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Travel

Coffee

End of the two weeks in Malta. The notes from a small island include a register of the pent up frustration that surfaces when discussing and that contrasts incredibly with the image of laid back Med country that is part of the daily tableau. We don’t travel to judge. Us expats I mean but we are inevitably driven to drawing comparisons. So while we may find the heat a little bit more unbearable with every visit, we can also be pleasantly surprised by the little beauties that surface. It’s like that with culinary fantasies like the atmosphere and food at Temptasian (The roof restaurant at The Palace, Sliema). While waiting for 30 mins at Zaventem for the baggage to finally start moving round the conveyor belt we are reminded by a Flemish lady that every country has it’s imperfections: “welcome to Belgium”. Luckily we manage to hop on the last train home and are chauffeured from the arid train station to sleepy Dondelange by the laid back and chilled MV who reminds us of the welcoming and homely nature of the Maltese abroad. We read the book ‘Uncommon’ on the flight and found it to be fantasmagorical. More on that in re-vu when we get down to writing a short review, which is a bit ironic really because I get the feeling that it will be like révù reviewing itself.

Image: from the J’accse physical archives. A snapshot of a poster for an SDM/MUSC party back in the day when budding politicians knew the difference between work and play (and were good at both) and DJs were …. Hell, just DJs.

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Categories
Travel

Dear Long Weekend

J’accuse is anything but a personal diary but sometimes we do take a little snapshot of the j’accuse life out of a mere desire to experiment with the more conventional way of blogging (as well as an indirect justification
as to why j’accuse has not been so engaging over the weekend). In short it’s just been sunny, sunny, sunny.

Saturday was BXL day. A quick scappatella into the bowels of the city of stink. Walking along a sun drenched Place Stephanie and Avenue Louise we played a game of teaser window shopping. It’s NOT ok to only look – not for shopaholics like myself but I had to find a way of avoiding monetary dispensation since the NY trip is now only weeks away. A weird exhibition was to be found in a square bang in the middle of Avenue Louise. It represents all the things that have not been said… ever and is an itinerant Mexican exhibition that is also commemorating some jubilee anniversary of La Rivolucion!

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Muted on Avenue Louise

Just after the muted giants we discovered the newly refurbished Toison d’Or shopping centre complete with Scotch & Soda and all the brands that make your shopping euros tingle. The pièce de resistance was the Desigual (yep, Desigual… we still love it on the ladies notwithstanding the recent bad publicity it might have got) store (ladies only for now but mens will be open in a few weeks time). Embargos on purchases were thrown out of the “It’s not the same” window and we walked out of there a couple of euros poorer (thank Haysus for the fidelity discount).

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It

Back in LUX there were two splendid sunlit days to kill. Sunday began with the downer of no Brit papers delivered. Shock. Horror. Survival without the Independent would require some inventive creativity. No worries. Shorts, tee and sunroof open – one hour drive of pure greenery to the idyllic surroundings of Vianden and the piscine communale. The tanning began in earnest and with sundown a banquet fit for kings on the mosellan riviere (cote allemande) with a festival of spare ribs and scampi washed down with copious amounts of Riesling. Hot. Scrumptious. Relaxing.

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Vianden, Piscine with view of Castle

Monday. Pentecost. Public holiday and all shops are firmly fermées. Which only leaves us with one thing to do. A second trip to the Vianden castle for a second coating of the by now Mediterranean tan (with the soleil des ardennes). Olive skinned and well coated we return to the Duchy in the evening for a terrrace mixed grill overlooking the Parc de Merl and its menagerie of singing volatids. Tuesday (aujourd’hui) is a day when we return back to work with the laid-back goodwill of a Mediterranean bon vivant. Even the Court of Justice can spare a smile….

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Steps to Main Gallery, ECJ

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