Virtual cruise Lyon to Avignon and Arles

Well, I started the thread, so I made suggestions as how to proceed.

Clearly, when the content got unsuitable for mixed company or indeed unsuitable even for polite all-female company then I felt unwilling to participate.

When someone starts on about all female and only you made any comment about inclusivity I felt that it is like so much of life where most people do not call out discrimination and those who discriminate get their way.

The forthcoming virtual Rhine cruise is being planned to be set up in a discriminatory manner, I just wonder why, as Gransnet is for people over fifty. I am told that most participants of Gransnet are female but democracy is about including minorities, not just about going with the majority or going along with one person's dictat.

Clearly I do not participate in threads about specifically female medical issues, but that is different from a virtual cruise.

I find it concerning that other women did not take a stand against sex-based discrimination in this thread.

Also, that in a thread started by a man, some women decided to make comments unsuitable for mixed company.

Typing? Yes please Urmstongran. I need a posh letter sending to Manu this afternoon. I think he is a bit down in the dumps at the moment.

CaravanSerai

Franglais in perfect. I refer back to the evening ixion was on galley duty. I think we had melted Mivvis and 99s presented on a bed of strained French. Viennetta Vichyssoise anyone?

??? It’s worth looking in even if I’ve got nothing to add. My DH loves Vichysauce.

Franglais in perfect. I refer back to the evening ixion was on galley duty. I think we had melted Mivvis and 99s presented on a bed of strained French. Viennetta Vichyssoise anyone?

I’m not so sure about cleaning Calli. I’ve not really done any for years. It’s against my union rules.
?
#lazygran

Now I could offer to do something gentler and less taxing. Perhaps type up the menus? They’ll be in French I daresay. I’ll have to be careful with those umlauts and accents. I think HM the Queen has her menus typed up in French? This could add a certain ‘something’ or ‘je ne sais pas’ perhaps. What do you think?

StarDreamer

Doodle wrote Perhaps you could read some of the other threads and see how people just chat, that might help you mix in a bit better.

Of course I couldn't have mixed in with a group of women talking in the manner they have been, it is just not done!

As I recollect you chose to distance yourself SD issuing suggestions from the riverbank using a loud hailer like the coach in the Boat Race.

Urmstongran

??
Yes that’ll be my role ... below decks!

Welcome back Urms! So pleased to see you ?
You can take over my job cleaning the heads. ?
Here's a pair of Marigolds and a mop! ??

Ooo, more revellers coming aboard. Lovely to see you Urmstongran and Fanny and any others who join us. We're eating out in St. Tropez today. Trop good an opportunity to miss!

StarDreamer

FannyCornforth

Welcome back Urms!? So very pleased to see you! (In fact, I’ve hardly been posting; but had to when I saw your name!)
I’ll pm you shortly

Hello Fanny I am pleased that you are here.

Alas, there has been pressure to make this cruise all female, notwithstanding that it was started by a man.

Equality not working in both directions! C'est la vie, hey ho! So I let them get on with it!

Too kind SD

Have you seen the swish galley Urms page 34. Joseanne is often down there banging and crashing about with pots and pans and using sailors' language --- then appears triumphant on the upper deck wearing haute couture bearing trays of delicious food. She may welcome some help.

FannyCornforth

Welcome back Urms!? So very pleased to see you! (In fact, I’ve hardly been posting; but had to when I saw your name!)
I’ll pm you shortly

Hello Fanny I am pleased that you are here.

Alas, there has been pressure to make this cruise all female, notwithstanding that it was started by a man.

Equality not working in both directions! C'est la vie, hey ho! So I let them get on with it!

??
Yes that’ll be my role ... below decks!

I think you’ll be an excellent addition to the ships company Urmstongran .
Roger the Cabin boy needs a break.

Ooh yes to food & drink! ❤️

You can contribute to the gourmet bits Urms.
And the drinkies bits - I hear you have experience in both fields, as it were.
We have to reach our destination (is it Marseilles, Skipper??‍♀️) before we reach 1K.

Then we're off to pastures new
(Well, it's Germany, actually, but hey ho.
I think the lederhosen had a lot to do with it)

Welcome back Urms!? So very pleased to see you! (In fact, I’ve hardly been posting; but had to when I saw your name!)
I’ll pm you shortly

Glad you are enjoying it. It's not always that cultured! It's only that we are in St Tropez today which inspired a lot of painters. Painting and sailing boats - two things I love so I'm tad effusive this morning. Everyone else must have gone ashore already, shopping and eating cake. French not obligatory and, as we have learned - Google Translate can be a dangerous thing!

Goodness, this is a very popular thread! Not far off 1k posts so quickly. I’m enjoying dipping into it. Too highbrow for me to join though. I don’t speak French and I’m not very cultured, sadly.

And a later work.

Le Port de St. Tropez, 1923

More Paul Signac.

Sailing boats in St Tropez Harbour, 1893

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I know that's a Matisse called Luxe, Calme et Volupté or luxury, peace, and pleasure - which is very apt here.

À propos of nothing other than thinking about how prolific Signac was and that I’m going to a talk about German Art of the 20C later today (take cover when we get to the Rhine!) - thought I’d share this (bookcover) painting by Marie-Louise von Motesiczky.

Of her life in art, she once remarked “If you could only paint a single good picture in your lifetime, your life would be worthwhile.”

The wonderful late Diana Athill (a hero of mine) wrote about her friendship with Motesiczky in her memoir 'Somewhere Towards the End’.

Oh. I was told the holes were to poke feather ticklers through from behind?

I wonder if anyone has ever created an artwork with a feather tickler? A bit like a quill?

I did like your themed art works CaravanSerai.

This is my contribution, headed, in simple terms -

Ma vie en croûte cruise

Painter was a friend of Signac, inspiration from St. Tropez.

Joseanne

Talking souvenirs, have we room for this grotesque item I found yesterday? I'm still in love with lavender, and Louis XIV, or is that Louis XV, I've worked my way through so many Louis this trip. Anyway, no ample derrières sitting on it please, especially not with St. Tropez sun oil.

Judging by the look of that fabric, I'm not surprised that it needs ventilation holes in the back.