Behold, the sea itself … the green and blue

Beginning of August I went on a road trip along the Mediterranean coast of Morocco from Nador and Mellila, driving westward to Tetouan. A relatively new road, in good condition, follows the sea along the jagged coastal cliff. It is a very winding drive, the road going up and down, and left and right. A strong stomach is needed.

However, the views are breathtaking. I was lucky to have sunny weather all along my trip. The local weather can very quickly turn foggy and cold with wind. 

There are small, medium and large beaches dotted all along the way. Each one has its own peculiarity: sand or pebbles; all shades of blue and green water; waves or calm surface; built-up resort and restaurant infrastructures, paddle boats, jetboats, parasols and deck chairs-for-rent, or just the beach and sea in their natural state. Some beaches also double as a local fishing port.

I noted two remarkable food experiences along the way. The first was at a non-descript beachfront shack in the Al Hoceima Bay. The server could not speak either English or French. With my poor local Arabic, I understood that I could get a meal of tomato-and-cucumber salad, grilled fish, some tomato sauce for dipping, and chips. I asked for the food to be delayed by twenty minutes to allow for a cooling pre-meal swim in the bay. The food then arrived piping hot and prepared-to-order. It was very simple but deliciously home-made. The fresh anchovies were perfectly grilled: slightly toasted skin but creamy soft inside and easy to debone. The tomato sauce was more like a soup but it was tasty and made of fresh tomatoes and onions. The chips were hand-cut and perfectly crispy outside, warm and soft inside. I had a delicious, nutritious and good-value meal on the beach.

My second food highlight was in the centre of Tetouan city, on the East side of the central square named Feddan Park. The recently opened Dar Bomba restaurant is nestled under the brick vaults of the city’s former ammunition factory. An upper-level café serves snacks and drinks with a view of the old city. The lower floor lacks the view but compensates with exquisite food on a level and diversity I had not yet seen during my first seven months in Morocco. I asked to talk to the chef to compliment him. He told me he had had to fight against the advice of his staff and friends to feature this gourmet tasting experience. The menu changes over time to make the best use of fresh seasonal local products. The cuisine is refined and inventive: all the dishes are highlighted with just a touch of local spices or fresh herbs. It was a very welcome break from the more traditional tajines, couscous and grilled meats. I ended up going there twice to sample first the gourmet four-course menu and on the next day some separate dishes which had caught my attention on the à la carte section of the menu.

A song for all seas, all ships
A Sea Symphony, Ralph Vaughan Williams

My car and me keep drivin’ into the setting sun

Because of my current official status working on a French government-funded project, I am not entitled to a resident card in Morocco. Therefore, I could not buy the car I wanted locally and obtain a Moroccan license plate for it. So I took the opportunity of a business trip to France last week to buy the exact car I wanted online and second hand. I took three days off work to drive it back down from Montpellier to Meknes.

The road trip was enjoyable driving through Spain along the Mediterranean coast and through the Andalucian Sierra Nevada down to Algeciras where I boarded the ferry for Tangiers.

During the two days I drove through Spain, I set my internal feeding clock to Spanish time, taking a mid-morning sandwich so as not to get too hungry before the late 2pm lunch, which is only the beginning of normal lunch time in Spain. I enjoyed a very dense and concentrated hot chocolate on my first afternoon at the Café de Loló in the small village of Riba-roja de Túria in the suburbs of Valencia, and a glass of equally syrupy sherry wine after my excellent seafood dinner at Restaurante La Esquina in Algeciras on the second evening.

The sea in the Gibraltar Straight was very calm for our morning crossing. After a two-hours'-long wait to clear my car through Moroccan customs, I chose the speedier motorway ride back to Meknes, stopping over in the seaside town of Larache for a delicious sardine tajine sitting along the mouth of the river Loukkos.

On all three evenings of my road trip, I was impressed by the beautiful pink lights developing as the sun set: first in the old part of Riba-roja de Túria village, then overlooking Gibraltar peninsula from Algeciras. As I waited to refill my car's fuel tank upon arriving in Meknes on the third evening, I was gently immersed back into my new home by the pink dusk light and the delicate smell of green orange blossoms.

Adapted from I’m a poor lonesome cowboy
Pat Woods, From the original motion picture Lucky Luke: Daisy Town

Raindrops keep falling on my head

I am excited to report that I have moved on to a new job, a new country and a new culture.

I have taken the role of Science Partnerships Coordinator at the National Agricultural Postgraduate School (ENA Meknès) in Morocco. The position is funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the objective of using research to build the capacity of young African professionals in agriculture, and of promoting ENA Meknès’s excellent training and research expertise. The most exciting prospect is the strong likelihood that I will be able to blog about my work again; keep watching this blogspot!

So I am back on the African continent, but this is the first time I am based in the Arabic world and in a majority Muslim country. I have now spent my first month in Morocco and there is one stereotype I wish to debunk from the start: the sun does not always shine on the land of the setting sun. I think I have only had 6 sunny days since I have arrived in Morocco, first in the capital Rabat and now in my new home base of Meknès. To my surprise, it has been grey or raining hard nearly every day. Outside temperatures have been very cold too in January, hovering between 3 and 8°C for two weeks in a row. However, most uncomfortable is that modern buildings here are meant to stay cool during the hot season; they do not retain heat during winter. I can witness that air-conditioners set on reverse are rather inadequate heating systems. As a result, I find the temperature inside buildings is very cold. We are all wearing down jackets and woolen scarves indoors; some ladies wear a double head-veil to keep warm. My ageing joints are suffering from the cold and damp. Visits to the Turkish baths and long hot showers after sports sessions are the only ways I have found up till now to sustain body warmth.

Another surprising first impression is linked to food. While still waiting for my kitchenware to arrive, I am eating out every lunch and dinner. Restaurants are few in Meknès; snack bars and cafés plentiful. The food they serve is very repetitive and not particularly healthy. I have mainly been served chunks of delicately spiced meat, lots of starch and given plentiful choice options of fruit juices, sweet sodas, sweet dairy products, sweet snacks and cakes. Although the market stalls are rich in vegetables and fresh leaves, I have not seen them very often in my plates yet. It is likely the locals eat their greens at home and go out for big helpings of meat.

With this new phase in my life, I am keen to be active again in improving the potential of African youth in agriculture, explore my new Moroccan surroundings and culture, meet new friends and keep searching for sunshine to warm my body and fibres to balance my diet. 

Just like in the song, although raindrops keep falling on my head, it won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me. 

Raindrops keep falling on my head
B.J. Thomas

Je suis seulement de passage

I have spent the last two months in Paris in a transitory state. I had two months and one week before starting my new job next January. I had been assigned to a temporary position at the French Ministry of agriculture with some minor tasks to undertake, which kept me occupied during the daytime; I had many days of annual leave to claim before the end of the year; and I had a lot of time available over lunch breaks and in the evenings.

My priority has been to see friends and former colleagues again, some of whom I had not met since I had last left Paris more than eight years ago. It was important for me to reconnect with these old friends and colleagues; covid and my posting in far-away China had prevented me from seeing them all these years. Having a lot of free time available outside of my working hours, I spent a good four weeks with all the slots for lunches, evening drinks and dinners spent seeing old acquaintances. In total, I organised 38 get-togethers around food or drinks, taking the time to catch up and spend some quality time with individual friends or couples. Three exceptions: one large Chinese hot pot with former colleagues from my previous job in Beijing; one Chinese-style meal I cooked for six other former members from the Choeur Varenne I used to sing in when in Paris; and one invitation to share an enormous poached salmon with six other members of the Choeur Varenne. 

I was lucky to find a choir that accepted me as a temporary singer for just two months. The group was just forming and happy to get as many singers as possible to bring in new members by word of mouth and to get a choral momentum started. I have been keeping my voice trained and learning new repertoire by Vivaldi at Choeur Altā Voce. I also took the opportunity of my two months in Paris to go see various live shows: three plays, two recitals, two operas and one musical. I got to admire the interior decorations of our historic theatres and the outdoor festive lights in the streets.

I also travelled out of town for long week-ends. I went twice to see my parents in their country house in Southwest France. I went to Montpellier to meet many partners for my future posting, while also seeing more old friends and colleagues. I crossed the Channel for a day in busy London and two restful days in the Kent countryside. I also flew to Barcelona where I discovered a city with a stunning view on the Mediterranean Sea, a love of good food (this grill-restaurant I went to did not advertise its menu but had a glass view from the street showing the interior of its fridge), and more outstanding music inside the magnificent concert hall of the city's Palace of Music.

I have managed to fit in many activities in these past two transitory months. I am now with my parents eating a lot of delicious and very rich food for the end-of-year holidays. 'Tis the season to bake all kinds of Christmas log cakes.

De passage
Graeme Allwright, Leonard Cohen

Nun lässest du deinen Diener in Frieden fahren

My last month in China has been a period of many transitions. While dealing with all the uncertainties of this stressful relocation period, I was trying to keep inner peace and focus on one aim: I would leave China on 19 October.

On Sunday 21 September I produced my last musical service for the Evangelical German-speaking church in Beijing. Having spent close to four years organising the music for these church mini-projects of the Deutsche Kantorei Peking, the pastor and I were both very satisfied by our collaboration to prepare meaningful music for one service every month. In particular, I found it really interesting to look for choral or solo vocal pieces, which would provide a musical illustration of the day's theme or reading, all along the Christian calendar year. Rather self-satisfied by this part of my life in Beijing, I ended this last service with a song aimed at myself: the comforting motet by Mendelssohn on the words "LORD, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace". Some members of the congregation later said they had cried when hearing us sing. For me, that was a sign of success: we had touched our audience with our musical spirituality.

I woke up on my birthday on Tuesday 23 September with sad news: my cousin in France had left me a message overnight announcing the passing of my grand-aunt Odette Laulom at the age of 97. Aunty Odette was the last person still alive from the generation of my grand-parents. Her last two years were painful for her family because she had dementia. On my last visit to see her at the old person's house in the Summer of 2024, she did not recognise me. Upon reflexion, I thought the motet I had just sung two days before on "LORD, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace" was also a fitting musical send off for Aunty Odette. She had spent a lot of time of her married life in the kitchen preparing delicious traditional French food; my grand-uncle insisted on eating a full meal of 10 courses at every lunch and dinner. He would only eat a bite here and there but there had to be soup, fish entrée, meat entrée, fish main course, meat main course, a dish of vegetables, tossed green salad, cheese, cake and fruit at each meal! When I was younger and went to my grand-uncle and grand-aunt's house for lunch, I did not yet realise the amount of work needed to prepare all those dishes and be able to serve a variety of dishes at each meal. We would just stuff ourselves with the delicious food. My brother would take two helpings of soup and already be full. I woud start feeling uncomfortable at the meat main but still insisted on trying out all the cheeses served on the platter, and the cake too! I now realise my grand-uncle's passing in 1998 was actually a liberation for his wife. She could at last have the time to do what she wanted and would only serve the full course of 10 dishes on large family celebrations. Dear Aunty Odette now eventually rests in peace.

During the Chinese national day holiday from 30 September to 4 October I joined a group from Hikers Family to trek in the Tibetan mountains in Danba district of Sichuan province. This being a national holiday in China, there were tourists everywhere. We encountered mass tourism at 4200m altitude and did not like it. A good half of the tourists we encountered on our 2nd day's hike would pay for a motorbike service to take them up the mountain to the photogenic viewpoint and back down again. The problem was that the motorbikes were using the same path as all the hikers, and honking all along so hikers would make way for the speeding and smoke-belching machines. All we wanted was some peace and quiet while walking in nature but that day's trek was ruined by those motorbikes. On the next day, we persuaded the guides to take us on a path that did not lead to a photogenic viewpoint but that was free of motorbikes. We were delighted to walk in peace to our heart's content.

On Thursday 16 October I gave my farewell party with colleagues and friends joining me at Fugue bar in the Zhongguancun university-and-hightech district of Beijing to celebrate five years of work as an agricultural counsellor at the French embassy in Beijing. I served canapés of duck pâtés and foie gras from my home region of Southwest France; we drank 24 bottles of champagne I had slowly stocked over the preceding year for this occasion. I sang a programme of songs on the themes of food and longing due to parting. I started singing a solo and invited other singing friends to join me one by one for a duet, trio, quartet, etc. up to an octet with eight different voices. I was glad so many of my friends from my time in Beijing could come to party with me before I left with the sensation of a job well done to keep French-Chinese cooperation on agriculture going despite the current difficult geopolitical and trade context. 

As planned, I left Beijing on 19 October with a one-way ticket to Paris on the Air France flight. I have started a new temporary job at the French ministry of agriculture's Directorate-General for education and research before heading off to another more permanent and exciting posting in January 2026.

Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener in Frieden fahren
Felix Mendelssohn, Three motets op. 69 no. 1

We'll find such lovely things to share again

It has been three years since covid had prevented me from seeing friends in France freely, especially those with children. End 2020 I thought best not to visit friends so as not to spread the virus. End 2021 I chose not to see anybody indoors and unmasked for fear of catching the virus and not being able to go back to China. Now that I have been fully vaccinated, and having caught covid just before leaving for my holiday one month ago, I felt free this year to go on a big tour of France to visit my friends who were available to see me!

My tour of France was principally centred on the sea, friends and food. I left my parents' country house in Southwest France on 3 January for Bayonne, still on the Atlantic coast and close to the Spanish border. I finally took the time to visit the historical centre of Bayonne which I had not managed to stroll through during the three years that I was stationed in that region from 2017 to 2020. I did go back to the beach in Anglet where I would sometimes go for a lunchtime swim break when visiting my colleagues who were posted there. I also went back to the local restaurant serving delicious and simple local food for a bargain, targeting the armies of builders, painters and carpenters who are constantly erecting new houses on this highly sought-out coastal area.

I rented a car in Bayonne and drove all the way to Nice on the other side of France by the Italian border. There was unfortunately no snow for skiing in the mountains this early winter so I spent all my time seeing friends and former colleagues. My first stop was in Pau from 4 to 7 January. I had seen most of my friends and former colleagues already last winter or when I had left town two years ago. I enjoyed deliciously crafted food at L'esberit and Maynats restaurants. The foody scene in Pau is becoming increasingly elaborate and it is more and more difficult to find an empty table in a good restaurant by chance. Bookings are highly recommended even for the simplest bistro. I managed to be there to see the new year's concert of the Pau orchestra and choir, which I was part of when I used to live there: a great show with lots of jokes between pieces and the usual festive Blue Danube, polkas and other classical hits. This being the 20th anniversary of the new year's concert in Pau, the producer had interwoven the Happy birthday theme into several of the orchestral pieces as a clever leitmotiv emerging from the music all along the concert.

I drove along the Pyrenees mountains to the Mediterranean Sea for my next stop in Agde where I was hosted by Brittany S. with whom I had sung in small ensembles when we both lived in Bangkok in 2009. However, we had met again since then and our latest reunion was in Nairobi eight years ago when Brittany and her husband Bruno C. were driving through Eastern Africa with all their possessions and themselves tightly fitting inside a van. Their small house just by the beach had a marvelous view on the sea and they prepared delicious vegetarian food during my stay there, sharing viewpoints about life with their volubile son Phoenix.

I continued hopping along the Mediterranean to visit my current Beijing colleague Julien B. who was also on holiday at his parents' house in the oyster-producing village of Bouzigues, close to Sète. Unfortunately, there was an administrative order preventing all the seashells to be consumed because of a temporary food safety problem. However, they had prepared and frozen lots of stuffed mussels, a local specialty, before Christmas and I got treated to a delicious home-cooked meal of Mediterranean seafood in Languedoc style.

From Bouzigues, I drove on to Montpellier where I stayed with my postgraduate school batchmate Vianney H. I had last seen him in the Summer of 2020 when I had come to Montpellier for a job interview. I also took the opportunity to meet some of my former colleagues from Cirad, some of whom were on the opposite side of the job interview table last time I had seen them, or with whom I had worked in Vietnam when I was based at ILRI in Nairobi eight years ago. This was an opportunity to share insights on covid management in France, Vietnam, Western Africa and China. To take a break from the feasting of the past two weeks, I had very simple fare of butternut soup and pasta with grated cheese at home with Vianney, who was ridden with flu and had no appetite himself.

I then moved on to Marseille where I met up with Thibault V. whom I had last seen in 2017 just as he had come back to Paris from Cameroun and I was moving out of Paris for Pau. He took me to the Miramar to sample an enormous serving of traditional bouillabaisse fish soup. I had more local seafood with deep-fried squid rings and baitfish, along with lots of olive-based veggie dips the next day in a small provençal restaurant on the old port of Marseille after visiting the exhibition dedicated to Mediterranean food cultural heritage at the new Mucem museum of Mediterranean civilisations.

My last Mediterranean destination was Nice from 12 to 14 January where I jogged along the famous Promenade des anglais, went to visit the sites where Henri Matisse had painted colourful art, went to the opera house for a staged show of Schubert Lieder, and ate more seafood in Mediterranean style. Overall, my trip along the Mediterranean allowed me to taste many facets of the Mediterranean diet. However, having eaten in rather large quantities, it would be difficult to still call it a diet in these circumstances.

After four days' of shopping and seeing other friends in Paris, I took a train to the Western-most part of France in Finistère (meaning, the end of the Earth!) in Brittany. I had more seafood and lots of the local crepes specialty while also meeting with very old friends. I met Thomas V. and his family in Brest. Thomas was a high school student with me in the Netherlands from 1988 to 1991. However, we had seen each other again afterwards, most recently when we were both Parisian in 2016. 

 

 

I then went South along the Brittany coast to Penmarc'h in French Cornwall from 19 to 22 January spent with Cyril A. Cyril and I were boarding together during graduate school in Paris. Although we were not from the same batch year, we kept close contact after graduating to different postgraduate schools. I had visited him in Montpellier and he came to visit me in Bangkok in 2009 but we had not actually seen each other in 14 years. The big surprise was that Cyril happened to live just 50 km away from his graduate school boarding mate Michel D., whom I had probably last seen in 2002, more than twenty years ago!

 

I found it very satisfying to interact freely again with old friends after three years of covid wariness about in-person meetings. I am now back in Paris with my parents but I will still be meeting with many of my Parisian friends in the coming days. This tour of France reinforced my strategy to keep regular contact by email, Whatsapp and post cards with my good friends. Although we do not see each other often, when we do meet, it seems like just yesterday and there is little catching up to do. We just need to exchange the latest news and enjoy our mutual company, until the next time comes to meet again. 

We'll gather lilacs
Ivor Novello, Julie Andrews

Tis the season to be jolly

With covid sweeping unhindered in Beijing, I caught the virus mid-December, which was rather unpleasant and tiring. More distressing: it prevented me from hosting guests for celebratory pre-Christmas dinners and the music we were supposed to sing for the third Sunday of Advent service went unsung because nearly all the singers had caught covid! 

So I was releaved to get out of morose Beijing on 17 December for a few days of duty travel to Hong Kong. It was an opportunity to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law, whom I had not seen in the flesh since June 2019! We shared many delicious dinners in the restaurants which were reopening after the Hong Kong covid spell of last spring. I even enjoyed the rather kitch Christmas spirit pervasive throughout the city: Christmas decorations and lights, carols suffusing out from all the sound systems of malls and lifts, gourmet goods and ingredients in the shops and supermarkets. All these things were sadly missing in Beijing this past month.

The weather was wonderfully sunny during my six days in Hong Kong. I went out for a hike in the new territories with my brother. I took a day off to roam around town and on the bay. The skyline is always impressive and uplifting.

 

 

 

I have now arrived back in France for Christmas with my parents and the rest of my family.

 

 

Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Nana Mouskouri, Christian Christmas songs

While thus we agree, our toast let it be

One of the activities I have taken most pleasure in during my time in Beijing has been singing with a group of men in an octet. I created the octet with seven other singers from the Deutsche Kantorei Peking: four tenors and four basses. We call ourselves "The deep side" of the Kantorei.

We have been rehearsing regularly for small projects linked to the German evangelical church, or to produce our own concerts in bars around town. We sing an eclectic repertoire of music going from Renaissance to modern arrangements of popular music; we explore the German-, French-, English-language repertoires, with some attempts at traditional songs in exotic languages such as Basque. 

Most important for me, this group is also a source of companionship and good fun. Apart from the singing, we also take the opportunity to share a meal and drinks at each rehearsal and after our concerts. 

Not only do we enjoy singing, eating and drinking together, but our audiences also enjoy our performances. We still have to work on knowing our parts better so as to lift our heads out of the scores and interact with our audience; we are told this eye contact is still missing. We will be working on it for our future gigs. We already have two producers who want us to sing again in their venue. 

Despite covid sometimes preventing all eight singers to take part in an event, those who are left still keep singing with glee!

The Anacreontick Song
J.S. Smith, The Hilliard ensemble, The singing club, Harmonia mundi

There, above noise and danger, Sweet Peace sits crown’d with smiles

 

Since I have come back to China in February I have not been able to leave the municipality of Beijing because of very strict covid prevention measures in China. With the situation coming back under control I have finally managed to leave Beijing for a long weekend in the coastal southeastern city of Xiamen.

It was wonderful!

 

 

I must admit that it rained all four days that I was there so the weather was extremely humid, and so was everything one touched. However, the strong downpours made the day-time temperatures more bearable than if the sun had been shining strong. 

 

The hot humid weather, the sound of heavy rain falling on the roof and streets, the lush green vegetation, the seaside air, the mix of colonial and modern architecture, clean streets and public toilets, the delicious local food specialities and seafood, the sound of Hokkien spoken by the older folks... It all reminded me of Singapore. So I felt very much at home on Xiamen island and on its Gulangyu islet.  

 

 

Strolling and getting lost within the array of narrow streets of Gulangyu with its early-20th-century buildings was very soothing. I enjoyed walking for hours without a goal while knowing that I would certainly come accross something very interesting and without ever getting lost on this small islet. At random moments, one would hear the sound of a piano being played in one of the houses or numerous music schools.

 

Sipping several of the local tea brews was one highlight of my stay. Fujian is very famous for its teas.
Sipping tea while admiring old buildings;
sipping tea by the seaside;
sipping tea in a Zen garden:
I had time to reflect on my current situation and plan for other travel projects in China. 

 

 

There is a country far beyond the stars
C. Hubert Parry, Songs of farewell, Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Conifer