| Content | Silvestr Hipman recalls in an essay entitled "With Poets at the End of the World" a trip to the French Camaret, where he went together with other Czech compatriots (Petr Křička and Milan Janů) in June 1932. Jan Zrzavý also took a liking to the place, and later Bohuslav Martinů and Stanislav Novák also visited.
SH describes his journey through Holland, where he attended a successful performance of the Prague Teachers' Singing Association in Amsterdam, and on his way to the Camaret, in addition to Antwerp and Brussels, he stopped in Paris, where he met Bohuslav Martinů [c. 21 June 1932]. SH reminisced about his meeting with Martinů in 1926 and his then lodging with Václav Nebeský, and also recalled another meeting with BM and his future wife Charlotte on the way to the Paris premiere of The Bartered Bride in 1928.
This time he found Bohuslav Martinů at home on rue Mandar at work and was invited to lunch by Charlotte Martinů. They talked a lot about Paris and Prague. Martinů was also thinking about a trip to the Camaret, which he already knew from Jan Zrzavý's stories. After lunch, BM still accompanied SH back to Montparnass (where SH was staying) on his way to the Boulevard Raspail, where BM needed to buy gramophone records. On the way, SH took a few more photographs of BM [see the B. Martinů Institute's photo collection]. SH then headed to visit Jan Zrzavý, whom he caught just before leaving for Prague for the Sokol meeting. |