Day 12 - Paris Walking Tour

My agenda for today is JD's Walking Tour of Paris, which I'm going to make up as a I go along. I started out from my apartment and walked straight to the Seine. I walked along the left bank until I came to Notre Dame.

It was a beautiful sunny day and there were tons of people all around and lined up to get in. I was happy just to look at the outside. I hadn't walked that far, but I was ready for lunch. Let's get off this island and away from Notre Dame to find a place. I crossed a bridge, but I'm not on the right bank. I'm on another island. I'd like to get off this too. A few blocks in from the river I found this place.

Quiche with Broccoli! And salad. What a lovely day to sit outside in the sun. I hadn't heard anyone speaking German in Switzerland and that's one of the official languages. Today I heard two couples speaking German at this cafe. It's an international city and a touristy place.

After lunch I walked back to the river and continued on along it until I came to the Louvre.

That glass pyramid is the entrance the the Louvre. I'm not going in today. Just pyramid shopping.

This next tourist landmark is for my mom. She'll recognize it. For the rest of you it's a quiz. Where am I?

Now, there's one more large landmark to find. It looks like it's somewhat near the river. And looks like it's not that far away. Here's my favorite sign in Paris.

I guess that means wrong way to Eiffel Tower. Not sure why it's bent. Is that to tell you which way to go? Or just so it'll fit on the sign? And this sign is only for cars. If you're on foot, this is precisely the way to go. And voila!

I think I've put in about 5 miles walking. Time to find a Metro station to head back. There's a Tour Eiffel station, but I can't find it. I started walking back to the river and found the Invalides station. The big map on the wall says the C line should take me back to Gare d'Austerlie. Found the platform for the C train, but which C train do I want? The trains have video displays that list all the stops for the next train to arrive. But, Gare d'Austerlie isn't on either track. If I'd been paying more attention I'd have noticed that both trains were heading in the same direction. Not the direction that I wanted to go. There must have been another platform with trains heading the other way. I finally got on one of the wrong trains and rode it one stop the wrong way. I had to exit the station and cross the street and enter again to go back the other way. Now, it's getting late and I have a 7pm dinner reservation at Trumilou. I better just get off at Notre Dame and head straight to dinner.

Debra and Peter, whom I met last night, were right. This is a great restaurant. I had the artichoke salad and then the duck breast with fruit sauce. Excellent. I also ordered a carafe of Bordeaux and a carafe of water. I thought if I had a carafe of water sitting on the table that that would be good for me even if I didn't drink any of it. I drank all the Bordeaux, of course. Pear tart for dessert. I love Paris at dinnertime!

It's been a lovely day and I need to make it an early night. Have to get up at 6:00 to get to the airport for my trip home. Au revoir, Paris. I'll be back.

Day 11 - Hello Paris

Today I had to get up at the crack of 10:00 to catch the train to Lausanne. I had saved 6 francs and change for my ticket, which was only 5.80, so now I have exactly 1 franc in dimes and double dimes. Oh, wait, this one is a 1/2 franc. These are close in size to a dime. Okay 1.40 francs left over. Close enough for government work. 

I have 45 minutes in Lausanne before my train to Geneva. I figured that was better than 15 minutes, but these trains here run like clockwork. Even 5 minutes would have been enough time. I found a cafe. Oh, look! Croissant for 1.30. Wait. Croissant Rustico for 1.40. Perfect. No more francs. And a yummy croissant to boot. 

In Geneva I change to the TGV (Train of Great Velocity) and am now hurtling towards Paris at 110 mph. Arriving at Gare du Lyon, it's a 5 minute walk to the apartment I rented (on AirBnB). I found a place close to the gare (station) so I wouldn't have to walk far. And I made it without a single misstep. 

This apartment is tiny. Maybe 12' by 12'. The bathroom has less than 2' square in front of a sink that is smaller than a turkey platter. Shower looks big enough. But it's clean and neat. And best of all--It's in Paris! 

Time to explore the neighborhood. Oh, it's near La Bastille. 

That's the Bastille at the end of the waterway. No, this is not the Seine, but it connects to it. 

Wandering around some more I found Henry the 4th Street. That sounds fun. And that direction should be the river. I found a nice looking cafe, Café Margot, with a few people sitting outside drinking coffee. I sit and order myself a coffee. I can't believe I am here again. It's been 3 years, 6 months and 8 days, but who's counting? Not me. I made up the days. It's been about 3 and a half years. The couple at the next table ask for a menu, but it's too early. They don't start serving dinner till 7pm. 

I wandered around some more and wound up back at Café Margot for dinner. Wine, filet minion de porc, and Armagnac. I suppose I could check out the dessert menu. Profiterole GÉANTE. Oh, I love those. 

Yes, that's gigantic. I ask the couple at the next table to help me with it after it is delivered to their table by mistake. 

As I was leaving I stopped to say hello to another couple that sounded American. She sounded like she was from New York. Sure enough, she was born in Ridgewood, NJ. He's Australia and has lived all over. They now live in Paris around the corner near the river. I ask for restaurant recommendations for tomorrow. Do I like duck? But, of course! Then I have to go to Trumilou just past the Pont Louis Phillipe. I have a plan for tomorrow. 

Cully Day 10 - Last Night of the Festival

The last night of the festival started on mainstage #2 with the rhythmic magic of Bassekou Kouyaté and his ngoni band.

That's Bassekou in the brown. His wife sings, his two sons also play ngoni as does his brother (far left). Another brother plays drums. An interesting spherical drum. And there's also a percussionist, who I think was not related to him, but I'm not sure as my French is quite limited.

They are from Mali and the ngoni is a guitar-like instrument. It was amusing seeing these handmade instruments with guitar cords coming out of them. It was joyous, rhythmic music. I loved it. I stayed for the whole set. Ninety minutes standing on the concrete floor--it was worth it.

The percussionist was the most amazing. He played a drum like a... Let's see if I have a picture.

Well, you can sort of see it. It looks like a rolled up Sunday New York Times under his left armpit. He played it with a wooden stick with a hook at the end and with his hand. His hands were moving so fast they were just a blur.

Next, I headed over to mainstage #1 to hear French trumpeter, Ibrahim Maalouf. He had 4 trumpets, including himself, guitar, keyboard, bass and drums. It was a photographer's nightmare. The stage was either bathed in red light or there were white spotlights shining out into the audience. My iPhone camera and I were not up to the task of capturing it. It was fun, high energy music, but I was unable to get a seat and couldn't stand up any more, so I only stayed for the first few songs.

I have set myself a task for my last night in Switzerland to spend all my Swiss francs. I can change bills back into US dollars at home, but I mostly have coins. They have 5, 2, 1, 1/2, .20 and .10 coins. So I head over to the store to check out the T-shirts. 29 francs for a T-shirt. Expensive, but it'll make a better souvenir than a bunch of coins. I need 6 for the train to Lausanne tomorrow and another 6 for my midnight waffle fix. That leaves just enough to try the hot spiced wine at the tea vendor. Perfect. Rosé wine and not a lot of spice. Okay, not so perfect, but it was worth trying.

It's not quite midnight, but I'm ready for that waffle! I opt for the Grand Marnier waffle tonight. They have the Grand Marnier in what looks like a Windex bottle. When you order they spray on the booze--both sides! Pretty darn yum.

After 10 days I'm a little festivaled out. But there's a soothing tenor sax sound coming from Caveau des Amis. They have the stage set up so you can just see the piano from street if you stand at the door in just the right spot. I hang out on the street for the end of "Misty". It's just piano and sax. Quite enjoyable. They take a break after "Misty" and I wander off.

Caveau de l'Union has advanced a decade from 60's rock to 70's rock. It looks a lot like the band from last night also, except the keyboard player is on the right tonight.

The place is packed, but I manage to make my way in and find a place to lean on the bar. Wow, it's getting even more crowded. Ooo, the guy in front of me has a nice jacket. Feels like cashmere. I wasn't trying to feel it. He just backed up into me as the crowd swelled. It was fun, I love 70's rock. That's my era. I think the music you listen to in high school always has a special place in your heart.

After a few songs I realized I wanted to hear more of that sax and piano duo. I also started getting into jazz in high school. And you all know how I feel about that art form. Back at Caveau des Amis they were still on break and I was able to get in and get a seat. Yippee! They started the next set with "Ain't Misbehavin", but with the bridge from "Misty". On every chorus. They must really like that bridge. They did a stride piano version of "Softly" which I thought was a little odd. And a beautiful rendition of "Georgia". And on "Blue Monk" the sax player really got to honking!

Well, on that note I'm ready to leave Cully filled up with le jazz.

Cully Day 9 - Friday Night at the Festival

It's Friday night in Cully and the festival is in full festive mode. American Akua Naru is getting the party started in mainstage #2 with her blend of jazz and hip-hop. She's dynamic and gets the crowd going right away. I didn't even know I liked hip-hop. Though I think adding a saxophone doesn't really make it jazz. Much as I like adding a saxophone to everything. And adding bacon to everything!

I got there early to get chunk of floor to stand on a spot of wall to lean on. Now the place is packed. After the 2nd song I start making my way to the door when I realized it's not really my cup of tea. It's not my bouteille de vin either. Now this, is my bouteille de vin.

The Gamay from Lutry, my favorite of the local wines. It was a beautiful day to sit outside and drink wine and eat fish and chips from the local pecherie. I'm guessing that means fish monger. Perch today. Yummy!

Now into mainstage #1 to hear the Swiss Stefan Aeby and his trio.

I'd put that solidly in the jazz category. Good stuff. 

After a 20 minute intermission where I walk around and stretch my legs, I'm back in mainstage #1 to hear Randy Weston & Billy Harper.

They are touring in support of their latest recording, "The Roots of the Blues", and playing mostly original compositions. A great show. Stellar. I put this with Avishai Cohen at the top of my festival favorites.

After nine days of festivaling, I'm going to call it an early night and maybe get back to the house before 2am. But there's an interesting duo at Caveau des Amis (Friends Cellar). I paid 5 francs to become a friend of the festival. I've got to stand here a bit and listen.

And what's that I hear? A 60's rock and roll band at Caveau de l'Union! And there's people dancing. And now the guitar player comes down off the stage in the middle of his solo to dance with the crowd. I don't think the 60's were ever like this. I didn't even know the 10's were like this. The 2010's that is. Is that what we'll call this decade when we look back in 50 years?

Cully Day 9 - Sightseeing in Lausanne

Wow, there are those mountains again. When I walk out the door, there they are.

How tall are those French Alps, anyway? Not as tall as Mount Rainier. That is the Chablais Alps mountain range which Mother Google tells me is 8,000 feet high. The tallest mountain in the French Alps is taller than Mount Rainier, towering at 15,000 feet (to Rainier's 14,000). Quiz time. What is the tallest mountain in the French Alps? I'll give you a hint. They named a fountain pen after it. 

Right. Mont Blanc. Ding, ding, ding! You win. And your prize is a chance to read about my trip to Lausanne.

I arrived in Lausanne a little early for my farewell lunch with Martine and JC. Don't know when I'll see them again. I hope it's soon! After lunch I wandered off to take in Lausanne. As this is Europe, touring a city usually means seeing the cathedral. And Lausanne is no exception. Of course they built it on the highest part of the city, so I had to hike up hill a bit. Ah, now how do I get into this place? Just a little more hiking around to the front.

Beautiful. And of course no cathedral would be complete without...

...it's own app on the App Store! If only I had data service on my phone. Sigh. 

And what have we here? We're in a 900 year-old cathedral, consecrated by Pope Gregory X, and what do they use to repair the stone?

The universal restoration material, duct tape!

Next I'm off to find Le Barbare which Martine said has the best hot chocolate. Just go through a tunnel from the cathedral towards the water.  Wow. I actually found it. And yes, the hot chocolate is divine.

It's like drinking the middle a molten lava cake. Yowzer! And the view from the cafe isn't bad either.

That couple in the corner was more interested in each other than in the chocolate. Ah, young love. And I'm not even in Paris yet.

I have a pressing date with a laundry machine. It'll take me 20 minutes just to figure out which buttons to press to start it, so I better get back on the train to Cully. Quite a lovely view of the lake from the train.

I found out the locals call this Lake Leman, but outsiders call it Lake Geneva. I don't know why. I'm just going to call it "the lake" and avoid the politics.

Cully Day 8 - Festival's Best Ratio of Clubs to Fans

Thursday has been one of my favorites days at the festival so far because it has the highest club to fan ratio. In non-geekspeak: less crowded! There are a lot of clubs open and not as many fans as on the weekend, so I was able to get into a lot places!

Started off at mainstage #2 to hear American vocalist Lyeoka. Part funk, part rock, part soul. Hard to describe and also hard not to enjoy. Original tunes and dancable grooves.

Then over to the floating venue. You can't see the band since they are in the hold below.

Okay, it was crowded. This is only part of the 6-piece gypsy jazz band called 36 Rue du Swing (Swing Street)

They had two guitars, bass, violin, accordion and trumpet. Stompin fun!

Then over to Das Schlagzeug to hear the Kimm Trio.

Hey a trio! Even in this small club I can get them all in one picture. Groovy and swinging. I pulled over a chair and sat for a while.

Then there was another Spanish band at Caveau Mélanie Weber: Lola de Valence.

Looks like the same guitar player as last night. Fun, but crowded. I stood in the back for a few songs before heading over to Caveau Potterat to hear the Harasse Jazz Band. That means Crate Jazz Band. I don't see anyone with a crate. But they sound great.

Best described as Dixie-land, style, I'd say. Lots of jazz standards: Basin Street Blues, Blue Monk, It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing, and Sweet Georgia Bourne (yeah, that's how they pronounced it). Is that Jason Bourne's sister? They are fun. I took a seat and hung out a while.

Oh, now they're doing a Russian folk song and singing in Russian. Aaah! French, Spanish, Russian. It's too much. And I'm even taking a night off from the wine. Oh look at the time!

It's European midnight! That's the be-waffling hour!! Off to the waffle vendor.

Oui, gaufre chocolat! Wandering off with a happy belly when I heard a country and western band!

They are called Los Dos and Amigos. I'm not sure which ones are the amigos. Unless that's the 6 people in cowboy hats dancing on the bar. Okay, you've gotta see these dancers. Is it Spring Break week?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvzbeINzKms

Cully Day 7 - Festival

We started off after dinner, Jean-Claude and I, in the Off Festival at Caveau Mélanie Weber listening to Barrio Oscuro.

It's not French, it's not German. Ah, it's Spanish. They are singing in Spanish. I don't even want to try to wake up the Spanish part of my brain from junior high school. It might spill over and wipe out my 20 words of French. The music sounds great and she sings with such passion.

Then over to Das Schlagzeug to hear Oggy and the Phonics.

I think that's Oggy with the saxophone. There's also a guitar player on the right who didn't make it into my picture. I was standing too close to get them all in frame. It was cool. Groove plus melody. Harmony even with the clarinet and saxophone!

Des Gaufres started calling to us. It's nearby. Maybe you can smell the waffles in this club. Tonight Jean-Claude ordered off the secret menu--waffles with cinnamon and grand marnier! I thought I was in love with waffles before!

Next off to Sweet Basile to hear Gabriele Pezzoli on their sweet piano.

There's a drummer also, but I sat in the front row without remembering that would limit my ability to get them all in a picture. Classic piano trio, but no standards that I recognized. But definitely music I recognized as jazz. Fortunately Gabriele didn't sing. I think Italian on top of French and Spanish would have turned my brain to mush. And the grand marnier was already doing a fine job of that.

We ended the night at Caveau des Vignerons where the jam session was heating up. There were lots of people sitting in and a good crowd.

It went well past 1am, but I didn't. The wine and the walk in the sun caught up to me.

Cully Day 7 - Walking Tour

It was another beautiful sunny day in Cully. The Alps--those are the French Alps across the lake--look more awesome every day. I did the self-guided walking tour from Cully to Rivaz in the Lavaux Visitor's Guide. Up the hill to Epesses then across the hillside on this paved trail that is mostly pedestrians with the occasional farm truck. The grape vines are just starting to bud and the farmers are out tending to them already.

There are grapes above and grapes below the trail. That's Cully in the distance at the tip of that pennisula. Seems amazing to me that you could grow grapes on this steep hillside, but they have been doing that here for 1,000 years. Okay, I'm exaggerating, it's only been 900 years since the Cistercian monks first planted grapes here in the 12th century. The hillside gives the grapes great Southern exposure to the sun. Actually, they have three suns here. I know it sounds like something out of Star Trek. There's the sun in the sky, the sun reflecting off the lake and the warmth of the sun radiating out from the rocks at night. These grapes have it good! Most of the vineyards are the Chasselas grape. They also grow some Pinot Noir and Gamay. The wines don't rival the beauty of Bordeaux, but it's fun to try the local wines. And all they sell at the festival are the local wines. My favorite is the Gamay.

After 5km (about 3 miles) the trail heads down into Rivaz.

That's Montreux in the distance. My plan is to take the train back to Cully. If I can figure out how to buy a ticket. There's no attendant at the train station, so I have to navigate the ATM-like machine to get a ticket. My US credit card doesn't work in the machine. European credit cards have a chip in them (like Microsoft badges). But the machine does take cash and I brought some Swiss francs. No, Switzerland is not one of the EU member states--they have their own currency. I have a 100 francs bill and three 1 franc coins. And the fare is 3.5 francs. And the machine doesn't take bills larger than 20 francs. Well, I can always walk the 3 miles back to Cully. But, wait! The machine takes euros. And I bought some euros for the Paris part of my trip. I have a 10 euro bill. Yippee! My feet are tired. And no sooner have I gotten my ticket than the train arrives. Unfortunately it's on the opposite track and by the time I cross under the platform I have missed it. The next train is in one hour.

So I wandered back up into Rivaz hoping to taste some wine. I found three or four places to do that, but they are only open Thursday-Sunday. As it is Wednesday I can only look in the window at the pretty wine bottles. It's a beautiful day to walk around enjoy the view. Can you imagine living in this beautiful village?

Well, enough day-dreaming about moving to Switzerland. I better get back down to the train station for my 10 minute ride back to beautiful Cully.

Cully Day 6 - Festival midpoint

It's the mid point of the festival today. Four days behind. Four more days ahead. Was happy to find chairs in mainstage #1 today to hear Chrisoph Stiefel's Inner Language Trio. Modern, creative, swinging. Definitely dug it.

Then (next on mainstage #1) was David Murray's Infinity Quartet featuring Saul Williams. Saul did mostly spoken word with the quartet. With a jazz quartet he reminded me more of Kurt Elling and the beat poets than Tupac Shukar. Saul is actually heading to New York City to star in "Holla If Ya Hear Me", a new Broadway musical based on the music of Tupac.

Today also marked the first time I have seen (or heard) a saxophone at the festival! The quartet did a few number by themselves, but mostly with Saul doing his spoken word. Very cool. And quite captivating.

During the middle of the week there are less clubs (Off Festival). There was only one last night and two tonight. Tomorrow there will be seven clubs open and then 15 for the rest of the festival. I poked my head into Vintner's Vault again. Same band as last night. Then I wandered up to a club called Das Schlagzeug. That means drum set in German. I haven't heard anyone speaking German here. And all the other clubs appear to have French names. The band is the Akku Quintet.

It was really dark in the club. Yes, it is a quartet. There is a keyboard player on the right. But BlogSpot is cutting off the right side of the picture. This band made me think hard about the difference between groove and melody. This band was really good at the former and didn't do much of the latter. Just when I thought the guitar player was taking a solo it turned into a 2-bar phrase repeated over and over again. So it's really just part of the groove. Not what I'd call a melody. There was a bass solo. I could tell because no one else was playing. But it still felt like all groove and no melody to me.

And look, two saxophones in one night! It really is a jazz festival. There was one point where just the guitar and sax played. A sax melody on top of a guitar groove--yeah. But it didn't last long and they were back to all groove and no melody. And Des Gaufres (the waffle booth) was calling my name. I ended the night with a yummy chocolate waffle. My 3rd of the festival. I may have started my own waffle tradition.

Cully Day 5 - Home cooked meal

It was a sunny day in Cully today.  Here's the view from the yard of the house that I rented.

Martine and JC invited me for dinner tonight. JC makes a great Lemon Drop--tangy and scrumptious. Then grilled turkey and bordeaux. Ah! And a delicious triple chocolate cake that I thought couldn't get any better. Until we poured a little liqueur on it. Chocolate and chocolate and chocolate, on my!

After dinner JC and I hit the festival. We went to the club, Vintner's Vault, where I had been with Martine the night before. Monday night is the slow night for the festival. This was the only club open tonight. Shortly after we arrived, Popa Chubby came in with his guitar. He had been on the mainstage earlier. I wasn't able to get a good picture, but this one shows how crowded it is.

For a better picture, check out this tweet from the festival. https://twitter.com/cullyjazz/status/453539473339322368

Cully Day 4 - Festival & Behind the Curtain

Sunday night the festival kicked off on mainstage #1 with Alex Massmedia.  I mis-remembered his name as Mixedmedia. My subconcious must think that's a cooler name for an artist. I didn't get any good pictures, but this one is kinda cool.

I never know when I walk into a venue if it will have chairs or not.  Mainstage #2 had no chairs the first night, but chairs the 2nd night.  Mainstage #1 had chairs the first night, but no chairs tonight.  Maybe if they sell more tickets they take out the chairs to make more room.

My friend, Martine, went to school with the festival director in charge of programming. So we got to go backstage and see the band from the wings.

That's Alex Massmedia's drummer and bass player.

We ate dinner (beef shiskabob for me) sitting on a rock wall looking out at the lake and the mountains. C'est magnifique, oui?

Then back to mainstage #1 to hear American, Cody ChesnuTT, who rocked the house. Motown lives! Soulful and grooving and great story telling.

Then off to jazz in the clubs. Most of the club names are caveau de something or other. Caveau means vault or cellar, which might seem strange, but this house I'm renting has a big vault door in the basement. I asked if it used to be a bank or something, but no. Houses in Switzerland used to be required to have a vault in the basement where residents could barricade themselves in the event of an invasion. So vault and cellar are sort of the same thing here. Tonight we went to Caveau des Vignerons (Vintners Vault or Vintners Cellar). This is the club closest to mainstage #1 where the jam sessions go early into the morning. The club was packed and we had to wait for the band to take a break, at which point some of the patrons leave and there is room for more people to get in. There was a trio (keyboard, bass and drums) that played grooves more than songs.  I didn't recognize any melodies. We didn't stay for the jam session part of the evening.  Maybe tomorrow.

Cully Day 4 - Sightseeing

My friend Martine took me out to lunch today at Grandvaux.  She picked a place with a lovely view of the Lauvaux region.  That's Cully down on the water about 1/4 from the left.

I'm still not pronouncing Cully correctly. It's a sound we don't have in English. It's what linguists call a rounded vowel.  Vowel sounds depend on the position of the tongue and the shape of the lips.  Did you ever wonder why the doctor asks you to say "ah"? It's because the tongue position for that vowel is down, so the doctor can see your throat without your tongue getting in the way.  Even though we don't have this vowel in English, we do have one with the same lip shape and one with the same tongue position. So round your lips like you are going to say oo (as in boo).  Now without moving your lips say ee (as in bee). Give it a try. I'll wait.

I think you've got it! Bravo. Have a few glasses of French Bordeaux and try it some more.

After lunch we drove through Lavaux. First along the hill, then down by the water.  We stopped to walk along the lake and search for ice cream.  A sidewalk artist created all these balancing rock sculptures.

Yes, there are kids swimming in the lake. I knew I should have brought my bathing suit.  We found the ice cream store and after navigating the menu in French, I opted for frappé frambois, which is strawberry or rasberry or some red berry.  I didn't see peanut butter on the menu, so I didn't get my usual chocolate peanut butter shake. Of course that might be because I don't know how to say peanut butter in French. Or maybe they just don't have crazy American flavors like that here.