Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
June 9th, 2010 | 
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Not to be left out of the Riviera music scene this summer (which includes the Nice Jazz Festival and Jazz a Juan), is stately Beaulieu-sur-Mer. The annual Nuits Guitars will take place from July 8 to 10 and will feature Popa Chubby, Alain Souchon and Babylon Circus. What I like about this festival is how casual it is and the comfortable outdoor seating. It’s also a good excuse to revisit relaxing Beaulieu-sur-Mer. Tickets are available through the tourist office.
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My very favorite regional event has just announced this year’s program. Les Etoiles de Mougins is a yearly gathering in Mougins of the hottest local and international chefs prepared to display, explain and demonstrate their latest concoctions. Roger Verger formerly of Le Moulin de Mougins, David Faure of Aphrodite and René Redzepi of Noma in Denmark are just a few of the past guests of the festival. What I like is that you actually get to taste their treats and get the recipes after you watch the chefs in action.
This year’s festival will take place from September 10 to 12 and the theme will be Women Chefs. It’s about time! Anne Sophie Pic of the celebrated Maison Pic in Valence will headline the event. Other chefs include Sophie Bise, Rougui Dia, Fatema Hal, Flora Mikula, Laurence Salomon, Josy Bandecchi, Hermance Carro and Fanny Rey.
An admission fee gives you access to the seven demonstration tents but there are large areas of the festival grounds that are open to the public. Tastings of regional products, wines and culinary specialties are available to everyone.
For more information, see the Les Etoiles de Mougins website or see more about Mougins.
See the French Riviera Calendar of Events
It’s the 50th anniversary of the Jazz a Juan jazz festival in Juan-les-Pins and the planned program is outstanding, much better than last year. Running from July 14 to July 25, the festival includes major international jazz stars. Check this out:
Wednesday July 14
NJO Nice Jazz Orchestra
Thursday July 15
George Benson, David Sanborn
Friday July 16
Spokfrevo Orquestra, Monte Alexander, Chucho Valdes and the Afro Cuban Messengers
Saturday July 17
Dee Dee Bridgewater, Melody Gardot
Sunday July 18
Django Reinhardt hommage
Monday July 19
Paco de Lucia, Avishai Cohen
Tuesday July 20
Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove
Wednesday July 21
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack Dejohnette
Thursday July 22
Kyle Eastwood, Diana Krall
Friday July 23
Brooklyn Funk Essentials, Maceo Parker
Saturday July 24
Manu Katche, Marcus Miller
Sunday July 25
Liz McComb
See more about the Juan-les-Pins festival, including online booking.
Artist Mary Payne will be exhibiting her work at Artemisia gallery/studio from May 28 to June 4. American-born and Nice-based, Ms Payne has been painting for 20 years. She works in etching, oils and mixed media even using spices and make-up to produce a desired effect. The title of the exhibit is Donut-eater & Other Stories (Le Mangeur des Beignets) and includes series never before shown. “Each painting is a story”, said Ms Payne, adding that the exhibit includes both figurative and non-figurative styles.
Two strong movies at this year’s Cannes Film Festival zoomed in on the state of couplehood and singlehood. Mike Leigh’s “Another Year” featured the kind of marriage that the director himself described as “ideal”. Tom and Gerri are kind, intelligent, cultivated and supportive of each other. They garden and cook together while occasionally fretting over their son, Joe. Enter their single friends, Ken and Mary, both falling apart in ways that range from comic to poignant to pathetic. The stability of Tom and Gerri’s marriage seems only to be buttressed by their frazzled friends. At what point do you have to say “enough!” to your friend’s neuroses? Desperately confronting middle age, Mary hits on the much younger Joe and is rebuffed. When she is openly rude to Joe’s new girlfriend, Gerri finds she must distance herself from her friend.
In a stark contrast to Leigh’s contented old marrieds, “Blue Valentine” is a heartbreaking portrayal of a failed marriage. Played with soul-baring naturalism by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, Dean and Cindy are pained and bewildered by their wrecked marriage. Both are “good” people, kind to the elderly, attached to their daughter and their dog. And yet it all goes so horribly wrong. The film intercuts scenes of their courtship and marriage with their current agonies encouraging the viewer to try to pinpoint the fatal flaws that punctured their love. There are no easy answers; maybe there are no answers at all. Maybe they were simply unlucky to have found one another just as Mike Leigh’s couple had the immense good luck to meet their soul mate.