Four-day Franco-Cretan feast
Following the success of last year’s festive activities at Nafplion, the French Embassy and the French Institute in Athens are together organizing another series of events, in Crete this time. Corsican music by the «Cinqui so» band, a book presentation, a photography exhibition, projections of French films and lots of French and Greek delicacies will all be included in the «France-Crete» feast, which starts on Thursday and will run through the weekend. It is being held at Iraklion, Rethymnon and Vori. On the first day, Thursday, at the city of Iraklion, Cedric Klapisch’s film «L’Auberge Espagnol» (or «Euroflirt») will be shown at the Astoria cinema. It is a youth comedy about eight students from different countries sharing a flat in Barcelona. As part of the Year of Physics, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, professor at the College de France, will lecture on physics in the evening. On the same day, at Rethymnon, Roger Coggio’s «Les Fourberies de Scapin,» based on Moliere’s 17th century comedy of the same title («The Trickeries of Scapin») and starring Roger Coggio himself and Michel Galabru, will be screened. Author Francoise Xenakis, whose book «Regarde, Nos Chemins Sont Fermes» (Look, Our Paths are Closed) will give a lecture and sign her books at the University of Rethymnon. At Vori, Corsican band Cinqui so and the «Traditional Society of Rethymnon» will join forces for a concert of traditional music. Cinqui so, which first appeared at the 1991 Printemps de Bourges festival, have earned a reputation for their attempts to renew traditional singing. On Friday, Francoise Xenakis will give a second lecture and do some book-signing at Iraklion this time, in the early evening. Also at Iraklion, Claude Chabrol’s latest movie, «La Fleur du Mal» (The Flower of Evil), starring Nathalie Baye, Benoit Magimel and Suzanne Flon, will be shown at the Astoria cinema, and Alain Glykos’s film «Talk to Me about Manolis» will also be projected, in the presence of the director who will talk about the film. Traditional Cretan and French delicacies will be available from French restauranteur Jean-Pierre Xiradakis, while in the evening, for the young people of Iraklion, there will be lots of music and dancing on the Milatou pedestrian street with DJs Greg de Woh and Ultracolor. At Rethymnon, get-togethers will be held with a Cretan lute player and with Christian Magdeleine, Corsican maker of traditional musical instruments and lute player as well. Cinqui so will perform once more with the Cretan band, and Coggio’s film will be shown for the second time. On Saturday the Corsican and Cretan bands will give a concert at Iraklion while, before the concert, the public is invited to taste French wines and delicious local specialties from Corsica and Bordeaux at Aghia Aikaterini Square, where the concert will be held as well. On Sunday, the festival will end with a football match between Cretan students and students from the Greek-French school in Athens, followed by a wine-tasting session with Cretan and Bordeaux wines. A dazzling fireworks display in the Cretan evening sky will mark the festival’s closing ceremony. Exhibitions Concurrent with the festival but ending on Sunday, an engravings exhibition by M. Drouin on the traditional houses of Bordelais region will be on display at Iraklion. A photography exhibition on Pierre and Marie Curie’s life and work will also be on display at Rethymnon from Thursday to May 17. The exhibition is part of the Year of Physics.
