Once a year in France, they have the Day of Music, a day that anyone can play music wherever they want. But it's not only amateurs who can play, cities also organize musical events with professional musicians.

The city of  Feck'em (also known as Fecamp); not only organized a music festival, but also a festival of the sea, involving boats and all products from the sea. But the highlight of the weekend was the Celtic Legends concert and show on Saturday evening. So Trish and I climbed on the BMW motorcycle and headed over to Feck'em.

Everywhere you could see bands playing music:



At 22:30, it was time for the Irish dancers:



Dancers and live music made it a real Irish evening.



The show was well executed on a large stage.



There were 1000's of spectators for this free show. For the photograph amateurs, this photo was taken in the pitch dark, at 15,000 ISO!



We stayed for a little bit over an hour.



Here's the last photo (at 6400 ISO) of the stage and public. At the far end, you can see some of the restaurants and the new museum being built.

Every so often we decide to throw a big party and invite all out friends. But what would a party be without a) great friends, and b) great food. For that reason, we invited our best party-going friends, and of course, one of the best Chefs around.

Davey and Elsa Doughan joined us on Monday, 29th of December, coming from Finland, via Switzerland by car, while on the same day, Carl and Judy Chaffee flew in from Singapore where they had been celebrating Christmas with their daughter.

On Tuesday, we all drove down to Etretat (Davey played the dog, but sitting in the luggage space of our Renault Espace....) and we had lunch at Dormy House, partially paid for by the hotel since they overcharged Davey last time he was there.


The food was reasonable, but the ambiance was great, and the view over Etretat spectacular.

Afterwards, after a long lunch, we drove back home, and started preparing the dinner for the 31st. Davey had hashed out a "simple and short meal" for the New Year. Here's what was on the menu:

As is Davey's style, everyone within earshot gets something to do during the preparation. No one, except the cameraman, escapes working in the kitchen.

So, here's the first video (of three videos) of the event (please excuse the video editing, I'm still learning).  (just click on the video for it to play)



The following day was a busy day. Cooking started at 7 in the morning, and finished a few minutes before midnight. The table was set for 19 people!!!!



Davey needed to pick up all his strength for the marathon cooking feast:



Once nighttime came, everything looked really nice and decorative:



Here's the 2nd video of the cooking and preparations for the dinner (just click on the video for it to play):



At 19:00 the remainder of the guests started arriving, and at 19:30, the first of many toasts were held:



Here Davey is explaining Jean-Charles about the cooking challenges



At 8 o'clock, everyone adjourned to the table, and the wine started flowing:



While Jean-Charles served the wines, others were admiring Davey:



The Celery soup was almost ready:



The Scallops got a slight grilling before slipped onto the plates



L-R Elsa, Carl, Isabelle, Gerard, Christine, Stephane and Patricia.



R-L: Davey, Judy, Alain, Jeannine, Jean-Charles and Anne



Thumbs Up from Sabrina, Benoit and "Bob".



Here's the final video of the evening, the party itself, food and song!



L-R: Stephane, Patricia, Amani, Sabrina, Benoit:



All enjoying the food:



All hands on deck! Christine, Trish and Judy helped putting the food on the plates:



Davey making Blinis:



The well marinated cod was receiving its final touch (while Trish looks on):



Waiting with anticipation for the next course:



The marinated cod (in milk and coconut) is simmering away



The salad made from beetroot leaves is being prepared:



Two lovely ladies, Christine and Trish:



The Pope blessing Bob.....



The cod is served with the salad...while Judy looks on and helped by Benoit:



Ready to be served (we ran out of white plates):



The stuffed cabbage is simmering away:



The cabbage was stuffed with minced lamb, rice, mini oranges and spices



Jean-Charles is contemplating all this wonderful food



Stuffed Cabbage and Smoked Potato Cakes... yummy



Davey started the Eurosong Sing Festival. Songs were sung in Finnish, Irish, Chinese and French



The fruit for the dessert and the lemon pie were ready:



Just before midnight, the souffle's were ready.



Desert was served the following year :-)



And that ended the year in style. Everyone was happy and filled the the brim. There is no better way to end the year.

Happy New Year to you all! And remember, the financial crisis is sooo 2008!!

Christmas 2008 was spent in Normandy with our friends Christine and Jean-Charles Duboc, their son Benoit and his girlfriend Sabrina and her two kids Maxine and Clement.

The house was all nicely decorated, complete with a Christmas tree.



Kids and Christmas mix very well, and you could see it in their faces.



The evening was wonderful, and we all put on several kilos of extra weight, thanks to Christine's incredible cooking skills. Duck... hmmmmmm

Here's a video I made of the evening:

Saturday saw an interesting evening at the small seaside resort of Veulettes-sur-Mer {link}. Friends of our friends Isabelle & Alain have a small Blues combo, and they were playing at a restaurant at Veulettes.

So several of us went to listen to Malcolm McCallum & Tim McGlue play the Blues.



Both played very well, real blues, and the evening was very entertaining. Good food, good friends and excellent music. The only down side was that Trish was not there since he had caught a chest cold, and thought it was wiser not to go.



The music was hot. You don't often see French people tapping their feet to the rhythm of the music, but in this case they did, a sign that the audience really enjoyed the music.



Tim McGlue sang with a real blues voice, and played the harmonica like a real Chicago bluesman.



Malcolm McCallum played the acoustic guitar with some slide guitar thrown in. Very well done.

Here's a 3 minute video I made of the event. This is my 3rd video, so please excuse my amateurish editing...

Our several centuries old church in Vinnemerville is getting old, and the steeple needed to be updated. The experts decided to replace the steeple, so off it went (you'll find below the photos a video of the event...).

They brought in a large crane, and after several weeks of work cutting into the steeple and placing holders, it was finally time to remove it.

I went on Saturday to pick up Trish from the railway station at Yvetot, and to my surprise, there was already a train waiting:



A real steam train was waiting to go...



The staff were dressed for the part.



There were some 20 wagons attached to the steam engine, all of them from the same time frame.



There were a few hundred people looking at the train.



When it was getting ready to go, the amount of steam was impressive.



... and off it went...



Once it reached where I was, it was going quite quickly..

Not a bad way to spend some time at the railway station.

We celebrated Jean-Charles' birthday last week, together with his wife Christine, son and girlfriend.

As usual, Christine's cooking left nothing to desire:



Jean-Charles was reflective of his coming off age....



While he was opening his presents, Sabrina and Trish were making photos, and admiring his gifts:



Benoit gave him a useful sign ("You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps"):



Christine helped him unpack the gifts:



After that, came the kisses...



Then came the food. First on the menu were escargots



Followed by chicken in crust



There is honestly a chicken inside that bread. See...:



Afterwards, stuffed, we were all a bit quite





And that finishes yet another nice evening with friends and great food...

Finally, the balcony project is finished. They closed up the wall between my office and the guest bed room 4, finished the railing, and already last week the finished the stone path leading to the balcony.

Here it is in its final and full glory...

The once-every-eight-years Armada has descended upon us again. The Armada is some 70 tall sail ships that come to Rouen and stay there for 2 weeks.

The boats can be visited, and there's plenty of activity going around the ships. Then, on the 14th of July, during the French national holidays, the ships set sail, one after the other (more on that later).

I went to Rouen and had a quick look at the ships. although the weather was not great, they do look majestic.

Here are the photos (photos are linked in from another site, so they may take a bit longer). To look at the photos in a bigger size click here:

If you prefer to have a nice slide show, click here (a new window opens)

Our friend Sheila, and several of her friends from the USA, are turning 50 this year, and they decided to celebrate together in the Tuscany area in Italy. They rented a villa and invited several of their friends for a feast.

The closest city to the villa is Lucca (which is close to Pisa). The villa is nicely located in the hills and is well equipped:



They even had their own lemon trees:



The party-goers were able to walk on the grounds .....



The fun started when the chef-for-hire arrived with her assistant. Most people gathered in the kitchen to see her prepare and cook a feast.



The chef's name is Emiliana Lucchesi (link) and is well known in Italy and the USA. She runs a cooking school in Tuscany, and write reviews on Italian restaurants in New York, and she's recognized as a top wine expert.



She had an assistant who helped her prepare the many dishes that would be served during the evening.



Over a period of three hours she kept piling up the courses, one after the other.



The starters were plenty, in total about 7 dishes, ranging from meat to vegetable dishes, all tasting scrumptious.



These were particularly jummy...



She made 2 main courses, the last one included pork (and chicken).



Scott even had to go into the garden to cut the fresh herbs



Since the weather had turned into a nice warm evening, the table was set outside



The three birthday girls were all pretty, made up and ready to party...



The table was set really nicely, ready for the meal



Everyone was even given a mask



So the birthday girls posed with their masks



The starters were served in the living room, where we could all talk to each other.



After the starters, we adjourned to the dining table, and all put on the masks, giving a Venice style ambience.



Afterwards, the main courses were served by the chef and her assistant.



Lots of good Italian wine, each course had its own.



and even more lots of great food. And that ends a great multiple birthday party in Tuscany, Italy.