Oh The Indignity Of It All!

Crusoe appears to be healing well, he is now able to put weight on his injured leg, however he is proving to be a difficult patient, he is an intrepid, adventurous terrier without an off button,  trying to get him to take it easy and be tranquil is quite a feat.  We have a lot of stairs in the house and he is most indignant at having to be carried up and down, we have taken this measure as now he can put all four paws down, he is attempting to run up and down them, he is not supposed to run for eight weeks.  The promise of rehabilitative  swimming in the local lake after his stitches come out next week, cannot come soon enough for Crusoe, last night he gnawed his dressing off and was attempting to remove his own stitches.  Several hilarious and unsuccessful attempts at tying a t shirt over his rear end, to cover what was left of his bandage, only resulted in Crusoe looking like the dog version of Sabu.

 Sabu in 'The Thief of Baghdad'

  We carted him off to the vets once again first thing this morning, for a new dressing and a plastic collar which prevents him from nibbling his bandages off and trying to remove his stitches, Crusoe is not impressed.

Get this contraption off me!

I can't get through the railings, no hope of escape now!

Blogger seems to be playing up again I have been keeping up with all your blogs but for some strange reason, I am unable to comment.

Crusoe, Nil By Mouth

What have they done to me?

Poor Crusoe we have just picked him up from the veterinary hospital, he went in first thing this morning for an operation on his right hind kneecap.  A few weeks ago after a run in with a goat, he developed a limp, we took him to the vets, they promptly put him on anti inflammatory's  after the course the limp did not go away, so after going backwards and forwards to the vets, X rays, specialists etc.  He went in for an operation today to repair his kneecap, the good news is he should make a full recovery, the bad news is no running, jumping or walks off the lead for eight weeks!  But he can go swimming, (the best form of physiotherapy) after his stitches come out in a fortnights time.

After anaesthetic, morphine and gas he is understandably feeling a little groggy this evening, to say the least. I will keep you posted on his recovery.

Elegant Cycling

The Fabulous Catherine Baba

I recently started cycling again, although I do have to confess only when I visit Belle Mere's, it is relatively flat and there is a cycle path that runs along the sea front for miles, it's bliss, the idea was to cycle from Belle Mere's house to the beach, have an invigorating early morning swim in the sea, and then a rejuvenating cafe au lait, however the swim in the sea fell along the wayside and I found myself cycling into the local town, having a coffee and cycling back, still it's a step in the right the direction, later in the year when the sea is warmer, I am determined to carry out the original plan and then I will be super smug!

I don't cycle here in the Pyrenees, this is Tour de France, mountain stage country and it's not for the faint hearted, even cycling up to the local boulangerie involves a very steep hill climb, I tried it once and embarrassingly I had to get off and walk!  To add insult to injury, lycra clad elderly gentlemen whizzed past me, well, they have probably been doing it all their lives and are super fit.  We do keep a couple of mountain bikes here for friends and guests but unless they are into mountain biking and used to it, most people take one look at the terrain and think, perhaps not!

The Sartorialist

The Sartorialist

 The Sartorialist

The mountain bike I use is far too complicated for me, it has loads of gears, which I don't know how to use properly, once I decided to take Crusoe for a walk by bike (first time on a bike since I was around 14!) I was doing quite well on the rough tracks, then coming down a hill, I put my front break on and went straight over the handlebars, the chain came off and once again I got off and walked home full of bruises and grazes.  If one is going to be an elegant cyclist like the ladies and gentlemen in the photographs it's essential to have a bicycle, with storage for shopping and handbag,  mud guards and a chain guard is also essential as you don't want to get your trousers or long flowing skirt ripped and oily in the chain and who needs more than five gears for cycling in the city or forgiving terrain!

The Sartorialist

Rita Hayworth

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.
XXX

High In Manhattan

Marilyn

Natalie Wood, William Claxton

Cannes Film Festival, The Retro Edition

Faye Dunaway, This Years Poster Girl

The 64th Cannes Film Festival is now under way, it's always been a media circus and much more so nowadays, Cannes is best avoided at the moment, (in 1966 there were 700 journalists covering it, by 2008 this figure rose to 3541) as well as all the celebrities, junkets, journalists and paparazzi the place will also be crawling with wannabes, hookers and celeb spotters, for what it's worth you will not find a parking space!

Jean Gabriel-Domergue's proposed poster for the festival that never was

At the end of the 1930s, shocked by the interference of the fascist governments of Italy and Germany in the selection of films for the Mostra del cinema di Venezia, Jean Zay, the French Minister of National Education, decided to create an international cinematographic festival in France,on the proposal of Philippe Erlanger and the support of the British and Americans. Many towns were proposed as candidates, as Vichy, Biarritz or Algiers, although finally Cannes was the chosen one; thus, Le Festival International de Cannes was born.

In June 1939, Louis Lumière agreed to be the president of the first festival, set to be held from 1 to 30 September 1939. The German attack on Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the declaration of war against Germany by France and the United Kingdom on 3 September, ended the first edition of the festival before it started.

The festival was relaunched after World War II in 1946, in the old Casino of Cannes, financed by the French Foreign Affairs Ministry and the City of Cannes. Although the initial spirit of the French festival was to compete with its Italian counterpart, a secret agreement took place between both nations, so that they will celebrate their international festivals in alternating years. The first Cannes Festival had a considerable success, so when the Franco-Italian agreement was made public it was heavily criticised and considered as a "capitulation of France"

The Poster for the First Festival

I have been following some of the coverage on French TV and looking at some of the fashions on the internet, once again I am disappointed, the glamour, elegance and fun of it seems to have been replaced by something much more corporate and false, I am probably just being an old cynic after all the objective is and has always been the business of promoting, selling and distributing films, hopefully great European films.

I have found some photographs of the golden age of the Cannes Film Festival and I think the stars of yesteryear were clearly having a lot of good old, genuine fun.

 

Bella Darvi in front of The Carlton 1956

Paparazzi 1962

Cannes Beach 1955

 Marlon Brando, keeping it real, 1954

Brigitte Bardot

Grace Kelly

 Sophia Loren

Elizabeth Taylor

Natalie Wood

'The way they were; Natalie and Warren'

Gina Lollobrigida

Ester Williams

Robert Mitchum and friend!

Jayne Mansfield

The gorgeous Alain Delon and Bella Darvi

Ingrid Bergman

Yves Montand

Kirk Douglas

Alfred Hitchcock

Kim Novak

John Lennon

Liza Minnelli and Otto Preminger

John and Yoko

Jane Birkin

Geraldine Chaplin

Michael Caine

Andy Warhol

Brian Jones, Anita Pallenburg and Bill Wyman

Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson promoting Easy Rider.

Things have been a bit hectic round here and I am behind with everyone's posts I am looking forward to reading them and visiting new followers in the next couple of days.