Gwendolyn Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Just caught up on iplayer. It was fascinating. If only for the explanation of the Cross of Lorraine and the mention of Verlaine – one of my favourite French poets. It’s a Jonathan Meades programme – what did you expect? A paean of praise for Aires and where to park your motorhome? The ironic intellectualism was a pleasure. Great imagery. The link between Nancy and Art Nouveau; the statue of a woman JM described as having an “over eager pituitary gland” – marvellous stuff. “The caviar left”… wish I had that skill of writing. On Vichy – “The Myth of Resistance” – a daring historical perspective. This is good TV. Challenging – not a travelogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 10:03 PM Just caught up on iplayer. It was fascinating. If only for the explanation of the Cross of Lorraine and the mention of Verlaine – one of my favourite French poets. It’s a Jonathan Meades programme – what did you expect? A paean of praise for Aires and where to park your motorhome? The ironic intellectualism was a pleasure. Great imagery. The link between Nancy and Art Nouveau; the statue of a woman JM described as having an “over eager pituitary gland” – marvellous stuff. “The caviar left”… wish I had that skill of writing. On Vichy – “The Myth of Resistance” – a daring historical perspective. This is good TV. Challenging – not a travelogue. So a load of b******ks then :D Joke........Honest (lol) (lol) (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwendolyn Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 pelmetman - 2012-01-20 10:09 PM Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 10:03 PM Just caught up on iplayer. It was fascinating. If only for the explanation of the Cross of Lorraine and the mention of Verlaine – one of my favourite French poets. It’s a Jonathan Meades programme – what did you expect? A paean of praise for Aires and where to park your motorhome? The ironic intellectualism was a pleasure. Great imagery. The link between Nancy and Art Nouveau; the statue of a woman JM described as having an “over eager pituitary gland” – marvellous stuff. “The caviar left”… wish I had that skill of writing. On Vichy – “The Myth of Resistance” – a daring historical perspective. This is good TV. Challenging – not a travelogue. So a load of b******ks then :D No more b******s than your referring to the Roman poet Horace on another thread. But I didn't know that he had written an Ode to his Horn!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 10:23 PM No more b******s than your referring to the Roman poet Horace on another thread. But I didn't know that he had written an Ode to his Horn!!! Sorry Gwendolyn........I didn't know names of ancient poets were sacrosanct when I named our camper ;-) But I will of course try to adopt the right sense of intellectualism when I tripe about my horn in future :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Update Philistines 11, sophisticated, 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwendolyn Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 pelmetman - 2012-01-20 10:41 PM Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 10:23 PM No more b******s than your referring to the Roman poet Horace on another thread. But I didn't know that he had written an Ode to his Horn!!! Sorry Gwendolyn........I didn't know names of ancient poets were sacrosanct when I named our camper ;-) But I will of course try to adopt the right sense of intellectualism when I tripe about my horn in future :D Oh not sacrosanct at all….. I'm sure his ancient bones will be honoured. Great to see the classics mentioned on the Forum... and btw, we are heading in same direction as you in... a few days time. Have saved your posts to Word. Gosh... following in the footsteps of Horace. My former Classics teacher would have been thrilled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 10:54 PM pelmetman - 2012-01-20 10:41 PM Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 10:23 PM No more b******s than your referring to the Roman poet Horace on another thread. But I didn't know that he had written an Ode to his Horn!!! Sorry Gwendolyn........I didn't know names of ancient poets were sacrosanct when I named our camper ;-) But I will of course try to adopt the right sense of intellectualism when I tripe about my horn in future :D Oh not sacrosanct at all….. I'm sure his ancient bones will be honoured. Great to see the classics mentioned on the Forum... and btw, we are heading in same direction as you in... a few days time. Have saved your posts to Word. Gosh... following in the footsteps of Horace. My former Classics teacher would have been thrilled. Have you any beer? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwendolyn Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Can bring some. What is your prefernce? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 11:07 PM Can bring some. What is your prefernce? Free :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwendolyn Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Swap a pouffe for a box of Brains? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 11:18 PM Swap a pouffe for a box of Brains? Sorry Brains are cheap my pouffes are expensive ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwendolyn Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Not sure "brains" ARE cheap. Brains - as in beer - is cheap? Fair enough. Pouffes are expensive? Know my place. Was just trying to be amicable. I'll know better in future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 11:30 PM Not sure "brains" ARE cheap. Brains - as in beer - is cheap? Fair enough. Pouffes are expensive? Know my place. Was just trying to be amicable. I'll know better in future. Sorry Gwendolyn..........just a joke :D...........I ain't got the Brains........must be the lack of alcohol ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Gwendolyn - 2012-01-20 10:03 PM Just caught up on iplayer. It was fascinating. If only for the explanation of the Cross of Lorraine and the mention of Verlaine – one of my favourite French poets. This is good TV. Challenging – not a travelogue. Not sure that I would agree it was "good TV " I found some of the dialogue quite interesting , but not sure why it was on TV at all. Would have worked better on radio I would have thought. :-| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 1footinthegrave - 2012-01-20 10:52 PM Update Philistines 11, sophisticated, 2 Which neatly illustrates the perpetual shortcoming of democracy! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 malc d - 2012-01-19 9:32 AM kelly58 - 2012-01-19 8:14 AM Is it me or was it rubbish not what I expected. As I had read a write-up in the Radio Times warning that it was typical Jonathon Meades, I wasn't too surprised. I think the title was a bit misleading. It was more about the French, and a bit of French history, not really about France or the French landscape. :-| After all this discussion I just had to catch it from i-player to see what the fuss was about! It seems to me it was exactly what it was described as being. It was a programme about France, about the country, not about the landscape. A country is the sum of its geology and its people. Meades is what he is. France is what it is. It is not a collection of good views and a few pretty villages, it is what the French, their language, and their collective history, have made out of its geology. Meades was only in the north east, so much dealt with the successive impacts of wars, and their affects on the psyche of local people. This was not all of France: other regions have different characteristics. However, it was informative, humorous, sardonic, varied: rather like the French, in fact :-) so presumably not an accident. It also reminded me of quite a few things I had forgotten from my earliest visits, and why I so much enjoy going back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smifee Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Enjoyed it. Informative in a wacky way. Typical Jonathon Meades. Can't stand most of the tourist/holiday programmes. Globe Trecker excepted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klyne Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 I thought it was interesting. I suppose those expecting a travel programme might have been disappointed. However I found that I learnt a lot. Every man has two countries....... David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 For Sophisticates only... (Philistines should continue with their Daily Mail crosswords.) Don't forget that last week's Jonathan Meades programme ("Fragments of an Arbitrary Encyclopaedia") was just Part One of three France-related documentaries. Part 2 - "A Biased Anthology of Parisian Peripheries" will be shown on BBC4 this Wednesday (January 25) at 21:00. "France granted independence to its colonies in the 1960s. That, anyway, is the official line. In fact, through such agencies as Francophonie which notionally promotes the French language and the secretive Francafrique which wields influence throughout much of Africa, the French state is in reality still a colonial power. Jonathan inspects the Parisian palaces of tyrannical dynasties, the sites of political murders and the village where the Ayatollah Khomeini lived in exile." At present, there is no firm information about Part 3, other than it's scheduled for Wednesday, February 1, at 21:00 on BBC4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neillking Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Extremely entertaining in a sullen sort of way. I shall watch another with interest. This is BBC Four after all - not Judith Chalmers or Cliff Michelmore extolling the virtues of package holidays! That said I do think the billing was a bit misleading. I hope Meades will come an do a similarly incisive job on parts of Britain (maybe he has, if so I missed them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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