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Travel Feature
Water4 Brings Aid to Ethiopia -- And A Unique Travel Experience
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- Parent Category: Travel Info
- Category: Travel Feature
- Published on Tuesday, 05 June 2012 18:53
- Written by Film Festival Traveler Staff
There are many ways to experience other countries, especially ones such as the east African country of Ethiopia. But one of the best ways to have a fascinating and meaningful travel experience is to go somewhere and do good as well as interact with the people -- and not just the agents to promote tourism.
Since 2008, the Oklahoma-based charity organization, Water4, has traversed the globe to bring water to at-risk, impoverished areas, and to teach and provide employment opportunities through inexpensive pumps and drilling methods.
One country Water4 has traveled to in recent years has been Ethiopia.
Chef's Tables at the Festival de Cannes
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- Parent Category: Travel Info
- Category: Travel Feature
- Published on Wednesday, 23 May 2012 13:06
- Written by Marion Masone
For years, the official festival dinners for films in the competition at the Cannes Film Festival have been held in the major hotels (the Carlton, the Majestic) or in makeshifts restaurants in the Palais itself.
But since 2011, in partnership with Electrolux, a restaurant pavilion has been created on the Croisette in Cannes. It was the site of the Opening Night dinner, where festival heads Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux dined along with Wes Anderson, director of the opening film, Moonrise Kingdom, and 650 of their closest friends.
The Agora, as the restaurant is called, will host many other official dinners for films in competition, as well as lunches for the juries, since they will need sustenance to contemplate the awards to be handed out on May 27th.
The Legendary Restaurant in Châteauneuf du Pape - La Mère Germaine
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- Parent Category: Travel Info
- Category: Travel Feature
- Published on Saturday, 28 April 2012 13:01
- Written by Jesse Nash & Barney Lehrer
The medieval village of Châteauneuf du Pape in western Provence, France, reigns above the most productive wine appellation in the southern Rhone Valley. The wine by the same name, created by the Avignon Popes in the 14th century, has been prized by generations of wine lovers and is recognized as one of the leading legendary wine regions in the world.
“Châteauneuf du Pape,” roughly translated as "The Pope's new castle," refers to the building (now a ruin) on top of the hill overlooking the village that the Popes built and used as a summer palace during period of the Avignon Papacy (1309 to 1376) and the “Great Schism,” when there were two competing Popes (1376 – 1417).
Forced to flee the political turmoil of Rome, Pope Clement V, a Frenchman, and his French successor, John XXII, created this legendary wine by planting vines around their château and producing some of the medieval world's most famous wines.
The spirit of this historic past continues within the walls of La Mère Germaine, as it celebrates “all things wine.” It is a legendary restaurant where the tales, folklore and history of an incredible wine live on. Although it is called just a restaurant-hotel, it is a lot more than that. It is the soul of this place.
The Popes drank these wines hundreds of years ago -- and the passion for them is even stronger today. So it is fitting that this is the place where today's local aristocracy -- the winemakers of Châteauneuf du Pape and other renowned Rhone appellations -- can meet on any afternoon or evening to eat, drink, talk, argue and wheel and deal.
It is the place where families come to socialize, where wine critics and wine journalists from all over the world, as well as local Rhone Valley characters and globetrotting tourists, come to celebrate the wines of Châteauneuf du Pape.
And they just don't come to La Mère Germaine for the excellent gastronomic fare. They come for a warm atmosphere and a Châteauneuf du Pape/Rhone Valley wine education through tasting some of over 100 different great wines from the region on the wine list.
La Mère Germaine is a wine lover’s dream. Yet, sadly, it almost didn't survive.
First opened in 1922 by Madame Germaine Vion, the chef at the Élysée Palace (the French presidential palace) at the beginning of the 20th century, it was the center of village life from then on.
But in 2010 the place closed down. The owner had financial difficulties, the quality of the food and service was low, and staff morale was glum. André Mazy, its general manager for many years, had quit. It was a “ship without a rudder.”
Born November 5th, 1964, in Toulouse, Mazy (Dédé to his friends) has survived various hardships and has struggled throughout his life. But it never stopped him from living it. He never knew his birth parents, and lost a best friend at a young age. These traumas, devastating as they would be to anybody, perhaps also set him on his life path.
Things got better: he was able to attend the Sorbonne in Paris and finish his studies at the University in Aix-en-Provence. Then there were adventures traveling throughout the world – in the United States, Australia, Thailand and beyond. He had some lucky breaks along the way; meeting the right people at the right time... it was clear that André was going to be successful.
Owning a restaurant, however, was not at the top of his list or even on his mind. He originally wanted to be a police commissioner or a priest, as he felt that his mission in life was to bring justice to the world. Yet he always found work in restaurants, whether as a waiter at a three-star restaurant in Paris, managing a restaurant in the Pyrenees, or food and beverage manager at a top hotel in Bangkok.
In late 2005 André found a position as manager of La Mère Germaine. It soon became clear this was his calling. He became passionate about the village, the wines and the restaurant.
But the place shut down after the owner suffered financial difficulties. In early 2011, the former owner had completely gutted the restaurant and kitchen and it remained shuttered for over a year. André, however, did not want La Mère to sink. He knew he had to save this most important home-away-from-home to so many in Châteauneuf... and beyond.
After intensive legal wrangling, he finally realized his dream -- and bought the place. The story of its resurrection went something like this.
After months of planning renovation and hiring, La Mère Germaine began to come back to life. By May 2011 the doors were reopened, to the relief of the Châteauneuf wine industry.
Today La Mère Germaine once again shines as the “soul of Châteauneuf du Pape.”
When you arrive there, the first person you meet is André. With a big smile, easy laugh and insightful, André (in French, English, Spanish or Italian) will bring an aperitif. Perhaps it will be a small new wine discovery or a local liqueur.
After you settle in to the beautiful dining room or, in warmer weather, the sumptuous terrace overlooking the vineyards of Châteauneuf du Pape, you will be filled in on the latest wine gossip and, of course, tell you about the menu and “André’s Special Wine Selections of the Month,” a special list of excellent but lesser known wine from the region at moderate prices. From there on you will have an afternoon or evening of culinary bliss.
Should you happen to be thinking about going to France for your next vacation, schedule a trip to Châteauneuf du Pape. But you most definitely need to make a reservation for lunch or dinner at La Mère Germaine.
And if you love it so much, you will want to book a room overnight or for a few days. Whatever you decide, André will be there waiting for you.
For more info go to: http://www.lameregermaine.fr/vinswines.html
3 rue de Commandant Lemaitre
500-Mile Dance Exchange Journey
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- Parent Category: Travel Info
- Category: Travel Feature
- Published on Monday, 09 April 2012 23:56
- Written by Joanne Choi
Starting April 10th 2012, Dance Exchange Artistic Director Cassie Meador will embark on a 500-mile walk, launching a new initiative in art and environmentalism. This particular quest will allow Meador to explore various energy sources channeling through her home in Takoma neighborhood of Washington, DC to the east coast of West Virginia and Maryland.
With the help of the creative team in Dance Exchange, it will take approximately two months to finish the journey; it will not only be ecology-based but a physically monitored trip. Joining Meador will be Matt Mahaney, a long-distance hiker, videographer and adjunct artist of the Dance Exchange.
Together, along with the crew, various artists, naturalists, environmentalists, documentarians and partners, will delve into the true assets of the environment such as energy plants, including wind, coal, and waste resource recovery facilities.
The purpose of this project is to promote a community engagement tour in unison with the development of a dance production, How To Lose A Mountain premiering in Spring 2013. It will illustrate how one can unite with nature and save the earth by coming to understand the very essence of such natural resources that one uses and possibly take granted for in his/her daily life. This voyage, being a physical one, may help one comprehend the necessary means of fusing art and science creating a whole, new different approach to the world, humanity and to one’s everyday surroundings.
The 500-mile walk will be carefully documented on the website: http://www.500miles500stories.com/ allowing viewers to experience for themselves and share with others about their travel stories.
On April 10, the day the walk begins, Dance Exchange will perform and host an interactive story collection workshop at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Dance Exchange-led programming will occur at additional university campuses and community centers along the walk route.
This programming includes: a story collection workshop, called 500 Miles/500 Stories, that will encourage participants to reflect on the distances in their lives; and a series of Moving Field Guides, outdoor movement workshops where participants will learn the value of their local ecosystems through walking and dance.
Major support for the Moving Field Guides comes from the U.S. Forest Service. Additional support and partnerships for the walk include the National Endowment for the Arts, the MetLife Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council, and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Girl Scouts of America, Glen Echo Park, the McGuffey Arts Center, James Madison University, Virginia Tech, Workspace for Choreographers, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, the FLOC Outdoors Education Center and the Claytor Nature Study Center.
The stage work, How To Lose a Mountain is a National Performance Network Creation Fund grantee and a co-commission of Dance Place in DC and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan Wisconsin. In partnership with USA Projects, Dance Exchange has launched a fundraising campaign to reach $10,000 by June 22.
For more on this campaign, visit http://www.usaprojects.org/project/500_miles_500_stories.
About Cassie Meador
Cassie Meador is a choreographer, performer, educator and Artistic Director of the Dance Exchange. In recent years, Cassie’s choreographic investigations have tackled numerous social and environmentalissues through the synthesis of movement, sound, and striking visual images. Drift, her 2008 work commissioned by the Kennedy Center and recognized with a Metro DC Dance Award, explores the human relationship to land over time. Her current choreographic project, How To Lose a Mountain, will incorporate a 500-mile walk from Washington, D.C. to West Virginia to trace the sources of the energy that fuel her home.
Her Moving Field Guides, an interactive experience led by artists, naturalists and regional experts in ecology, is being implemented in partnership with the USDA Forest Service. Born in Charleston, SC, and raised in Augusta, GA, Cassie received her B.F.A. indance from The Ohio State University. She joined Dance Exchange in 2002 andassumed the role of Artistic Director in 2011.
About Dance Exchange
Dance Exchange breaks boundaries between stage and audience, theater and community, movement and language, tradition and the unexplored. Founded in 1976 by Liz Lerman and now under the artistic direction of Cassie Meador, Dance Exchange stretches the expressive range of contemporary dance through explosive dancing, personal stories, humor, and a company of performers whose ages span six decades. The work consists of formal concerts, interactive performances, specialized community residencies, and professional training in the art of community-based dance.
An artist-driven organization, Dance Exchange employs a collaborative approach to dance making, administration, and implementation. Representing the multiple artistic voices of Dance Exchange, recent and current choreographic projects include explorations of coal mining, genetic research, radical prayer, human rights, particle physics, geology, and rest in a hyper-driven society.
For more information please visit: http://www.danceexchange.org/ or http://www.500miles500stories.com/
