Between the 17th and 18th centuries, four generation of the Cassini family set out to draw detailed maps of France, and given the poor condition of roads and information available they did an exceptional job of it. The ‘final’ versions of these were published in the years following the French revolution, based on pre-Revolution information, [...]
Our house is on a small hill, overlooking our field below, down to the road about 150 metres away at the bottom of the field. It is a quiet road - a few cars, an occasional tractor, a school bus and so on. Very tranquil.
This morning, in a terrible stroke of bad luck, a car [...]
Pretty impressive don’t you think. The Dune de Pilat is just south of Arcachon, and is the highest sand dune in Europe. One side pushes up against the great forest of the Landes department, as you see, and the other side is a nice sunny beach on the Atlantic coast.
Nearby you have the attractive and [...]
The events in the financial markets last week were so significant that we even heard about them down here. Wow, they must have made some noise. In fact it was the noise of expats worrying about their savings and pensions that we heard first, followed closely by the sound of the dollar crashing into the [...]
For quite a while now I’ve been trying to extract an article about French pop music from teenage daughter. Unfortunately cash hasn’t worked and Mrs B has said that torture is not an option, so the project has been set aside for the time being. Presumably until daughter has a pressing need for a new [...]
Each year during March and April I have to tear myself away from the pleasures of the internet and check that our gites are ready for the coming season. This year we are having a couple of rooves replaced, in addition to the sundry painting and decorating jobs I need to do each year, so [...]
I recently heard a story from another gite owner about someone who visits them each year from the UK, and pays excess baggage charges on their flight so that they can bring a few tins of baked beans and tinned tomatoes with them. Since this excess baggage costs eight euros a kilo, that would mean [...]
We went, we saw, we came back glad we don’t live there.
The last couple of days of our UK visit were spent in Glasgow, in the worst possible weather - cold, snow, sleet and wind. Pretty much the reason why we left Edinburgh many years ago. Edinburgh has the redeeming feature of being very beautiful, [...]
In 1978, in London, a Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was murdered by a poison dart containing ricin fired from the tip of an umbrella. I thought that would be the last time we’d hear about dangerous umbrellas.
Harrogate shopping centre, 30 years later, and a big sign UMBRELLAS ARE DANGEROUS! Free plastic bags were provided [...]
