici là je vous encourage à la consulter et à commenter.

Bourne for #Noirvember

Maybe I'm taking the easy route, but for #Noirvember this year, I have decided to read The Bourne Identity. Yes, I know, I know, Robert Ludlum is an airport novelist and this is not exactly great prose, not even within the genre of spy thriller, but all the same, I have been curious about the original novel since I watched the old TV miniseries back in the late 80s, then the movie adaptation which gave the character of Jason Bourne a second life. Anyway, since I now have plenty of free time, I thought I might as well read something big, but not too demanding. And for all its limitations, it's a pleasant read, with lots of action and suspense. It's not exactly Noir, but it's dark enough.

Un hôtel à Vienne

 Photo d'un restaurant et d'un hôtel à Vienne. Je partage la photo rien que parce que.