Recovering from injuries in the village ofThree Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec,has found a peace he’d only imagined possible.
Until his friend Clara seeks him out, when her artist husband fails to come home.
Together with his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, a group of the regulars goes on the road to solve the mystery of the disappearance.
There’s far less action than usual. More philosophy.
Though different than the usual Gamache fare, I still enjoyed the book.
Of the places in Andalusia I visited November 2022, Cádiz is the least popular tourist destination.
I was still pleased to have seen it.
Cádiz is a rocky, long, narrow peninsula, popular with sailors and fishermen for thousands of years. In fact, that Italian (Columbus) set sail from here on his second voyage to “India”. He was financed by the Spanish Crown.
By far my highlight was the Castle of San Sebastián, the fortress in the sea. That connecting levee was built 1860.
At dusk I’d take my wine to enjoy sunset.
There are good beaches, deserted in November.
Cádiz Cathedral was decorated for Christmas
Clearly they don’t have the budget of the BIG European cities.
The central food market is a highlight for sure. I’ve never seen so many varieties of fish and seafood. PHOTOS.
Most days I simply wandered the old town. Snapping photos non-stop. Here are a few samples.
I love the look of the simple fishing boats at low tide.
I got lucky having one day of overcast. Rare here. But it makes for more interesting skies.
I would recommend you visit Cádiz.
P.S.
The longest bridge in Spain is here. La Pepa, opened 2015. But I didn’t cross it nor could I even get close enough for a good photo. This pic is from Wikipedia.
I’ve read them all — and now have to wait at least a year for the next to arrive.
My favourite character is Henry Meloux, the Ojibwe healer who is well over 100-years-old.
Each book, we fear might be his last.
Fox Creek follows Henry non-stop for the first half of the book — so is excellent.
The second half tries to wind-up the mystery. And is less good.
Too convoluted. Too many characters.
Krueger:
“It’s really Henry’s book, although he is not the one speaking,” Krueger said in a recent interview.
… The last contemporary novel in 2019 left Henry in a precarious situation. Both he and Stephen had envisioned his death. I had to think about what I would do with that.”
Krueger said this book needed to focus on Henry, but he had never told a story from Henry’s perspective. To do that, Krueger uses other characters to unfold the mystery and describe their connections to Henry. …
Picasso opened his morning newspaper on April 27th to find images of the destruction of Guernica. It had been bombed by the Nazis at the request of Francisco Franco.
All that said. Much of Picasso’s hundreds of pieces of sculpture, ceramics, drawings and paintings hold no appeal for me. He worked fast. Had fun. Loved to be contrary. And many of those experiments didn’t work.
I saw many of those failed experiments in the Picasso museum in his hometown Málaga, Spain.
One day, in a pile of objects all jumbled up together, I found an old bicycle seat right next to a rusty set of handlebars. In a flash, they joined together in my head. The idea of the Bull’s Head came to me before I had a chance to think. All I did was weld them together…
Don’t be fooled. This man was one of the great artists.
FREE —for tips — City Tour here is excellent, as they all are in Andalusia.
I did take a speed walk through the Museum of Malaga.
I like Pablo Picasso and learned a lot about him at the Picasso Museum. Very prolific. Very experimental. A super talented painter, a childhood prodigy. He was born in Málaga.
The Phoenicians originally came here to mine salt. And found it easy to defend from the Gibralfaro, a 130 m (427 ft) high foothill, from which the Gibralfaro Castle [es] and the Alcazaba fortress overlook the city.
It’s a great spot to watch sunset.
Here’s the Alcazaba, down below.
When the Romans got here, they built in an amphitheatre.
Rick McCharles 