Christmascrime

'Tis the season to be reading, so, as it is a Christmas tradition on Vraie Fiction, I suggest books to read for Yuletide. I suggested this one last year as well but as I'm revisiting it I thought I had to suggest it again. It is one of the early Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels (the third in fact) title The Pusher. It starts like this: "Winter came in like an anarchist with a bomb". McBain sure knew how to create the right impact. It's the perfect crime fiction read for both the Season and the season. And this is not one of your cozy whodunits. It has a merciless urban setting in a merciless time of year, plenty of violence, drug abuse, blood on snow and a Christmas miracle or two. I don't want to give anything away, but the afterword gives some details about the origins of said miracle. One of my favourite Christmastime reads. And it HAS to be read during Christmastime to be fully appreciated.

Calembour (atroce) de l'Avent

Je pensais à ce billet datant de 2014, lorsqu'il m'est venu en tête ce calembour très semblable à celui que j'avais commis alors. Le voici: "Durant l'Avent, je me sens nostalgique des Noëls d'antan, parce que c'était mieux avant." Avouez que c'est vraiment atroce.

Burglar alert

Little bit of very local news today: my wife told me when she woke up that she discovered on social medias (this is where we find everything local these days) that a few garages on our very street have been burglarized. Thankfully our own garage has absolutely nothing in it and is in a sorry state anyway. It actually needs repairs. Still, it is chilling. It happened at around midnight. I was still awake then, but heard nothing. Our neighbourhood has been a spot for burglars for a while (see this post), but this is very, very close. So we will remain vigilant.

Les réserves de beignes pour Noël

Voici la production de beignes que mes parents ont faite il y a quelques jours pour les Fêtes. Bon, pour Noël et le reste de l'année, s'il y en reste, parce que nous sommes friands de beignes dans la famille. PJ a demandé s'il y en aura assez, avec un nouveau membre de la famille. Je crois qu'il y en a juste assez.

Christmastime is here...

Well, okay, not quite here yet, we are since yesterday during the Advent, but this is thus time to get ready for Christmas. It looks and feels like Christmas more and more, and winter is most definitely here (well, as much as it can be in England). This year, if everything goes well (touch wood), we will celebrate it in my parents' home in Québec. Our little Wolfie will discover for his second Christmas true Christmas tree (and what a tree!), true winter with true snow, and well, I think if he was not very much conscious of his first one, he should remember a few things of his second. Am I excited? Very much so.

De bon matin...

De bon matin j'ai rencontré le train
De trois grands Rois qui allaient en voyage,
De bon matin j'ai rencontré le train
De trois grands Rois dessus le grand chemin.

Je sais que l'Avent commençait officiellement hier, mais c'est quand même aujourd'hui que je me mets officiellement et complètement en mode Noël. Et c'est une tradition sur Vraie Fiction: on commence les Fêtes avec La Marche des rois. Je l'ai en tête depuis des semaines et je la fredonne à chaque matin depuis le milieu de novembre ou à peu près. Ce fut assez difficile de trouver une version potable. Je n'aime pas trop l'introduction au saxophone de celle-ci, mais sinon elle est très bien. J'ai décidé d'accompagner la chanson avec les personnages de la Crèche familiale, je sais que je les montre souvent et c'est la même photo en plus, mais que voulez-vous, je suis assez fier des Noëls familiaux.

An acting opportunity

Those among you who have been following Vraie Fiction for years know that I love acting and that I have not done any kind of theater since 2011, to my great sadness. It was due to lack of opportunity (there were no longer classes running), more than lack of time. Well, my wife recently told me that she has read in one of the local Facebook pages she follows (my wife follows local news a lot) that there might be a new acting group created in our little town. It is meant to be a social group and would be run by a professional actress, who taught acting in one of the private schools here. I will keep my eyes and ears open, as I would love to join and do some acting again, even though it might only be to do acting exercises and improvisations and no stage work. Of course, it might never happen and if this group is created it might not fit my new life as a father. But I will certainly consider joining.

Les lutins en chocolat

Photo prise sans gêne aucune sur la page Facebook des Pères Trappistes, qui font maintenant dans le chocolat de Noël ainsi que dans la décoration de sapin: des lutins de Noël en chocolat. C'est mon père qui m'a appris leur existence. Il y a des jours comme ça où je suis fier de l'inventivité des gens de ma région, fussent-ils moines. Et je crois que notre régime et celui du petit loup ne sera pas faible en sucre...

Deer and doe

I took this picture during our short weekend visit in Derbyshire. It was in an animal sanctuary. I had never seen so many deers in semi-liberty, and never so close. It was quite a sight. I took a few snapshots and decided to share one photo today, just for the sake of it, because deer and doe are so darn cute.

NB: Ce blogue et ses commentaires

Ce billet est une petite annonce/une notification: sais que je fais ça extrêmement rarement, manque de temps, mais j'ai fait une exception récemment et ai enfin pris un peu de temps pour répondre aux quelques commentaires écrits par mes lecteurs. Ma femme me dit que je devrais toujours le faire, ne serait-ce que parce que c'est plus poli. Je vais donc essayer de le faire plus fréquemment.

The nature of the Holy Grail

My mother-in-law sent me recently a link to an article about the Holy Grail. Back in another life, I used to be an academic and a medievalist at that, specialized in the Arthurian legend and the work of Chrétien de Troyes, who was the first to introduce the Grail in Le Conte du Graal. It remains to this day my favourite Arthurian romance. In the story, the Grail is not a cup like in subsequent versions and the many adaptations, but a plate or a bowl, to contain large amount of food. While it is mentioned that a wafer is in it, so there are associations with the Eucharist, there is no explicit association with Jesus's death and his blood. Its origins remain obscure, as well as its ultimate purpose. Perceval/Percival does not ask the question that could potentially reveal its nature: "Whom does the grail serve?" The romance being unfinished, we will never truly know about its core subject, the rest is pure speculations. My bet, and I might be wrong, is that what the Holy Grail is was never meant to be revealed. It was meant as a MacGuffin: it makes the story flow, it creates tensions and motivations for the character, but otherwise we do not know because we do not need to know. Moral of this post: sometimes I miss academia.

Le Sphinx

Je fais encore une fois dans la mythologie grecque sur Vraie Fiction. Cette photo a été prise dans le Derbyshire. Je crois sans craindre de me tromper que c'est le Sphinx: les traits mélangent ceux du lion et de l'homme. Ça devrait être la Sphinx, et donc les traits devraient être ceux d'une femme: en grec, le nom Sphinx est féminin, on devrait dire la Sphinge. Mais c'est malgré tout une représentation intéressante de la bête.

A red fox in the snow

It is not a "real" fox, it is a stuffed one of course, and it is not real snow either. All the same, I had want to share this display which I saw at the National Cardiff Museum, for a long time. I hope to put my readers in a seasonal mood, like I am. There is just something about a red fox in the snow.

Le gel au sol

 Photo prise samedi matin. Sans doute toute la mesure de l'hiver anglais. Du gel au sol. On est loin des neiges d'antan, mais je dois avouer que c'est joli et plein de cachet. Cela dit, j'ai hâte à notre retour au pays natal.

Our neighbour the squirrel

It happened today, my wife was doing a bit of washing up when she saw it: a grey squirrel, running on the top of the fence. It ran along it, from one back garden to another, then jumped on a tree behind our house, then back on a fence, then jumped on another tree, then it was gone out of sight. I managed to show it to our son, who caught merely a glimpse of it. I took this picture at the National Museum Cardiff and I am using it here because I could not take a picture of the squirrel we saw today. Sadly this photo is blurry and sadly, the squirrel we have as neighbour is a grey one, not a red one. Still, I think every neighbourhood needs a squirrel.

64 pâtés

Petite nouvelle familiale et gastronomique: mes frères PJ et Andrew, avec la blonde de ce dernier ont cuisiné en fin de semaine... 64 pâtés à la viande. La photo du résultat de ce dur labeur de deux jours, vous la voyez ici, rien que pour le plaisir. La recette, vous pouvez la lire sur le blogue de mon frère PJ. Noël arrive bientôt, le pâté à la viande est un incontournable des Fêtes, alors ne me remerciez pas. Nourrir la parenté, c'est parfois comme nourrir une armée, dans nos vieilles maisons.

Christmas buns

As we are less than a month away from Christmas now, I think it is fair game to start thinking about it. It's everywhere anyway. Which also means starting to stuff myself with seasonal food, such as these iced spiced buns from M&S. They are not quite the normal iced buns which you can find all year (and are delicious in their own right): they have more spice and some gooey stuff inside, and there is also a holly on top, made with icing and a cherry in lieu of their fruit. It's delicious. I haven't found them yet this year, but last year I stuffed myself with these buns and they were really yummy. Tis the season to be feasting, after all.

La cuvée Ciné-Cadeau 2017

Bon, enfin, c'est finalement arrivé: la cuvée 2017 de Ciné-Cadeau est officiellement disponible! Je vais en regarder autant que possible (lire: sans doute très peu), en consultant ce bouquin. Mais tout d'abord, qu'en pensez-vous? Déçu de l'absence de certains films? Perplexe par la présence d'autres? Que manque-t-il? Qu'y a-t-il de trop? Il va me falloir un certain temps pour bien y réfléchir, mais d'un premier coup d'oeil, je trouve comme dans les récentes années qu'à part les valeurs sûres, on semble préférer les productions modernes de haute qualité aux oeuvres plus obscures et au charme désuet. Je sais que c'est le nostalgique qui parle, mais c'est ça aussi, l'expérience Ciné-Cadeau.

The 1988 Saguenay earthquake

My father reminded me today that it was the anniversary of the 1988 Saguenay earthquake. One of the few, but unfortunately not the last, natural catastrophe I lived. I had just got in my pjs after my shower when it happened. My father had just finished reading a newspaper article about blackouts and... earthquakes. Then there was that huge tremor and total blackout. I was shocked, but I did not have time to be scared.

La Quête du Polar de l'Avent

Je vais bloguer sur Noël de plus en plus ces temps-ci et je voudrais ce soir bloguer sur un livre que je n'ai aperçu qu'une seule fois, par hasard, à Olivieri: Un beau cadeau, publié par Série noire. Présenté comme "le Polar de l'Avent" parce qu'il se lit à la façon d'un calendrier de l'Avent. Je m'en veux encore de ne pas l'avoir acheté. Ce serait le livre parfait pour les Fêtes, d'autant plus que Noël et les romans policiers, pour moi, ça va ensemble. Alors trouver ce bouquin sera ma nouvelle quête littéraire, en espérant le lire l'année prochaine du premier jour de l'Avent jusqu'à Noël.