June 2026. Yerevan. Armenia.
After three years of delving ever further into eastern Europe and onto the Caucasus, you learn not to have too many preconceptions about countries you only know from Eurovision and the preliminary rounds of the Conference League.
Behind our “Boutique” hotel, a small hut sells fresh fruit and veg for pennies (well, drams),
but continue past this astonishing fascia,
and you’ll find supermarkets to match Waitrose, often selling Russian imports like this favourite at ambitious prices.
A post-Soviet country of 3 million is going to have a lot of extremes of income and wealth, but it was striking how smart and busy the restaurants, all with outdoor seating, seemed on a Sunday evening.
Clean (no takeaway wrappers), modern and shiny,
with some expensive looking cars across town.
Still a bit too mucg traffic if I’m honest, and the green man gives you barely 10 seconds to spring across the road,
but the buildings are holding up pretty well.
Mrs RM had got rid of all the bars and restaurants from her Yerevan tick list, and replaced the camels with goats, which is something only she can explain.
The Moscow Cinema site is home to the Charles Aznavour tribute. I have one of his (double) albums in my collection, but it’s in French so I’ve never played it. What a great voice, though.
I popped in to admire this sculpture,
no doubt based on a famous film (probably Rocky IV).
But the most striking thing wasn’t the building, it was how classy it all looked, from ticket office to popcorn machine. Never mind the Soviet legacy, Armenia knows how to make a night at the cinema special.
retiredmartin 
Can I use “it’s French so I’ve never played it” next time I visit my brother in France, please? I’ll have to carefully prepare a sentence, though. Oh, I know! Petanque! Though to be truthful I’ve never played it because I have lousy hand/eye coordination.
I have a Françoise Hardy album and have played it many times. What a voice!
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This is such an interesting insight. I only ever knew one Armenian person, a lovely young lady who taught us “Time Together” stuff, an initiative so volunteers could help refugees with their English. The Gov disbanded it some months later sadly.
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Lana, Armen the Armenian lived across the road from us, at number 2, thirty years ago but he very much kept himself to himself.
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I have neighbours a few doors away that for the last 14 years have not wanted to say hello to anyone let alone anything else. British folks.
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Was his middle name Ian, Paul?
I used to work for an Armenian lady on occasions. She was wonderful.
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