THE WHITE STRIPES SET LIST

Here is the set list from The White Stripes concert at Le Zenith for those interested parties. It was though the previous album Get Behind Me Satan hardly existed….

When I Hear My Name; Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground; Icky Thump; Effect And Cause; Hotel Yorba; I’m Slowly Turning Into You; I Think I Smell A Rat; Death Letter; Catch Hell Blues; Same Boy You’ve Always Known, Hello Operator, In The Cold, Cold Night (sung by Meg); Jolene; Let’s Shake Hands; Ball And Biscuit.

Then for the encore: a medley of Denial Twist and Passive and I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself. Finishing with (of course) Seven Nation Army.

As always, too short, too hot and too cool.

EXPLORING FRANCE

I have just got back from 9 days with Mum and Dad, which we spent driving around in the south-west of France. You can see on the map approximately where we went.... we spent most of the time in Bretagne (Brittany to you) and also Normandy, the Dordogne and Bordeaux.

It is amazing how much the scenery and architecture changes through the different regions. Unfortunately the weather was crap for most of the time, although we were often lucky that the rain did not interrupt some of the bigger sight-seeing things we did. Bretagne reminded me of home around the Great Ocean Road a bit, but I really loved the south-west regions of the Dordogne and Bordeaux the most. They were just gorgeous (so was the wine!). Anyway here photos from each day.

SUNDAY - St. EMILION FETE

We were lucky enough to stumble into the annual St. Emilion fete, where many Grand Crus vineyards (some often not larger than a couple of hectares) were represented. This is true Bordeaux country, St. Emilion is surrounded by vineyards and it is just the most beautiful town.

































COGNAC

Then we headed to Cognac, the town famous for the drink, where we visited the Henessey house. The tour was surprisingly good, although I'm not sure Cognac is for me (it's for mum though!)

ATLANTIC COAST

Then we made our way to the Atlantic Coast, where many Frenchies spend their summer holidays.
After stopping off at La Rochelle for a beer, we stayed the night on the Ile-de-Re.


























SOUTH BRETAGNE
We then braved the Cote Sauvage (Wild Coast) on the south coast of Brittany.















Mum was also feeling particularly savage that day!







Luckily we didn't get swept away so that we could investigate the menhirs of Carnac. These stones were aligned by pre-historic people between 5000 BC and 3500 BC, and no-one has any idea why they are aligned in rows, and how they got there. Think Asterisk and Obelisk and you get the idea of these stones. I thought they were really cool.



















After Carnac we spent the night at Pont-Aven, the village where the famous post-impressionist painter Gaugin spent many sejours. Actually the hotel we were staying at was the very one in which Gaugin stayed! This village was absolutely gorgeous, it had many water mills, a forest and a great restaurant (1 Michelin star thank you!). The best thing about this restaurant was the cheese table from which mum and I got to choose multiple hunks of cheese for dessert.











NORTH BRETAGNE
Up to the Cote de Granite Rose, we spent a couple of days driving along the coast. There are these massive rose Granite boulders everywhere, and everything is made from granite!



















Our last stop in Bretagne was Saint Malo, which was great. It is a walled town (love a wall) on the sea. Saint Malo has the highest tides in Europe of 10 - 15 metres, and the city becomes almost surrounded by the sea at high tide.



















NORMANDY

Before heading to mum and dad's next week-long house we visited Mont-Saint-Michel. It is a still-functional medieval Abbey which was founded (supposedly) after the appearance of the archangel Saint Michel who slayed a dragon in 708. After this the abbey grew in the middle ages and several floors of the monastery are stacked on top of each other. Mont-Saint-Michel is surrounded by sand that floods at high tide.

BREAK A LEG!

Now I would like to do some shameless promotion for my little brother's band, Femur. They had their first Femur re-incarnation gig yesterday. Here is their myspace link:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=151593296

Also please read below for a short review from Joanie (hope this is ok Joanie!!)

Went to see "Femur" play last night at the... Barley Corn... um mm, yes... anyway, the boys were on fire. Two of the songs had the words "brain horn" and "Kissinger" in them which I thought was kinda cool given they were possible band names. The lyrics to some of the songs were ace. Varrents [lead singer] has the best stage presence - he was using a mini keyboard while singing and then proceeded to throw it across the stage. The last song he screamed into the microphone and then threw plastic boxes across the stage. All of their girlfriends were there and Andy's [guitarist & Alli's little brother] flatmate Fetu who sure can dance - Zoe and Fetu screamed constantly to the boys telling them "how hot they were" - Varrents replied to the audience " well thank you ladies" -

ON YA BIKE!







Photos courtesy of Petite Johnny.....

ATTENTION! ATTENTION!

One of the things amusing me greatly at the moment is the over-usage of the French word attention (said: attension). Basically it means watch out, or a warning, but often when Frenchies use it, it seems as though the small event they are referring to is a matter of life and death. For example, when I was buying dish washing liquid in the supermarket the other day, it started to leak without me noticing, but a helpful passer by shouted "attention, attention!" and pointed dramatically to the bottle. I thought that maybe it contained a tiny bomb that I had not detected, but no, it was just dribbling down the side.

So currently I am being a good Samaritan and taking taking great delight in warning people with "attention, attention" whenever I can... Try it... you will see its fun!

SCISSOR ME SISTER!

On Wednesday night, Amy, Kelly and I went to see the glam trash disco rock band the Scissor Sisters. They were unreal, although I thought they took a little while to take off, but I blame this on the crowd (tip: looking comatose does not incite fun)..... They were much tighter than a year ago and the sound was great. Ana Matronic and Jake did a great job, particularly Jake's stage acrobatics. And they were looking much more stylish than a year ago. The most bizzare thing is that the crowd did not seem to know Take Your Mama Out and Laura, the two songs that made them famous. If you too have been living in the dark ages for the past 2 years, go to this link and check them out. They are ace.
http://www.scissorsisters.com/intro/