Deník z Angoulême - 15.

Thursday, 30.
I meet that vagabond again. He´s wandering the streets of the Old town as a begging ghost, he collects junk, peeps into dustbins.
In his hunderd-years-old cloth in natural colours he would fit in some historical movie.
He emanates some special pride, almost a grace. In past eight years he didn´t change at all.
Then, I met him again...











He looked at me in surprise and he took the bill without a word. I felt embarrased, as if I had insulted him. Maybe he´s neither a beggar, nor a homeless. Maybe he is Saint Cybard.
I should have asked.

Two of three apples I have picked on the island on 3-rd of August survived in a good shape until now. I add more apples and bake a pie.

I´m walking around MDA and I´m saying goodbye.

- Hi, Lola! Do you want some pie?

I´m cleaning, packing, saying goodbye. First at Place du Minage, then at our place and finally at a bar which is open until night.





Friday, 31.
So, let´s go home, to Zeman, to Babiš...
(Czech president and prime minister)

- Just wait, we´ll meet again!
- When I´ll miss all this, I will go to IKEA!








It´s easy to go down the hill even with two suitcases.

- Oh no, that´s you, Fanny!
- What a coincidence! My sister just arrived, we´re having lunch with Thierry.








Well, here, somebody is arriving and somebody is leaving all the time.

- THE END -

This diary comics was created during August (and September) 2018 thanks to a generous hospitality of Maison des auteurs in a charming town Angoulême.
Namely I want to thank Pili Muñoz and Brigitte Macias, two Captains and Guardians of this unique comics ark.
I greet all the residents and other people I met. Thanks for your warm welcome, your openness and I hope you won´t get upset when you find yourselves in my diary.


Prague, September, 13, 2018

Deník z Angoulême - 14.

Monday, 27.
Just few days left till my departure, so I go shopping some gifts.
- This could suit to Ivana...
- Wow, this is beautiful! I could buy one too...




- Oh, this one is amazing! I´ll buy it for Běta...
- I woun´t find this in Prague.
It would match with my ring...


- This way of double-shopping gifts is quite interesting! I just feel compunction that I spend so much.
- Hello, madame!
- ...and some more compunction that I won´t give anything to this beggar. I just don´t like this one. 

Tuesday, 28. Royan.
With Mat and Nina we are heading to the sea.
Just for two days, to a very simple AirBnB.
- Are there some sheets, please?
- It´s not included. It´s written on the page. But for 20€ I will
bring them.


We are hungry, but it´s too soon for the lunch. But we don´t care, we´re on HOLIDAYS!
We admire a huge modern cathedral form the 70-s.





The sea is of the coffee-with-milk color and it´s almost so warm.

- Do you think it´s poisonous? It´s probably dead, right?

- I think so...

- You don´t have to be afraid of it, it´s dead, likely because of the heat. But if they sting you a lot in the sea, you could even die...








Why is everything so short?

We´re having a dinner in a restaurant la Siesta, where Picasso was supposed to go.
- Well jeez...
- I´m sure he didn´t go only here!
- If he ever was here!

- Sure!
- However, I don´t like cubism!
- Exactly!
- And top of that, he was such an asshole!
Then, with unexpected force, a big storm broke out.
- Wine! Mainly the wine!

- You have to come to me to Prague!
- That´s for sure!
- We will!

Wednesday, 29.
Girls let me have the best bed, but I can´t fall asleep...
- Somebody must have died here or what...

- Did your parents live in this house?
- No, why?

Deník z Angoulême - 13.

 

After eight years I see P. again.

I meet A.



We´re going to see their house - castle, they are reconstructing it in order to move there.
- This will be a storage.
- Here, a guestroom.
- A study.
- Bedroom.
- Dining room.
- Living room.
- Kitchen.
- Room for J.
- Atelier.
- Room for Au.
- In the valley over there is Loire.
- We´ll plant the herbs here.
- This is a windmill from the 17-th century, we will leave it like this for now.

I admire how they go into it with such an energy. It will be beautiful, but when I remember my 3+1 in Prague, where I have just to vacuum, I feel a big relief.

Sunday, 26.
P. takes me to the atelier of LL.
(figurines Les Reveurs)
- They are the only ones who hasn´t change in last 15 years.
- They are beautiful, you should make a book of it.


Close to Doué LL made a wonderful exposition about a history of caves duged out by local people to get stone over the centuries.






Then P. and A. drive me to the meeting point with my return blablacar and we say goodbye. The way back is quick and pleasant.
- How fast did I started to feel home here!

In the evening I write the evaluation of the first driver and I read his one.
- "The journey was good, we had a nice chat, for example about the landscape..."



Link to Le Mystère des Faluns:
http://www.les-perrieres.com/en/le-mystere-des-faluns/presentation-p22.html#

Deník z Angoulême - 12.

Thursday, 23.
It´s kind of a problem with the diary. Again, I have a delay, I wasn´t able to draw fast enough. I tell you the truth: tomorrow I am going home. So since now there will be a time lapse...
I use to draw in the evening. Once, around ten PM, I met Vincent in a lift. Since then I know he´s an owl.
- Jsem z Kalifornie.
- Hollywood, Hollywood?
He draws good and he´s familiar with the computer. He promised to teach me some Photoshop tricks.
- Dále!
It´s nice when someone is so kind and willing.
- ...and then you click here and here! You got it?
- Once more, please!
Maybe some Americans smile just out of habit, ... 
- ... you copy that layer and paste it here and it´s ready!
... but it´s much better than pissed-of Czechs.

Friday, 24.
I go for a walk along the ramparts with Lída.
- We used to live there...
- and over there, we go shopping. Horrible, those shopping centres!


 Ric and Noemi are giving a party tonight.
- Tohle je pro tebe, Lucy!
- To je pro mě moc silné!
- Ty nemáš ráda mezcal?
- Tak to je mezcal? Zkusím to!

Saturday, 25
I get up early morning, because at 7,40 I should be at the rail station. I booked a carpooling with blablacars, I´m going to Angers. They say it works perfect.
7,50
- I just want to ask, is everything OK?
- Y...ye... yesyes, I´m co...coming, blabla...
8, 15
- When will you arrive, please?
- I.. I´m almost there!

Now I understand why he didn´t post the type of his car on his profile...
- Excuse me, I had to pick up the lady...

- You could have called me that you were late...
- I tried to but it didn´t work!
... neither did he put there his picture.

- We must put is inside...

 











- Most important is not to make him even more nervous unless we´ll have a crash...

- You are from which country?
- From Czech republic.
- I see, I know, it´s East Europe, just next to Croatia, right?
- Well, almost. Croatia is a little further...



- She might be of my age...
- I´m his aunt. We´re going to a wedding of one cousin.
- You have a beautiful dress for that!
- Oh, I will change there...



- Is there a lot of Africans in your country?
- Not so many...
- How is the integration there?
- (attemp to explain the imigrant situation in one sentence)
- And what about the countryside? How does the countryside look like?

After three and half hours...
- Will you drop me off on the place you noticed at the blablapage?
- And that is where?

Deník z Angoulême - 11.

Tuesday, 21.
Today it's fifty years the Russians occupied us. I wish I were in Prague today.

But since it's impossible, at least I go to enjoy the Comics museum.

Claire's going to take me to the archives!

Calvo - Blutch - Rabaté - Sfar

...and then Chris Ware emerges out of the drawer!!!
Special foil covering the picture.
 

... and at the end, the star of stars, Winsor Mc Cay and his dinosaur Gertie. And comic pages of The Rarebit Fiend and authentic sunday pages with Little Nemo!

I'm afraid not to spit or sputter or something like that...

- Beauty! Splendor! Geniuses! I'll never be so good!
- Jesus, stop it! You should have already overcome this competitive thinking!

Wednesday, 22.
Today it's farewell party with Gabri, who's leaving on Friday.





When I got home, little bit tipsy, it happens what necessarily should happen once...

Instead of toothpaste I grab the cleansing milk which has almost the same tube...


But it doesn't taste so bad, after all...

Deník z Angoulême - 10.

Sunday, 19.
I'm going to the City Museum next to the cathedral again.

On the leeward side the little heads on the consoles are preserved.

On the windward side the ravages of time had grinded them.

Angoulême around 1880. Painted by Gaston Boucard, by postcard. (1927)


Why I am so fascinated by the past?


I think Gaston was...

... also a lot...

... nostalgic.

Monday, 20.



















- I think it holds tight...







It seemed to be so giant until we hanged it on our house.

Deník z Angoulême - 9.

In the evening, I go to visit a nice family of C.
- ...quarters you shouldn't go to after the dusk? He was likely to mean XXX or XXX? I used to teach there!

- It's been a lot exagerrated! Ordinary people live there, who have ordinary problems like us...

 - I worked a lot with problematic children. One boy was shot here...

- ...and here.

 - It was supposed to be a warning not to poke his nose into someone's business...

I'm showing C. old pictures from my workshop I had in Angoulême with her students long time ago.
- This boy was such an individualist, talented one, do you remember him?
- Oh yes, Amir! He was fine. But then, he stuck too much to the faith and started misbehave to the women...

- After all, I'm glad I'm here after the dusk...
Again, I was treated with hospitality and now I use them for my diary. But I can't skip everybody and write only about myself!

Friday, 17.8.

There is a mini-shampoo, a mini-shower gel and a mini-soap in the cabinet in the bathroom.They are from the Hilton hotel...

Because Gabri arrived  yesterday from Spain, but in Bordeaux he missed a bus. The only free hotel was...

I like whan somebody is fearless like this. At his age I would go sleep to the rail station...

Saturday, 18.8.
I found a new place for exercise, on a hillside below the ramparts.

I don't have to go down to the river. Long time ago, not far from here used to live a saint man Cybard, the patron of Angoulême...

 For fourty four years he slept in a little cave on a coarse mat, only a stone under his head.
He was contemplating, doing miracles, speaking with animals.

Frederik goes by.
- How come you woke up so early?
- I've seen a kingfisher at the river again!
I would like to get back to the hermit Cybard once more.

I'm going to see Frederik at his studio.
He's drawing at the inclined desk. I should try it.

He likes birds.

He's working on his album about invented prehistory. It's poetic - fun - interesting.

He uses acrylics. The colors are dense, full, than they are transparent, in soft layers. I would like to try it too.

An improvised farewell party  for Noemi, who's leaving after tomorrow. A bit aside is a crazy woman dancing to her mobile phone.

- And you prefer English or French? Mluvíš radši anglicky nebo francouzsky?
- English. Anglicky.
- I'm from Slovakia. Já jsem ze Slovenska.
- What?! You are a Slovakian?!

It seems everybody´s partying, gathering, drinking, eating all the time... it´s a bit too much for me...

Deník z Angoulême - 8.

Wednesday, 15.
- I'm getting a delay with the diary. Now it's Saturday, and the Wednesday is still not ready. And, on top of that, I don't even remember what I was doing on Wednesday.
- Probably nothing much, I was likely to draw the diary; So I'm making a nice circle then: diary about how I'm drawing a diary...
- I wanted just to draw some notes on what's going on by the way, but it griped me and I like it more and more, so when I draw one, two pages a day, there is no more time left.
- I'd better skip to another day!

Thursday, 16.
I'm climbing up to the attic of our house and it reminds me The Sleeping Beauty. In fairy tales, the most magical things are often happening  high in the tower.

I'm going to see Nina to tell my fortune from coffee.
- Yes, it's an old Balcan tradition!

- No sugar, no milk...
- No stirring!

- Let's see...

- I see a bird here, that's good... New thoughts, new things...

- In two days, ot two weeks, an important message will come... but be aware of some hook in it!

- Mmm... this looks like a tree... it's something that needs time, it grows slowly, you can't push it...

- Here is a dragon! To fight the dragon, it's not an easy thing, but the hero usually wins!

- ...and here we have a dog. A guide of a human soul, helpful element...

- This looks like a road. Some man with a backpack and a woman with a backpack. The letter "J"...

Deník z Angoulême - 7.

Tuesday
I'm going to visit Lída, who married into Angoulême long time ago.
- You didn't have to, Lucy! I've bought one just today, you know, Jean-Paul wouldn't buy me flowers!

- Jean-Paul is here, he'll take you over there to have aperitif.
- Shouldn't I better help you?
- Just go, he will explain you everything!

Now i'm already retired, but I used to be...and even now...Do you have a card, too?

France is dead. You understand? Culture - end!

- The taxes are so high that people don't want to work!  I worked hard for my whole life, and now I should feed them?

- We have quarters here, where even the police don't dare to enter after the dusk. No way, France doesn't exist any more!

- So, now we can go to the table.
- Clink, clink!

- Take some more beans, Lucy!
- Macron? Bah! There's absolutely nothing the  parliament can do!
-And which French president was the best, according to you?

- The last good president was de Gaulle. Since then - nothing!

- Wow! They have even this cutlery mat! We had this at home but we never used it...

- Lída told me how you met long time ago in Prague... It must have been so romantic, right?

- We arrived with a friend of mine to check how the socialism looked like. He was socialist, year 68, you understand, not me. When he saw it, he agreed I was right, it didn't work.
- This is my best!
- Thank you!

- Well, I'm going to the meeting now...
- Oh just go, please...

- You've got such a beautiful garden!
- Oh come on, it all have withered...







- And you, what are you going to do today?
- Probably draw something... but after all the wine I hardly do something.

- We'll go out together!
- Shouldn't I give you more pie? Don't you want something? Meat? Cheese?

- ...we had champagne and then Bordeaux, year 2007...
- Podívej se na ní! How her eyes are shining!
- To je roztomilý!