The first filming for the DVD and we're off abroad - what fun! Dover-Calais ferry and then nipped into Cite Europe to stock up on wines, cheeses, pate, olives etc and something for a picnic lunch (crevettes, baguette and some superior mayonnaise since you ask - and there's Charles devouring the proceeds!). Thence on to Bruges, checked into the hotel, gathered portable film equipment (that's Charles carrying half of it below!) and out on the town to capture the atmosphere (Charles got hooked into the horse drawn carriages and was determined to record the clip cloppy sound of hooves on cobbles (a pair of coconuts was good enough for us students in Radio Sheffield turn of the 1970s), Arents House Museum where there is an excellent and varied permanent exhibition of Brangwyn's work (centre above), the canals etc.
After Charles finally agreed to stop for the evening we progressed to Den Dijver (just along from Arents House), an absolutely superb restaurant. This is about the 4th time I've been there and it just gets better. Not cheap, but wonderful food, including oysters, great atmosphere, friendly and communicative staff without being officious. No, I'm not getting a backhander for this plug!
Following day we again took to the streets, filming the house where FB was born, the fish market (probably because CM spotted some pretty girls behind the stalls) and then on to St Andrei's Abbey at Zevenkerken which boasts a small Crucifixion window in one of the chapels and 5 double lancets in the Chapter House, all designed by FB. Father Victor Broekaert was our very patient guide, seen here sitting behind the filmmaker. We persuaded Father Victor to speak to camera, I did my twirl along the cloisters and spouted outside and CM did his usual professional job on filming and photographing all the windows and everything else in sight until I stopped him filming the horses in a nearby meadow as just a step too far and not exactly relevant.
Back to town and back to more filming and recording, the Beguinage, St John's Hospital, the main square, chiming of the bells, those horse drawn carriages AGAIN, and it was only the fact that it was finally getting too dark which persuaded the man that it was time to pack it in. Phew! He may surface late but makes up for it the tail end of the day by which time your scribe (a lark) is dead to the world!
Occurred to me that we now had masses of film showing Bruges and maybe it would be a jolly wheeze to add an FB Bio to the DVD. Since Charles was hungry and I was paying, he agreed! We trotted along to a dedicated mussel restaurant only to be told they had run out! But got some in the end!
19th we set off for The Hague where some friends wanted me to inspect a Brangwyn painting. Despite me being somewhat dubious about it, they still gave me sponsorship money (they were aghast at the lack of funding for academic researchers in the UK) and bought us both lunch - that's faith, dedication, devotion for you - whatever it is, I was exceptionally grateful - true friendship probably.
And back to Calais, getting stuck in loads of horrible traffic round Rotterdam so that the last part of the journey was playing catch-up to make the ferry in time, possibly breaking a few speed limits, and CM keeping me awake with banalities and a constant stream of music from his ipod.
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