Words Cannot Describe My Love For Edith Piaf.

So I'm still trying to figure out how my camera works. The holiday video is taking longer than expected. In between work, knitting and trying to get to grips with my video camera, I'm listening to a lot of Edith Piaf. I know, I know, I've posted about her before but my love for her music has developed since then, so I'm writing about her again, with some more of her songs that I have discovered.

As you probably know, it was my birthday last Saturday (the 27th), and my parents bought me a 3 disc album called "The Best of Edith Piaf". Naturally, it has been playing at full volume pretty much non-stop since then. I think my Dad's beginning to regret the present- he told me that all her music sounds the same (I replied by saying that that was just because he's rubbish at French). I have been listening to this album to such an extent, that I now actually know some lyrics, and find myself singing them in the shower. I also understand most of them. I even think that singing along to her songs might help me with my pronunciation (I'm not terrible at French, but I think my accent has room for improvement).
Anyway, here are a few tracks that I have discovered over the past few days of non-stop listening:

That's just a few, I'm sure I'll have more in the next week or so! If you haven't heard Edith Piaf's songs before (well apart from Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien and La Vie En Rose) then listen to her, she has a fantastic voice.

Bye for now
Caitlin

Back!!

I'm back home from a wonderful week in the Dordogne! I had such a great time, although unfortunately, mum and dad wanted to rest so we didn't do much (I abandoned the daily videos about half way through the week). However, the holiday has still given me loads of ideas for here, and I have lots of photos to put up! I'm also going to put all the video I've taken into one longer holiday video and upload it.

Anyway, the place we stayed was lovely, and we were very lucky to be sharing a pool with teenagers of a similar age to me and my brother, which is always nice. We had two very enjoyable meals out and a very... err... interesting kayaking experience. I'll post about these in more detail next week (it was my birthday yesterday and my family are coming round today).

I also finished "L'étranger" which is great, now I'm focusing on "Jean de Florette", and still reading bits of Arthur Rimbaud's poetry. However, next week I'm going to be working loads- trying to finish off bits of holiday work before I go back to school.

A few of the best photos from the holiday (more to come!):

Me in Bergerac

My brother, George, jumping into the pool where we were staying at Montcaret.

Me in the pool on a lilo :)

Me on the banks of the Dordogne- stopping for lunch during a bike ride.

Kayaking down the Dordogne with my dad.

An "epic" photo, according to my brother.

Me at Harvey's (a restaurant in Montcaret)- the day before we came home.

Bye for now!
Caitlin

Film Review #5- Beautiful Lies

This review will be a quick one- it's 9:45pm and I'm going on holiday tomorrow morning (having said that, I want to do it now rather than in a week's time when I will have forgotten everything).

'Beautiful Lies' is a rom-com about a young woman, Emilie (played by Audrey Tautou) who recieves an anonymous love letter from the electrician who works at her hair and beauty salon, Jean. She decides to copy this letter and send it to her mother, who is still trying to recover from separating with her husband four years ago, to "bring her back to life". However, as is to be expected in any romantic comedy, all does not go as Emilie planned.

Ever since I watched 'Amelie' for the first time, I have been a fan of Audrey Tautou, so I was really looking forward to seeing this film. I have to say, it did live up to my expectations. It was incredibly funny, and the plot was good as well- it wasn't too obvious what was going to happen (well, you always know the ending in these sort of films, but what was going to happen in the middle wasn't obvious from the start).

The characters were very well played-  I especially liked Jean, who at first is very quiet and polite, but becomes annoying and rude throughout the film. Another character I liked was Paulette, who worked with Emilie. Even though she was quite a minor character, I thought that her awkwardness and her facial expressions were hilarious.

I wish I could write more, but I don't have any more time- I might add to this review when I get back from holiday (if I can remember anything!).

Anyway, overall, it was a good, lighthearted comedy, which I would recommend to anyone who loves to laugh and doesn't like to look too far into the 'meaning' of a film. Basically, it's good fun, and if you expect any more than that, you'll be disappointed.

I'll give this film another
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Caitlin

P.S. Going to the Dordogne tomorrow! I'll be making a daily vlog, but I won't be able to post them until I get back so I'll be gone for a week.
Also, I have more exciting news- I'm going to a course of French cinema with my mum in September, which is at the Phoenix in Leicester. I'm so excited!

Illuminations

So my Arthur Rimbaud book finally arrived yesterday. I don't think I'll do a review for this one- instead I'll dip in and out of it and maybe write when I find something interesting.

My version is parallel text which is great because I can read the English, then read the French, learn some new words and understand it fully while still reading it the way Rimbaud intended it to be read. I've always thought that poetry should be read in the language it was written- it's not always just the meaning of the words but the words themselves that contribute to the meaning of the poem (I always remember these few words from the Thomas Hardy poem "Neutral Tones"- "wrings with wrong"- they sound like a funeral bell. I can't imagine that that would have the same effect when translated into another language).

I've read "After the Flood" ("Après le Déluge") and it's magical... although I think I'll have to read it a few more times before I understand it properly.

Anyone else read any of Rimbaud's poetry? As always, I'd love to hear your opinions.

I'll post again soon!
Caitlin

A New Background

The old background was annoying me. So, I had a look through my photos of my school's trip to Paris this February. I now (as you can see) have a background of a rather miserable (weather-wise) looking Paris. It seems I haven't got any other photos of France on my laptop, OR on Facebook, but hopefully when I get back from the Dordogne on the 27th (my birthday teehee) I'll have some more colourful pictures to improve the background.

In other news...
I've started 'Jean de Florette' (as you might have seen) and I'm hoping to finish by the end of the week (hoping being the key word there, no promises!). I also really want to finish 'L'étranger' this week. So, two more book reviews coming up!

I also forgot to put something vital in my last review... I'll probably add it in this week but my mum's now reading 'La Peste' so she has it.

Ta ta for now
Caitlin

Housse de Racket

I heard these guys on Radio 1 the other day. They're really good, and plus, they're French, so I decided to put some songs on here. Tell me what you think :)

^this one is the one I heard on the radio :)

Their album "Alesia" is out on the 22nd August. Let me know if anyone gets it! Oh and also here is their website and here is their Facebook page ^_^

Caitlin

Book Review #1- 'La Peste' by Albert Camus

Yes, I finally finished yesterday. I would've posted this straight away but it's one of those books that you have to think carefully about before you understand it properly. Even after sleeping on it, I still doubt I understand it fully. I suppose that's the best thing about books- you can interpret it in your own way.

For this review, I'm going to quote bits from the French, then tell you what it means in English using the English version my mum downloaded on her Kindle.



This was the version of the book I read.

I truly don't know where to start. I suppose firstly I'll say that this was an amazing book. I admit that at the start I was thinking "Where is this going?" and "How much can he write about a plague?", but by the time I had read the first part, I was loving it. 
'La Peste' or 'The Plague' is set in the 1940's in Oran, an Algerian town. The main character, Bernard Rieux, is a doctor who at the beginning of the book steps on a dead rat outside his surgery. In the next few days, more and more dead rats appear around Oran, and eventually, this leads to a plague that lasts for almost a year.

What I found interesting is that reading this book is very unlike learning about the Black Death in history. I suppose this is obvious, but it's about how the people of Oran live life during the plague. When you learn about the Black Death or other plagues, you learn how many people died, what living conditions were like and how it spread, but you very rarely look at it like a story.

The plague has often been interpreted as a metaphor for Nazism, and this was the thing that took me a while (and the help of my mum with whom I spent about half an hour last night discussing the novel) to figure out. I think that this is particularly clear at the end of the novel:

"le bacille de la peste ne meurt ni ne disparaît jamais... il peut rester pendant des dizaines d'années endormi dans les meubles et le linge... et... peut-être, le jour viendrait où, pour le malheur et l'enseignement des hommes, la peste réveillerait ses rats et les enverrait mourir dans une cité heureuse"

(meaning "the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good... it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen-chests... and... perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city"). I suppose that here, plague refers to fascist ideas- they never completely disappear but hide until someone like Hitler discovers them and then "the plague" strikes again.

Of course, this is related to the metaphorical plague that Tarrou speaks of. He is opposed to the death penalty, and describes  (meaning "dirty mouths stinking of plague told a fettered man that he was going to die"). However, he can't oppose this "plague" without killing people himself, and therefore, he too has "plague". He explains to Rieux that

"des sales bouches empestées annonçaient à un homme dans les chaînes qu'il allait mourir"

"nous étions tous dans la peste"

 ("we all have plague"), and that

"nous ne pouvions pas faire un geste en ce monde sans risquer de faire mourir"

  ("we can't stir a finger in this world without the risk of bringing death to somebody"). I think this, too, refers to Nazism- perhaps the "dirty mouths" are Nazis, telling a Jew, for example (they hated Jews and many died when Hitler was in power) that he was going to die. Of course, the Allies (including the French) opposed the Nazis and fought against them. However, in order to defeat them, many Germans were killed, and so the Allies were guilty of murder as well, therefore they too had "the plague".

By the way, I might be completely wrong about this so if anyone has any other ideas please comment :)
Anyway, moving on...



A picture of Albert Camus

One of the main things I loved about this novel was the characters. They were so interesting and so well described that I felt as if I knew them myself.  I also enjoyed the mystery of the identity of the narrator, which, I have to admit, was a slight disappointment when revealed at the end of the novel, but that's only a minor criticism. A particularly interesting character, in my opinion, was Cottard, mainly because he didn't want the plague to end. This was because he had committed a crime (we never find out what it is that he has done) and feels no danger of being sent to prison during the plague because everyone is concerned with the plague itself, and not with criminals. In my opinion (going back to the metaphor for Nazism), Cottard is almost like a Nazi- he is protected by the "plague" from being punished from something which, in ordinary times, he would have been arrested for. I don't know if this argument is plausible, especially seeing as Camus does not  portray him as evil, but more as a sinister character.

Something else that I found interesting was the use of dates. At the very beginning, the dates are always stated (Rieux steps on the rat on the 16th April, etc.). However, when the plague really starts, the reader is not told the exact dates, instead, the narrator describes seasons and months. I just thought that was really interesting- it shows the time scale of the plague, and also sort of shows that no one really 'lives' any more- they drift through life not really living in the moment.

I'm not going to write any more. There's so much more I could write, but I think I've babbled on quite enough already (it's starting to become more of an essay than a review). Anyway, if you've read it and have any opinions, please share them!

Overall, I'd definitely give this novel
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

As always, please comment and share your opinions. If you haven't read 'La Peste', I would definitely recommend it!

Caitlin

P.S. I have sorted out the formatting problems :)