PROVENCE—Issue R

Autumn / Winter
2009

This is the editorial for issue R, the second of eight PROVENCE issues. What’s nice about these autumn days in Nice is that there are less and less tourists in town. Our favorite bar Bel Ami isn’t so overpacked. In the morning it is the best place to have the first coffee and cigarette. Over the course of the last few weeks the atmosphere has been mellow and also slightly sentimental as we’ve set out down the narrow little alleyways to pick up the mail at the local post office. We came back from these errands with the Nicoise daily newspaper and some intriguing contributions as well as some mediocre ones. These contributions we scanned and pasted just as we’d received them within these magazine pages. Factory-made not customized. Flipping through the pages, we began to recall John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The museum scene at the Art Institute of Chicago: the three friends Ferris, Cameron and Sloane standing perfectly composed in front of three Picasso paintings; the scene where Cameron is facing George Seurat’s Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte; several static shots of works by Caillebotte, Giacometti, Kandinsky, Picasso, Pollock and others. Poses for the moment. Flipping through the pages, we began to recall Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend. After the car crash Corinne and Roland stroll down the allée amidst wrecked vehicles and injured people and animals. It’s a total structured chaos that appears to the protagonists as if it were on a conveyor belt as one thing after another passes by in parallel without any hierarchy. Somehow the couple just happens to be there, not really participating with the scenery. Quiet moments aside we still spend a few hours each afternoon by the pool letting the sun tickle our bodies, but it’s getting windier by the day. Yes, the autumn days are getting shorter and winter is almost upon us. This in mind, it’s an important time to stock up on information about the newest soap operas, films, books, and cooking trends. And on the right bottles for the house bar.

PROVENCE