I was born Here. That’s what I was repeatedly being told. Also, I lived Here because Here was best for everything. Primarily because the schools were really good. Of course, Elsewhere, it was warmer, nicer, cheaper, more colourful, and definitely more exciting, more interesting. Elsewhere was, in one word, better. That is...
We are in March 1949, on deck of the Albertville. The captain’s voice, laced with feedback, sweeps across the windswept decks : “Get ready to salute our sister ship the Gouverneur Galopin. She will pass port-side”. We must be somewhere midway through the trip, then. The Azores and Tenerife. Land ahoy!...
Sail through the Equator, and Neptune himself will welcome you to the seafaring community! Become one of us salty seadogs. Harr. Or something. A short interview by the assembled jury of Neptune, his wife, kid, and the confirmed members of the nautical fraternity. There will be of course a few...
Very little seemed more of an out-of-body experience than listening to my mother, her sisters and their mother talking about “Taking the Boat”. It was never this or that ship, this or that year. Just “On the Boat”. Practically speaking, any of it seemed that special to me. After all,...
We take for granted the copper of our electrical lines, the iron in our concrete, the rare metals that allowed us to engineer mobile phones that fit in a suit pocket. But all of it starts with finding the ore. True enough, digging up ore is a millennia old activity....
All of it stopped when my grandmother died. It did not have to, but there was an inevitability to it. Maybe because they were doing it for the kids, not so much for themselves. And when the reason went, the endless days and weeks just evaporated. The visitors disappeared, the family...
1917, The Last Push To finance the war effort during WWI, France balanced money printing and war bonds. The war bonds were not a novelty, and had been used since the French revolution in every national emergency situation. No “whatever the cost” then, but “mobilise your savings for victory!”. Different...
If you wish to know yourself better, there will always be people to tell you what you are. Now, it is also true that it is up to you to consider or dismiss what they say, but even if it is totally off, you know at least what people think....
Mélanie Vogel, representative for the French living abroad, quoting from the results of a global study among French non-residents, December 2024: The attachment to French citizenship is particularly strong […]: 82,6 % […] consider their nationality important. […] the basic foundations of [French] identity are French culture (86,5 %) and...
Now, don’t be squeamish. Maggots are back in fashion. Maggot therapy is even at the cutting edge of wound treatments in establishments such as the Chester and Westminster hospital. We put green-bottle fly maggots in wounds to cleanse necrotized tissue. And it is faster and better than usual dressings. Would you believe...
August 16, 2024
My Heritage | Travel Trunks and Suitcases
August 2, 2024
August 9, 2024
August 30, 2024
From Ghent to Likasi, the Heart of Darkness
September 20, 2024
November 15, 2024
November 1, 2024
WWI in Soissons, Henri Penotet and the Big Bomb
November 8, 2024
January 3, 2025
Life on the Trail, the Routine of Adventure
October 11, 2024