La Vie en Rouge!

We recently spent a week on the Île de Ré with family and friends, a relaxing escape, just gentle excursions and fine wine-tinged meals in good company. It’s a lovely little corner of the world with little ports and harbour villages, bustling markets and expansive cycle tracks criss-crossing the island. A blessed discovery was that galettes were both (as we suspected) gluten and lactose free. On my crazy restrictive diet this was a wonderous thing and allowed for several evenings out – one on the island and one on the way home in Caen. On the journey down we had stopped for the night at Le Mont Saint Michel where I had enjoyed my second ever omelette de la Mère Poulard which was also a fine treat – followed by wine on the hotel terrace as the red sun set behind the mystical silhouette of the après tourist Isle.

That stop off in Caen was also a real, if all too brief, treat - and a nice fix of urban bar hopping in the city of a hundred spires. We took the tram into the old town and had a little wander through the squares and statues – dining at a fine artisan creperie. After the meal we wandered some more and nestled up outside a buzzing little bar amongst what seemed a go-to spot for the student population along with local party-people and delighted visitors. A couple of establishments down, a couple of DJs were pumping techno-disco out on to the street as we breathed in the ambience and partook of some fine regional red. We noticed a number of transgender folk wandering out through the night and it was lovely to find that the city had a safe and accepting culture and nightlife.

Bar hopping in Caen

This last weekend we popped into London to catch a couple of exhibitions. First up was the Huma Bhabha, Encounters: Giacometti at The Barbican Centre. We have been to see Giacometti works before (in Paris) and the Barbican setting suited them well with the jumbled cityscape as backdrop through the expansive windows of the gallery. I liked some of the reactive works though Justine was probably keener than I. Next up was Leigh Bowery! At Tate Modern. I found the experience warmly nostalgic of that 80’s period of wild and wonderful clubbing and the many lovely characters I knew or met around that time.

It was a period when the LGBTQ community were very much under attack, not only from this devastating new disease, but from the government and from a growing atmosphere of intolerance and narrow mindedness. In such times, it takes courage and strength to court outrage in such incomparable style. I remember standing in queues for all night cinemas and raunchy nightclubs with gay and transgender friends, done up to the nines – literally taking their lives in their hands, to simply be who they were.

To witness that community once again the target of bigotry and hate is both saddening and alarming. To use people’s lives as a political football is the foulest of crimes – illogical and cruel scapegoating and discrimination that has very real and dangerous real-world consequences.

From the Leigh Bowery! exhibition at Tate Modern

After the exhibition we wandered down the South Bank and found a sweet pop-up bar (amongst the pop-up market) where we sat and had a drink watching the river and the passers-by, just soaking up the summer evening vibe. Back at home we capped the night off with takeout pizza and the victorious Lionesses performance.

Back in those heady 80’s days it wouldn’t have been uncommon for young lads and older blokes alike to declare that ‘girls can’t play football’ – that world, at least, has well and truly turned. One Hannah Hampton, there’s only one Hannah Hampton…!

Stay Kind, Stay Creative!

Grae J.

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