NEW FRENCH FRIENDS

     Four of us recently traveled to Josselin, a small town in Northwest France.  Our house's walls were thin and the bathroom doors did not shut completely. We got to know each other quite well.

   We got acquainted with the neighbors too. It was easy as smiling and saying, "Bon jour!".  Everybody seems to do that there.  
    Imagine  saying "hello!" to everyone you see.  Maybe we should all start doing it today.

    Brigitte's place is right on Main Street's sidewalk (from third floor down, Brigitte, Martha, and Francesca.  I am in the guy in the road with the camera). 
  I could sit on the living room couch and have conversations with people passing by six-feet away.

   I quickly connected with the Atelier Scotto (furniture craftsman) across the street.  Taking twenty steps from our front door I could be watching him restore delicate gold leaf to the legs of an antique chair.  

   His girlfriend, Elma, helped us clean Brigitte's house (it had been empty for a year). The young mother with the infectious smile told us she was looking for work.  Elma recently lost her job when the town's  slaughterhouse closed down.


    We also became friends with Henri Pierre, a  local sculptor.  We watched him turning brushes into people and clay into whimsical marmots. 
     

   His gallery/studio is a shining example of the artist havens many of us loved in the Grove years ago. It may take some time for the fat cats to chase the artists out of Josselin.


     This lovely storefront is the home of our new friend, Stephanie. She makes sculptures and furniture out of recycled, corrugated cardboard. Isn't it great that there is still a place for the unique artists of the world.

   
   Peter Stein is another one of them.  All he wants to do is live in the world's most picturesque place, eat terrific French food, and teach the world to sing the world's most beautiful (15th century) music.  He's doing that.
     He and his partner live in a lovingly  restored mill house a half-mile west of town.  Their dreamy bungalow sits in the middle to the River Oust, reached by this bejeweled-by-flowers bridge. 

 The five of us shared wine and stories as the mill's wheel turned lazily behind us.




 

Peter is now the director of the town's Catholic church choir.  He invited us to come hear his group practice.  We went the next night and learned  that his enthusiastic singers are between the ages of 60 and 94. 

Looking back at Josselin from Peter's island.
   

Here is a short clip of his group, "The David Stein Experience", in the choir room at the abbey.
(Some of you let me know that you can not see my most excellent 15-second video of seniors singing Mozart.  Sorry.  I'll try to fix the problem when I can)

        
 It was one of many special moments on our Get the Heck Out of Miami Summer Tour.
                        _________________
    
   

ATLANTIC CROSSING

     We were having dinner with friends last April when one mentioned, "I'm going to my house in France this summer. Do any of you want to go?"  Three of us took her up on it and we landed in Europe last month.      Me and my three roommates at Brigitte's place on Main Street, Josselin, France



 The Grove guy pretending to be a French guy
  It's hard to resist Brigitte's place in Josselin, a medieval village in central Brittany. We've been there twice before and can't get enough of the green hills, friendly people, and the fresh-baked bread from the local boulangeries.
    







A river runs through it,
 
              Martha, Francesca, and Brigitte enjoying evening show on the River Oust

just next to the Duke of Rohan's castle 
When its flag is flying the duke is home.
     


  Occasionally we'd wake up to the clip-clop of a horse passing by. 
    Every morning I would step out onto the timeless, cobblestone street

and feel so lucky to be there,  surrounded by cherished old buildings and sixty-degree air.  How un-Miami is that? 
    
   It is good to leave home and to see how other folks live.  Bring back the good ideas (couldn't the Grove use a bakery?)  and be thankful to leave the bad ideas (Paris, can you tell your street drunks to shut up after midnight?) behind.

     In Josselin, a plumber spent three days installing a bathroom in the townhouse across from ours. It was a big job as the 300-year old structure had never had one. The outhouse in the tiny backyard had been adequate for centuries.
     We asked him if he could replace our kitchen's broken faucet in.  He did it the next morning for eleven dollars.

      That's how it is in Josselin.  A plane, train, and a bus ride away.  You could go there tomorrow.  Brigitte rents her 4-3 for the price of a campsite in the Keys.  

 If you want something of your own,  this 500-year old beauty on Main Street (next to the castle) is selling for fifty-five grand. 

    Like Brigitte's place, it is a one-minute walk from the town square, a spectacular Gothic cathedral, and six restaurants that you'll never want to leave.
      Miami has its own kind of magic but for a month we got lost in the wonder of places far away and somewhat forgotten.       Sunday Concert, Town Square
       
 I'll be writing more about them in the days ahead.
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MOONING MIAMI

         Kids do crazy things. When I was in high school the ultimate insult was to drive past someone with your bare butt protruding from a car window. 

We called it "mooning" and  developer Michael Simkins is about to "moon" everyone in Miami.
     




The Miami Beach resident is asking the City of Miami's permission to build a 633-foot tower in downtown Miami. It will have two-acres of LED panels that will blast TV ads in every direction for 25 miles.  It will be ugly, horribly distasteful, the ultimate statement in greedy commercialism. 
     

   Simkins will be making tens of millions of dollars every year beaming ads from his perch in the sky.  He will be mooning Miami 24-hours a day.
   It's the craziest thing I ever heard of but it just may happen.  If it does we'll have to look at Simkin's daunting derrierre for decades.

    On June 25th and 28th,  the City of Miami commissioners will vote to allow it or not.  It could be a whole new take on the old song, 
"Moon Over Miami".
  
You can help stop this from happening.  Call or e-mail city and county commissioners now.  Don't let them tell you, "It's not in my district so it's not my problem". 

 If Simkin's tower is allowed, it will be everyone's problem.
                       __________________

For information on contacting City of Miami officials, scroll below and look at my June 7th entry,"Innovation Tower, Let's Stop it!".

LIVING IN A DOCTOR'S OFFICE

   Three weeks ago I wrote about how most of the Grove's new houses look like doctor's offices.  Some of you commented on the white boxes while others sent me photos of
bad versions of "Miami Modern" invading your neighborhoods.

This cold-looking warehouse replaced three cottages -S. Rose
In the late 70's I lived in one of them.
The "warehouse", at the corner of Coacoochee and Chucunantah, just went on the market for $2.8 million.
It's best feature is the mango tree to the left.  It was the star of my 1978 film, "Mango Madness".

Some idiot built a McBox across the street from me.  This is what I see out my front window now
 - G.  Thorn


They torn down my mother's house on Aviation Avenue.  It was a wonderful place and now its going to be some big white thing - G. McDanial
The house on Aviation as depicted in this painting by Grove artist, Lynn Fecteau.


 




These houses remind me of military fortifications, a good place to park a Hummer  - H. Pancoast


 

We need more physicians working in Coconut Grove.  Let's pass a law saying that these "doctors' offices" can only be used to practice medicine-  A. Neale
   
 This house, just east of Burger King, has a novel carport, one with  no roof -  V. David


       


Saving the best for last, a huge, white box on Kumquat has a toilet that backs up to a street window.  No one has occupied the house so fortunately we've never seen this privy in action.




We've got such unique, beautiful houses in Coconut Grove. We need to beef up our historic preservation laws to protect them- C. Ferrer

 

 I couldn't agree more. 

     Things change but we've got to hold on to our past too.  I can't imagine our colorful village morphing into what looks like a kingdom of cardiologists.
                 ________________________

  

WE'RE LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD TREES

      Know any good ones?  We're looking for a few to include in our 2015 Great Grove Tree Tour. In a few months we are going to ride bikes to see the trees that made the Grove 
famous.
          

       
    Your nominations could be large, small, or in between. "Distinctive" is the quality we're looking for.  Maybe yours has a story, like the one your great grandfather lashed himself to to ride out the Great Storm of '26.  

      Each tree must be  accessible to the public and located in Miami's garden, Coconut Grove. Flowering trees are okay but we prefer the ones that enchant year round.

     Things will be looking up on our tree tours this fall, especially with your help.
We'll be having two, one for the south Grove and another for the north.  If you're aware of a special tree let us know about it. 

 "Tree Tour Central" at bettermiami1@yahoo.com .
                           ________________



Bougainvillea vines taking over the canopy of an oak in the south Grove.

WE CREATED A NEW PARK YESTERDAY

   After twenty years of promises, activists created a
new park yesterday. Dan Paul Park now sits proudly on Biscayne Bay, just east of the American Airlines Arena.  More than two hundred people showed up for the event including three  commissioners. All expressed their support to do more than dedicate this forgotten land to the departed park advocate. They said, "Let's make Dan Paul Park permanent!"
    We applauded and when we were there yesterday, it really seemed more like a park than a parking lot.

  Dozens of us marveled at the light sparkling on Biscayne Bay.  Many had
come on bicycles,

 







kids played,







and one young woman led a yoga class.



       
If you went today, it might be look like it has for twenty years, a locked up parking lot. But eighteen hours ago it was a vision of what it should be.
   We had a great time. It was an exciting park on the water, the one we were promised two decades ago.
                              _______________



        After county commissioner Xavier Suarez expressed his support for Dan Paul Park, he reminded us that it was next to our fantastic new art museum.  "Today is Second Saturday and it is free to everyone!"  .



We took his advice and enjoyed the luscious walk north to "PAMM".  






We had lunch on the bay and enjoyed a brief tour of the current exhibit.

It's always a thrill to be there.

       I got a kick out of seeing this island version of a Mercury space capsule.  Inside was a lawn chair for the astronaut and a styrofoam cooler for beer.

It was a busy day but it didn't stop there.  A few hours later Wynwood was having its Second Saturday Artwalk celebration. Yeah, it was an exciting street party for thousands but for if you wanted to see great art, the Perez Museum was the place to be.  

It's easy to find, just north of Dan Paul Park.

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                                ________

My wife, Francesca, had the final word in Sunday's Miami Herald article on our "takeover",

 

LET'S CREATE A NEW PARK TODAY

      Want more park space in Miami?  Help us turn a bayside, 3-acre parking lot into a park, the one we were promised 20 years ago. Gather with us at "Parcel B"  the vacant land between the Arena and Biscayne Bay today at 11 a.m.  Sadly, it is now a paved lot and county may put it a museum there if we don't act.

       When the public voted to allow Miami Heat built their arena on this public land, we told Parcel B area would become a  park. The county and our city governements never followed through. 

 

       Parcel B is now a paved parking lot, just east of the arena. This is what the view should be.

  After waiting two decades the people will dedicate this land to departed activist, Dan Paul. There is also a bike ride rally leaving for the gathering from the Viscaya Metrorail Station at 10.

      This morning at 11:30 a.m., citizens, tired of being screwed over by government officials, will turn "Parcel B" into Dan Paul Park.  It will be an outstanding Miami moment. 

      Bring your dog, frisbee, a picnic lunch, and help us give the people what they were promised.

     We hope to see you there.

                          ________________