samedi 11 juillet 2009

6 semaines loin des Pays-Bas, 6weeks away from the Netherlands, 6 weken weg van de Nederlands


May, the 28th, we take the car to St-Omer, north of France. The traffic Jam only few kms away from home make us come back and postpone our departure to the following morning. We leave on the 29th and I've warned my cousins like Millions of times: I don't want to stay home hanging, doing nothing. Well, they took the message seriously and took us there

Le 28 Mai, nous décidons de partir en voitur epour St-Omer, chez les Ch'ti. Les bons embouteillages Hollandais nous font renoncer et remettre notre voyage au lendemain. Départ le 29 après avoir bien prévenu mes cousins: hors de question de reter à la maison à ne rien faire. Le message fut pris très au sérieux


They're smiling here...wish I had recorded them screaming while flying between trees

Là, elles ont le sourire, j'aurais bien aimé enregistrer leur cris entre deux arbres.

Accroc' branches or "I believe I can fly"


We had a wonderful time, we ate some of my Uncle Maurice Home-made-Paté, took a walk where The English made history few decades ago and enjoyed th evillage quietness.

On a passé un très chouette moment, on a mangé de paté fait maison par mon oncle Maurice, on a marché là où les anglais ont fait l'histoire il y a qqs décennies, on a profité du calme du village






Then, in Paris we went to See Tony Allen reaheasing. Kabouter danced and danced and danced again. I was speechless. We saw
my friend Stéphanie and family, recently moved from NYC to PAris, her son Jules who is also Kabouter's fiancé. ;-)

Puis à Paris, nous sommes allées voir Tony Allen répéter, Le petit lutin a dansé à n'en plus pouvoir. je suis restée sans voix.... On a vu son fiancé de New York, Jules, et toute sa famille. Ici, sa maman, ma copine Stéphanie





Kabouter got to meet creative people all along the way. She's blessed. In Montpellier she saw Zitoune and Thomas a.k.a Stone Black & Rachid Data


And most of all, she got to spend time with our loved ones: Tia Pakita, Papou, Swann-Ly and Lluna, Vovo...
Et surtout, elle a eu l'occasion de passer du temps avec nos proches: Tati Pakao, Papou, Swann-LY, lluna, Vovo






Back to Paris again where after few rehearsal sessions, we got ready to fly to Abidjan where we (Julien of The Afrorockerz, Firetongue and Myself) were expected for the final of a jazz festival in Abidjan.We'd already been on the road for three weeks... A lovely surprise, my brother Cyril was in Paris too

Puis retour sur Paris où après qqs répétitions, on s'est préparé pour Abidjan où nous(Julien des Afrorockerz, Firetongue et moi même)étions attendus pour clôturer le festival "émoi Jazz" au Music'all. Cela fait déjà trois semaines que nous sommes sur la route. Délicieuse surprise, mon frère Cyril était à Paris également.



Well, that's one of the funniest part of our trip. My Godmother, always ready and willing to help her Goddaughter out of the inevitable setbacks of her bohemian life is taking us to the airport where we'll be catching the 7:30 pm flight to Casablanca where we'll catch the connection to Abidjan. We've known this times and details for more than a month now. My collaborators are in a cab and want to know what terminal we should meet at. First time I open my e-tickets to realize that the so well known details of our flight had changed during the night. We're just missing the flight. I can hardly believe that. After few calls and a nice talk with a lady at the desk in the airport, we find out that the agency in Abidjan had made a mistake.had I checked properly I could have found out but.... Anyway, we catch the RIGHT flight which is only 2 hour late and get to Casa



yes, indeed, we're in a hotel here. No no, we haven't changed plans. Told you our plane left Paris @ 9:30 PM instead of 7:30. And since we were catching another plane from the same company. We thought it was OK. But The Company had decided to leave us (20 passengers) behind.....

To be followed....