Daunt Books Abroad

 You may remember that back in June, I blogged about the bookshop chain Daunt Books. Well, I saw someone carrying one of their bags again. Not in London, like last time, not in England in fact, but in Austria. In om Salzburg, to be precise. It was most likely a British tourist, but I thought it was nice to see it there. I know it was only a bag, nevertheless it's  nice that this small chain of indie bookshops is thriving, thriving enough to see their brand even when we are abroad. That's encouraging for literature and book lovers like myself.

From Salzburg to Vienna by the railway

You might have been wondering when I would blog about it. Well, here it is: the railway travel post, because I must blog about trains, from time to time. But I digress. So anyway, one of the many, many, many pleasures I had during our time in Austria was the train journey we had. Too short and I wished we had done more travel by train, but to me it was a long awaited rediscovery. So we went from Salzburg to Vienna by the railway. As I said, it was only one journey and a too short one at that, boy did I enjoy it. I love all train journeys, but I had forgotten how nice Austrian trains are. They're clean, they're spacious, they're comfy and, at least when we traveled, they're not overcrowded. Seriously, even the common, plebeian train we traveled on, in economy class (or whatever they call it), has way more to offer than most of what I experienced in this country. I think even the French trains are not that good. I could go back to Austria just for its trains.

Sausage and sauerkraut

Well, it had to come to this: I had to share here what I ate during our time in Salzburg. Because yes, it was maybe the most unhealthy food I ever ate during a trip, it was fatty, meaty, what have you, but it was delicious. Anyway, the first proper Austrian meal I had was in the restaurant of the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Authentic veal sausage, hash browns (the fried potato thingies) and sauerkraut. I regret nothing: it was delicious.

La Justice de Salzbourg

 J'ai pris cette photo à Salzbourg, une des nombreuses statues que l'on peut voir. Sans farce, j'ai rarement une aussi petite ville avec autant de statues, même ici en Europe. C'est bien entendu une représentation allégorique de la Justice. J'avais déjà blogué un peu sur cette allégorie en 2021. Mettons que la statue est pas mal plus belle. Mais enfin bref, si elle n'était pas couverte par une sorte de mince grillage, on se croirait à une autre époque. Parce que, comme je l'ai djà dit hier, on dirait que Salzbourg est une ville hors du temps.

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.

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.

Stocking on Mozartkugeln

As tomorrow is the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, I bought some Mozartkugeln from the local sweet shop. Toshare with my family, maybe, perhaps, as long as they listen to Mozart with me. This weekend has been one listening to a lot of Mozart music, I mean more than usual. But I learned some sad news: Salzburg will no longer be producing the famous chocolates since the factory got bankrupted. This is a bloody shame. Fearing of losing the chocolates forever, in a panic, I bought two boxes instead of one yesterday. Anyway, it's not about the chocolates, it's about the music, so I am sharing here a duet from Cosi fan tutte. Because it premiered on this date. Enjoy.

Mozart: Requiem Aeternam

Today, I take a short break from my seasonal Christmas post to commemorate am anniversary: the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As per a musical tradition among Mozart's lovers around the world, I will listen to his Requiem. I am also sharing it on this blog. It's been 233 years and I'm still grieving.

Mozart: Requiem Aeternam

Here is a sad anniversary that I have to commemorate. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on that date. As it is a tradition around the world, his Requiem is  played. We commemorate his death, we are still in grief, even centuries after his departure, but we celebrate his work. Mozart is eternal.

A taste for Mozart

Sometimes, you find sources of comfort and reasons to be grateful in the smallest things. A few weeks ago, I saw that I still had some Mozartkugels left in that box. (I had bought that box at reduced price in the local sweet shop, but that it another story for another time). In one bite, with a bit of music (because you can't have one without music), I was in back Salzburg or in Vienna where I first tasted them and everything was right in the world. Now they are all gone, it did not take me long to finish them. All the same, I still have the music of Mozart to enjoy. So I decided to share a bit of Mozart tonight with you. as it cannot be these chocolates. It is a piece of glockenspiel tune from The Magic Flute. Simple, yet a pure delight. You can find it in context on youTube, but here is the tune itself:

A taste of Mozart

First, a word about the picture: forgive me for the poor quality, it was taken with my mobile phone. Okay so I am blogging a good deal about Mozart these days. But circumstances brought me to blog about it again. I blogged before about Mozartkugeln, the chocolate coated marzipan which I first discovered in Salzburg, the year of Mozart's 200th death anniversary. Well, you can now find them in the local sweet shop, which changed owners at some time early this year. I say this and according to the Wikipedia entry what they sell is an imitation. But I don't know if I ate imitations or the original ones when I was in Austria twenty-two years ago. They don't sell them in boxes, only individually, and they are not exactly cheap, but I can buy a few once in a while, when I am in the mood for the taste of chocolate and marzipan or for a bit of nostalgia: visiting Austria is one of my favorite memories.

I ate them listening to Mozart, which was pure bliss. Probably because of the music more than the chocolate, but it is a lovely mix all the same. I have decided to upload here to accompany to accompany this post another aria from Don Giovanni. This one. Sung by José Van Dam. I did not see Don Giovanni in Austria, but I did hear plenty of arias from it, including Madamina.

A taste of Salzburg

Somebody brought Mozartkugeln at work today. I managed to control myself and had just one. Not that I am that keen on Mozart chocolates, I mean sure it's chocolate so I love it, but it reminds me of my one and only trip to Austria and Salzburg, on the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death (20 years already, I am not getting any younger!). I ate it there for the first time, been eating it very occasionally after. I loved Austria in general and Salzburg in particular, so these chocolates reminded me of the place. And of course, it reminded me of the composer. I don't want to sound like Proust (which I barely read), but in one bite I was sent back to Salzburg, my eyes full of images and my head full of music. Because of a small piece of chocolate with a marzipan center.

And since it made me think of Mozart, this is just a good excuse as any to put a duet here, the Papageno-Papagena one. I worked a bit on some of Papageno arias, but I never got a feel for German as I did with Italian (basically my German is as bad as my Italian is good). But German I feel is the proper thing to listen when one thinks of Salzburg. I think I had a look at this particular duet when I was studying opera. The Magic Flute is maybe one of the most accessible opera one can find. It is certainly popular with kids as I happily discovered myself. But anyone can appreciate its beautiful simplicity.And for some reason I always wanted to sing this duet. Never had the chance.