Prix des Deux Magots 2014…
Prix des Deux Magots… 2014…
It was… a moment…
Of… nostalgia…
Emotions… of expectation…
Where… one would…
Visualise… Sartre…
Sitting… in the corner…
Deep in a… philosophical “débat“…
With… de Beauvoir…
Or is that… only my imagination…
Of dazzling… memories…
Of artistic… literary excellence…
Of… times past…
When the Deux Magots… was home to those literary giants… who lived… loved… argued… debated… drank… breathed… every moment in this legendary café….
It was a priviledge to be invited to this hallowed event… “un prix littéraire français“… where we found ourselves mingling with a most gracious crowd… of the Parisian literary and publishing world…
“Le jury“… the judges… who were preparing to select the winner of “Le 81e Prix des Deux Magots“… were grouped at a low-seated table… all were busy casting their votes for a short-list of “écrivains“… one of whom would be selected to win this most prestigious accolade…
This major French literary prize was created in 1933… on the same day as the more mainstream Prix Goncourt attributed to André Malraux for his œuvres “La condition humaine“… at the initiative of Monsieur Martine, the librarian of the École des Beaux-Arts and the author Roger Vitrac… who decided to create a literary prize on that day… while having an “apéritif” on the terrasse of Les Deux Magots…
That momentous evening… the thirteen member jury chosen amongst a circle of literary friends… voted for the first Prix des Deux Magots… the first laureate being the work of an unknown author Raymond Queneau… for his book “Le Chiendent“…
Monsieur Boulay… the proprieter of the Deux Magots… having learned of the creation of the prize from the morning newspapers… proposed to finance the prize as a means to encourage young promising literary talent…
The rest is history… of the Prix des Deux Magots…
Waiters… with trays of exquisite petits fours… were circulating among the throng of the chattering crowd….
Champagne… flowed…
The jury… flushed with their efforts of a decision… suddenly stood up and announced the winner…
The prize… was awarded to the well-deserved “roman“… “La route du salut“…by Étienne de Montety…published by Gallimard…
The Prix… des Deux Magots…
An… unforgettable occassion…
Not… to be missed…
My moment… in nostalgia…
Furtive… emotions…
Memories… of times past…
Only… too vivid… still…
Did I… perchance…
Glimpse…
Sartre… et… de Beauvoir…
Lounging…
In their… habitual corner…?
Loving… laughing…
Debating…
At… the…
Café… littéraire..
Les Deux…
Magots…?
a.