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Often in the afternoon, especially when it is raining like today, I will wander into our bedroom, lie on the bed and turn on the TV. I flip through the many channels and, except for an occasional home decorating show-many of them from Quebec-or a cooking show, I usually settle on an old tried and true Hercule Poirot written by Agathie Christie and done so well by, I think, BBC. I know the endings of all of the ones shown here, plus they are all dubbed into French. My husband always asks me why I am watching the shows again and I’m really not sure. I love the actor who plays Hercule with that waxed moustach, prissy walk, the sharp mind and kind eyes-I guess it is comforting, like a meeting with an old friend. I am especially drawn to the art deco buildings that they have in so many shots as well as the furniture and clothing. The women all have those hair dos that must have been done the old fashioned way with hair pins and air drying. The hats are fabulous, as are the accessories. I just love looking at a scene and spying some great jewelry or a really fantastic dress. I wonder at the scenes with old cars up and down the streets, people in clothing from the 20’s walking along, as Hercule gets out of an old taxi and marvel at how long it must have taken to set the scene up. One show even has Hercule flying over the Channel to France and I recognized some streets in Montmartre.
I went through a period, some years ago, of reading every Agatha Christie book I could get my hands on. I eventually got tired of her style and moved on but I did find her personally very interesting and enjoyed the movie, “Agatha” very much in which Agatha, after her husband leaves her for another woman, something that happened to her in real life, disappears for ten days. She was finally found in a hospital and she said she was a victim of traumatic amnesia. She eventually remarried an archeologist and traveled extensively with him to his sites becoming an expert herself in it, helping him excavate. Many of her stories are set in Egypt.

Sideroads of Europe