Angers in Frames

Boutché’s transformation, a floating concert, and a pyramid on the horizon

Just dropping in here to say that I captured a photo of the elusive Boutché when I returned to her salon for a trim the other day.

As she was cutting my hair, I pulled out my phone and asked if I could take a shot. We’d never gotten one for my post about meeting her and receiving a great cut while learning about how America came to her home country’s aid in its time of need, and she’d told me by email we could take one when I returned.

But Boutché wanted to fix her hair and put on a little makeup first. So she finished trimming my hair, then disappeared for a few minutes. When she returned, she leaned into the shot and suddenly everything changed and she was a model. I don’t know if she is or ever was one, but that woman (who is always beautiful, makeup or not) switched on when I pointed the camera at her.

I try to get an essay out to you every two weeks or so, but I’m on deadline for a grant application, and I’m headed to Vancouver in a week, so this brief missive may be all I can get to you for a little while.

In the meantime, enjoy this brief respite by Angers’ Lac de Maine. I have yet to swim in it, but it’s on a bus line, so one day I will.

A floating concert! With swimmers tugging their swim buoys across the lake. And people spread out behind me on the sloped grass. And kids playing in the sand.

The Lac de Maine was created in the 1970s on the site of a former gravel pit.

Violinist Anouk Morel and pianist Robin Rivoire present JANGADA. (Click on the video above for a listen.) For a long time I wondered what was making the raft float around… and then I realized a man in the back was gently pushing it to and fro. The swimmers had just swum their last lap behind the raft.

A view of some buildings in the sunset across the Lac de Maine.

They’re building a pyramid at the Lac de Maine. From the signage, it looks like it will have a restaurant and sports facilities, among other things.

And back in downtown Angers, here is an automated pizza machine. I did not try it out.