On Saturday we met online for the first Culture Meetup. I talked about The Count of Monte Cristo, Maria talked about Flaubert's "The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller," and Sylvie talked about Maupassant's "Old Boniface's Crime." Next month we'll discuss French art. (I'll talk about Gauguin.) I'll also be doing a monthly watch party for French movies!
Last week some of the people in my memoir group met for lunch at Moulins Lafayette. And none too soon, because the place was about to close! (I liked the quiche Lorraine and Chantilly eclair.) Maria and Sergey have now joined the group too.
I've finished the book about Prussia, and my next history book will be about Nehru. (They say the Toronto library website is finally back on line!)
Today I spent some time with Maria. I'm reading the "States of Mind" issue of Lapham's Quarterly and she mentioned St. Augustine of Hippo, and that issue had a piece written by him!
I'm now reading La Fontaine's fables, which we'll be reading aloud in my other new Meetup in a few weeks. I tried reading some of them in the original language, which is often old-fashioned French like you see old-fashioned English in a lot of our poetry. (At one point there was an imperfect subjunctive!)
I've also started a couple of new online games: Sunrise Village and Rise of Cultures. (The miller in Sunrise Village is called Jenny Mills, a clever pun on General Mills!)
