Happy New Year!

Inglesia de San Bartolome, seen from our roof.

Happy New Year, everyone! (Even if it is the second third week, it's still The New Year, no?)

 Paula and I are still in Seville, Spain right now. We came here every year for Christmas and New Years, until the pandemic. This year things opened up—so we're back! We come for the weather, warmer than Montpellier in the winter. We stay for the festivities, and the beauty of the city. And the exuberance of the Spanish! (Exuberance. Not a word we associate with the French.)

 

Us with Kate, enjoying the park near our apartment.

Joining us in Seville this year were some of our American friends from Montpellier. We spent our first couple of weeks showing them around, introducing them to the joys of Seville. Kate has now returned to Montpellier; Debra will be staying a little longer. Mark and Mary are also here, escaping the Paris winter.

 

New Years Eve dinner; Debra on the left, and that's Mary in the mirror.

This year we had an additional bonus: Our daughter Nina is here with her sevillano husband, Riki. It took almost two years for him to get his Green Card, during which time he could neither work nor leave the US; his mother is very happy that he's back! But he and Nina will be returning to California soon, digital nomads that they are.

 

Nina and Riki join us for lunch with Riki's parents.

Of course, like everywhere the pandemic is still front-page news; we're back to wearing masks outside here in Spain (I'm told the police were stopping unmasked people in the streets). We're being careful, but Omicron is changing everyone’s plans. One of our holiday highlights in Seville is Christmas dinner at the home of Karen and Rich, Americans we met here and long-term residents of Seville. 

This year they were being exceptionally careful. The guest list whittled itself down as people chose to stay home; Karen and Rich had all the windows open; and we all self-tested the morning of the dinner. The remaining guests were highly interesting. We had a very good evening!  

But things are calmer, now that the holidays are over. We’ve passed Three Kings Day, the Epiphany, when the Wise Men (the three kings) visited the newborn Jesus; it's the traditional gift-giving day here. It’s been celebrated, for the past 100 years or so, with a massive parade through the city—until last year, when pandemic lock-downs replaced the parade with a hot-air balloon carrying the Wise Men over the city.

 

The typical floats, throwing the usual candies.

This year the parade returned, but didn’t seem as well attended; I checked it out, and found it not at all difficult to hang back and keep a good two-meter distance (although the rest of the attendees seemed to be unconcerned with the social distance!) While I've always been keen on the parade, this time it seemed there was nothing new; fun for the participants, but I was less engaged. 

So life has settled down: we get up late, hang out in the apartment; eventually walk the ever-interesting streets and find a café in the sun for lunch.

 

Lunch in the shadow of La Giralda, former minaret for the Great Mosque,
 now the bell tower of the Seville Cathedral 

Prices are up a bit this year, it seems, but the tapas are better than ever. In spite of France’s long-standing reputation as the world’s gastronomic capital, we’re finding that the meals here in Seville are exquisite… and not expensive. For 4 to 6 Euros (10, at the really good places) we can get a modest dish of amazing flavors. I can’t speak for the rest of Spain, but here in Seville cooks are doing some pretty fine things. The food in France is consistently good, but also very traditional, and limited (at least in the restaurants we can afford!). Sevillano chefs are stepping out in many different directions, with some wonderful results! 

 

Lunch again! This time at a roof-top restaurant.

Ah, something new on Seville streets: guerilla art! These silhouettes have started showing up on walls around. I’m hoping to find more before we leave. Oh… and see the pillar one of them is topping? I expect they were put there long ago to protect the corner of the building from wild carriages. I hear they come from Italica, the ancient Roman city not far from here. A good example of the re-use of durable materials (that marble is hard!). These corner-protectors are pretty common; I’m collecting photos of them, too.

 

 

The former monastery and tile factory.

At the urging of our American friends from Paris, Mary & Mark, we spent an afternoon at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contempoiráneo, the contemporary arts museum, located across the river from Seville in a former monastery and tile factory. Most impressive to us was the textile exhibit. You think you know something about cloth? 

 

Quite a classic entry way!

But the back wall tells a different story.

Huge sheets of painted canvas aligned... sort of.

Geometric yarn.

And from a different angle!

String art in a former chapel. Note the damped sine waves in red and yellow.

If we had a band, this would be our album cover.

So, what’s next? In February we'll be back in Montpellier. But first… we’ll probably rent a car and explore the area beyond the city. Then, we’ve scheduled a week’s stopover in Valencia. For all the time we’ve spent in Spain we haven't seen much of it. This will broaden our perspective a bit! We’re getting pretty excited about Valencia, a beautiful city an hour or so down the coast from Barcelona. More on that later!

More photos from our rooftop, courtesy of Kate and her new iPhone.