Jacqueline Swartz

BOTSWANA: Elephants and the Orient Express

2012-09-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

BOTSWANA: ELEPHANTS AND THE ORIENT EXPRESS

Onyx, our guide

Savute Elephant camp boutqiue"tent"

In The Double Comfort Safari Club, Alexander McCall Smith’s recent novel featuring Precious Ramotswe, the proprietor of Botswana’s No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, there’s a scene where Precious and her assistant journey through Botswana’s Okavango Delta by canoe. They are at the upscale but environmentally correct Eagle Island Camp (www.eagleislandcamp.com), surrounded by waterways, grasslands and teeming wildlife. Distracted by the exotic birds and the beauty of the lily-pads strewn along the water, at one point these two “traditionally built” ladies notice that the rim of the canoe is perilously close to the level of the water; meanwhile, the poler is telling them stories of hungry crocodiles and grumpy hippos.

It brought me back to my own Botswana experience. It happened during a night safari ride in an open jeep in the bush near the Khwai River lodge, situated in the eastern region of the Moremi Wildlife Reserve, a spectacular game viewing area with forests and marshes, giraffes and birds. On this dark night ride, everything seemed hyper real: the blackout sky was crammed full of stars, and our open jeep swayed like a camel on the sandy path that served as a road. The daytime palette of tan-colored savannah punctuated with acacia trees had morphed into a ghostly green, and the sounds gave eerie hints of invisible bird and animal life.

An elephant nonchalantly crossed in front of our jeep - was it real?. To the left, we could make out a group of dark, bulky hippos standing by a marshy pond. Hippos are much more dangerous than people think, our guide was saying, when we stumbled upon a jaw-dropping sight: lions, lots of them, sprawled out just ahead.

“It was touch and go for awhile,” I said that evening over dinner, expansively recounting the event over a fine local Pinotage, a South African blend of Pinot Noir and Hermitage wines

“All these lions were blocking our path;” I continued. “We couldn’t just shoo them away so we had to veer left, and we woke them from their sleep.

The lions were there all right, but they did little more than raise an eyebrow before going back to their snoring. My safari mates grinned at the tall tale. We were in the perfect place to tell safari stories - the wooden, wall-less bar at the Khwai River Lodge (www.kwairiverlodge.com).

Decades ago, we might have arrived in pith helmets and high boots, carrying shotguns. Add to that steamer trunks and valets, for this five-star pinnacle of rustic- luxe is part of the Orient Express. No trains here, just an experience of Africa, wild and at the same time safe.

It’s no accident that the Orient Express chose Botswana, a country where peace reins and animals roam freely. Surrounded by Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, Botswana’s two million people live in a country about the size of Texas. Diamonds fuel the economy but the plan is to augment mining with a major diamond cutting polishing and finishing centre next year in the capital of Gaborone. The country’s numbers are impressive: the GDP grew 7.5% in 2010 and the literacy rate is 84%. Cell phone service covers this mostly rural country. The bad news is that: there is a major AIDS problem, but anti-retrovirals are paid for by the government. And when it comes to tourism, preserving the environment and the wildlife that depends is at the top of the list.

At dinner (the three Orient Express safari camps are all-inclusive), the menu aimed for a kind of African fusion. There was chakalaka soup, an African spiced vegetable soup, followed by chicken stew and bream fillets, accompanied by pumpkin stuffed with baby corn. Other nights I sampled kudu meat and ostrich carpaccio.

Khwai has a small spa, and a certain chic ambiance. But when I long to return to Botswana I think of the Savute Elephant Camp, less marshy and forested, than Khwaii. Welcome to the elephant capital of Africa. Over 80,000 of them live in the 10,000 square kilometer Chobe National Park. In the northern part of the park, a rugged, semi-arid wilderness, is the 5000 sq km Savute area. This is prime wildlife territory. Zebras migrate through here, and you can see the endangered wild dog, as well as giraffe, cheetah, imapala (a snack for lions, I was told) and kudu; recently leopards have been sighted.. But the chance to see an amazing number of elephants living out their natural lives is what makes this place a magnet for people partial to pachyderms.

The Savute Elephant Camp (www.savuteelephantcamp.com) is situated on the banks of the Savute channel. It’s a mystery - no one knows why it flows for several decades and then suddenly stops, sometimes for decades. It stopped flowing in 1982 and then one January morning in 2010 it started again, making the camp an instant waterfront property. Savute Elephant Camp includes some l5 tent tents that on the inside look and feel like boutique hotel rooms. Each one has a deck with a hammock. They’re clustered around a main building, roofed but without walls. It’s a combination dining room, lounge and meeting place. Everywhere in the camp local materials are used - wood, straw, stone; even the chandelier is made of ostrich eggs.

The colors, here and at the other Orient Express camps are tan, sand, ecru, just like the land itself. The hut-like tents and the lounge on stilts fit right into the wilderness. (What a horror it would be to see a sprawling luxury resort and golf course.) There are no concrete foundations, all the better to be able to pull up stakes in case the l5 year lease is not renewed by the government (no land can be sold in conservation areas). The harmony of the lion- colored land and the aesthetic, African-style furnishings, made me feel a kind of nostalgia for some kind of unruined past. It’s the feeling of being in sepia photograph.

Just outside the camp, in plain view, the elephants drink, wash, jostle and splash each other in the water; they come and go, exchanging greetings with their trunks. Even the heaviest elephant walks silently, as if the sound had been turned off. Males walk away alone, females arrive with their adorable little ones. It is the female elephants who live communally, aunts caring for their sisters’ offspring, while the males, from adolescence onward, are on their own. The younger ones do not even know who their fathers are, and try to attract a male mentor by showing off. So much elephant behaviour is going on that it’s tempting to just sit on the deck and watch.

But there are other animals to see. At 6:30 am, we take off in the open jeep. Our guide, the camp’s resident environmentalist named Onx, scrutinizes the animal tracks and easily finds zebra, gazelle and giraffe. This is not a big zoo; it’s the unfenced wild, one of the best places in Africa to see animals. The same might be said of the whole country.

Useful Information:: The Okavango Delta has a variety of lodgings and prices. However, in the region of the Khwai and Savute safari camps, also in the north, there are fewer camps, and many of these are high-end (4 and 5 stars). The vast Kalahari desert to the south includes a game preserve which offers wildlife viewing in some of the most remote, unspoiled wilderness in Africa. This is not five-star territory, and low-priced lodgings and camping is available..

Getting to Botswana: Air Botswana (www.airbotswana.co.bw), a thoroughly modern airline with more amenities than many North American carriers, flies often from both Johannesburg and Capetown. For the Okavanga Delta and the Chobe area, the best place to land is the town of Maun. It contains both banks and goats (shepherds bring their herds to market) and is safari central. Here is where you take small planes to the various safari camps (Mack Air is one, at www.mackair.co.bw) , and rent four-wheel vehicles. . The capital, Gaborone, is in the south and is closer to the Kalahari area..

San Francsico's French Connection

2012-09-06T12:02:00.001-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO’S FRENCH CONNECTION
By Jacqueline Swartz

San Francisco has always been a Francophile’s refuge. When the Bush Administration renamed pommes frites Freedom Fries and made French wine seem un-American, a group of San Franciscans protested with a champagne dinner. French Champagne, of course.

The French influence began with the city itself. Some of the first immigrants were Parisians feeling the uprising of l848.

And of course there was the lure of the gold rush. The French fortune seekers stayed and opened department stores, restaurants, a hospital, laundries and bakeries - the famous sourdough bread was called French bread, and Isidore Boudin (whose bread is still made) was one of the first to bake it. The City of Paris, a venerable department store modeled after the Galleries Lafayette, first did business on a ship in the harbor; today it is a Neiman Marcus store, and only the dome remains.

A few blocks away, on Bush Street near the gates of Chinatown, an area once known as Frenchman’s Hill is now called the French Quarter. This is not some invented tourist theme park but an area rooted in the history of the city.

“A City Hall, a café, a church”, traditionally that’s what you need for a village,” remarked Jean Gabriel, founder Café de la Presse (www.cafedelapresse.com) It includes a news stand selling French newspapers and magazines, a small bookstore and a large café/restaurant. Across the street is the French Consulate, which is near Notre Dame des Victoires, the French Catholic church.

Restaurants

The French Quarter has several clusters of restaurants. Among the most authentic is Le Central (www.lecentralbistro.com). It is achingly traditional, with banquettes, mirrors and chalkboard menus. The food includes traditional fare like leeks vinaigrette and a cassoulet rumoured to be simmering since 1974. San Francisco’s flamboyant former mayor, Willy Brown, is a frequent customer, and so are French tourists who cannot do without their cuisine. The wine list here is exceptional, and includes both California and French wines by the glass.

Nearby is Café Claude (www.cafeclaude.com), in Claude Lane, just behind the intersection of Stockton and Sutter streets. On Bastille Day, July l4, the streets are packed with revelers. Café Claude is French down o its zinc bar and the other furnishings, which were bought from an old Paris bar. Inexpensive and casual, but also romantic, it was once awarded first prize by the Bay Guardian weekly newspaper as the “best place to have a clandestine lunch”. The croque monsieur, the couscous with the traditional Merguez sausage are assertively French. So is the luscious tarte tatin, rich with apples and creme fraiche. Fusion might the culinary trademark of restaurant-obsessed San Francisco, but it is conspicuously absent in this French enclave.

One of San Francisco’s most celebrated restaurants, Fleur de Lys, is run by Hubert Keller, known as the chef’s chef. Now boasting a Michelin star, this haute cuisine palace, with its votive candles and tented ceiling is the place San Franciscans go for special occasions. www.fleurdelyssf.com

The French influence extends well outside the “village”. The best bakery-cafe in San Francisco, Tartine, is in the Latin Mission District, at 600 Guerrero Street (www.tartinebakery.com). It serves celestial tarts, croissants and other sweet and savoury goodies; the only downside is the lines, even in the rain.

Museums

San Francisco’s French connection goes beyond food. France Today, a monthly U.S. magazine about all things French, is published in San Francisco. In the Richmond District, the Palace of the Legion of Honor (34th and Clement Street) is a museum modeled after Le Palais de la Legion d’honneur in Paris, on the spot where Napoleon first established his civil and military order. It was built for the people of San Francisco by sugar heiress Alma Spreckels and opened in l924.

Spreckels was a passionate collector of French art, and thanks to her early championing of the sculptor, Rodin, the museum has over 80 pieces by him. It’s worth a visit just for the setting, dramatically situated on a hill overlooking the San Francisco Bay and the coastline.

San Francisco’s Museum of Modern art (www.sfmoma.org) , ranked second only to New York’s), has its own French collection: a startling roomful of paintings by Matisse. They were donated by the Haas family, of Levi Strauss fame, who bought the paintings from Gertrude Stein, originally from Oakland and later of Paris.

Vineyards

The French influence extends to the vineyards of the Napa Valley, San Francisco’s wine country, a mere hour and a half from the city by car. Even before the gold rush, the first grapevines in the Napa Valley were planted in 1836 by George Yount, from Alsace. In 1899, the Marquis Georges de Latour settled in the valley and came to produce the famous Cabernets of Beaulieu vineyards.
San Franciscan’s can drink to that.

Caravaggio and his followers (appeared in NUVO Magazine)

2011-10-12T10:19:00.000-07:00

For art lovers, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), is the hottest baroque painter who ever held a brush. He was also one of the founding fathers of the baroque style. In the first Canadian exhibit of this very contemporary Old Master, the National Gallery presented Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome, which closed September 11.

Caravaggio’s genius is eerily contemporary. “Four-hundred years later, he seems to touch our sensibilities more than any of the Old Masters,” remarks Sebastian Schutze, co-curator of the exhibit and Chair of the Department of Art History at the University of Vienna.

The chiaroscuro element - the dark background and the light-infused figures in the foreground inspired film noir, notes National Gallery Director, Marc Mayer. And Caravaggio’s emoting figures, so full of subtle glances and dark passion, draw us into the story of each painting. “A real live Caravaggio - the actual object, not a photo or something you see on the internet - is a very powerful experience,” Mayer says. “His high drama, his realism - you almost forget you’re looking at a painting”.

Caravaggio used his low-life posse - pimps, prostitutes, musicians – as models, sometimes as biblical figures. The Roman prostitute, Fillide Melandroni, posed as Mary Magdalene in The Conversion of the Magdalene, one of the ten Caravaggios in the exhibit. Although such models were considered scandalous, wealthy collectors sought his paintings, full of sex and violence, saints and sinners.

Dozens of European painters were drawn to Rome to check out this virtuoso wild man. The exhibit intends to show how Caravaggio influenced his Baroque contemporaries, called Caravaggisti The 50 paintings include works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Peter Paul Rubens and Simon Vouet; according to co-curator Schutz, “they offer challenging new perspectives on the art of Caravaggio”.

Caravaggio’s life was as violent as some of his masterpieces. He killed a pimp in a dual over a woman, then went on the lam, running from Rome to Naples to Venice, then to Malta, where he joined the Knights of Malta. Imprisoned for assaulting one of the senior knights, he escaped to Naples after a month, only to be slashed in the face by a knife-wielding attacker. He died less than a year later, in July 1610, in the Tuscan town of Porte Ecole.

The artist’s range is part of his continued appeal. He could accomplish eloquently spiritual paintings like Sacrifice of Isaac (in the show); he also painted musicians, fortune tellers and shady card players. Alongside his Card Sharp is a painting on the same subject, The Cheat With the Ace of Clubs, by French painter, Georges de la Tour.

Assembling the paintings for this show, the second largest display of the artist’s works in North America after the Metropolitan’s l985 exhibit, itself required masterful negotiating. Not a single Caravaggio painting exists in Canada, and most are in Europe’s great museums and churches, which are reluctant to lend them. In one instance, the National Gallery exchanged a Rembrandt to the Italian Museum, Pinacoteca Capitolini, which will keep the painting as hostage until it gets its Caravaggio back.
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“I can’t imagine another Caravaggio exhibit in Canada”, sighs NAC director Mayer. “This will be an experience of a lifetime.”

In October, Caravaggio and his Followers in Rome will travel to the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth Texas, the exhibit’s only other stop.

www.gallery.ca/caravaggio

HAMBURG: Germany's Scandinavian City (appeared in Ensemble Vacations)

2011-09-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

s320/Waterway%2Bbetween%2Bwarehouses.JPG" /> How many travelers would guess that Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany, and one of the most affluent, with the second largest port in Europe, after Rotterdam. Unlike glitzy Berlin, the colossus to the south, Hamburg’s image is far from high definition, at least to most North American visitors. Bordered by the by the North and the Baltic Seas, Hamburg is closer to Scandinavia than to Berlin (which is a comfortable 90 minute train ride away) Fish is on many a menu - and are open-faced sandwiches are popular. And two years ago, a high speed train began to bring in eager shoppers from Copenhagen.

Water seems to be Hamburg’s element, with rivers, canals, lakes and bridges everywhere. The name Venice of the North is deserved - the city has more bridges than the Italian icon. Now that Berlin is Germany’s capital, and there’s competition, Hamburg is drawing on its long history of shipping and trade and its international outlook to find a new energy.

Some of the country’s largest media headquarters are located here - AOL Germany and the magazine, Der Spiegel, for example. And Hamburgers (that’s what they are called!) like to talk about ad agencies moving to Berlin, then coming back. These trendy companies are right in synch with the city’s new vanguard development, the Hafen City, the transformation of a former industrial area, and now the largest construction site in the European Union. A place to work, live and play, the project has engaged starchitects including Rem Koolhaas and Renzo Piano.

Red Light District
If Hamburg is known for anything, it’s the Reeperbahn the red light district which continues to offer everything erotic, from sex shops, to strip clubs. Hamburg’s brothels are located the Herberistrasse, where sex has been for sale since the l9th century. Prostitutes are still on display in windows, but are protected from prying eyes by a blocked-off section bounded by tall red doors; women are not encouraged to enter.

The Reeperbahn is only one a part of the district called St. Pauli’s, which is home to clubs, bars and restaurants. After dark, and late into the night, crowds, including families, stroll the area, the trendy coexisting with the sleazy. The theatres draw their own crowds - Hamburg ranks third in the number of international musicals, after New York and London. St. Pauli’s more wholesome delights are getting so popular that some locals fear that the neighbourhood will lose its edge.

The Beatlemania Museum, which opened in 2009, is a reminder of how that edge helped shape the fab four. For it was in Reeperbahn dives, from l960-62, where they honed their skills, often playing night after night, all night long. “I might have been born in Liverpool,” said John Lennon, “but I grew up in Hamburg”. The four floors of Beatlemania contain photos, a mockup of the Yellow Submarine, guitars and other memorabilia, bittersweet pleasure for fans.

Outside is Beatles-platz, a square with stainless steel cutouts of the group. Who can resist getting a corny photo taken of themselves with their head emerging through one of the cut outs of the lads.

This area is still grungy, but nearby, still in St. Pauli district, is the Bavaria Quarter, site of a former brewery, where some of the most chic nightspots are found. Hamburg scenesters drink and dine at Hotel East, a super trendy hotel converted from a foundry. The brick walls are intact, but Chicago architect, Jordan Mozer, has added surreal, Gaudi-like curved white sculpted walls and hanging lamps that look like giant teardrops.. The restaurant is known for its fine Asian-fusion food . www.east-hamburg.de

Maritime Legacy
Hamburg might be reinventing itself, but its maritime tradition continues to be imbedded in the soul of the city. Over l3,000 cruise and container ships dock here each year. A Russian billionaire’s yacht is currently being refurbished. And the tall, narrow, red brick warehouses that tower above the dreamy canals still house coffee, tea, spices and the largest concentration of Persian rugs in Europe.

In this area, known as the Speicherstadt, some of the warehouses have become museums. There’s a spice museum, where you can smell and touch a variety of spices. However, there is no English translation for the explanations.

The Model Train Museum (miniatur-wonderland.com), the largest model train exhibit in the world, is a huge (1100 sq. metres) multi-display fantasy world for all ages. At the push of a button, you can see any one of eight hundred trains ride through the snowy Alps, and endless other places. Also on view are scale models of the Champs Elysees, the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore - and Hamburg itself. Miniature boats float on real water and there will soon be a miniature airport, with model planes taking off.

You can get to the train museum, the spice museum and several other sites via the Maritime Circle Line, which is a hop on and off boat service costing eight euros. Most people board the colourful red barges at the Landungsbruchen in St Pauli. . There is a running narration on the boats, but only in German.

One of the stops is another unexpected but must-see museum - BallinStadt, or “Port of Dreams”, named after shipping magnate, Albert Ballin. The thirteenth son of a Danish Jew who moved to Hamburg before Albert was born, Ballin helped make Hamburg Europe’s major port of embarkation during the waves of emigration between 1850 and l910. Ballin’s ships sent 5 million people to the New World from l901 until l918. He is also credited with inventing the overnight pleasure cruise.

BallinStadt displays the interiors of some of the ships, and tells the story of the lives of various classes of people when they arrived in the New World. There is also a genealogical computer centre on the main floor. Opened in 2007, the museum displays the sleeping and dining facilities Ballin built in l901 for the thousands of people who couldn’t afford to stay in hotels while waiting to depart.

The museum’s casual restaurant closes at 6, but it’s worth trying the Finkenwerder School, pan fried plaice. The apple strudel is also top notch.

Hamburg has a range of restaurants. Eleven boast Michelin stars, and there are many reasonably priced eateries serving a range of cuisines. For traditional German food – bratwurst, schnitzel – locals head for Freudenhaus Bar and Restaurant in the St. Pauli area. The restaurant’s name means brothel. But the food is wholesome and the portions are large. Chilli Club is a trendy Asian-fusion restaurant in the Hafen City area which attracts a smartly dressed crowd who spill out onto the deck overlooking the harbour. It’s known for its crispy duck, Asian Tho Pau Salad (lime, bamboo, bean sprouts, shiso cress) and its inventive cocktails.

Shopping
The town’s centre, near the grandiose Town Hall, an ornate Neo-Renaissance building, is flanked with cafes with a view of the bridge and the river. There are numerous covered shopping arcades and major shopping streets. Jungfernstieg is the place to go for luxury goods, but Monckebergstrasse and Spitalerstrasse are the magnet for mid-range shopping.

For stylish, moderately-priced German clothes (which fit those who are not model-skinny), head for Peek and Cloppenburg. Shoe lovers will find their paradise in Goertz, which has four floors of foot wear, and is the largest shoe store in Europe. My quest was for Think shoes, which are made in Austria and are comfortable yet fanciful.

Just up the pedestrian-only street, Spitalerstrasse, is the fish restaurant, Daniel Wischer, with its tempting outdoor french-fry bar. Indoors, the traditional wood-paneled restaurant sells all manner of fish.

Yet I must confess that my most memorable meal was.....a hamburger. Lusciously grilled, topped with cooked cabbage, slathered with local mustard, and accompanied with pan-fried potatoes. Deligious, even though it was not the authentic dish, which consists of sliced, not fried meat and does not include a bun.

I was dining outdoors at a dockside diner called Oberhafen Kantine, one of the oldest remaining in the city. The place is a local tradition - and now it’s an objet d’art. There’s a wooden copy of the brick building in Berlin, part of a traveling art exhibit. Berlin copying Hamburg? The competition continues.

Information
Air Transat flies direct to Hamburg from June to October, www.airtransat.ca
For more information on Hamburg, visit www.germany-tourism.de/hamburg

DREYFUS SPEAKS

2011-07-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

(a version appeared in Maclean's Magazine)

Paris....

Charles Dreyfus at 83, carries his famous name with dignity and his tall frame with military bearing, as he continues to be involved with the preservation of his grandfather’s legacy. His grandfather was Alfred Dreyfus, the protagonist of the Dreyfus Affair, the greatest cause celebre in French history. The sham

eful saga, now over a century old, is well known: the French Captain, an Alsatian Jew, was framed, falsely accused of espionage and sent to the hell hole of Devil’s Island for five years. The case divided France and mobilized the likes of Emile Zola, whose article, J’Accuse, rocked France and eventually contributed to Dreyfus’ release in 1899. In l906, the Captain was granted a full exoneration and awarded the Legion of Honor..He fought in World War I and emerged a lieutenant-colonel.
Still, insists Charles as if it were today, “Grandfather was denied the seniority that would have allowed him to retire with the rank he deserved”. As the most active Dreyfus heir, Charles, gentlemanly and eloquent, continues to have a say in how his grandfather is remembered. He has delivered speeches at conferences and at the French Supreme Court. In 2006, he was asked to appear at a commemoration at the Ecole Militaire, presided over by then President Jacques Chirac. It was the very site where the “ceremony of degradation” was held in 1894.
“I was interviewed and became a celebrity for two days,” he recounts with a modest half- smile.
He dismisses the criticism of Alfred for being too reticent, too passive. “They had to find a justification for arresting him knowing he was innocent; so they say he may not have been guilty but he was so uninteresting.”
“Grandfather was a man of great culture”, he explains. In his journals, kept when he was incarcerated at Devil’s Island, he filled 30 notebooks. “He wrote about writers like Montaigne; he translated Shakespeare. He did math problems. That is what saved him, he was able to keep his mind active and not go mad”
Alfred Dreyfus died in 1935, when his grandson was eight years old. For decades after there was silence. ”People didn’t want to discuss it - it was not a glorious part of French history”. But in l994, a series of Dreyfus centennial commemorations began and lasted for over a decade. “From the time of grandfather’s arrest to the full clearing it took twelve years”.
Charles became more than a speaker. He had the last word on whether to move a statue of Dreyfus from its present location in a parkette on the Blvd. Raspail to the Ecole Militaire. (He said no, because it wouldn’t be visible to the public).A copy of the statue resides in the courtyard of the Jewish Museum of Art and History.
When, a few years ago, US Jewish groups called for a boycott of the Cannes Film Festival as a way of protesting French anti-semitism, and invoked the Dreyfus name, Charles Dreyfus sent them an email with his own protest. “In France today, you don’t see traditional anti-semitism - what you do see is an extension of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I certainly don’t feel threatened here.” Some of the most popular politicians in France are Jewish, he notes, citing Simone Weil and Jack Lang.
Charles is now preserving the memory of his grandfather through his role as Vice President of an association that is raising money for a museum in Medan, outside of Paris. It includes the home that belonged to Emil Zola, and is called Maison Zola-Musee Dreyfus. The hyphen is fitting, and so is the other VP: Martine le Blond-Zola, great grand-daughter of the writer.
“The families are still close”, Charles says of the Dreyfus and Zola descendants. He pulls out a box of old photos of the Zolas and of the Dreyfus family: Charles has three sisters and a 90 year-old cousin (three other cousins are deceased). “There are lots of grand-children and great-grand-children,” he grins proudly.
And now the Dreyfus Affair has surfaced in the Anglophone world with a series of books and lengthy articles.. It started with Louis Begley’s Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters..which that in a post 9/11 world, security is being allowed to compromise human rights and the rules of justice.
Charles Dreyfus find the book interesting, and sympathetic, “although a bit of a stretch” Still, he maintains, “the Dreyfus Affair is a symbol of miscarriage of justice, intolerance and prejudice. The head of the Supreme Court said it was “an error voluntarily committed”.

END

After Andy Warhol: Pop Life Exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada

2010-10-14T12:49:00.001-07:00

(appeared in NUVO Magazine)
Long before the Material Girl, Andy Warhol was fabricating his own material world. Artist, publisher of Interview and seigneur of The Factory, where films made and “superstars” were born, Warhol broke the mold of the serious artist dedicated to a higher calling. Instead of sneering at the commercial, he based his art on it,using everything from Campbell soup cans and Brillo pads to images of Jackie and Marilyn. Art and advertising were inseparable, according to Warhol; kitsch and commerce mingled in your face, and the flaunted aim was celebrity and money

“Good business is the best art”, Warhol famously said. What this means in terms of Warhol and the artists he influenced is the theme of “Pop Life: Art in a Material World”, an exhibit at the National Gallery in Ottawa. Featuring over 250 paintings, sculpture, installations and other products that blur the lines between art, entertainment and the marketplace, the exhibit promised to be a blockbuster.

“We are looking at a specific sub-sector of artists who have challenged the old notions of selling out; indeed, they made it into an art form”, explains John Shaughnessy, Assistant Curator of Contemporary art at the National Gallery. Among the many represented are American artists Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Keith Haring, Richard Prince and Pruitt Early; British artists Damien Hirst, Stacey Emin and Sarah Lucas; German artist Martin Kippenberger; Japanese artist Takashi Murakami; and Polish artist Piotr Uklanski.

The show first appeared in London’s Tate Modern last fall and was curated by the Tate. The National Gallery was its only North American venue.

To underscore the celebration of the commercial, there was a model of artist Keith Haring’s famed New York Pop Shop, which functioned as a store where visitors could buy t-shirts and other Haring-designed merchandise.

The exhibit featured works of well known artists who have seldom or never been shown in Canada. British bad boy turned multi-millionaire, Damien Hirst, for one. His collection, Inside My Head Forever, which includes a skull encrusted with diamonds, was sold by Sothebys in London for 111 million pounds on the very day in September 2008 - and this was when Lehman Bros.was going bankrupt in New York.

After Warhol, notes Shaughnessy, the baton was passed to Jeff Koons, who has both Warhol’s deadpan irony and his entrepreneurial skills. Koons, who at one time supported his art making by working as a Wall-street trader, known for his bunny rabbit and poodle sculptures (the stainless steel Rabbit is in the show) He swooped into the big time at the l990 Venice Biennale through his Made in Heaven exhibit of billboards and paintings. They showed the artist and his nearly-nude model, Ilana Staller, a Hungarian port star turned Italian politician known as La Cicciolina. Their carnal poses were set against a kitsch Garden of Eden backdrop, likening them to a commercialized Adam and Eve. When the two married, the merger of art, life and publicity was complete. Made in Heaven is one of the standout sections of the exhibit.

Is there anything in the show that is critical of our culture of celebrity worship and mass marketing?

“Infiltrating the mainstream is seen as a critical gesture”, offers Shaughnessy.

He also points out something more elemental: Pop Life is the first serious examination of how, in our brand-obsessed world, anything can sell as long there’s a buyer.

END

London's Hidden Neighborhood

2010-07-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

Overshadowed by nearby Covent Garden and the theatre district, London’s Seven Dials never became a tourist destination. Yet the seven cobblestoned streets that radiate from a central square with a sundial has been a colorful neighborhood since the 17th century, when speculator Thomas Neale designed the area to lure London gentry.

photo courtesy of Jonathan Gregson
As industrial-age immigrants flooded the area, it deteriorated into a slum known for its gin shops. At one point, each of the seven apexes facing the central square housed a pub. Today, only Crown remains.

Rundown or not, the area has always fascinated. As Charles Dickens wrote in Sketches by Boz, “The stranger who finds himself in the Dials for the first time at the entrance of seven obscure passages, uncertain which to take, will see enough around him to keep his curiosity awake for no inconsiderable time.”

Today, the quirky neighborhood of artsy boutiques and cool restaurants feels like a discovery. Evolving from its recent hippy past, it is charmingly restored but not hyper gentrified. One of the sweetest corners is the historic Neal’s Yard, a kind of backyard that is home to vegetarian cafes, bars and Neal’s Yard itself, the homeopathic remedy store.

Across the yard, Neal’s Yard Dairy, encourages you to discover all manner of farm cheddars and stiltons from the British isles. Take advantage of the outdoor seating, or grab a massage at the Walk-In Back Rub. The presence of this local chain makes sense here, since this London nook has been the home of alternative medicine since its origins. Also long-drawn to the area: occultists and astrologers, attracted by both the sundial and the symbolic star layout of the streets.

In Earlham Street an outdoor market thrives and the flower stalls have the vibrant colors and giddy aromas of perpetual spring. Elsewhere on the street, Firetrap offers two floors of London-style fashion with an edge, while Fred Perry purveys more classic and veddy proper clothing.

For a break, Kitchen Italia serves great cappuccino and tasty, inexpensive pasta. And if you want to check your email, there are three computers.

On Monmouth Street, Coco de Mer sells upscale erotica and one-of-a-kind vintage clothing. Down the block, the artisanal parfumerie, Miller Harris, creates its own scents. A heady blend of amber, oak, vanilla, and musk, made for the legendary 60-plus songstress, Jane Birkin — most famous for the Hermes bag named after her — can be yours for about $100.

Where to stay? The trendy Covent Garden Hotel, visited by the likes of Kate Hudson and Kiefer Sutherland, is a low-rise hotel in traditional English style, with a flower-bedecked lobby and an inviting wood paneled library. Of course, afternoon tea is served.
www.sevendials.co.uk

CARDIFF Makes a Cool Comeback

2010-07-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

A century ago, Cardiff, the capital of Wales, was a prosperous city with covered Victorian shopping arcades and a wool and coal industry that made the waterfront the largest coal exporting port in the world.

Then the story turned sad: the coal business declined, wool became cheaper elsewhere. The waterfront, known as The Docks, became the perfect seedy backdrop for the 1959 black and white film, Tiger Bay. Things only got worse in the l980's, when the city was hit by industrial collapse.

Today, Cardiff is showing signs of a dramatic comeback; the city is restored but still recognizable, and The Docks, renamed Cardiff Bay, has become the signature location for this city of 317,500.

Like everything else in this small city, Cardiff Bay is human sized, great for walking; there are also boat tours and kayak rentals www.cardiffwaterbus.com

The waterfront is a beguiling pastiche of various architectural styles. The most striking new building is the Wales Millenium Centre, a concert hall built of slate (there’s lots of it in the north), with what looks like a glass block sail leaning over one side. On it is marked, in English and Welsh, “In these words, horizons sing”.

A short walk away is an imposing l9th century red brick Victorian building, Butetown History and Arts Centre, which used to be a customs house but now contains photo and other exhibits on the history of the docklands and it’s multicultural past; one exhibit shows the century-old Somali presence.

The Mermaid Quay houses shops and restaurants and the St. David’s Hotel, a flamboyant glass structure with a full service Marine Spa. The marine theme continues outside with a boardwalk winding through acres of wetlands; herons, kingfishers and other birds forage for fish and insects in this food chain brought back to life.

In town, the restoration continues. The St.David’s shopping area (the name is common, since he is the patron saint of Wales). Is a circular pedestrian-only area with l9th century buildings housing ground floor shops. One is the recently opened Jamie Oliver Italian, a two-floor open kitchen restaurant

The Castle Arcade, recently revived, houses the renowned cheese shop and cafe, Madame Fromage. Choose from over 100 cheeses and tuck into a lunch of broccoli and Stilton soup. And yes, there is a Welsh Rarebit, made with three cheeses.

Nearby is the old Cardiff Market, with stalls selling their wares since 1891. Here you can find locally grown and traditional food - laverbread (pureed seeweed sometimes baked into oat cakes) and salt marsh lamb, cockles and leeks, the national vegetable.

A few blocks away is the stylish Park Hyatt, a stylish new hotel with a boutique feel; in the main floor lobby, a series of fireplaces runs the length of the room. The people at the front desk are typically Welsh, affable and informal. But the setting, despite the fireplaces is Cardiff cool.
www.visitcardiff.com

HEALTH: SECOND HAND CAT (appeared in the Globe and Mail)

2009-12-29T15:01:00.000-08:00

“I got rid of the kids ‑ the cat was allergic”, reads the sign in the allergist’s office.

It’s a rueful reminder of the denial, verging on hostility, to cat‑caused sufferings ‑ the itchy eyes, sneezing , and even severe asthma that afflicts up to 40% of allergic people exposed to cats.

The public might be vigilant to the perils of second hand smoke, but when it comes to the victims of second hand cat, the attitude is one of indifference at best. “We get more and more calls from people allergic to cats,” notes Maxine Trusty, information counsellor at the Canadian Allergy and Asthma Information Association. Unfortunately, she adds, they get little sympathy or understanding.

“Some people seem to like their pets more than people”, she remarks. The allergic are often blamed for being anti‑cat, or not taken seriously. There is still some dark age thinking around that says the problem is all psychological.

When it comes to cat allergies, disinformation rules. One false notion is that somewhere, somehow, there is a cat that doesn’t cause allergy. No allergist would agree with this ‑ it’s not the hair but a protein in the saliva, tears, urine and the oil glands that adheres to dander (minute skin particles) and causes the symptoms.

Even a bald cat has the allergy‑triggering protein, but that didn’t stop the Toronto Humane Society from distributing a press release (later discontinued) from naming certain cats “suitable for mild allergy sufferers”. They also advised patients to “find an allergist who is supportive of your goal ‑ living with a pet despite your allergies”. Maybe smokers should seek respirologists supportive their goal of smoking.

Then there’s the totally erroneous notion that with enough exposure to kitty, the allergic victim will somehow become desensitized. The very opposite is true: when it comes to cat allergies, familiarity breeds worsening symptoms. At the cruelest extreme is the damage done to asthmatic children, up to 50% of whom are allergic to cats, whose parents nevertheless keep the animal.

“There’s no public awareness of the hazards of cat allergen”, Dr. Robert Wood, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.”

And yet the allergen (the substance that causes the symptoms) is everywhere. Wood was part of a Johns Hopkins University study that found cat allergen in schools, office buildings, even hospitals. The levels might be low, noted Dr. Wood, but, they add up. “People are being exposed every day to a great deal of allergen. This is one of the reasons our patients are staying sick and continuing to have high medication requirements.” Avoidance of the poison that triggers allergy is the main strategy for living with this chronic condition, he explains. Yet there is no escape for the person who works or studies in a sealed building near people with cat dander on their clothes, or the apartment dweller exposed to cat allergen through shared heating systems and carpeted hallways.

The true captives, though, are airline passengers. The space is sealed, the air recycled and there’s no escape. On some airlines, cats are welcome ‑ not just in the belly of the plane, but in the cabin, next to passengers.

(complete article on request)

Chateau Lynch-Bages

2009-04-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

CHATEAU LYNCH-BAGES
Savouring the Bordeaux Culture of Wine

by Jacqueline Swartz

In the tasting room of the Bordeaux winery, Chateau Lynch-Bages, I raised my glass, noted the dark brick colour of the wine and inhaled its aroma. There is nothing like sipping ten year old Bordeaux at its source.

But how to access the Bordeaux experience beyond an afternoon’s tasting? How to experience the deeply authentic wine culture, where the seasons lead to the harvest, and where centuries-old expertise is respected? The wine culture of Bordeaux is its own world, and to me it seemed like a magic kingdom with a locked door. The key? A stay at Cordeillan-Bages, a hotel housed in a restored l8th century monastery near some of the most prestigious vineyards in the world. At the hotel, in the Medoc area near Pauillac, the visitor is connected to the Chateau Lynch-Bages winery, surrounded by rolling green hills and mist-covered vineyards.

Wine lovers know Lynch-Bages as a fine Bordeaux, complex and elegant, and with a peculiar history. During the landmark wine rating of l855, which classified Bordeaux wines in various crus (or growths) it was put in the fifth cru. But the rating, devised by wine brokers, depended on the market value of the wine at the time. Today, more than 150 years later, experts believe Chateau Lynch-Bages belongs in the second cru, just behind (first cru) wines like Chateau Latour and Chateau Mouton Rothschild.

You can taste Chateau Lynch-Bages wines, sign up for wine and cooking classes, and visit nearby wineries in a chauffered Mercedes, all part of a program called Bordeaux-Saveurs.

During the harvest, the culmination of the wine cycle, I had the thrilling experience of being in the vineyards alongside the people who were hand- picking and sorting the grapes.

“Our aim is to find ways people can discover a kind of art of living in the context of wine”, remarked Sylvie Cazes-Regimbeau, who owns the winery with her older brother, Jean-Michel Cazes. Seated on the plush red chairs in the lounge, over a chilled glass of Moet & Chandon champagne, Sylvie explained that they began with the hotel, Cordeillan Bages, now a Relais & Chateau property with 24 rooms and four suites. Under the same l8th century roof is a restaurant that earned two-Michelin stars.

The restaurant’s minimalist decor and Asian-influenced food reflects the passions and travels of guiding light Thierry Marx, one of the most lauded chefs in France. The cuisine is classically French, but at the cutting edge of inventiveness and artful presentation.

I tried the tasting menu, and found it to be a peak culinary experience - for the palate, the eye and the imagination. Think of a risotto made not with rice but soy, accompanied by a briny oyster and an earthy truffle. Chef Marx is a master of contrasts, and one of the of the appetizers was a cauliflower foam garnished with caviar, the salty beads playing off the white airy cauliflower. The parade of appetizers continued with a “virtual” sausage of lentils, and then a glossy strip of pressed smoked eel. The portions were small, each exquisite morsel asking to be savoured, and it was up to me to restrain myself when the bread, in its many fresh-baked varieties, came around with three different kinds of butter.

The main course was a filet of Acquitane beef cooked in cellophane with vines from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, served in its package like a present to be unwrapped. Succulent and full of flavour, it came with potatoes crusted with the reduction of the sauce. The pairing with a 2001 Lynch Bages Puillac was enough to want to make me want to burst into tears: this, I thought, is the zenith of Bordeaux eating and drinking. The signature dessert, recommended by Sylvie that afternoon, was lightly cooked paper thin apples with a granite sorbet, served with a Muscat de Rivesaltes wine. Each dish, of course, is accompanied by a different wine – not a problem when your bedroom is a few steps away from the restaurant.

On Sundays, there is an experimental tasting menu; afterwards guests are asked for their feedback and a discussion follows - with this kind of involvement, you feel like you belong. Cooking, wine appreciation classes and history are also offered at a second location, at the Ecole du Bordeaux. Approximately a 55 km drive from the chateau, the l8th century port city of Bordeaux has, in the last decade, experienced a remarkable restoration of its buildings and waterfront. Designated as an UNESCO heritage site, it is well worth a visit.

The Ecole du Bordeaux, which covers many aspects of wine, food, and history, was the idea of Jean-Michel Cazes, Sylvie’s brother, and the senior presence at the winery. Long respected as an informal ambassador for Bordeaux wines, he is delightfully accessible and fluent in English. The school came about after years of being asked to arrange tours to legendary estates like Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Chateau Latour.

Seven years ago, Jean-Michel began another project: to restore Bages, the village at the doorstep of the winery, where his grandparents lived and where he recalls playing with the children of artisans and people working at the winery. Like so many villages in the area, Bages was deserted in the l950's. When Jean-Michel’s architect suggested using it as storage space, he knew he had to do something. “I could not turn the village where my grandparents lived and where I grew up into a warehouse” he told me as we strolled the cobblestone street of the village. After considerable restoration of largely intact buildings, some of them two centuries old, the village of Bages now has a working central fountain and a bakery that supplies bread to the public and the restaurant. A thriving bistro, Café Lavinal, draws local winegrowers and visitors alike, while the boutique Bages Bazaar sells wine and table ware. Future plans include a small hotel, theatre, and art centre. “We want to reverse the trend of depopulated villages”, Monsieur Cazes explained.

His efforts are being recognized. In 2010, France's leading wine publication, La Revue des vins de France, awarded Chateau Lynch-Bages the title of Best Visitor Experience.

During the summer, there are film festivals and art exhibits. On my next visit, I hope to join the Marathon Medoc, my kind of run. Billed as one of the slowest marathons anywhere, it welcomes happy participants as they pass through the village, offering them oysters, beef - and of course wine.

If you go: http://www.bordeauxsaveurs.com/, email contact@bordeauxsaveurs.com

Stalking the White Indian Rhino

2009-02-03T09:57:00.000-08:00

By Jacqueline Swartz

“Tomorrow we’ll see the rhinos up close”, said my guide, Sanjoy. We were in a jeep ambling down the road bordering the Kaziranga Wildlife Preserve in northeastern India. Elephant, wild buffalo and tigers roam this 260 square mile preserve of tall grasses, marshes and the mighty Brahmaputra river, but the prize sight was the rare Indian one-horned rhino, brought back from near extinction in the last 100 years.

Kaziranga, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, is in the province of Assam, which is unfamiliar even to most Indians. It lies in the un-touristy northeast of India, near Bangla Desh and Myanmar. Half the tea in India comes from this area, but it has only been open to tourists since l995 because of separatist violence. But here all is peaceful and lovely. In the summer, orchids, sprout from trunks, I saw mango, tamarind, teak and pepper trees. Bird watchers are drawn to the 500 species of birds, including the rare hornbill. The birds here tend to be big: egrets, herons, storks, fish-eating eagles and pelicans.

If there is any danger it comes from poachers who kill the rhino for its mythically potent aphrodisiacal horn (even in this age of Viagra). Powder made from the horn is worth two to three times the price of gold, and the animal’s skin, fat and even dung are sold. That’s why the other guy in the jeep is carrying a rifle. If anyone is heartless or desperate enough to poach a rare one-horned rhino, they are warned; if they persist, they are shot. End of story.

It was almost the end of the rhino story a century ago. In 1905, Lady Curzon, wife of the then British Viceroy to India, visited the area, expecting to view the great Rhino. What she saw was a few hoof prints. Fast forward a century, into one of conservation’s greatest success stories. Now the rhino population has grown to l600, by far the largest in the world.

The best way to see the one-horned rhino is up close - and high - from the back of an elephant. And a big part of the Kaziranga story is about elephants. Wild ones in the game preserve, and tame ones who carry passengers while the driver, or mahout, sits on the elephant’s neck. At first I was wary - tamed suggested abused, like elephants in the circus. But in the land of the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesh, elephants are regarded with a certain reverence; these elephants, at least, are treated decently and not overworked. Young ones keep close to their mothers, some trotting after them on the rhino-viewing rides.

It starts at five and six in the morning; when everything, including the distant Himalayas, are covered in mist. There are several tourist lodges and guesthouses in the area. I stayed at the Aranya, large and somewhat spartan. I awoke to the soft knock on the door and was served tea. Then I was driven to the outskirts of the preserve. Except for one British bird watcher I was the only non-Indian. .We waited around while the elephants, looking ghostly in the dim light, were saddled. Then we walked up the stairs onto a bare concrete viewing platform and climbed onto the elephant’s back. It felt like a very large horse - with a very primitive saddle.

From my perch high up on the SUV of the animal kingdom, I was high above the tall grasses and I could see the plains beyond. And then the heart-pounding first sight of the prehistoric-looking rhino. There he was, with his skin looking like droopy pieces of armour. We got so close that I could see his rheumy eyes and grumpy expression. Munching on the tall grass (rhinos are vegetarians), he didn’t seem to mind the elephants moving closer. Then we saw another rhino and another, a group of them chewing like cattle. And then out of the mist appeared wild buffalo, with their large horns in the shape of handlebar moustaches. There were deer, too. In this other-world, garden of Eden, all the animals seemed to co-exist peacefully. Even the humans were benign, silently aiming their digital cameras. (rest of the story on request).

INDIA: Shopping for Silk in Mumbai

2008-09-18T07:57:00.001-07:00

Appeared in The Globe and Mail

MUMBAI — If there's anything coherent about Mumbai, where poor shacks stand next to luxury high-rises and property values are higher than in Tokyo, it's the constant buying and selling that pulses through this chaotic metropolis of 15 million souls. The city formerly known as Bombay is the marketplace of India -- its jewelry, textiles, handicrafts, furniture and leather goods come from all over India and around the world.

What better way to experience the place, then, than to shop?

Besides, I had a mission: "Fabric wanted," said the e-mail from my sister in New York. She needed silk for curtains, and her colour sense was both exacting and daring. "I want diaphanous iridescent orange or blue with yellow or orange tinges," she wrote. "Should be high quality. For $50 or so you should be able to get almost 10 yards, which, if you mail it, won't be a hassle." In addition, she wanted a scarf: "a beautiful, long, floaty scarf with gold or silver threads -- main colour should be in orange or green."
Luckily for her, I was in the centre of the Indian silk universe. How hard could it be?

I avoided Mumbai's sprawling suburbs, which include both Bollywood studios and wretched slums, as well as a multitude of malls. The real Bombay, as far as I was concerned, is the oldest part of this island city, the southern part, the business and media, academic, cultural and government centre. This is where the British built their still-towering public buildings. Take the neo-Gothic railway station, still called the Victoria Terminus, but officially renamed Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji (or CST). Here, you have it all: the politically correct name change, the continuing use of the old, and the propensity for acronyms. Completed in 1887, it is adorned with turrets and buttresses, domes and spires, and carvings of gargoyles and monkeys. The post office and the town hall are also fine symbols of 19th-century colonial grandiosity.

I headed to the Colaba Causeway, where vendors line the streets and bargaining is the name of the game. From Indian blouses, known as kurtas, to costume jewelry, belts and sunglasses, this is the place to get good stuff for cheap prices. For a few dollars, I bought a black-beaded evening bag and blouse for a friend. But no silk.

A short walk from the chic Ambassador Hotel, where I was staying, is the Oberoi Centre, a cluster of boutiques adjacent to the Oberoi Hotel. The shiny granite and hushed air-conditioned halls are the antithesis of the noisy Colaba scene.

Who could have guessed that bargaining is also the norm here? I found this out as I was leaving the Farheen Collection store, and was asked by the salesman what I'd really like to pay for the fringed brown and beige silk-and-cashmere shawl I had tried on. I bought it for half the original price, then went to the nearby boutique of noted Indian designer Ritu Kumar. There were jewelled T-shirts, embroidered skirts -- a very local take on fashion.

But nowhere could I find the right silk. "What you want is just not here," I e-mailed my sister. Still, I had to keep searching.

The government-run Central Cottage Industries Emporium was supposed to be a good bet. It's a dimly lit place with rugs and carved wood, jewelry and brass -- and fabrics. There is no bargaining, and it's relatively expensive. But I was getting anxious. I bought my sister a scarf of buttery silk that I suspected was not quite right. It came with a lesson in public-sector bureaucracy. How many people does it take to sell you a scarf? Probably about four. One to help you choose it, one to write it up, one to take your cash, one to stamp the receipt and hand it over to you.

(complete article on request)

PARIS: Museums Feature the Art of Dining

2008-04-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

appeared in The Globe and Mail

by Jacqueline Swartz

When it comes to museums, Paris is experiencing a Great Reawakening, with one museum after another reopening after what seemed like ages of renovation. With the visual art has come the art of dining, whether it’s in a serious restaurant or a smart cafe. You can still get simple fare and sit unhassled over a coffee while you rest your weary feet; terraces lure you outside to meditate over stunning views. But the new eateries, both casual cafes and Michelin-star aspiring restaurants, present a certain awareness of their location in temples of art. Some of the restaurants have lives of their own and are open evenings, when the museum is closed.

It’s doubtful that most the media scenesters who dine and dance at the Café de l’Homme have ever been to the Musee de l’Homme. Its all about Anthropology and education while the Café is about celebrity watching and decor - dark wood Art Deco panelling, gold highlights, and glass beaded chandeliers that cascade down from two storey ceilings. No museum hours here - you can dine on sea bass tartare or chanterelle mushroom risotto and dance until 2am.

Musee du Quai Branly, home to 300,000 artifacts from the civilizations of Africa, Asia and the Americas, is the largest museum to open in Paris since Musee D’Orsay 20 years ago. Branly, as it’s called, is the megastar of both new museums and new eateries in Paris. From the summer day it opened its doors, the complex of buildings was immediately heralded for its design by architect Jean Nouvel, who also designed the restaurant, Les Ombres, down to its last plate. Described by the architect as the carapace of a tortoise, the sixth-floor rounded space is capped by a domed ceiling with ironwork that’s supposed to echo the Eiffel Tower beyond. The rest of the wraparound vista covers much of the inventory of Paris landmarks: the Arc de Triomph, Sacre Coeur, the Pantheon and Invalides.

The dark oak tables suggest a low key almost rustic atmosphere, but the food and service are haute cuisine with a contemporary, multicultural touch. Starters include lobster and leek en gelee, fresh sardines with spinach leaves stuffed with almond pesto; main courses include lemon grass flavoured mullet, calves sweetbreads with leeks and a bean ragout; desserts feature Mille Feuilles with Tahitian Vanilla on an apricot coulis. Parisians don’t even think of booking less than two weeks in advance at this, the hottest new restaurant in town.. Fortunately, there’s also a no-reservations ground floor cafe.

Across the river on the right bank is the redone Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. It was built for the International Exhibition of l937, which may explain the building’s gargantuan size. The museum has major collections of works by Georges Rouault, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy, Marcel Gromaire and several monumental paintings including the Henri Matisse triptychs of La Danse (1931-33), and La Fée Electricité (1937) by Raoul Dufy.

Closed for two years, it reopened with a new café. You buy your food inside a cramped cafeteria, step outside, and voila, an oversized terrace invites you to sit and watch the changing weather around Eiffel Tower.

In the next building, which shares the same address, is the Palais de Tokyo, Paris’ answer to edgy: exposed concrete, contemporary installations , and a restaurant called Tokyo Eat that has attracted the art and fashion crowd since it opened in 2002, along with the reopening of the Palais de Tokyo. Not a sushi bar, Tokyo Eat serves French food with hints of Asian fusion. It’s best known for it’s decor - oversized coloured globes suspended from the ceiling, an open stainless steel kitchen, and tables decorated by some of the contemporary artists who have shown at the museum. “The food is better than the art”, sniffed one French newspaper.

Is there a newly opened museum café or restaurant without a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower? Yes, if it’s in a former railway station. At the Restaurant in the Musee D’Orsay, epi-center of the Impressionists, diners marvel at the ceiling frescoes of blue and pink cherubs.. Reopened after major improvements (the kitchen was redone, the walls re-gilted), the Belle Epoque grandeur now contrasts with new square stone tables and light-colored wooden chairs.

(complete article on request)

LUTETIA: the biography of an hotel (appeared in the Toronto Star)

2008-01-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

In France writer Pierre Assouline is a literary star. He has a weekly column in the daily paper, LeMonde where he also writes the most popular literary blog in France. He has published well received biographies (Cartier-Bresson, Simenon, Gaston Gallimard) and four novels. His best-selling novel, Lutetia, about the legendary left bank hotel, won the Prix Maisons de la Presse, last year.

But when he came to read from Lutetia at the Author's Festival (there was an English translation addition to the French), Assouline was a foreign language novelist whose book was not available in English.

That could change soon. When I met Assouline in Paris at the lobby/bar of theHotel Lutetia, where the entire novel takes place, he had just come from signing a contract - the book will soon be made into a motion picture in France.

It’s not hard to imagine it as a film. Narrated through the voice of a hotel detective, Lutetia begins in the l930's, when wealthy regulars would arrive with their trunks and stay for a month. Then the guest list turned sinister, as the Abwher, the Nazi counter intelligence unit, took over the palace on the left bank, as the hotel is called. In Paris most grand hotels were occupied, but after the war only the Lutetia was given the chance to cleanse itself - it was designated the main receiving station for concentration camp survivors, who received medical treatment, identity papers, food and clothing.

RESEARCH

Assouline had long wanted to write a novel about a grand hotel.

“It has everything - you eat and sleep there, you can shop, there’s a post office, a fitness centre, you can buy newspapers - it’s a whole world”, he said, sitting in a red plush chair, nattily attired in a suit with a silk pocket handkerchief.

“The book is really a biography of the hotel”, he explained.” But with a novel you can express things you can’t in a biography. With a novel you are free to describe the madness of an epoch, of people.”

Assouline was trying to decide which grand hotel he’d write about - the Ritz, the Crillion - when something clicked. “I stopped and thought, this is crazy, the hotel I know best, the one I go to the most because it is the rendez vous of French writers and publishers, artists and actors - it was there but I couldn’t see it. “

The Lutetia, the only grand hotel on the left bank, has long been a hangout for creative types. Hemmingway used to drink at the bar, Matisse and James Joyce slept there. As if on cue, Assouline pointed to a blond woman sitting at the other end of the lobby/bar.. “Do you know who is the actress Catherine Deneuve?”

He chose the war years because he has been obsessed with that troubled time from the age of l8, when his late father showed him books about the German Occupation. Volunteering from Algeria, he fought with the Free French in Italy, and the book is dedicated to him. His son went on to read for decades on the subject. “This is the synthesis of all my research into that time,” he said.

Assouline is archive-obsessed - even when he writes a novel that takes place in the present he researches every detail. “It’s a sport, a hobby,” he grinned, his large expressive eyes softening. For the first part of the book, he looked into vintage l930's Hermes luggage, and was delighted to find a book on the topic. He wanted to know grand hotels work, and was drawn to archives of various hotels because there was no book on the subject.

For the second part, the Nazi Occupation of the hotel, he researched not only the Abwehr, or counterintelligence unit that occupied the hotel; he located the concierge who was there at the time, who in turn gave him a precious gift, a memoire of l5 handwritten pages written by the then sommellier. It included the inventory of all wines in the cellar. Comparing the list before and after the war, Assouline discovered that the Germans drank mostly champagne. “All the wines in my book - the year, the cru - are all true, so when you read this book you drink real wine,” he added, chuckling. While he did create the moral dilemmas of the hotel staff forced to serve the Nazis ( “I have to be a novelist sometimes “), Assouline did not invent the oenophile’s act of resistance - the best wines were hidden behind a false wall.

It’s the third part of the book, the return of the skeletons, as he called them, that is the most anguished and that has drawn the most praise from readers. Assouline interviewed numerous survivors of the camps. They told him about people who insisted on wearing their stripped concentration camp garb, and about how the doctors treated them (some were extremely sensitive, others were visibly repulsed). “There are books on this period but I preferrred to listen to the people,” he said, “ to see the look in their eyes..their words still ring in my ears.” This is the first time in his life as a writer that he cried while writing. “When people write to me saying they were in tears while reading the book, I write back saying there were tears in my eyes while writing it”

The book includes some unexpectedly happy endings, like the staunch mother who arrived in front of the hotel, bragging about her 21 year old son, and insisting he would arrive soon. At that moment, the book recounts that 21 year old Georges Charpak, ex Dachau inmate, stepped off the bus. Almost fifty years later, in l992, Charpak won the Noble Prize in Physics.

The location of both joy and excruciating loss was the bulletin board, which had notes and photos of those who were missing. “It was there” - Assouline points to the corridor just beyond the lobby, where glass cases display jewelry and other luxury items. “There were happy families who were reunited and people who lost everyone - all of humanity was in this room”.

CORSICA, A HIDDEN TRAVEL TREASURE WRAPPED IN MISCONCEPTION (appeared in The Toronto SUN)

2007-12-30T07:46:00.000-08:00

“Corsica, that’s in Sicily, isn’t it?”

Not true, but my well-traveled friend’s mistake is typical. Few North Americans know much about Corsica and most have strong misconceptions about this Mediterranean island that is much closer to Sardinia than to Marseille. Corsica, first of all, is a part of France as much as Nice is. It is not a colony. Here are some other common misconceptions that I too - at least partly - shared until I visited the place.

1. It’s mostly mountains, and the coastline is rocky. It has dramatic vistas but nature here is austere.

Totally false. No Mediterranean island is as gorgeous, lush and varied. On the thousand kilometre coastline are secluded rocky coves and white sandy beaches with the most alluring colors of the Mediterranean - turquoise, cobalt and translucent emerald green.

Some of the best beaches are on the half hour drive from the Southern port of Bonifacio to the island’s ultra chic village of Porto Vecchio, a magnet for French movie stars. But people swim in the clear waters around ports like Ajaccio, the regional capital..

There are farms, orchards, citrus and olive groves, each producing essential parts of the robust local cuisine. There is a town named for chestnut trees, and their fruit is made into everything from flour to feed chestnut creme brulee. The early Greeks and Romans planted vineyards, and today there are Appellations Controllees and winetasting.

Magisterially towering above everything are the mountains - 100 km of them, with 117 peaks over 2,000 meters high. Just as astounding are the houses vertically implanted into the walls of mountains and hilltop villages that were once accessible only by donkey. The mountains come in striking varieties. Along the west coast are the Calenches, burnt orange coloured rocks that seem sculpted by a divine hand. You can see them close up because they impose themselves on each side of the narrow, winding roads. In the centre of the island, near Corte, the former capital, are pine forests, mountain lakes and rivers, along with waterfalls and natural gorges.

At the Hotel Colonna, facing the Restonica Gorge, rooms look out on the rushing river; at the restaurant next door, you eat local trout.

The island’s limestone and granite peaks have shaped the very soul of Corsicans. They lived in theses mountain fortresses for hundreds of years because it was too dangerous to live by the sea.

2. It’s a violent place, of bandits and separatist terrorists.

Bandits, no. Not even the pickpockets who prey on tourists in so many parts of Europe. Crime is very low. Separatism, which started in the l970's, is pretty much dead. What people want is a recognition of their culture and language. So why are bombs aimed at real estate offices that sell land to foreigners? The bomb throwers - no one knows who they are - send messages claiming their motive is to keep Corsica for the Corsicans, but most people say there’s more to it than that.. There is big money and mafia-style power grabs. Most of the time, the bombed property is empty of people, so there is no sense of fear of being hurt.

“There are rackets and protection money, yet we live in a laid back environment,”, says Tamara Antonini, a tour guide and singer of traditional Corsican music. “The old idealistic revolutionaries retired decades ago; now they’re involved in culture, things like teaching traditional songs, or the crafts movement”, she explains. We are sitting outdoors in a cliffside café in the tiny hilltop village of Pigna. Restored 30 years ago, it has become a center for musicians from around the Mediterranean. They come for the music festivals and some use the recording studio. Pigna is a showcase for Corsican culture, including the traditional polyphonic music, said to be linked to Gregorian Chants and Eastern Orthodox cantorial music. In this minuscule mountaintop village, with its stone steps and blue shutters, stores sell crafts and artisanal food products like olive oil and preserves. The place is a cultural reserve, just as half of the island is a protected nature reserve.

3. The people are stubborn and suspicious. Certainly, if you encounter only hotel clerks and waiters anywhere, you’re going to find some who are rude. But talk to the people, and you find wit and a certain sophistication. Many have traveled, especially to “le continent”, as they call mainland France.

“We are basically Mediterranean”, says Tamara Antonini. “We are not Italians but we feel close to them. We are an island with a complicated history”. No kidding. After being attacked by one regional power after another - the Romans, the Carthaginians, the Goths, then pulled into the Byzantine Empire, Corsica was raided by the Moors for hundreds of years. A five hundred year rule by the Genoese started in 1284 and continued until the island was given to the French in 1769, the very year Napoleon was born. In towns like Bonifacio and Bastia, the local bilingual tourist office will most likely point you to the citadel - many were built as protection from invaders. And along the coast, are a series of Genoese watch towers.

During WWII, the Corsicans fought bravely, and their island was the first part of France to be liberated from the Nazis.. The maquis, the tough but fragrant underbrush of broom, lavender and myrtle that covers half the island became the name for the French resistance.

Today, I wonder if perhaps the 750 years of French and Italian influence accounts for some of the innate style and good taste that I see everywhere. There’s the food - fresh fish and vegetables, prosciutto and other smoked ham products, goat and sheep cheese. It’s country cuisine that combines the best of French and Italian cooking. And there’s the way women dress - not so different from St. Tropez or Capri. Advised to bring only sensible clothes, I felt the need to spice up my suitcase with a little shopping. In the major towns of Ajaccio, Bastia and Porto Vecchio, I found wildly stylish Italian clothes and French boutiques, from Sonia Rykiel to Etam.

4. Most people speak Corsican, a form of Italian.
Not any more. The Corsican language was all but wiped out by the French government. In l991 the Frrance did an about face, and now Corsican is taught in the schools. Everyone speaks good French but there’s not a lot of English on the island; not surprisingly, most of the tourists are from France and Italy.

5. Napoleon is the favorite son. Yes and no. He’s the island’s superstar, its eternal claim to fame, and his home, which is now a museum, draws crowds of Bonaparte worshipers to the capital city, Ajaccio. But ask about the founding father of Corsica and you’re likely to hear the name Pasquale Paoli. Unlike Napoleon, who was happy to see Corsica become part of France, Paoli tried to liberate the island and give it a constitution. In l755, he made Corte the capital. Corsica fought successfully against Genoa until 1769, when it was defeated and handed over to the French. Paoli went into exile in London, where he received a pension from George III. In January of 1794, encouraged by Paoli, Britain, led by Lord Nelson attacked and occupied part of the island, but this lasted little more than a year.

There is one thing people say about Corsica that is very much the truth: driving means navigating a dizzying series of hairpin turns. It’s not that the roads are bad - it’s just that they curve and curve. Like elsewhere in Europe, you either pass or get passed. Still, it’s a small price to pay for an unspoiled Mediterranean island mostly undiscovered by North Americans.

FAIRMONT GOES FORWARD TO ITS PAST (appeared in The National Post Nov/2007)

2007-12-29T14:59:00.000-08:00

The most vivid memory I have of my senior prom is not the boy (it was a date of convenience) or the place (a downmarket hall for a blue collar high school). It's the post-prom party at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. This palace high atop Nob Hill was out of the question for teens who were not on the debutante track - much too expensive and intimidating ritzy. But there was one exception: the Tonga Room, every inch of it decorated in South Sea kitsch, from hanging coconuts to a floating band and intermittent rainstorms. Prom-goers still go to the dimly-lit restaurant bar, with its over-the-top decor. The oversized umbrella-covered fruit drinks can still pass for Mai Tais or something alcoholic, useful when the drinking age is 21.

Of course, the room, converted in l947 by MGM set designers, is a relatively new add-on (and oddity) to this grand hotel. The world's first Fairmont was built 40 years before, with money from James Fair's silver fortune. It, along with other Fairmont Hotels around the world, is winding up year-long 1907-2007 centennial celebrations to mark the occasion this year.

With unbeatably bad timing, the hotel was only two weeks away from opening when the l906 earthquake struck. Its sturdy Italian Renaissance- style exterior withstood the shock, but the fires (in many places worse than the earthquake) severely damaged the interiors. The controversial choice to oversee the renovations was Julia Morgan, the first woman architect in California, who later went on to design the Heart Castle.

Exactly one year after the earthquake, on April l8, l907, the Fairmont opened its doors, the first hotel in San Francisco to reopen after the earthquake. To celebrate the occasion fireworks illuminated City Hall, hundreds of ships clustered in the Bay and the hotel had an enormous banquet. San Francisco as well as the Fairmont had come back.

The fortunes and traditions of the city and the hotel have remained connected. The hotel, perched on one of the highest hills in the city, could not have been built without San Francisco's first cable car, which hauled building materials up the hill too steep for horses to climb.

Throughout the years the Fairmont was the location for debutante balls, Yehudi Menuhin's first violin concert, and the drafting of the United Nations Charter (hence the multiple flags flying outside the entrance). The first concierge in America, Tom Wolfe, has worked for the Fairmont for decades. The Venetian Room, once considered the best supper club on the West Coast, was where Tony Bennett left his heart;. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole often played the room. Flamboyant owner Benjamin Swig not only hired black entertainers, a daring move the late l940's; he was one of the first to let them stay in a major hotel

The co-existence of high society and social conscience is typical of ths city of second acts, which cherishes its traditions and takes on adversity with stylish resilience. When the Loma Prieta Earthquake shook the city in l989, it traumatized citizens and scared away tourists. San Franciscans seized the moment, voting to demolish the damaged double-decker Embarcadero Freeway. The result was a new life for the neglected l898 Ferry Building, now a major foodie destination for locals as well as tourists.

San Francisco might be known for its iconoclasm and its next new thing, but this is a city that can be formal as well as freewheeling, often at the same time. It's a place where women wear a long gowns to opera galas, and where even in the l960's white gloves were de rigeur for downtown shopping in the city's elegant department stores. When the beloved I Magnins store was acquired by Macy's l996, its spacious marble powder room (considered the best in town) was preserved intact, right next to Macy's shiny new one.

The Fairmont, despite all the requisite high tech upgrades, is also preserving its past, even returning to it. During an $US 85 million restoration, decades of decor were peeled back to reveal murals and marble floors. In the mid-l940'ss, it had been redone with red carpets and black lacquer. The rakish decor made a splash in the post-war era, but by the l990's some were describing it as Gold Rush bordello. Thanks to an historically meticulous restoration, the lobby, with its marble floors, Corinthian columns, gold trim and velvet sofas, looks much the same as it did in l907. The adjacent Laurel Court, covered for decades, is once again serving high tea. Of course, the bread is sourdough and there is Sonoma goat cheese in the sandwiches.

The restoration team was helped by blueprints and century-old photos; some hang in the main corridor, next to photos of movie stars, European royalty and US Presidents (every president since William Howard Taft has stayed at the hotel).

Looking at the city from my room at the Fairmont, I see a panoramic view that scans the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit tower, the twin steeples of St. Peter and St Paul Church in North Beach, and mostly low rise buildings. Incredibly, this side of the city looks strikingly similar to the photos of SF in the early part of the century.

The Fairmont was bought and sold many times, and the last decade brought a Canadian connection. In l999, Canadian Pacific Limited acquired the hotel and it joined with such landmarks as the Chateau Laurier and Empress. The company sold the Fairmont a few years later. Now the company that manages the Fairmont and the one that owns it are both based in Toronto The name Fairmont now is plural, and includes 51 hotels in ten countries.

Yet for anyone who grew up in San Francisco, there is really only one Fairmont. Its bumper sticker might read, My Fairmont includes the Tonga Room. A few years ago, word got out that the Polynesian decor might be scrapped. San Franciscans spoke up, as they always do, and tradition won out. The Tonga Room stays the same. It's worth a toast, with a real Singapore Sling.

ANGUILLA - FANTASY ISLAND (appeared in NUVO Magazine)

2007-12-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

I stepped out of my hotel room onto a near-empty beach with eggshell-coloured sand. About twenty steps later, I was in the pristine, turquoise waters of Meads Bay, on the island of Anguilla. No rocks,no slimy seaweed, no dead things on the beach or inorganic matter like plastic bottles. Just soft white sand and embracing blue water, so translucent you can see the sand below.

Is this a Caribbean cliche, I wondered? Who cares, I thought, wading waist-high into the warm, glittering water: this is the beach of dreams.

The island, only 16 miles long and four miles at its widest, is reputed to have the best beaches in the Caribbean.

There are 33 of them, each one different. Some dock the boats of this sailing-crazed place; others lead scuba divers out to an l8th century sunken Spanish Galleon. There are beaches you can access only by boat.

But Mead’s Bay is beach at its purest and gentlest. Anguilla? Most people have not heard of this spit of land on the northern edge of the lesser Antilles, where the Caribbean Sea merges with the Atlantic Ocean.

They’re more likely to be familiar with its neighbours - the island of St.Maarten is only 25 minutes by ferry; an hour away by boat is the chic French island of St. Barts. These are where day trippers go shopping, because although Anguilla is decidedly upscale, shopping is not a big deal.

There are some tiny freestanding boutiques that sell bathing suits and sarongs; and in recent years, some wine stores have opened. There are galleries showing the work of local artists (www.anguillaart.com). But you don’t come here for malls or duty free emporia.

You do come for the rich and diverse marine life, which is conscientiously protected. One of the most impressive unbroken coral reef chains in the north-eastern Caribbean yields hard and soft corals, with bouquets reaching 20 feet.

As you would expect, there are lots of aquatic activities. Scuba divers can take resort courses, the more experienced can explore Anguilla’s seven intentionally sunken ships, each one completely covered in coral.

Snorklers can marvel at parrotfish and turtles in Shoal Bay East. You can see the fish from a glass-bottomed boat, go sailing or kayaking.

Bird watchers can train their binoculars at the snowy egrets, blue herons, red-legged stilts and pelicans and other sea birds.

Some people come to sit under a palm tree and read. For this is a place to let go of all anxiety, including worries about danger.

On this small but uncrowded island there is a sense of more than enough space and privacy. Yet you’re not fenced in, and the local population of fewer than 12,000 resourceful, amiable people, neither servile nor surly, are not fenced out.

They seem to know each others’ business, but they’ll give you a blank look if you ask where the celebrities are staying. Sara Jessica Parker, Robert DeNiro, Mariah Carey and Kevin Bacon come here regularly and rent villas at tens of thousands of dollars per week.

Others are drawn the island’s glamorous resorts, where sorbet is brought to you on the beach. Yet Anguilla’s upscale image obscures the fact that there are reasonably priced hotels and guest-houses. The state of the art spas are open to everyone, and the beaches are public.

The island is flat and arid, with an interior of hardy green scrub that is nothing to look at. Beauty, aside from the beaches, comes from the tropical blooms planted by human hands: Oleander, hibiscus, frangipani, mahogany trees, papaya and mango.

Then there ‘s the food, an artful French and West-Indian inspired fish-based cuisine. There are over 100 restaurants on this small island, from simple beach side bistros to grand dining rooms run by celebrated chefs, drop-outs from some of the world’s gastronomic capitals.

But what makes this island distinctive is also what it doesn’t have: a coastline crammed with hotels and people, all inclusive resorts, cruise ships and casinos, jet skis and topless sunbathing.

They were nixed by the government when Anguilla began its ET, era of tourism.

Before that, life was a hardscrabble attempt to make ends meet on this tiny limestone piece of land with its thin, barely fertile soil. There was fishing, boat building and a salt mill. Amazingly, as late as the l970's, there was no electricity or phones.

Thousands of people left, some to work temporarily on nearby islands, others for good. But there was one thing even the poorest Anguillan was likely to have: land.

At the Heritage Museum, a house with a half dozen rooms, Colville Petty OBE, the museum’s founder, will explain why. Petty, the island historian, will direct you to the exhibit on the slave era, which started in the l650's, when the British arrived to set up sugar plantations. They found the soil was far from ideal, and so slavery gradually faded away; by the time the British left in the l830's, most former slaves owned land.

The last room completes the chapter, with displays of newspapers and other mementoes devoted to what is reverentially called The Revolution. In l967, the proud Anguillans, fed up with the forced union with the British territories of St. Kitts and Nevis, an arrangement that yielded almost no funds, mounted a revolt.

Britain sent a warship to quell what they thought would be trouble - and were met with people waving the Union Jack. The island returned to the bosom of England, and is now a British Overseas Territory.

Fast forward to today. Super stylish, award-winning resorts, luxury villas designed by architects like Myron Goldfinger; skilled and inventive cuisine everywhere. Tasty’s, a casual cafe painted purple and green, looks like the kind of Caribbean eatery where everything is fried. What a surprise to taste chef Dale Carty’s curried snapper, lobster salad and, one morning for breakfast, eggs benedict with fresh mushrooms and the lightest hollandaise sauce on earth. This casual place seems to downplay Carty’s stratospheric credentials: working as a chef in Paris and Antibes in the Michelin-starred restaurants of his mentor, Michel Rostang, who fell in love with the island and took over the kitchen of its first upscale hotel, Malliouhana.

Building that hotel was the start of what hotelier and former tourist board director Alan Gumbs calls Fantasy Island. He was referring to the visionaries who poured millions into building some of the islands extraordinary luxury hotels.

"Building here had nothing to do with the reality of business”, Gumbs said dryly, looking out at the sea beneath his open air restaurant.

“In terms of a sound investment, it was a joke. People built here because they fell in love with the place.” Good thing the major players had already made their fortunes before they started following their bliss

(complete article on request)