Perhaps one of the most delicious reading passages can be found in Marcel Proust’s Swann’s
Way. His remembrance of eating a Madeleine.
A glimpse of a pleasure he can't identify.
…“I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a
morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched
my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the
extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure invaded my
senses”…
“Tea and Madeleine” & “Aunt Leonie's Sofa” by David Richardson
But Messieurs Proust and Swann not only found their pleasures in eating Madeleines. For the French had a bit of well established joy that was wedged between the responsibilities of work and the duties of family called five-to-seven (le cinq á sept). A little bit of lost time in the early evening hours. Alas, that bit of five-to-seven frivolity was severely shattered when a character in Françoise Sagan's 1967 novel La Chamade sighed-
“…In Paris, no one makes love in the evening any more; everyone is too
tired…”
According to La Sagan it all had changed. Tant pis.
That little bit of pleasure should be
revived. I'm not advocating anything
untoward-as you read everyone is too tired-but I wonder if five-to-seven could
be reinstated to mean a bit of stolen time.
How much more agreeable you might
be if you inserted a little five-to-seven into your day?
Switching off, as far as the I-(know everything) phone knows,
you could be lost in a dead zone. Perhaps
a drink, or tea and Madeleines, and the company of an interesting friend? Don't
take friend as a euphemism five-to-seven is most fun if the agenda is
uncomplicated.
Of course every secret pleasure
is heightened if it has a taste of the forbidden so it gives me great joy to know that the I-(know everything) phone
thinks I’m stuck in a dreaded mobile dead zone...when all along I’ll be roaming
blissfully and having un doux petit
rêveur.
À bientôt.
7 comments:
When Marcel Proust dipped his madeleine into a cup of tea, a work of literature emerged. When I dip my madeleine into a cup of tea a soggy mess emerges. Just shows you how food and memory are linked.
Love the post and the images;-)
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ~Marcel Proust
The new hours for love in the afternoon are 2 to 4...so I been told ;-)
Mais je viens de me marier, alors qui sait ce qui va se passer dans vingt ans.
Love the post!
Tante Leonie … rest in peace; bakers rule the world.
Post and images, delightful.
Fine post, and link. Can’t wait for the book!
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