"You won't believe it. I just saw Jumilla, walking through a gate, off on an adventure! Walking mind you!"In Sainsbury's, Maria, the friendly Spanish woman on the delicatessen counter, offers me a slice of chorizo made from superior Iberico pigs, on a piece of grease proof paper placed on the counter. I can still taste its rich, spiciness now, six hours later.
Taking up BB's theme of things one is secretly ashamed of (see yesterday's comments), I could write a book about them. But one that comes immediately to mind is the way I tingle all over at the sound of The Marseillaise. Perhaps it is because when at school we had to learn it off by heart and sing it to French Ambassador who was visiting the school. Or perhaps because it is a rousing tune, and I like it.
9 comments:
A smiling Goose. What's so amusing? maybe he/she knows where Jumilla is off to....
"Like I said, that Jumilla. Walking! On an adventure! What's there to smile about? Laugh I'd say!"
Ever since that scene in Casa Blanca, when the Nazis singing forces the French (and their friends) to stand in defiance and sing "Le Marsellaise," I have loved the song. I am listening to it now, as I type this, and I have to fight the urge to stand at attention, hand over my heart, and sing what I remember of the words.
(Aw, to heck with it...I'll be back to the keyboard in moment!)
It is a rousing tune, Plutarch, and I love it!
PS: am enjoying the developing tale of Jumilla's Grand Adventure, too. Having visited CC's site, I'd love to see her illustrations for this story.
Jumilla Greylag, of Groombridge. Look for it soon at your favorite bookstore!
What's to be ashamed loving "le Marsellaise"? Is it a British thing?
Love the goose adventures!
I'm a great unashamed Marseillaise fan and even went as far as buying the Berlioz arrangement which has about ten verses. In the often times British bands always played it too slowly (especially the middle bit about les feroces soldats) so that it didn't sound too superior to our horribly lugubrious national anthem. Now they realise it's no contest and play it as it should be played. Like Crow I too choke at that same point in Casablanca.
I'm glad I'm not alone. I suppose that because our own national anthem is so pedestrian in comparison, to admire a rivalone can seem disloyal.
'God Save the Queen' pedestrian?
At least the tune isn't a beer-drinking song from the taverns of old Baltimore, that I can't sing because of my pathetic one-octave range. I like 'Columbia, Gem of the Ocean' much better, if only because I can sing that tune more easily. "America the Beautiful' is stirring, too.
My mum could also sing the Marseillaise in its entirety, oddly it seemed to be considered a worthy part of a British liberal education at one time to learn it. Quite a few French people I've met are slightly embarrassed these days about its rather sanguinaire nature. I tell them that God Save the Q is not only much drearier (sometimes adding Billy Connolly's theory that that's why British athletes fare so badly internationally), but is also quite politically incorrect in its later verses and all about beating up the Scots. Though some might not see that as altogether bad I suppose...
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