every smith
  • MS: Max Smith's blog
  • History to the Defeated
  • every smith: independent creative consultants
  • Words: Max - a brief bio
  • Sites to see

Lettres d’Uzès #33: A dance to the music of 'In Our Time'

20/6/2013

12 Comments

 
Market days in Uzès are not merely an opportunity to stock up with fresh, local produce: fruit, vegetables, foie gras, goose rillettes and the like. They are also, perhaps even primarily, a social occasion. The one-way system is clogged, Le Parking Gide is complet from early in the morning and the bars and restaurants, diminished in size by market stalls encroaching on their outside space, are full as the inhabitants of the Uzège converge on the town to catch up with the gossip and enjoy an early pastis.   
Picture
The schlepp
For me, it is an excuse to walk into town from our village, along the ancienne route: past the sewage works and the sunflower fields, over the small stream, up a 70m incline to the cemetery, entering the old town via the cobbled, pedestrianised rue Xavier Sigalon, named after the Romantic painter who was born in Uzès in 1767 and lived and died in a stereotypically Romantic – that is to say, unsuccessfully and unsold – manner. (He deserved more: his painting Locusta, exhibited in the cathedral of Nîmes, is an extraordinarily powerful work.)

From our gates in St Quentin la Poterie to a coffee at Marie’s Le Bengali in Uzès is a distance of just under five kilometres and takes me about 40 minutes, which is – serendipitously – the duration of a single podcast of Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time. Schlepping there and back makes me something of an expert on at least two topics each day.

For those unfamiliar with this excellent programme, I should explain that the admirable Melvyn gathers around a microphone a collection of learned academics, each of which is a specialist in the subject of the day. I have downloaded the complete back catalogue and enjoy choosing the educational backdrop to my walk from the huge, eclectic collection of programmes.
Picture
Melvyn by Jill
There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the selection of these subjects, beyond the random decisions of Melvyn Bragg himself. In the last couple of months, we’ve had Queen Zenobia and Levi-Strauss, cosmic rays and Icelandic sagas, gnosticism and prophecy, Montaigne and Checkov. Each has been illuminating and fascinating and one arrives at one’s destination if not wiser, certainly far better informed.

Currently, I am able to tell you a great deal about the Putney Debates and Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall, the war of 1812 and Bertrand Russell. I can tell you very little, however, about game theory and Fermat’s last theorem, despite listening to each of those programmes twice. I suspect this is because Bragg, representing the intelligent but non-specialist listener, was also struggling to prompt his very smart guests and ask the questions necessary for elucidation. But like him, I did try.

A friend of mine, in his post-graduate days at Nottingham, used to walk to Forest games in the company of fellow academics. To pass the time, they would take turns to deliver a paper on the way. I have always thought what an excellent idea that was.

A walk through the French countryside, with In Our Time on the headphones, is my version of that pastime. And when I arrive at my destination, I have the pleasure of coffee and conversation, pastis and producteurs rather than analyses of the failings of Forest.

Thanks, Melvyn. (And sorry, Martin.)

Today's listening: John Fahey at the Great American Music Hall in 1975, thanks to a free download from Wolfgang's Vault. His Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt is sensational.

12 Comments
Matt
21/6/2013 00:04:20

Stephen Fry said something about Radio 4 being one of the great civilising influences of the era. In our time is one of the programmes he had in mind. Enjoy.

Reply
Max
27/6/2013 10:59:53

(Almost) always. Thanks.

Reply
Allan
21/6/2013 00:49:39

Enjoyed this. But are you not in your passivity and receptivity neglecting the real importance of a good walk - the opportunity to think through problems, to compose, to create?

Reply
Daniel
21/6/2013 01:57:24

Didn't Nietzsche say something about all great thoughts being generated by walking? But there's virtue in listening too.

Reply
Max
27/6/2013 11:12:27

Nietzsche is a bit like Bob. There's a quotable line for every occasion.

Max
27/6/2013 11:02:42

Take your point. And perhaps exaggerated about every time. A good walk is,of course, the ideal environment for creative thinking. This blog, for example, was composed on one!

Reply
Sean
21/6/2013 08:39:12

I believe Stephen Fry said BBC Radio 4 was one of mankind's greatest achievements. Anyway, a wonderful transportation to your French idyll once again Max. I could almost taste the pastis. It is one of the most enjoyable programmes and is one of those I enjoy as a podcast myself as I walk to work (40 minutes too, coincidentally, although mine is through one of the grimmest parts of Bristol, what many see as a vibrant, artistic hub I see as a dog-shit and human vomit encrusted hellhole filled with people that need a bloody good wash).
Than you once again for taking me away form it all briefly with your blog.

Reply
Max
27/6/2013 11:05:30

Sean! Hey, what we are discussing here is the walk and in a sense the route is irrelevant. Read Sinclair. But you would be welcome in our idyll ... Xxxx

Reply
CJ
21/6/2013 09:22:27

I think Fahey is an acquired taste and I confess I have never acquired it. It's virtuoso stuff to which lesser guitarists aspire but can't imagine the rest if us sitting down to enjoy his stuff. Apart from you of course!

Reply
Max
27/6/2013 11:10:31

Had I written the blog today, the music would have been Jorma from 2007 (Del Mar Café somewhere in New Jersey). Equally brilliant but, ok, notable for its precision and excellence rather than its emotional attack.

Reply
Martin
28/6/2013 16:24:18

Ah, Max, back in those days, when Forest were in the first division, we had to make our own entertainment as we walked to the match.

Reply
Max
5/7/2013 00:12:08

Aye, lad. A t'City, we had to make our own entertainment during the game. I re breed being thrashed by Rick in a competition to quote the most proverbs of heaven and hell during a 0-0 draw with Wimbledon!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Baseball
    Books
    Film
    Food + Drink
    French Letters
    Leamington Letters
    Media
    Music
    People
    Personal
    Politics
    Sport