Feast Blog

And can’t afford it?

Move to France…

This is very quick commentary which made me chuckle. As reported in this morning’s BBC news, the French government "says interest-free loans will be offered to ‘modest’
buyers to purchase works and it is expanding incentives for companies
to buy."

I love it. I want to buy art but can’t quite afford it. Full report here, but the gist, under the scheme, is that members of the public will be granted interest-free loans worth up to 10,000 euros ($15,000, £8,000).

Mrs. Christine Albanel, the French Culture Minister, said the idea was "to bring private individuals closer to
this act of buying a work of art" adding that the loan "was the price,
for example, of a flat-screen television".

Brilliant idea – replace very flat-screen television with a great work of art in everyone’s home!

On my last day in Barcelona, I was wandering the Gothic quarter’s area where the antique stores reside. Having mostly eaten my fill (okay, not really) of tapas, I found a restaurant intriguing enough to warrant dinner as there was Kangaroo Carpaccio on the posted menu. While I wanted to get to some of the more noted establishments like Rías de Galicia, I figured I would have decent luck getting my traveling companion somewhere relatively close to our hotel…

Well, it *was* an adventure, I will grant that. We ordered a 2004 Genium Priorat and proceeded to order. Gee, a salad with pine nut ice cream? That sounded promising! Look at the picture and note the addition of peanuts and raisins in the salad — it will become a recurring theme. Actually, the salad was not that bad; the addition of the pine nut ice cream was quite interesting. There was also sliced tomato, Asian pear, kiwi, cherry tomatoes, and a flower. It would make for an interesting interesting intermezzo in a large-coursed meal (well, the ice cream part, anyway).

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