Marché des Capucins, Bordeaux, France

Le Marché des Capucins is one of the oldest markets in France and it rightfully carries the title “The Belly of Bordeaux”. It’s probably the most important gastronomic center in Bordeaux which makes it a must-visit for anyone traveling to Bordeaux. we went for cheese and charcuterie, and left with that plus local pate, an assortment of olives, and some fresh strawberries that were magnificent. We were not planning to cook on this trip--we hope to do so when we are in France for longer visits, but not this one--but if we were planning to do so, this would have been an excellent spot for seafood and vegetables.

When it comes to local food, oysters are one of the highlights of our region. Bordeaux is just one hour away from Arcachon, one of France’s main oyster farming centers. It’s thus not surprising to find good oysters at the main market of Bordeaux. The place we sampled these was a restaurant in the market, Chez Jean-Mi--we made a coupleof mistakes, basically not knowing where exactly the line for a table was, but were seated within about 10 minutes of our trying to sit down--it is a great place to have fresh seafood ans a great place to people watch. We were there on a Sunday, a day of rest for many a local restaurant, so we were pleased to get a nice meal in the late morning.

Splinters by Leslie Jameson

I have to say that this on a number of levels reads more like fiction than a memoir. There is so much in the way over overblown about it that it doesn't quite fit for me. The voice is perceptive and the writing is excellent, but it is so up close that if I had written it I would hope that my editor would have taken me aside and ask if I was sure that I wanted something this rough and raw to be put out into the public eye. The author recounts the birth of her daughter, the dissolution of her marriage, and the early days of single parenthood; the result is a captivating story about the all encompassing, sometimes tedious capacity of small children to ensnare time--and in this case the child sucks all the air out of the room. Mom is unable to give much of anything of her self beyond what she gives to her child, and there is not much else left for anyone else. If I wasn't yet a parent this would frighten the hell out of me, the loss of your senses in the bottomless need that consumes the author once she becomes a parent. It is well written, to be sure, but I wanted another degree of separation, some perspective that maybe it wasn't quite so, and I wasn't getting it from this.

Influences, Bordeaux, France

My spouse and I arrived in Paris in hte morning, made our way to our train station in the afternoon, and arrived in Bordeaux in the early evening, which of course felt like the middle of the night interspersed with fitful sleep. As as result of our bleary thinking, and not being content with the pre-dinner hour fare at various bistros, we managed to not make a decision until it was practically time for dinner. It was a happy error, because we went to this wonderful restaurant that was just around the corner from our apartment hotel. The best news is that it is open on both Sunday and Monday nights, both of which are lean for restaurant choices. This was an exceptionally organized and prepared meal.

Michelin notes: In a quiet street just a stone's throw from Place Gambetta, this inviting façade has a pleasant surprise in store. A French-American couple – chef Ronnie (who has worked in some decent establishments in California) and pastry chef Aliénor – work in tandem to serve up delicious aromatic dishes that are meticulously plated in a friendly atmosphere. Fresh and subtle fare! The dish at the top is not much to look at but Wow, possibly the best asparagus I have ever had. The foam is smoked herring and the red dots are reduced strawberries. Another memorable dish is just abobe--the langostine, grilled on one side and served in a sauce of crab and langostine cream reduction. It was not unique but the execution was perfect.

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

The author is part Arapaho and part Cherokee and these are the people who populate his novels. This book is almost a companion to There There, his first bool. It centers around Orvil Red Feather, who was hit by a bullet while dancing at the event. It also tells the story of Orvil’s younger brothers Loother and Lony; their great-aunt Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, in whose care they have been since losing their drug-addicted mother to suicide; and Jacquie Red Feather, Opal’s half-sister and the boys’ estranged “real grandma”, a recovering alcoholic. The novel’s first sections belong not to these people but to their ancestors, beginning with Jude Star, a survivor of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre and then ease into the present day. It is hard to describe why this style is so effective, but it is. His first book was good, and this is even better. The central question is what happens to people when the things they inherit from their forebears are overwhelmingly the bad stuff – wounds and torments, ill luck, curses and injurious predilections? What kind of life is possible after genocide and colonization? Good questions that are well answered.

Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

We chose this not because it is a famed wine producing region--in truth, we don't know much about this wine, and we have not had great success in drinking it--combined with it's price point, we were going to need education in this area. No, it is because we have been exploring France, region by region, for thirty years, and this was one we had never been to before. It is a port city on the Garonne River in southwestern France. Bordeaux is an ancient city. Around 300 BC, the region was the settlement of a Celtic tribe, the Bituriges Vivisci, named the town Burdigala, probably of Aquitanian origin. The 18th century, however, was the golden age of Bordeaux. The Port of the Moon supplied the majority of Europe with coffee, cocoa, sugar, cotton and indigo, becoming France's busiest port and the second busiest port in the world after London. Many downtown buildings (about 5,000), including those on the quays, are from this era. In the “never forget” side the of the equation, Bordeaux was also a major trading center for slaves. In total, the Bordeaux shipowners deported 150,000 Africans. It is quite beautiful, despite that, and full of excellent food and wine.

A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power

This book has had mixed reviews, but I found it because it was one of the New York Times Notable Books for 2023, and I really enjoyed it and would recommend it. It has an unusual organizing principle: dolls. The book describes three generations of Dakhóta and Lakhóta women—girls, really—from most recent to least, and back again. Each girl had a beloved doll. In the 1960s, Sissy had Ethel, a Black Tiny Thumbelina doll. In the ‘30s, Lily had Mae, a used Shirley Temple doll. And at the beginning of the century, Cora had Winona, a traditional Dakota doll made from deer hide. Each doll seems to be inhabited by a spirit; each girl seems to hear her speak. Cora, and Lily after her, suffer at the Indian boarding schools they’re forced to attend, and while their dolls try to protect them, their powers are limited. Sissy, meanwhile, bears the brunt of her mother’s inherited trauma. This is a reflection on how American Indians have been treated over the years, the significant traumas that continued well into my lifetime--I have a coworker who's mother was sent to one of the boarding schools, designed to smother both a culture and a people, genocide by capturing the children, never realizing that your genetics are fixed, it cannot be changed, and so while intentionally malicious it was also poorly thought through. The reader sits in that with this book and mourns with the women herein.

Priscilla (2023)

Let me start off by saying that this is not an enjoyable viewing expereince. I didn't know it when I watched it, but it is a Sophia Coppola film, and as one review said, her pictures are all, in one way or another, about captivity and isolation. For the characters held captive the cage is often a gilded one, and the cage in search of a bird. I could not say it better myself. The movie is written by the director and based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, and honors the author by giving us her perspective. Elvis famously met Priscilla Beaulieu in 1959 when he was in the U.S. Army, stationed in Germany; Priscilla was the daughter of another officer stationed there and was, well, 14 at the time the two were introduced. It was still creepy from my perspective, not so much in the pedophile sense, but rather that the shy superstar was looking for a touchstone, more of a person to possess rather than a partner, and by wooing someone so young, he managed to get mostly what he wanted for far too long. She was captured by him and it took her a long time to figure out how to escape. All of this is interesting, but not to watch, so look for this one if you are interested in what Priscilla has to say, but not for any other reason.

Fire Weather by John Vaillant

In my head, the soundtrack for this book is similar to the 2022 All Quiet On The Western Front--where every time something that is worse than the terrible situation that defines WWI happens, a sousaphone gives the viewer a heads up with soul trembling sound. The author starts off with the harrowing account of the 2016 inferno that engulfed the Canadian oil town of Fort McMurray, and the lives of the people who confronted it and then uses that example as an urgent warning about what the future holds. Fire number nine, which began in those same boreal forests, was among other things an awesome demonstration of the power of all that fire can be. A day after the blaze was first identified, it had increased in size 500-fold. Despite the efforts of firefighters, armed with bulldozers and aerial water bombers, it doubled in the next few hours and then it doubled again. On 2 May the fire did the unthinkable and crossed the Athabasca River, a third of a mile wide, which divides the southern part of Fort McMurray from the tree line. By 3 May, 88,000 people had been evacuated from its path; by the end of the following day, about 2,000 of the city’s buildings had been destroyed. By then the fire had become a firestorm – creating its own weather in the form of gale force winds and lightning, which seeded more fires as it spread. The author then goes on to describe why given everything, this is likely to not be the exception but rather the norm--and the Canadian fires of last summer show that to be true.

Hibakujumoku or Atomic-Bombed Trees

I saw this exhibit at the Harry Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri--a mini-road trip from Kansas City, and one well worth taking. The library was established to preserve the papers, books, and other historical materials relating to former President Harry S. Truman and to make them available to the people in a place suitable for exhibit and research, and it has undergone a refurbishment recently--you walk through American history in Truman's life time, and it is very well done. His house is seperate from the library, run by the Ntional Park service, and free, but you need reservations so attend to that before you go to the library.

For over a decade Katy McCormick has examined Japan's A-bombed landscapes in Nagasaki and Hiroshima--given that it was ultimately Truman's decision to drop these bombs on a civilian population, it is fitting that it be seen in his library. Her work portrays the survivor trees or hibakujumoku subjected to the first use of atomic bombs in 1945, signifying the vulnerability of life in the face of nuclear threats. Standing in school yards, temple grounds, and city squares, the A-bombed trees are living memorials, rooted among the ashes just below the surfaces of now-thriving cities. This is just a taste--this is a beautiful exhibit.

A History of the World in 12 Shipwrecks by David Gibbins

I had never thought a lot about shipwrecks until my youngest son became a Classics major, and I was plunged into that world by virtue of being his scribe and his reader. He is an auditory learner who is more than a little deaf and because of a previous medical condition, doesn't write very well either--I went to a total of three in person lectures and many more online lectures, and learned an awful lot about what can be learned from a shipwreck. In short, this book is a bit gimmicky in it's title, and while it is not just the story of those ships, the people who sailed on them, and the cargo and treasure they carried, but also the story of the spread of people, religion, and ideas around the world; it contains stories of colonialism, migration, power, obstacles to overcome, and the real options that seafaring gave humans before we had flight. The author is an underwater archeologist who has been at the dive sites for these wrecks (and more, I would presume) so he does bring a first hand account of the wrecks themselves, as well as the history surrounding them, but it does not encompass the totality of world history. The book is reasonably well written, but did not knock it out of the park for me.