Daily Book Graphics #1338

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

©1965 / Design: Martin Bronkhurst

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Daily Book Graphics #1317

Friday, 12 April 2013

©1965 / Design: Michael Stewart

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Daily Book Graphics #1311

Friday, 5 April 2013

©1954

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Daily Book Graphics #1287

Monday, 28 January 2013

©1967

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Daily Book Graphics #1272

Thursday, 10 January 2013

©1970 / Design: Omnigraphics

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Daily Book Graphics #1267

Saturday, 5 January 2013

©1969

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Daily Book Graphics #1248

Saturday, 8 December 2012

©1955 / Design: Alvin Lustig

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Daily Book Graphics #1229

Thursday, 15 November 2012

©1971 / Design: Ron Coro

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Francois Vatel

Monday, 6 August 2012

Long time no blog. Good to be back. It's been a long and strange journey these last months....

François Vatel

(1631 - 1671)

François Vatel was a maître d'hôtel. A title not to be taken lightly, he was solely responsible for the menu and food preparation, the waiting staff, guests, table assignments, ensuring the satisfaction of each guest and, more importantly, the satisfaction and reputation of the person throwing the fête. 

In 1661, François Vatel was the maître d'hôtel, at the spectacular inauguration fête for the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. 

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte was purchased by Nicolas Fouquet (see my blog), the superintendent of finances for King Louis XIV, and turned into a lavish palace and grounds. On August 17, 1661, Fouquet inaugurated his masterpiece of a château with a fête to end all fêtes. He hired Molière to perform his play Les Fâcheux for the first time (see my blog), and hired Vatel to oversee the meal. 

This magnificent fête went down in history as  King Louis XIV was not content to see his own palaces and lavish fêtes outdone: he arrested Fouquet the night of the fête for embezzlement, had Fouquet imprisoned for life and his wife and son exiled. 

François Vatel went on to serve prince Louis II de Bourbon-Condé, cousin to the king of France and a great general. 

In April 1671, Louis II de Bourbon-Condé held an extravagant banquet for 2,000 people in honor of his kinsman, King Louis XIV, at the Chateau de Chantilly.

King Louis XIV The Sun King

(Love his attire and sassy attitude...too much!)

Chateau de Chantilly

(Recently visited this château and have a few juicy ghost stories to recount...stay tuned!)

At the Château de Chantilly, Vatel is credited to have invented crème Chantilly, or whipped cream flavored with vanilla. 

The Marquise de Sévigné, an aristocrat remembered for her letter writing (more on her soon), tells us that, on the night of the fête, François Vatel was so distraught at the lateness of the seafood delivery that he committed suicide by running himself  through with a sword. His body was discovered when someone came to announce the arrival of the seafood. 

In 2000, director Roland Joffé made a film based upon the life of François Vatel, aptly named "Vatel", starring Gérard Depardieu (bien sur), Uma Thurman and Tim Roth.

Donc, voilà un petit anecdote sur Monsieur Vatel!

Groses bisous et a bientôt.

Love,

Charley

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Le Manoir du Diable by Georges Méliès -- first ever horror film 1896

Friday, 4 May 2012

The 1896 three-minute-long film Le Manoir du Diable (The Haunted Castle) was directed by Georges Méliès, and is considered by most to be he first horror film as well the first vampire film.

It was released on Christmas Eve in 1896 at the Théâtre Robert Houdin in Paris. Originally meant to amuse people, it ended up frightening them--thus was born the horror genre of cinema.

Referred to as the first "Cinemagician", illusionist and filmmaker Méliès became famous for inventing technical and narrative developments and special effects: multiple exposure, time-lapse photography, dissolves, hand-painted color, and he accidentally discovered stop trick in 1896.

An early pioneer of horror films, Méliès was also known to create some of the important early science fiction films: A Trip to The Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904). (Somewhat in the style of Jules Verne.)

Méliès directed 531 films between 1896 and 1913, ranging from 1 to 40 minutes in length. 

In 1910, Méliès made a deal with Charles Pathé (Pathé cinema still exists today as one of France's biggest chain of cinemas), a deal where he accepted a large amount of money by mortgaging his home and studio to Pathé. In 1912 Méliès broke his contract with Pathé, and his brother (and business partner) frittered away all his money. Méliès was bankrupt and, by the mid-1920s was a candy and toy salesman at the Montparnasse station in Paris. 

By the late 1920s, journalists began to research his life and work. A retrospective of his work was held in 1929, and in 1931 Méliès was awarded the Légion d'honneur, presented to him by one of the Lumière brothers. In 1932 the Cinema Society arranged for him to live at La Maison du Retrait du Cinéma, the film industry's retirement home. In 1938, Méliès died of cancer, and is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetary in Paris. 

Bon, Gros bisous de cinéma d'horreur!!!

Love,

Charley

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Marthe Richard

Friday, 10 February 2012

Marthe Richard (1889 - 1982), prostitute, spy during both World Wars, author of erotic fiction and politician. 

"De la petite à la grande vertu": from a woman of easy virtue to a woman of great virtue. 

In Nancy, in 1903, at the age of fourteen, Marthe Richard became an apprentice to a tailor. By the age of sixteen, she was registered as a prostitute. A soldier accused her of giving him syphilis, and she fled to Paris. There, she married wealthy industrialist, Henry Richer, in 1907.

In 1912, Henry bought her a plane. In 1913, flying the plane herself, she claimed to have broken the female record for the Le Crotoy-Zurich trip. The reality was that she only flew the plane to Burgundy, and had it shipped to the country outside Zurich, where she then flew it into the city of Zurich, but the record stayed intact.  

Marthe's husband, Henry Richer, died during World War I, in 1916. 

(Still from the 1937 film, "Marthe Richard au service de la France")

Shorlty after her husband's death, she became a spy under Captain Georges Ladoux, thanks to her lover, a young Russian Anarchist. Part of her duties as a spy were to become mistress to Von Krohn, head of the German Navy in Madrid. Upon her return to France, Marthe discovered that Captain Ladoux was a double agent and he was placed under arrest. 

In 1926, she married Thomas Crompton, financial director for the Rockefeller Foundation, and patron of restoration for Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon. He died unexpectedly in 1928.

She published the best seller, "My Life As A Spy In The French Service", which, in 1937 was turned into a film,  Marthe Richard espionne au service de la France, starring Erich von Stroheim and Edwidge Feillere, directed by Raymond Bernard. 

Her lover at the time, French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot, gave her the Légion d'honneur for Foreign Affairs. 

(Still from the 1937 film, "Marthe Richard au service de la France")

During World War II, Marthe again became a spy, revered in France and detested in Germany. She became close to several members of the Gestapo, including François Spirito.

By 1945, Marthe was a famous French heroine of two wars, and was elected to the Municipal Court of the IVeme arrondissement in Popular Republican Movement party.

A brothel

In that same year, she presented her plan for the closing of all brothels in her district. Her will was done in the short space of three months, and Marthe proceeded with a campaign to close brothels in all of France. 

In 1946, a bill was passed entitled La loi Marthe Richard (The Law of Marthe Richard) with the help of The Christian Democrat MRP and the Communist Party. On April 13, 1946, 1,400 brothels were closed. (Many of these brothels were converted into hotels, where prostitutes continued to do business.) 

To clarify: prostitution was still legal, but several acts surrounding it were illegal.

In 1948, she was accused of involvement with organized crime, smuggling jewels and of covering up crimes. In 1954, these accusations were pronounced false, her reputation was saved.

From these processes came the nickname La Veuve Qui Clôt (The Widow who closes the deal), a pun on the premium champagne Veuve Cliquot. 

In her later years, Marthe wrote erotic fiction, and gave seminars about her time as a spy. 

Marthe Richard died in 1982 at the ripe old age of 92.

Bon weekend et groses bisous des femmes... intéressantes. 

Love, Charley

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History of the French language - part two

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

La suite.

A quick recap from my last blog, History of the French language, and on to the rest (la suite). 

France was first inhabited by the Celts, an Indo-European and ethno-linguistically diverse group of tribal societies in the Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages. This Celtic culture had expanded over a large area to the British Isles (Insular Celts), France (Gauls), Central Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, northern Italy and the Balkans. By the first millennium CE, following the Roman invasions and the Great Migrations, the Celtic culture became restricted to Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and to northern France (Brittany).

Expansion of the Celtic culture, BCE.

Roman invaders

Then the Romans invaded, and Vulgar Latin quickly took hold among the urban aristocracy for mercantile, official and educational reasons, but did not prevail in the countryside until some four or five centuries later.

The Franks

The Franks: From the 3rd century on, Western Europe was invaded by Germanic tribes from the north and east, and some of these groups settled in Gaul.  

Scandinavian Vikings

Scandinavian Vikings invaded France from the 9th century on, which threw a few Old Norse words in the mix such as: mouette, crique, hauban and hune.

Arabic scholars

About the same time, many words from the Arabic language came into the mix primarily via Medieval Latin, Italian and Spanish. Words such as: élixir, orange, safran, alcool, bougie, coton, alchimie, hasard, algèbre and algorithme.

An aside: beginning in the 7th century, Arabic became what Greek had been to the Hellenistic world, a common language to the Islamic world. The language created an international network of letters, science, philosophy and medicine. Islamic people practiced religious tolerance, cultural tolerance, excelled in trade and were a curious people who quickly became experts in philosophy, astronomy, geography, mathematics, chemistry and medicine. Hence the words above. (For more, take a look at this series of films: The Byzantine Empire Parts four and five.)

So, where does all this leave us? With a mix of Celtic Gaulish and Vulgar Latin, sprinkled with German, Scandinavian, Old Norse and Arabic.

Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in northern France, modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th to the 14th century. Old French is broken down into two principal types: langue d'oïl in the north, and langue d'oc, the Occitan language spoken in Provence. 

Medieval French Scholar

In the third Council of Tours in 813, priests were ordered to preach either Romance or Germanic since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin. 

Charlemagne

Crusaders

Old French became a literary language with the chansons de geste which told tales of the paladins of Charlemagne and the heroes of the Crusades. 

And, in 1539, by the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, King Francis I made French the official language of administration and court proceedings, ousting the Latin that had been used up until then. 

This French is called Middle French (moyen français).

Académie française

In the 17th and 18th centuries, following a period of unification, regulation and purification, the language developed into what we call Classical French. The foundation of the Académie française in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu created an official body whose goal has been the purification and preservation of the French language.

.A total aside: (The Cardinal is played by Charlton Heston in  a film based upon Alexandre Dumas père's The Three Musketeers, or read a little Alexandre Dumas père or fils.) 

During The Age of Enlightenment, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, French became the lingua franca of educated Europe especially in regards to arts, literature and diplomacy.

Weimar's "Courtyard of the Muses"

An interesting side note: According to historian Eric Hobsbawm, "in 1789, 50% of the French people didn't speak French at all, and only 12 to 13% spoke it 'fairly'" as there were many local dialects or "patois". "...in the north as in the south of France, almost nobody spoke French."

In the last century, there has been a great influence of English in the French language (Franglais), especially in regards to international business, the sciences and popular culture. 

Recently, there has been pressure from some regions of France for recognition and support for their regional languages (remember all those "patois" dialects above?).

Today, the Académie française continues to preserve the French language.

Whew, that was fun and interesting!!

Groses kisses et see you bientôt.

Love, Charley

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History of the French language

Friday, 6 January 2012

After much research, and discussion amongst French friends, I have come to the conclusion that France is indeed quite the melting pot! The history of its language is a real mish-mash of invading forces' languages and cultures, which makes for an interesting story. 

French is a descendant of the spoken Latin language, Vulgar Latin, of the Roman Empire, as are languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Sardinian and Catalan--all are called "Romance Languages".

The Roman Empire in 60 CE

In the Roman Empire, there were two types of Latin: Classical Latin which was written and spoken by the upper class, and Vulgar Latin which was not written, but only spoken by the lower class. 

The invading Roman forces were primarily lower class subjects who spoke Vulgar Latin. As the Romans stuck around for quite a while, their Vulgar Latin gradually blended in with local dialects and languages, creating new languages. 

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar, Emperor of the Roman Empire, conquered Gaul, now known as present day France, in 50 BCE. The Romans found the people speaking a language known as Gaulish, which is known to be an ancient Celtic language dating to before 500 CE used in the western and central parts of Europe and Asia Minor. 

The most famous Gauls are, bien sur, Asterix and Obelix from René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's comic book tales of the Gauls fighting off the Roman invaders! Excellent reading, wonderful wit and prose (brilliant translation).

While the French language evolved from Vulgar Latin, it was nonetheless influenced by Gaulish, especially in its phonological development. In French, some 200 words of Gaulish origin have been retained, most of which pertain to folk life such as: lande, chêne, alouette, belette, boe, cervoise, mouton, changer and craindre. Other Celtic words were not borrowed directly but brought in through the spoken Vulgar Latin: béton, chainse, glaive, manteau and vassal.

Vulgar Latin quickly took hold among the urban aristocracy for mercantile, official and educational reasons, but did not prevail in the countryside until some four or five centuries later. 

An invading tribe of Franks

From the 3rd century on, Western Europe was invaded by Germanic tribes from the north and east, and some of these groups settled in Gaul. In the history of the French language, the most important of these groups are the Franks in northern France, the Alemanni in the modern German/French border area, the Burgundians in the Rhône Valley and the Visigoths in the Aquitaine region and Spain. Their language had a profound influence on the Latin spoken in their respective regions, altering both the pronunciation and the syntax. 

The name of the language itself, français, comes from Old French franceis/francesc from the Germanic frankisc "french, frankish" from Frank ('freeman'). The Franks referred to their land as Franko(n) which became Francia in Latin in the 3rd century. (Whew, that's a mouthful!)

Sources disagree on how much of the vocabulary of modern French comes from Germanic words, ranging from just 500 words (1%) to 7% of modern vocabulary. (Note: according to the Académie française, only 5% of the French words come from English!)

The Germanic words are words associated with social structure like: baron/baronne, bâtard, féodal, garçon, lige, maçon, maréchal, and marquis. Military terms like: attaquer, bière, flèche, guerre, garder, loge, marcher, rattraper and troupe. Colores such as: blanc/blanche, bleu, blond/blonde, brun, fauve and gris. And Common words such as: abandonner, banquet, bâtir, bois, bonnet, chagrin, choix, chic, cliché, crèche, danser, flan, frapper, galant, gâteau, jardin, joli, laid, masque, massacrer, mauvais, mousse, orgueil, parc, rater, regarder, remarquer, riche/richesse, robe, saisir, salon, savon, soupe, tampon and tomber.

Duchy of Normandy in pink

In 1204 CE, the Duchy of Normandy was integrated into the Kingdom of France, and about 150 words of Scandinavian origin were introduced into the French language, most of them having to do with the sea and seafaring. 

(Let us not forget that William the Conquerer came from Normandy, his granddaughter Empress Mathilda, see my blog--there is a lot of history in Normandy, lots of haunted places, check out the "Ghostly Stories" section of my blog for more info.) 

Bon, to be continued....

Happy weekend, Happy New Year, and may all your lives be filled with peace, love, fun and happiness in 2012.

Love, Charley

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Fête des Lumières

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

The Fourvière Basilica in Lyon is dedicated to the Virgin Mary who is said to have saved the city of Lyon from the deadly plague in 1643. In commemoration of this incredible feat--the plague killed one quarter to half the population--Lyon gives thanks each year on December 8th with La Fête des Lumières. 

Each inhabitant puts colored glasses with candles in their windows. The entire city is lit up with the most imaginative light shows. The entire Place des Terreaux hosts a themed light show telling a story as it runs along the walls of its ancient buildings.

Roughly one million people come to Lyon each December 8th for the Fête des Lumières! So, come join the fun.

Groses bisous des lumières et a bientôt!

Love, Charley

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Haunted places to visit in Paris!

Saturday, 26 November 2011

Haunted places to visit in Paris

            Paris, France, a city of legend, a city that, for six thousand years, has been settled by ancient Celts and Romans, Franks and the Merovingian, Carolingian and Capetian dynasties and by the houses of Valois and Bourbon and Napoleon. Paris has survived medieval plagues, wars of territory, religion and revolution and has been the birthplace of brilliant art, music and industry. No wonder it is France's capitol. No wonder it is one of the most haunted cities in the world.

            At the top of the Eiffel Tower, if you hear laughter mingled with screams then you are participating in the intimate torment of a young girl who was pushed to her death by an enraged lover whom she refused to marry.

            Many powerful and famous people have passed through the Notre Dame Cathedral whose stories have finished badly: Henry VI lived a troubled life and violent death; Louis XVI finished on the guillotine; Mary Queen of Scots ended up on a scaffold; Marie Antoinette, guillotined; Empress Josephine, dishonored; and Napoleon had Waterloo. There is also the story of the locksmith, Biscornet, who, overwhelmed with his commission to build the locks on the portal of Saint Anne, made a pact with the devil. Mysteriously the locks were finished in the night and the body of the locksmith found dead a few days later. Cameras and video have caught a plethora of paranormal activity inside Notre Dame.

            During WWII, a French woman married to a man in the Resistance was having a daytime relationship with a Nazi officer to gain information. At night she would meet her husband on the Pont Marie bridge. One night he never came and she died from the cold. She waits for him still, and some nights you can see her shadowy form and hear her sobbing. 

            In the Louvre museum, there are traces of spirits attached to numerous famous works, but the most easily discerned hauntings are found in the medieval section, at the base of the original donjon built in the 13^th century. Many orbs and shadows have been captured in photographs taken near the donjon.

            In the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, you will find the graves of scores of famous people like Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Edith Piaf, Proust and Delacroix. With 300,000 people buried there, many ghosts haunt Père-Lachaise Cemetery. Chopin has been seen strolling the paths and the ghosts of 147 communards who were shot at dawn against the east wall in 1871 haunt their final resting place.

            It is said there are secret tunnels leading from the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise to the Catacombs of Paris—conduits for black magic worshipers who wish to mingle in the underground with the dead. Carved by the Romans as a quarry, in 1786, the remains of roughly six million people along with remnants of their tombstones were placed in an artistic fashion along the grisly and gloomy corridors of these underground tunnels. Some people have reported the wispy feel of long-dead fingers brushing their upper backs, arms and hair, other have seen orbs and cloudy forms. Many have had to leave the tunnels, feeling a profound sense of being watched and closed in.  

            If you take a stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries, keep an eye out for The Man In Red. Queen Catherine de Medici had a passion for the occult. Jean l'Ecorcheur was the man who connected her with mages and warlocks. There came a time when Catherine de Medici felt he knew too much and had him murdered. Just before he died, he declared, "I shall return!" Since then, he appears covered in blood prior to a person's death.  

         

           

          The Gallows of Montfaucon. 53 rue de la Grange-aux-Belles, Paris. In 1325 an enormous gallows was constructed. A plinth six meters high held sixteen stone pillars each ten meters high. People were hung in clusters and left to disintegrate. Then there bodies, along with bodies from other parts of Paris, were dumped into a huge pit beneath the gallows. The spot in Paris that has seen the most deaths, at night you can sometimes here the rattling of chains and groans.

            The headless ghost of Isauré de Montsouris regulalry haunts the parc Montsouris where he was murdered by bandits in 831. The park was also home to the château de Val-Vert, which housed the legendary devil Vauvert as well as the testing site for the Guillotine. Indeed a sinister environment!

            Heavy traffic in these places doesn't always make for good ghost hunting. Keep yourselves open and look beyond the obvious. 

            Gros bisous hantés Parisian! 

            Love,

            Charley 

           

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