It has been a busy time since my last post. My parents were here for a week-long visit; the children and Maggie were off for two weeks, and so I have had little or no time to myself except late at night. As usually happens during these busy times I have no opportunity to really plan, to gather my thoughts, to rehearse, so this morning everyone left for their respective schools, and I breathed a large sigh of relief... after I walked Duncan to his school and returned via the grocery, it was nice to make a second cup of coffee and relax for a bit, and make some lists for the next couple of weeks. I have over a month until the next performance of Carmina Burana, but it needs to be sung back into my body, and there are some new pieces that I need to learn now for next season. As well there are a host of other family activities coming that will require my energy and participation between now and then, so it's important to do some recharging of the batteries whenever one can. I read a very interesting article on the Huffington Post this past week called After the Show: The Many Faces of the Performer that explains in some detail what cognitive scientist Scott Barry Kaufman has to say about the sometimes mystifying behaviour of creative people, including their need for what Robertson Davies called "creative lassitude"...
Given that the last two weeks have been a holiday time for most people, and that I had spent so much of the preceeding couple of months in rehearsal, we've made the most of the time off to socialize with others. The first week of holidays included an afternoon luncheon with Graham Coop and his wife Geraldine and their two boys, Charles and Leopold. Graham is a lawyer specializing in energy policy, and Geraldine teaches at the Lycée Francaise, but they are also both talented musicians, having met in the 'cello section, and both continue to play with the Brussels Philharmonic. We also had a little time with the Gardners; Andrew and I had lunch earlier in the week, then a cigar on the terrace, and we are discussing a little joint venture into bee-keeping, of all things; the city of Brussels in encouraging urban bee-keeping to help counter the alarming crash of honeybee populations, and for a reasonable investment a single hive can produce as much as 100 kg of honey per year. Beehives are not at all an uncommon sight in rural Canada and there are products such as the Beehaus which make urban beekeeping quite simple... more discussions are needed, but perhaps we will be setting a beehive up soon...
My parents arrived on the 6th, and I showed them around some of their old haunts here in Brussels, including their favorite friterie near the Bourse, the Dandoy cookie shop, Grand'Place, their old neighbourhood and so on. Then on the 8th they took the boys on a tour to Trier, Koblenz, areas of the Moselle and the northward branch of the Rhine river, visiting a number of castles including Burg Eltz and Rheinfels Castle, as well as a visit to a local church and some demonstrations of the church organ there; my parents have taken this trip a couple of times before and so had everything well planned.
They were gone for two nights, and so Maggie and I decided to take a short trip south to the Champagne district, and put the top down for a little drive southward. We made the trip in three hours, and stayed overnight in a beautiful little boutique hotel called the Hostellerie La Briqueterie a few kilometers east of Epernay.
This hotel and restaurant is located in an old brick factory, and as it is situated some ways outside of the town it has some lovely views of the surrounding countryside. The rooms were lovely and we enjoyed the swimming pool/steam baths/sauna and jacuzzi very much, before heading down to the Michelin-starred restaurant for our dinner. The prix fixe menu was fantastic, with too many delicious flavours to mention in detail, but I think the lemon grass and ginger carrot soup with lobster that was the amuse bouche was my personal favorite.
The chef Michael Nizzero was, interestingly enough, born in Etterbeek, and has pursued a career that has taken him to some of the finest restaurants in the world, such as the Waterside Inn and restaurant One-O-One, in London, Pisces in Dubai, and number of Belgian restaurants including the Sea Grill. We had a chance to talk with him afterwards, and found him very pleasant, and happy to discuss some of his techniques. The rest of the staff was great and the service exemplary.
The next morning we visited the small champagne producer Vollereaux, perhaps a kilometer from the hotel; had a self-guided look around the cellars, met the family dog, saw their bottling operation and tasted a few of their champagnes. These were delicious enough that we drove off with a good selection of bottles to share with friends and family over the next little while. Interestingly we met another couple (Scottish-Belgian) who had made the trip down from Brussels for the same reason, and also a woman from Antwerp; both parties stayed in the hotel, and visited this champagne producer at the advice of the concierge. The Belgians really are enthusiastic about their food and drink!
Upon our return we had a second night alone in our house before welcoming my parents back from their trip with the boys. They had a lovely time and took lots of pictures... Then it was only a matter of another two days before I took my parents to Gare du Midi for them to catch the early train to London, and wished them safe travels for the next stage of their journey to Guernsey, Scotland and Ireland over the next month or so.
We had a chance to try out some of that champagne Friday evening, when Penni and Damien invited us to their home for a delicious dinner. Our mutual friends Isabelle and Oliver also attended, and we had a fabulous meal and conversation together. I was happy to try out my new sporran and kilt belt, and so wore a casual kilt ensemble to the dinner (although less casual than in the photo below).
For those men who have never worn kilts before, I warn you that if you are like me, you will likely spend the first half hour or so at a party absent-mindedly trying to put the hand that isn't holding a glass into a pocket that stubbornly refuses to be there. I suppose that is actually a good thing; it's considered bad etiquette to stand conversing with someone with your hands in your pockets, so perhaps kilt-wearing will improve my comportment? In any case we all shared a delicious meal of Waterzooi, a traditional Belgian dish, and we left late, feeling very satisfied with the food and the company.
Saturday afternoon I went to the general rehearsal of Pelléas et Mélisande at La Monnaie, and it was great. It was the revival of a Pierre Audi production from some years ago, and the set was very interesting: a huge abstract red object (an ear?... trumpet?... uterus?) that rotated and rather magically became at times a tower, a castle, a cave... Mélisande started out with a bald head (!) and the colour of her gown changed every so often, which could have been confusing, but the dreamlike, hallucinatory qualities of the music fitted in rather well with these visual elements, and the overall visual experience was very special. The orchestra is always great at La Monnaie; I loved it, and hope to see the other cast during the run.
As this rehearsal was in the afternoon, I was home for dinner, and we made it an early night, and were all ready ahead of time for the Sunday service at St. Andrew's. The afternoon was a really glorious 23 degrees, so we put the top down and after a brief stop for a sandwich went on a little jaunt down to Wavre to see Bryan and Kiana, their children and the menagerie of cats, dog and chickens for a glass of bubbly and a little visit at their home in the countryside. Spring has been delayed everywhere this year it seems; it isn't at all unusual to have cool temperatures into April in Canada, but in Brussels we've enjoyed much earlier appearances of spring in previous years, and the Belgians were beginning to become quite desperate, so when the
sun appeared and the temperature soared yesterday, people everywhere became a
little bit giddy. T-shirts and shorts were seen everywhere, and open cars proliferated.
Today has seen mixture of sun and rain, but the thermometer tells me that it is 17 degress. If it stays dry then I think we'll be charcoal-barbequeing ribs on the back terrace tonight. I am sorry to hear of the bad weather in Canada, and wish everyone a speedy arrival of springtime!
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