View allAll Photos Tagged Explicates
A prayer to Benazir Bhutto was held on Jan. 3, 2008 in Liaqat Bagh park in Rawalpindi, where she was murdered a week before.
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of Pakistani Elections (Recommended as a slideshow)
I'm pretty sure this was a drag-court event downtown. A quiet evening, we circulated, ate, cheered on the performers, and smoffed with a few of my well-dressed pals.
My drug test came back negative. My dealer sure has some explaining to do!
Je suis presque sûr que c'était un événement du Nouvel An sur le terrain de reine-drag au centre-ville. Une soirée tranquille, nous avons circulé, mangé, encouragé les artistes et fumé avec quelques-uns de mes copains bien habillés.
Mon test antidopage est revenu négatif. Mon concessionnaire a certainement des explications à donner
Please, read my profile, leave a comment - or visit my website!
SVP, commenter ou lire mon profil, ou visiter mon page sur Web!
HAPPY WINDOW WEDNESDAY(S) !!
There are 3 high-up windows, 3 chimneys and 3 "S-End" reinforcing rods.
Mystery:
On the lower right, there is a mysterious structural transition.
A highly regular brick structure stops, and the irregular stone structure starts.
1. Maybe there was some kind of very thin brick (or imitation brick) facade that was overlaid on the irregular stone wall but has mostly fallen away.
2. Looking again, closer, I have another explanation. Part of the stone wall fell down. It was replaced by brick and mortar. In support of this, I can see some cement patches at the transition from the stone to the brick. But why does the brick look so hazy? Maybe it became coated with some kind of adherent dust when things got dry after a rain storm.
3. See Suzanne's comment below for maybe the best explication of the mystery.
Location: Kreiterhof, near Village of Nebenau, Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland.
In my album: Dan's Windows.
Coast near Ahrenshoop (1911) by Marianne von Werefkin (1860-1938). Exhibition Marianne von Werefkin - Pioneer of Expressionism was an exhibition at Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle NL. Marianne von Werefkin played a crucial role in the development of expressionism in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century.
More from this exhibition at my Blog: johanphoto.blogspot.com/2025/06/marianne-von-werefkin.html
Pas besoin d'explication..
Translation in english :
Do women have to be naked to enter the Metropolitan Museum ?
Less than 4% of the artists in the modern art sections are women but 76% of the nudes are women.
Nouvelles de l'abcès dentaire de Praline (debout sur la photo)
La pauvre a fait ce matin 3h de voitures et 2h30 à la clinique vétérinaire universitaire de Liège. Elle a subi une radiographie et une échographie en plus d'avoir eu le menton tondu (5 tondeuses différentes ont dû être essayées sur elle, elle a une laine difficile à tondre). Elle a une dentition de vieille demoiselle et son abcès est dû à l'espace anormal entre les dents (je résume en termes simples une explication beaucoup plus compliquée). Comme en effet le problème vient d'une molaire et que l'opération aurait été trop risquée, elle va être mise sous antibiotiques pour 1 mois (1 injection par semaine). Elle aura la première injection lundi chez ma vétérinaire, mais ensuite je vais essayer de la faire moi-même (chez Ciboulette je n'ai pas de problème, mais elle est bien grasse et c'est du coup plus facile).
Il faudra faire le point dans 1 mois. Si ça n'aide pas, il faudra changer d'antibiotique. Il n'y a pas grand-chose de plus à faire, juste espérer que ça suffira.
Praline a été une patiente parfaite, j'étais épatée. Faut dire que deux étudiantes (c'est une faculté universitaire) étaient au petits soins pour elle.
Pour ma part je suis épuisée !
News of Praline's (standing in the photo) tooth abscess
The poor girl did 3 hours in the car this morning and 2.5 hours at the university veterinary clinic in Liège. She underwent an X-ray and an ultrasound in addition to having had her chin shorn (5 different clippers had to be tried on her, she has a wool that is difficult to clip). She has old lady teeth and her abscess is due to the abnormal space between the teeth (I'm summarizing a much more complicated explanation in layman's terms). As the problem comes from a molar and the operation would have been too risky, she will be put on antibiotics for 1 month (1 injection per week). She will have her first injection on Monday at my vet's, but then I will try to do it myself (with Ciboulette I have no problem, but she is fat, so it is much easier).
We will have to see how she is doing in one month. If that doesn't help, we'll have to try out another antibiotic. There's not much more to do, just hope that's enough.
Praline was a perfect patient, I was amazed. Must say that two students (it's a university faculty) were very caring for her.
For my part I am exhausted !
Les tours de Castillon sont un site archéologique situé à Paradou (Bouches-du-Rhône) sur la chaîne de la Pène (massif des Alpilles). Le site a été habité entre le IIe siècle av. J.-C. et le XVe siècle, avec un maximum de population entre les XIIIe et XIVe siècles. Il a ensuite été abandonné par ses habitants qui sont allés peupler le nouveau village à quelques centaines de mètres plus au nord, dénommé aujourd'hui Paradou.
Des fouilles archéologiques récentes ont permis de reconstituer l'histoire de cet oppidum. Le site peut être visité aujourd'hui. On y observe la présence de trois tours encore debout datant du Moyen Âge et qui marquaient les limites de la ville ancienne. Le rempart a disparu dans sa quasi-totalité. Des fouilles archéologiques y ont été menées entre 1986 et 1990 et ont révélé l'existence de cet oppidum très détérioré par le temps et les fouilles clandestines1.
Histoire
Antiquité
Le site des tours de Castillon a dominé durant des siècles une vaste étendue marécageuse, dénommée les marais des Baux et dont il constituait la frontière nord. Son emplacement par rapport à ce marais n'est pas anodin. Il se situe au-dessus d'un point de franchissement des marais, le pont Saint-Jean2, sur le chaînon de collines de La Pène, à 41 mètres d'altitude.
Propriété des seigneurs des Baux au Moyen Âge, le site est habité depuis bien plus longtemps2. Les premières traces d'occupation semblent remonter au IIe siècle av. J.-C.1, même si des tessons retrouvés pourraient être plus anciens de deux à trois siècles. L'oppidum n'est fortifié qu'à partir du IIe siècle av. J.-C., période à laquelle il s'entoure d'un mur en brique crue sur un socle de pierres sèches large de 1,50 mètre3. Le parement en grand appareil est postérieur à ce premier rempart mais date approximativement de la même période ou au plus tard de la période augustéenne1. Contre le rempart, des cases à brique crues sur solin de pierres sont appuyées. Le rempart a beaucoup souffert. Ses blocs ont été prélevés au Moyen Âge pour permettre la construction de divers ouvrages. On considère qu'il devait se trouver deux portes au castrum, au nord et au sud, même s'il n'a pas été possible d'en apporter la preuve à ce jour4. Les pierres utilisées viennent probablement des Alpilles. Il s'agit d'un calcaire burdigalien typique des Baux ou du Montpaon4. Le premier rempart devait être en briques crues, comme le mur des maisons du castrum, tandis que le second rempart, de moindre qualité, était fait d'adobes.
Il existe des traces d'un incendie qui a probablement détruit le village entre la fin du IIe et le début du Ier siècle. Toujours est-il que, s'il a sans doute été inhabité à ce moment, le site compte à nouveau une certaine population au début de l'époque romaine1.
Une chaussée antique a été repérée par des vues aériennes mais n'a pas encore été datée, même si on peut sans doute l'estimer d'époque romaine4.
Moyen Âge
Quartier d'habitation médiéval.
À l'origine propriété de l'abbaye de Montmajour, le site des Tours de Castillon devient possession du seigneur des Baux entre le XIe siècle et le XIIe siècle5. Le site permet de par sa position d'être en communication permanente avec le château des Baux et de contrôler la voie de communication traversant le marais des Baux et menant à la plaine de la Crau. Les sources écrites mentionnent le château au XIIe siècle. Aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles, un rempart enserre la colline. Les angles sont dans un premier état occupés par des tours carrées renforcées par la suite par des tours curvilignes et des lices en avant6. Un petit quartier d'habitation a été fouillé entre 1986 et 1990. Dans cette zone, l'habitat prend de l'ampleur au XIVe siècle et subit de nombreuses modifications durant son occupation. Des silos, des caves et des citernes ont été identifiées. L'abandon est opéré progressivement dans les dernières années du XIVe siècle7.
Nécropole
La nécropole découverte sur le versant sud-est du site des tours de Castillon, regardant vers les marais des Baux, a révélé la présence de cinq corps sans doute datés du Moyen Âge. Seuls les sexes de trois de ces corps ont pu être identifiés : il s'agit de deux hommes et d'une femme. Les corps étaient à l'intérieur de sépultures en decubitus dorsal, les bras en adduction et les jambes en extension. Ce sont tous des adultes, entre 21 et 45 ans et ils mesurent entre 1,61 cm et 1,73 cm, ce qui constituent des tailles élevées8.
Provence (/prəˈvɒ̃s/, US: /proʊ-/; French: [pʁɔvɑ̃s]; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm, pronounced [pʀuˈvɛnsɔ]) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east, and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south.[1] It largely corresponds with the modern administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and includes the departments of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, as well as parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse.[2] The largest city of the region is Marseille.
The Romans made the region the first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it Provincia Romana, which evolved into the present name. Until 1481 it was ruled by the Counts of Provence from their capital in Aix-en-Provence, then became a province of the Kings of France.[2] While it has been part of France for more than five hundred years, it still retains a distinct cultural and linguistic identity, particularly in the interior of the region.[3]
History
Main article: History of Provence
See also: Lower Burgundy
Prehistoric Provence
The entrance to the Cosquer Cave, decorated with paintings of auks, bison, seals and outlines of hands dating to 27,000 to 19,000 BC, is located 37 meters under the surface of the Calanque de Morgiou near Cassis.
A bronze-age dolmen (2500 to 900 BC) near Draguignan
The coast of Provence has some of the earliest known sites of human habitation in Europe. Primitive stone tools dating back 1 to 1.05 million years BC have been found in the Grotte du Vallonnet near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, between Monaco and Menton.[4] More sophisticated tools, worked on both sides of the stone and dating to 600,000 BC, were found in the Cave of Escale at Saint Estėve-Janson, and tools from 400,000 BC and some of the first fireplaces in Europe were found at Terra Amata in Nice.[5] Tools dating to the Middle Paleolithic (300,000 BC) and Upper Paleolithic (30,000–10,000 BC) were discovered in the Observatory Cave, in the Jardin Exotique of Monaco.[6]
The Paleolithic period in Provence saw great changes in the climate. Two ice ages came and went, the sea level changed dramatically. At the beginning of the Paleolithic, the sea level in western Provence was 150 meters higher than today. By the end of the Paleolithic, it had dropped to 100 to 150 metres below the sea level today. The cave dwellings of the early inhabitants of Provence were regularly flooded by the rising sea or left far from the sea and swept away by erosion.[7]
The changes in the sea level led to one of the most remarkable discoveries of signs of early man in Provence. In 1985, a diver named Henri Cosquer discovered the mouth of a submarine cave 37 metres below the surface of the Calanque de Morgiou near Marseille. The entrance led to a cave above sea level. Inside, the walls of the Cosquer Cave are decorated with drawings of bison, seals, auks, horses and outlines of human hands, dating to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC.[8]
The end of the Paleolithic and beginning of the Neolithic period saw the sea settle at its present level, a warming of the climate and the retreat of the forests. The disappearance of the forests and the deer and other easily hunted game meant that the inhabitants of Provence had to survive on rabbits, snails and wild sheep. In about 6000 BC, the Castelnovian people, living around Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, were among the first people in Europe to domesticate wild sheep, and to cease moving constantly from place to place. Once they settled in one place they were able to develop new industries. Inspired by pottery from the eastern Mediterranean, in about 6000 BC they created the first pottery made in France.[7]
Around 6000 BC, a wave of new settlers from the east, the Chasséens, arrived in Provence. They were farmers and warriors, and gradually displaced the earlier pastoral people from their lands. They were followed about 2500 BC by another wave of people, also farmers, known as the Courronniens, who arrived by sea and settled along the coast of what is now the Bouches-du-Rhône.[7] Traces of these early civilisations can be found in many parts of Provence. A Neolithic site dating to about 6,000 BC was discovered in Marseille near the Saint-Charles railway station. and a dolmen from the Bronze Age (2500–900 BC) can be found near Draguignan.
Ligures and Celts in Provence
Between the 10th and 4th century BC, the Ligures were found in Provence from Massilia as far as modern Liguria. They were of uncertain origin; they may have been the descendants of the indigenous Neolithic peoples.[9] Strabo distinctly states they were not of Celtic origin and a different race from the Gauls.[10] They did not have their own alphabet, but their language remains in place names in Provence ending in the suffixes -asc, -osc. -inc, -ates, and -auni.[9] The ancient geographer Posidonios wrote of them: "Their country is savage and dry. The soil is so rocky that you cannot plant anything without striking stones. The men compensate for the lack of wheat by hunting... They climb the mountains like goats."[11] They were also warlike; they invaded Italy and went as far as Rome in the 4th century BC, and they later aided the passage of Hannibal, on his way to attack Rome (218 BC). Traces of the Ligures remain today in the dolmens and other megaliths found in eastern Provence, in the primitive stone shelters called 'Bories' found in the Luberon and Comtat, and in the rock carvings in the Valley of Marvels near Mont Bégo in the Alpes-Maritimes, at an altitude of 2,000 meters.[12]
Between the 8th and 5th centuries BC, tribes of Celtic peoples, probably coming from Central Europe, also began moving into Provence. They had weapons made of iron, which allowed them to easily defeat the local tribes, who were still armed with bronze weapons. One tribe, called the Segobriga, settled near modern-day Marseille. The Caturiges, Tricastins, and Cavares settled to the west of the Durance river.[13]
Celts and Ligurians spread throughout the area and the Celto-Ligures eventually shared the territory of Provence, each tribe in its own alpine valley or settlement along a river, each with its own king and dynasty. They built hilltop forts and settlements, later given the Latin name oppida. Today the traces 165 oppida are found in the Var, and as many as 285 in the Alpes-Maritimes.[12] They worshipped various aspects of nature, establishing sacred woods at Sainte-Baume and Gemenos, and healing springs at Glanum and Vernègues. Later, in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the different tribes formed confederations; the Voconces in the area from the Isère to the Vaucluse; the Cavares in the Comtat; and the Salyens, from the Rhône river to the Var. The tribes began to trade their local products, iron, silver, alabaster, marble, gold, resin, wax, honey and cheese; with their neighbours, first by trading routes along the Rhône river, and later Etruscan traders visited the coast. Etruscan amphorae from the 7th and 6th centuries BC have been found in Marseille, Cassis, and in hilltop oppida in the region.[12]
Greeks in Provence
Main article: Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul
Remains of the ancient harbour of Massalia, near the Old Port of Marseille
Traders from the island of Rhodes were visiting the coast of Provence in the 7th century BC. Rhodes pottery from that century has been found in Marseille, near Martigues and Istres, and at Mont Garou and Evenos near Toulon. The traders from Rhodes gave their names to the ancient town of Rhodanousia (Ancient Greek: 'Ροδανουσίαν) (now Trinquetaille, across the Rhône river from Arles), and to the main river of Provence, the Rhodanos, today known as the Rhône.[14]
The first permanent Greek settlement was Massalia, established at modern-day Marseille in about 600 BC by colonists coming from Phocaea (now Foça, on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor). A second wave of colonists arrived in about 540 BC, when Phocaea was destroyed by the Persians.[15]
Massalia became one of the major trading ports of the ancient world. At its height, in the 4th century BC, it had a population of about 6,000 inhabitants, living on about fifty hectares surrounded by a wall. It was governed as an aristocratic republic, by an assembly of the 600 wealthiest citizens. It had a large temple of the cult of Apollo of Delphi on a hilltop overlooking the port, and a temple of the cult of Artemis of Ephesus at the other end of the city. The Drachma coins minted in Massalia were found in all parts of Ligurian-Celtic Gaul. Traders from Massalia ventured inland deep into France on the Rivers Durance and Rhône, and established overland trade routes deep into Gaul, and to Switzerland and Burgundy, and as far north as the Baltic Sea. They exported their own products; local wine, salted pork and fish, aromatic and medicinal plants, coral and cork.[15]
The Massalians also established a series of small colonies and trading posts along the coast; which later became towns; they founded Citharista (La Ciotat); Tauroeis (Le Brusc); Olbia (near Hyères); Pergantion (Breganson); Caccabaria (Cavalaire); Athenopolis (Saint-Tropez); Antipolis (Antibes); Nikaia (Nice), and Monoicos (Monaco). They established inland towns at Glanum (Saint-Remy) and Mastrabala (Saint-Blaise.)
The most famous citizen of Massalia was the mathematician, astronomer and navigator Pytheas. Pytheas made mathematical instruments which allowed him to establish almost exactly the latitude of Marseille, and he was the first scientist to observe that the tides were connected with the phases of the moon. Between 330 and 320 BC he organised an expedition by ship into the Atlantic and as far north as England, and to visit Iceland, Shetland, and Norway. He was the first scientist to describe drift ice and the midnight sun. Though he hoped to establish a sea trading route for tin from Cornwall, his trip was not a commercial success, and it was not repeated. The Massalians found it cheaper and simpler to trade with Northern Europe over land routes.[16]
Roman Provence (2nd century BC to 5th century AD)
Triumphal Arch of Orange, first century AD
The Roman arena at Arles (2nd century AD)
The baptistery of Fréjus Cathedral (5th century) is still in use
In the 2nd century BC the people of Massalia appealed to Rome for help against the Ligures. Roman legions entered Provence three times; first in 181 BC the Romans suppressed Ligurian uprisings near Genoa; in 154 BC the Roman Consul Optimus defeated the Oxybii and the Deciates, who were attacking Antibes; and in 125 BC, the Romans put down an uprising of a confederation of Celtic tribes.[17] After this battle, the Romans decided to establish permanent settlements in Provence. In 122 BC, next to the Celtic town of Entremont, the Romans built a new town, Aquae Sextiae, later called Aix-en-Provence. In 118 BC they founded Narbo (Narbonne).
The Roman general Gaius Marius crushed the last serious resistance in 102 BC by defeating the Cimbri and the Teutons. He then began building roads to facilitate troop movements and commerce between Rome, Spain and Northern Europe; one from the coast inland to Apt and Tarascon, and the other along the coast from Italy to Spain, passing through Fréjus and Aix-en-Provence.
In 49 BC, Massalia had the misfortune to choose the wrong side in the power struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar. Pompey was defeated, and Massalia lost its territories and political influence. Roman veterans, in the meantime, populated two new towns, Arles and Fréjus, at the sites of older Greek settlements.
In 8 BC the Emperor Augustus built a triumphal monument at La Turbie to commemorate the pacification of the region, and he began to Romanize Provence politically and culturally. Roman engineers and architects built monuments, theatres, baths, villas, fora, arenas and aqueducts, many of which still exist. (See Architecture of Provence.) Roman towns were built at Cavaillon; Orange; Arles; Fréjus; Glanum (outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence); Carpentras; Vaison-la-Romaine; Nîmes; Vernègues; Saint-Chamas and Cimiez (above Nice). The Roman province, which was called Gallia Narbonensis, for its capital, Narbo (modern Narbonne), extended from Italy to Spain, from the Alps to the Pyrenees.
The Pax Romana in Provence lasted until the middle of the 3rd century. Germanic tribes invaded Provence in 257 and 275. At the beginning the 4th century, the court of Roman Emperor Constantine (280–337) was forced to take refuge in Arles. By the end of the 5th century, Roman power in Provence had vanished, and an age of invasions, wars, and chaos began.
Arrival of Christianity (3rd–6th centuries)
There are many legends about the earliest Christians in Provence, but they are difficult to verify. It is documented that there were organised churches and bishops in the Roman towns of Provence as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries; in Arles in 254; Marseille in 314; Orange, Vaison and Apt in 314; Cavaillon, Digne, Embrun, Gap, and Fréjus at the end of the 4th century; Aix-en-Provence in 408; Carpentras, Avignon, Riez, Cimiez (today part of Nice) and Vence in 439; Antibes in 442; Toulon in 451; Senez in 406, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in 517; and Glandèves in 541.[18] The oldest Christian structure still surviving in Provence is the baptistery of the cathedral in Fréjus, dating from the 5th century. At about the same time, in the 5th century, the first two monasteries in Provence were founded; Lérins, on an island near Cannes; and Saint-Victor in Marseille.
Germanic invasions, Merovingians and Carolingians (5th–9th centuries)
King Boson and San Stephen (fragment of fresco at Charlieu Abbey)
Beginning in the second half of the 5th century, as Roman power waned, successive waves of Germanic tribes entered Provence; first the Visigoths (480); then the Ostrogoths; then the Burgundians; finally, the Franks in the 6th century. Arab invaders and Berber pirates came from North Africa to the Coast of Provence in the beginning of the 7th century.
During the late 7th and early 8th century, Provence was formally subject to the Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty, but it was in fact ruled by its own regional nobility of Gallo-Roman stock, who ruled themselves according to Roman, not Frankish law. Actually, the region enjoyed a prestige that the northern Franks hadn't, but the local aristocracy feared Charles Martel's expansionist ambitions.[19] In 737 Charles Martel headed down the Rhône Valley after subduing Burgundy. Charles attacked Avignon and Arles, garrisoned by the Umayyads. He came back in 739 to capture for a second time Avignon and chase the duke Maurontus to his stronghold of Marseille.[19] The city was brought to heel and the duke had to flee to an island. The region was thereafter under the rule of Carolingian Kings, descended from Charles Martel; and then was part of the empire of Charlemagne (742–814).
In 879, after the death of the Carolingian ruler Charles the Bald, Boso of Provence, (also known as Boson), his brother-in-law, broke away from the Carolingian kingdom of Louis III and was elected the first ruler of an independent state of Provence.
The Counts of Provence (9th–13th centuries)
The Catalan Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Provence, in the Castle in Fos, painted by Marià Fortuny (Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi, on deposit at the Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Barcelona).
The Coat of Arms of Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona and his descendants, who as Counts of Provence ruled Provence from 1112 until 1246
Coat of Arms of the Counts of Provence of the House of Valois-Anjou, who ruled Provence from 1246 until it became part of France in 1486
Three different dynasties of Counts ruled Provence during the Middle Ages, and Provence became a prize in the complex rivalries between the Catalan rulers of Barcelona, the Kings of Burgundy, the German rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Angevin Kings of France.[clarification needed]
The Bosonids (879–1112) were the descendants of the first King of Provence, Boson. His son, Louis the Blind (890–928) lost his sight trying to win the throne of Italy, after which his cousin, Hugh of Italy (died 947) became the Duke of Provence and the Count of Vienne. Hugh moved the capital of Provence from Vienne to Arles and made Provence a fief of Rudolph II of Burgundy.
In the 9th century, Arab pirates (called Saracens by the French) and then the Normans invaded Provence. The Normans pillaged the region and then left, but the Saracens built castles and began raiding towns and holding local residents for ransom. Early in 973, the Saracens captured Maieul, the Abbot of the Monastery at Cluny, and held him for ransom. The ransom was paid and the abbot was released, but the people of Provence, led by Count William I rose up and defeated the Saracens near their most powerful fortress Fraxinet (La Garde-Freinet) at the Battle of Tourtour. The Saracens who were not killed at the battle were baptised and enslaved, and the remaining Saracens in Provence fled the region. Meanwhile, the dynastic quarrels continued. A war between Rudolph III of Burgundy and his rival, the German Emperor Conrad the Salic in 1032 led to Provence becoming a fiefdom of the Holy Roman Empire, which it remained until 1246.
In 1112, the last descendant of Boson, Douce I, Countess of Provence, married the Catalan Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, who as a result became Raymond Berenguer I, Count of Provence. He ruled Provence from 1112 until 1131, and his descendants, the Catalan counts ruled in Provence until 1246. In 1125, Provence was divided; the part of Provence north and west of the Durance river went to the Count of Toulouse, while the lands between the Durance and the Mediterranean, and from the Rhône river to the Alps, belonged to the Counts of Provence. The capital of Provence was moved from Arles to Aix-en-Provence, and later to Brignoles.[20]
The Church of Saint Trophime in Arles (12th century)
Under the Catalan counts, the 12th century saw the construction of important cathedrals and abbeys in Provence, in a harmonious new style, the romanesque, which united the Gallo-Roman style of the Rhône Valley with the Lombard style of the Alps. Aix Cathedral was built on the site of the old Roman forum, and then rebuilt in the gothic style in the 13th and 14th centuries. The Church of St. Trophime in Arles was a landmark of Romanesque architecture, built between the 12th and the 15th centuries. A vast fortress-like monastery, Montmajour Abbey, was built on an island just north of Arles, and became a major destination for medieval pilgrims.
In the 12th century three Cistercian monasteries were built in remote parts of Provence, far from the political intrigues of the cities. Sénanque Abbey was the first, established in the Luberon 1148 and 1178. Le Thoronet Abbey was founded in a remote valley near Draguignan in 1160. Silvacane Abbey, on the Durance river at La Roque-d'Anthéron, was founded in 1175.
In the 13th century, the French kings started to use marriage to extend their influence into the south of France. One son of King Louis VIII of France "the Lion", Alphonse, Count of Poitou, married the heiress of the Count of Toulouse, Joan. Another, Louis IX "the Saint" of France or Saint Louis (1214–1270), married Marguerite of Provence. Then, in 1246, Charles, Count of Anjou, the youngest son of Louis VIII, married the heiress of Provence, Beatrice. Provence's fortunes became tied to the Angevin Dynasty and the Kingdom of Naples.[21]
The Popes in Avignon (14th century)
Main article: Avignon papacy
The façade of the Palais des Papes.
In 1309, Pope Clement V, who was originally from Bordeaux, moved the Roman Catholic Papacy to Avignon.[22] From 1309 until 1377, seven Popes reigned in Avignon before the Schism between the Roman and Avignon churches, which led to the creation of rival popes in both places. After that three Antipopes reigned in Avignon until 1423, when the Papacy finally returned to Rome. Between 1334 and 1363 the old and new Papal Palaces of Avignon were built by Popes Benedict XII and Clement VI respectively; together the Palais des Papes was the largest gothic palace in Europe.[23]
The 14th century was a terrible time in Provence, and all of Europe: the population of Provence had been about 400,000 people; the Black Plague (1348–1350) killed fifteen thousand people in Arles, half the population of the city, and greatly reduced the population of the whole region. The defeat of the French Army during the Hundred Years' War forced the cities of Provence to build walls and towers to defend themselves against armies of former soldiers who ravaged the countryside.
The Angevin rulers of Provence also had a difficult time. An assembly of nobles, religious leaders, and town leaders of Provence was organised to resist the authority of Queen Joan I of Naples (1343–1382). She was murdered in 1382 by her cousin and heir, Charles of Durazzo, who started a new war, leading to the separation of Nice, Puget-Théniers and Barcelonnette from Provence in 1388, and their attachment to the County of Savoy. From 1388 up to 1526, the area acquired by the Savoy was known as Terres Neuves de Provence; after 1526 it officially took on the name County of Nice.
Good King René, the last ruler of Provence
Detail of the Burning Bush triptych by Nicolas Froment, showing René and his wife Jeanne de Laval
The Chateau of René in Tarascon (15th century)
The 15th century saw a series of wars between the Kings of Aragon and the Counts of Provence. In 1423 the army of Alphonse of Aragon captured Marseille, and in 1443 they captured Naples, and forced its ruler, King René I of Naples, to flee. He eventually settled in one of his remaining territories, Provence.
History and legend has given René the title "Good King René of Provence", though he only lived in Provence in the last ten years of his life, from 1470 to 1480, and his political policies of territorial expansion were costly and unsuccessful. Provence benefitted from population growth and economic expansion, and René was a generous patron of the arts, sponsoring painters Nicolas Froment, Louis Bréa, and other masters. He also completed one of the finest castles in Provence at Tarascon, on the Rhône river.
When René died in 1480, his title passed to his nephew Charles du Maine. One year later, in 1481, when Charles died, the title passed to Louis XI of France. Provence was legally incorporated into the French royal domain in 1486.
1486 to 1789
Soon after Provence became part of France, it became involved in the Wars of Religion that swept the country in the 16th century. Between 1493 and 1501, many Jews were expelled from their homes and sought sanctuary in the region of Avignon, which was still under the direct rule of the Pope. In 1545, the Parliament of Aix-en-Provence ordered the destruction of the villages of Lourmarin, Mérindol, Cabriéres in the Luberon, because their inhabitants were Vaudois, of Italian Piedmontese origin, and were not considered sufficiently orthodox Catholics. Most of Provence remained strongly Catholic, with only one enclave of Protestants, the principality of Orange, Vaucluse, an enclave ruled by Prince William of the House of Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands, which was created in 1544 and was not incorporated into France until 1673. An army of the Catholic League laid siege to the Protestant city of Mėnerbes in the Vaucluse between 1573 and 1578. The wars did not stop until the end of the 16th century, with the consolidation of power in Provence by the House of Bourbon kings.
View of Toulon Harbour around 1750, by Joseph Vernet.
The semi-independent Parliament of Provence in Aix and some of the cities of Provence, particularly Marseille, continued to rebel against the authority of the Bourbon king. After uprisings in 1630–31 and 1648–1652, the young King Louis XIV had two large forts, fort St. Jean and Fort St. Nicholas, built at the harbour entrance to control the city's unruly population.
At the beginning of the 17th century, Cardinal Richelieu began to build a naval arsenal and dockyard at Toulon to serve as a base for a new French Mediterranean fleet. The base was greatly enlarged by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV, who also commissioned his chief military engineer Vauban to strengthen the fortifications around the city.
At the beginning of the 17th century, Provence had a population of about 450,000 people.[24] It was predominantly rural, devoted to raising wheat, wine, and olives, with small industries for tanning, pottery, perfume-making, and ship and boat building. Provençal quilts, made from the mid-17th century onwards, were successfully exported to England, Spain, Italy, Germany and Holland.[25] There was considerable commerce along the coast, and up and down the Rhône river. The cities: Marseille, Toulon, Avignon and Aix-en-Provence, saw the construction of boulevards and richly decorated private houses.
Marseille in 1754, by Vernet
At the beginning of the 18th century, Provence suffered from the economic malaise of the end of the reign of Louis XIV. The plague struck the region between 1720 and 1722, beginning in Marseille, killing some 40,000 people. Still, by the end of the century, many artisanal industries began to flourish; making perfumes in Grasse; olive oil in Aix and the Alpilles; textiles in Orange, Avignon and Tarascon; and faience pottery in Marseille, Apt, Aubagne, and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. Many immigrants arrived from Liguria and the Piedmont in Italy. By the end of the 18th century, Marseille had a population of 120,000 people, making it the third largest city in France.[24]
During the French Revolution
Main article: French Revolution
Though most of Provence, with the exception of Marseille, Aix and Avignon, was rural, conservative and largely royalist, it did produce some memorable figures in the French Revolution; Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau from Aix, who tried to moderate the Revolution, and turn France into a constitutional monarchy like England; the Marquis de Sade from Lacoste in the Luberon, who was a Deputy from the far left in the National Assembly; Charles Barbaroux from Marseille, who sent a battalion of volunteers to Paris to fight in the French Revolutionary Army; and Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836), an abbé, essayist and political leader, who was one of the chief theorists of the French Revolution, French Consulate, and First French Empire, and who, in 1799, was the instigator of the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, which brought Napoleon to power.
La Marseillaise 1792
Provence also produced the most memorable song of the period, the La Marseillaise. Though the song was originally written by a citizen of Strasbourg, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792, and it was originally a war song for the revolutionary Army of the Rhine, it became famous when it sung on the streets of Paris by the volunteers from Marseille, who had heard it when it was sung in Marseille by a young volunteer from Montpellier named François Mireur. It became the most popular song of the Revolution, and in 1879 became the national anthem of France.
The Revolution was as violent and bloody in Provence as it was in other parts of France. On 30 April 1790, Fort Saint-Nicolas in Marseille was besieged, and many of the soldiers inside were massacred. On 17 October 1791 a massacre of royalists and religious figures took place in the ice storage rooms (glaciere) of the prison of the Palace of the Popes in Avignon.
When the radical Montagnards seized power from the Girondins in May 1793, a real counter-revolution broke out in Avignon, Marseille and Toulon. A revolutionary army under General Carteaux recaptured Marseille in August 1793 and renamed it "City without a Name" (Ville sans Nom.) In Toulon, the opponents of the Revolution handed the city to a British and Spanish fleet on 28 August 1793. A Revolutionary Army laid siege to the British positions for four months (see the Siege of Toulon), and finally, thanks to the enterprise of the young commander of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte, defeated the British and drove them out in December 1793. About 15,000 royalists escaped with the British fleet, but five to eight hundred of the 7,000 who remained were shot on the Champ de Mars, and Toulon was renamed "Port la Montagne".
The fall of the Montagnards in July 1794 was followed by a new White Terror aimed at the revolutionaries. Calm was only restored by the rise of Napoleon to power in 1795.
Under Napoleon
Napoleon restored the belongings and power of the families of the old regime in Provence. The British fleet of Admiral Horatio Nelson blockaded Toulon, and almost all maritime commerce was stopped, causing hardship and poverty. When Napoleon was defeated, his fall was celebrated in Provence. When he escaped from Elba on 1 March 1815, and landed at Golfe-Juan, he detoured to avoid the cities of Provence, which were hostile to him, and therefore directed his small force directly to the northeast of it.[26]
19th century
Marseille in 1825
Provence enjoyed prosperity in the 19th century; the ports of Marseille and Toulon connected Provence with the expanding French Empire in North Africa and the Orient, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
In April–July 1859, Napoleon III made a secret agreement with Cavour, Prime Minister of Piedmont, for France to assist in expelling Austria from the Italian Peninsula and bringing about a united Italy, in exchange for Piedmont ceding Savoy and the Nice region to France. He went to war with Austria in 1859 and won a victory at Solferino, which resulted in Austria ceding Lombardy to France. France immediately ceded Lombardy to Piedmont, and, in return, Napoleon received Savoy and Nice in 1860, and Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Menton in 1861.
The railroad connected Paris with Marseille (1848) and then with Toulon and Nice (1864). Nice, Antibes and Hyères became popular winter resorts for European royalty, including Queen Victoria. Under Napoleon III, Marseille grew to a population of 250,000, including a very large Italian community. Toulon had a population of 80,000. The large cities like Marseille and Toulon saw the building of churches, opera houses, grand boulevards, and parks.
After the fall of Louis Napoleon following the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War barricades went up in the streets of Marseille (23 March 1871) and the Communards, led by Gaston Cremieux and following the lead of the Paris Commune, took control of the city. The Commune was crushed by the army and Cremieux was executed on 30 November 1871. Though Provence was generally conservative, it often elected reformist leaders; Prime Minister Léon Gambetta was the son of a Marseille grocer, and future prime minister Georges Clemenceau was elected deputy from the Var in 1885.
The second half of the 19th century saw a revival of the Provençal language and culture, particularly traditional rural values. driven by a movement of writers and poets called the Felibrige, led by poet Frédéric Mistral. Mistral achieved literary success with his novel Miréio (Mireille in French); he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1904.
20th century
Between World War I and World War II, Provence was bitterly divided between the more conservative rural areas and the more radical big cities. There were widespread strikes in Marseille in 1919, and riots in Toulon in 1935.
After the defeat of France by Germany in June 1940, France was divided into an occupied zone and unoccupied zone, with Provence in the unoccupied zone. Parts of eastern Provence were occupied by Italian soldiers. Collaboration and passive resistance gradually gave way to more active resistance, particularly after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and the Communist Party became active in the resistance. Jean Moulin, the deputy of Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free France resistance movement, was parachuted into Eygalières, in the Bouches-du-Rhône on 2 January 1942 to unite the diverse resistance movements in all of France against the Germans.
In November 1942, following Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch), the Germans occupied all of Provence (Operation Attila) and then headed for Toulon (Case Anton). The French fleet at Toulon sabotaged its own ships to keep them from falling into German hands.
The Germans began a systematic rounding-up of French Jews and refugees from Nice and Marseille. Many thousands were taken to concentration camps, and few survived. A large quarter around the port of Marseille was emptied of inhabitants and dynamited, so it would not serve as a base for the resistance. Nonetheless, the resistance grew stronger; the leader of the pro-German militia, the Milice, in Marseille was assassinated in April 1943.
On 15 August 1944, two months after the Allied landings in Normandy (Operation Overlord), the Seventh United States Army under General Alexander Patch, with a Free French corps under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, landed on the coast of the Var between St. Raphael and Cavalaire (Operation Dragoon). The American forces moved north toward Manosque, Sisteron and Gap, while the French First Armored Division under General Vigier liberated Brignoles, Salon, Arles, and Avignon. The Germans in Toulon resisted until 27 August, and Marseille was not liberated until 25 August.
After the end of the War, Provence faced an enormous task of repair and reconstruction, particularly of the ports and railroads destroyed during the war. As part of this effort, the first modern concrete apartment block, the Unité d'Habitation of Corbusier, was built in Marseille in 1947–52. In 1962, Provence absorbed a large number of French citizens who left Algeria after its independence. Since that time, large North African communities settled in and around the big cities, particularly Marseille and Toulon.
In the 1940s, Provence underwent a cultural renewal, with the founding of the Avignon Festival of theatre (1947), the reopening of the Cannes Film Festival (begun in 1939), and many other major events. With the building of new highways, particularly the Paris Marseille autoroute which opened in 1970, Provence became destination for mass tourism from all over Europe. Many Europeans, particularly from Britain, bought summer houses in Provence. The arrival of the TGV high-speed trains shortened the trip from Paris to Marseille to less than four hours.
At the end of the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st century, the residents of Provence were struggling to reconcile economic development and population growth with their desire to preserve the landscape and culture that make Provence unique.
Extent and geography
The Roman Province of Gallia Narbonensis around 58 BC
The original Roman province was called Gallia Transalpina, then Gallia Narbonensis, or simply Provincia Nostra ('Our Province') or Provincia. It extended from the Alps to the Pyrenees and north to the Vaucluse, with its capital in Narbo Martius (present-day Narbonne).
Borders
In the 15th century the Conté of Provence was bounded by the Var river on the east, the Rhône river to the west, with the Mediterranean to the south, and a northern border that roughly followed the Durance river.
The Comtat Venaissin, a territory which included Avignon, and the principality of Orange were both papal states, ruled by the Pope from the 13th century until the French Revolution. At the end of the 14th century, another piece of Provence along the Italian border, including Nice and the lower Alps, was detached from Provence and attached to the lands of the Duke of Savoy. The lower Alps were re-attached to France after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, but Nice did not return to France until 1860, during the reign of Napoleon III.[27]
The administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur was created in 1982. It included Provence, plus the territory of the Comtat Venaissin around Avignon, the eastern portion of the Dauphiné, and the former county of Nice.
Rivers
The Rhône at Avignon
The Rhône river, on the western border of Provence, is one of the major rivers of France, and has been a highway of commerce and communications between inland France and the Mediterranean for centuries. It rises as the effluent of the Rhône Glacier in Valais, Switzerland, in the Saint-Gotthard massif, at an altitude of 1753 m. It is joined by the river Saône at Lyon. Along the Rhône Valley, it is joined on the right bank by Cévennes rivers Eyrieux, Ardèche, Cèze and Gardon or Gard, on the left Alps bank by rivers Isère, Drôme, Ouvèze and Durance. At Arles, the Rhône divides itself in two arms, forming the Camargue delta, with all branches flowing into the Mediterranean Sea. One arm is called the "Grand Rhône"; the other one is the "Petit Rhône".
The Gorge du Verdon.
The Durance river, a tributary of the Rhône, has its source in the Alps near Briançon. It flows south-west through Embrun, Sisteron, Manosque, Cavaillon, and Avignon, where it meets the Rhône.
The Verdon River is a tributary of the Durance, rising at an altitude of 2,400 metres in the southwestern Alps near Barcelonette, and flowing southwest for 175 kilometres through the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Var (départements) before it reaches the Durance at near Vinon-sur-Verdon, south of Manosque. The Verdon is best known for its canyon, the Verdon Gorge. This limestone canyon, also called the 'Grand Canyon of Verdon', 20 kilometres in length and more than 300 metres deep, is a popular climbing and sight-seeing area.
The Var River rises near the Col de la Cayolle (2,326 m/7,631 ft) in the Maritime Alps and flows generally southeast for 120 kilometres (75 mi) into the Mediterranean between Nice and Saint-Laurent-du-Var. Before Nice was returned to France in 1860, the Var marked the eastern border of France along the Mediterranean. The Var is the unique case in France of a river giving a name to a department, but not flowing through that department (due to subsequent adjustments to the department's boundaries).
The Camargue
With an area of over 930 km2 (360 mi2), the Camargue is Western Europe's largest river delta (technically an island, as it is wholly surrounded by water). It is a vast plain comprising large brine lagoons or étangs, cut off from the sea by sandbars and encircled by reed-covered marshes which are in turn surrounded by a large cultivated area.
The Camargue is home to more than 400 species of birds, the brine ponds providing one of the few European habitats for the greater flamingo. The marshes are also a prime habitat for many species of insects, notably (and notoriously) some of the most ferocious mosquitoes to be found anywhere in France. It is also famous for bulls and the Camargue horse.
Mountains
Vallon de Mollières, Mercantour National Park.
Alpilles landscape near Le Destet.
By considering the Maritime Alps, along the border with Italy, as a part of the cultural Provence, they constitute the highest elevations of the region (the Punta dell'Argentera has an elevation of 3,297 m). They form the border between the French département Alpes-Maritimes and the Italian province of Cuneo. Mercantour National Park is located in the Maritime Alps. On the other hand, if the département Hautes Alpes is also considered as part of the modern Provence, then the alpin Écrins mountains represent the highest elevations of the region with the Barre des Écrins culminating at 4102m.
View of Mont Ventoux from Mirabel-aux-Baronnies.
Outside of the Maritime Alps, Mont Ventoux (Occitan: Ventor in classical norm or Ventour in Mistralian norm), at 1,909 metres (6,263 ft), is the highest peak in Provence. It is located some 20 km north-east of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north side, the mountain borders the Drôme département. It is nicknamed the "Giant of Provence", or "The Bald Mountain". Although geologically part of the Alps, is often considered to be separate from them, due to the lack of mountains of a similar height nearby. It stands alone to the west of the Luberon range, and just to the east of the Dentelles de Montmirail, its foothills. The top of the mountain is bare limestone without vegetation or trees. The white limestone on the mountain's barren peak means it appears from a distance to be snow-capped all year round (its snow cover actually lasts from December to April).
The Alpilles are a chain of small mountains located about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Avignon. Although they are not particularly high – only some 387 metres (1,270 ft) at their highest point – the Alpilles stand out since they rise abruptly from the plain of the Rhône valley. The range is about 25 km long by about 8 to 10 km wide, running in an east–west direction between the Rhône and Durance rivers. The landscape of the Alpilles is one of arid limestone peaks separated by dry valleys.
Mont Sainte-Victoire, painted by Paul Cézanne
Montagne Sainte-Victoire is probably the best-known mountain in Provence, thanks to the painter Paul Cézanne, who could see it from his home, and painted it frequently. It is a limestone mountain ridge which extends over 18 kilometres between the départements of Bouches-du-Rhône and Var. Its highest point is the Pic des mouches at 1,011 m.
The massif des Maures
The Massif des Maures (Mountains of the Moors) is a small chain of mountains that lies along the coast of the Mediterranean in the Var Department between Hyères et Fréjus. Its highest point is the signal de la Sauvette, 780 metres high. The name is a souvenir of the Moors (Maures in Old French), Arabs and Berbers from North Africa, who settled on the coast of Provence in the 9th and 10th centuries.
The massif des Maures extends about sixty kilometres along the coast, and reaches inland about thirty kilometres. On the north it is bordered by a depression which is followed by the routes nationales 97 and 7 and the railroad line between Toulon and Nice. On the south it ends abruptly at the Mediterranean, forming a broken and abrupt coastline.
The peninsula of Saint-Tropez is part of the Massif des Maures, along with the peninsula of Giens and the islands offshore of Hyères; Porquerolles, Port-Cros, and île du Levant. Cape Sicié, west of Toulon, as well as the massif of Tanneron, belong geologically to the massif des Maures.
The Calanques
Calanque de Sugiton
The Calanques, also known as the Massif des Calanques, are a dramatic feature of the Provence coast, a 20-km long series of narrow inlets in the cliffs of the coastline between Marseille on the west and Cassis on the east. The highest peak in the massif is Mont Puget, 565 metres high.
The best known calanques of the Massif des Calanques include the Calanque de Sormiou, the Calanque de Morgiou, the Calanque d'En-Vau, the Calanque de Port-Pin and the Calanque de Sugiton.
Calanques are remains of ancient river mouths formed mostly during Tertiary. Later, during quaternary glaciations, as glaciers swept by, they further deepened those valleys which would eventually (at the end of the last glaciation) be invaded with sea and become calanques.
The Garrigue, typical landscape of Provence
The Cosquer cave is an underwater grotto in the Calanque de Morgiou, 37 metres (121 ft) underwater, that was inhabited during Paleolithic era, when the sea level was much lower than today. Its walls are covered with paintings and engravings dating back to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC, depicting animals such as bison, ibex, and horses, as well as sea mammals such as seals, and at least one bird, the auk.
Landscapes
The Garrigue is the typical landscape of Provence; it is a type of low, soft-leaved scrubland or chaparral found on limestone soils around the Mediterranean Basin, generally near the seacoast, where the climate is moderate, but where there are annual summer drought conditions.[28] Juniper and stunted holm oaks are the typical trees; aromatic lime-tolerant shrubs such as lavender, sage, rosemary, wild thyme and Artemisia are common garrigue plants. The open landscape of the garrigue is punctuated by dense thickets of Kermes oak.
Climate
Mistral wind blowing near Marseille. In the center is the Château d'If
Sisteron – la Baume rock
Forcalquier Cathedral
Most of Provence has a Mediterranean climate, characterised by hot, dry summers, mild winters, little snow, and abundant sunshine. Within Provence there are micro-climates and local variations, ranging from the Alpine climate inland from Nice to the continental climate in the northern Vaucluse. The winds of Provence are an important feature of the climate, particularly the mistral, a cold, dry wind which, especially in the winter, blows down the Rhône Valley to the Bouches-du-Rhône and the Var Departments, and often reaches over one hundred kilometres an hour.
Bouches-du-Rhône
Marseille, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, has an average of 59 days of rain a year, though when it does rain the rain is often torrential; the average annual rainfall is 544.4 mm. It snows an average of 2.3 days a year, and the snow rarely remains long. Marseille has an average of 2835.5 hours of sunshine a year. The average minimum temperature in January is 2.3 °C., and the average maximum temperature in July is 29.3 °C. The mistral blows an average of one hundred days a year.[29]
The Var
Toulon and the Department of the Var (which includes St. Tropez and Hyères) have a climate slightly warmer, dryer and sunnier than Nice and the Alpes-Maritime, but also less sheltered from the wind. Toulon has an average of 2899.3 hours of sunshine a year, making it the sunniest city in metropolitan France,[30] The average maximum daily temperature in August is 29.1 °C., and the average daily minimum temperature in January is 5.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 665 mm, with the most rain from October to November. Strong winds blow an average of 118 days a year in Toulon, compared with 76 days at Fréjus further east. The strongest Mistral wind recorded in Toulon was 130 kilometres an hour.[31]
Alpes-Maritimes
Nice and the Alpes-Maritimes Department are sheltered by the Alps, and are the most protected part of the Mediterranean coast. The winds in this department are usually gentle, blowing from the sea to the land, though sometimes the Mistral blows strongly from the northwest, or, turned by the mountains, from the east. In 1956 a mistral wind from the northwest reached the speed of 180 kilometres an hour at Nice airport. Sometimes in summer the scirocco brings high temperatures and reddish desert sand from Africa. (See Winds of Provence.)
Rainfall is infrequent – 63 days a year, but can be torrential, particularly in September, when storms and rain are caused by the difference between the colder air inland and the warm Mediterranean water temperature (20–24 degrees C.). The average annual rainfall in Nice is 767 mm, more than in Paris, but concentrated in fewer days.
Snow is extremely rare, usually falling once every ten years. 1956 was a very exceptional year, when 20 centimetres of snow blanketed the coast. In January 1985 the coast between Cannes and Menton received 30 to 40 centimetres of snow. In the mountains, the snow is present from November to May
Nice has an annual average of 2694 hours of sunshine. The average maximum daily temperature in Nice in August is 28 °C., and the average minimum daily temperature in January is 6 °C.[32]
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
The Department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence has a Mediterranean climate in the lower valleys under one thousand metres in altitude and an alpine climate in the high valleys, such as the valleys of the Blanche, the Haut Verdon and the Ubaye, which are over 2500 metres high. The alpine climate in the higher mountains is moderated by the warmer air from the Mediterranean.
Haute-Provence has unusually high summer temperatures for its altitude and latitude (44 degrees north). The average summer temperature is 22 to 23 °C. at an altitude of 400 metres, and 18 to 19 °C. at the altitude of 1000 metres; and the winter average temperature is 4 to 5 °C. at 400 metres and 0 C. at 1000 metres. The lower valleys have 50 days of freezing temperatures a year, more in the higher valleys. Sometimes the temperatures in the high valleys can reach −30 °C. Because of this combination of high mountains and Mediterranean air, it is not unusual that the region frequently has some of the lowest winter temperatures and some of the hottest summer temperatures in France.
Rainfall in Haute-Provence is infrequent – 60 to 80 days a year – but can be torrential; 650 to 900 mm. a year in the foothills and plateaus of the southwest, and in the valley of the Ubaye; and 900 to 1500 mm. in the mountains. Most rainfall comes in the autumn, in brief and intense storms; from mid-June to mid-August, rain falls during brief but violent thunderstorms. Thunder can be heard 30 to 40 days a year.
Snow falls in the mountains from November to May, and in midwinter can be found down to altitude of 1000–1200 metres on the shady side of the mountains and 1300 to 1600 metres on the sunny side. Snowfalls are usually fairly light, and melt rapidly.
The Mistral (wind) is a feature of the climate in the western part of the Department, blowing from the north and the northwest, bringing clear and dry weather. The eastern part of the department is more protected from the Mistral. The Marin (wind) comes from the south, bringing warm air, clouds and rain.
Haute-Provence is one of the sunniest regions of France, with an average of between 2550 and 2650 hours of sunshine annually in the north of the department, and 2700 to 2800 hours in the southwest. The clear nights and sunny days cause a sharp difference between nighttime and daytime temperatures. Because of the clear nights, the region is home of important observatories, such as the Observatory of Haute-Provence in Saint-Michel-Observatoire near of Forcalquier.[33]
The Vaucluse
The Vaucluse is the meeting point of three of the four different climatic zones of France; it has a Mediterranean climate in the south, an alpine climate in the northeast, around the mountains of Vaucluse and the massif of the Baronnies; and a continental climate in the northwest. The close proximity of these three different climates tends to moderate all of them, and the Mediterranean climate usually prevails.
Orange in the Vaucluse has 2595 hours of sunshine a year. It rains an average of 80 days a year, for a total of 693.4 mm a year. The maximum average temperature in July is 29.6 °C., and the average minimum temperature in January is 1.3 °C. There are an average of 110 days of strong winds a year.[34]
Language and literature
Scientists, scholars and prophets
Pytheas (4th century BCE) was a geographer and mathematician who lived in the Greek colony of Massalia, which became Marseille. He conducted an expedition by sea north around England to Iceland, and was the first to describe the midnight sun and polar regions.
Petrarch (1304–1374) was an Italian poet and scholar, considered the father of humanism and one of the first great figures of Italian literature. He spent much of his early life in Avignon and Carpentras as an official at the Papal court in Avignon, and wrote a famous account of his ascent of Mount Ventoux near Aix-en-Provence.
Nostradamus (1503–1566), a Renaissance apothecary and reputed clairvoyant best known for his alleged prophecies of great world events, was born in Saint-Remy-de-Provence and lived and died in Salon-de-Provence.
Occitan literature
Main articles: Occitan language and Occitan literature
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, from a collection of troubadour songs, BNF Richelieu Manuscrits Français 854, Bibliothèque Nationale Française, Paris.
Historically the language spoken in Provence was Provençal, a dialect of the Occitan language, also known as langue d'oc, and closely related to Catalan. There are several regional variations: vivaro-alpin, spoken in the Alps; and the provençal variations of south, including the maritime, the rhoadanien (in the Rhône Valley) and the niçois (in Nice). Niçois is the archaic form of provençal closest to the original language of the troubadours, and is sometimes to said to be literary language of its own.[35]
Provençal was widely spoken in Provence until the beginning of the 20th century, when the French government launched an intensive and largely successful effort to replace regional languages with French. Today Provençal is taught in schools and universities in the region, but is spoken regularly by a small number of people, probably less than five hundred thousand, mostly elderly.
Writers and poets in the Occitan language
"Folquet de Marselha" in a 13th-century chansonnier. Depicted in his episcopal robes
The golden age of Provençal literature, more correctly called Occitan literature, was the 11th century and the 12th century, when the troubadours broke away from classical Latin literature and composed romances and love songs in their own vernacular language. Among the most famous troubadours was Folquet de Marselha, whose love songs became famous all over Europe, and who was praised by Dante in his Divine Comedy. In his later years, Folquet gave up poetry to become the Abbot of Le Thoronet Abbey, and then Bishop of Toulouse, where he fiercely persecuted the Cathars.
In the middle of the 19th century, there was a literary movement to revive the language, called the Félibrige, led by the poet Frédéric Mistral (1830–1914), who shared the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1904.
Provençal writers and poets who wrote in Occitan include:
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (1180–1207)
Louis Bellaud (1543–1588)
Théodore Aubanel (1829–1886)
Joseph d'Arbaud (1874–1950)
Robert Lafont (1923–2009)
French authors
Alphonse Daudet
Colette
Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897) was the best-known French writer from Provence in the 19th century, though he lived mostly in Paris and Champrosay. He was best known for his Lettres de mon moulin (eng: Letters from my Mill) (1869) and the Tartarin de Tarascon trilogy (1872, 1885, 1890). His story L'Arlésienne (1872) was made into a three-act play with music by Bizet.[36]
Marcel Pagnol (1895–1970), born in Aubagne, is known both as a filmmaker and for his stories of his childhood, Le Château de la Mere, La Gloire de mon Pere, and Le Temps des secrets. He was the first filmmaker to become a member of the Académie française in 1946.
Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette) (1873–1954), although she was not from Provence, became particularly attached to Saint-Tropez. After World War II, she headed a committee which saw that the village, badly damaged by the war, was restored to its original beauty and character
Jean Giono (1895–1970), born in Manosque, wrote about peasant life in Provence, inspired by his imagination and by his vision of Ancient Greece.
Paul Arène (1843–1896), born in Sisteron, wrote about life and the countryside around his home town.
Emigrés, exiles, and expatriates
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the climate and lifestyle of Provence attracted writers almost as much as it attracted painters. It was particularly popular among British, American and Russian writers in the 1920s and 1930s.
Edith Wharton (1862–1937), bought Castel Sainte-Claire in 1927, on the site of a former convent in the hills above Hyères, where she lived during the winters and springs until her death in 1937.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) and his wife Zelda first visited the Riviera in 1924, stopping at Hyères, Cannes and Monte Carlo, eventually staying at St. Raphaël, where he wrote much of The Great Gatsby and began Tender is the Night.
Ivan Bunin (1870–1953), the first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, went to France after the Russian Revolution, set several of his short stories on the Côte d'Azur, and had a house in Grasse.
Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) bought a house, the Villa Mauresque, in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat in 1928, and, except for the years of World War II, spent much of his time there until his death.
Other English-speaking writers who live in or have written about Provence include:
Peter Mayle
Carol Drinkwater
John Lanchester
Willa Cather
Charles Spurgeon (who spent long periods in Menton)
Katherine Mansfield
Lawrence Durrell
Music
Music written about Provence includes:
The saxophone concerto Tableaux de Provence (Pictures of Provence) composed by Paule Maurice.
The opera Mireille by Charles Gounod after Frédéric Mistral's poem Mireio.
Georges Bizet, 'L'Arlésienne' incidental music to play by Alphonse Daudet.
Darius Milhaud, 'Suite Provençale'
Two song settings of Vladimir Nabokov's poem "Provence" in Russian and English versions by composers Ivan Barbotin and James DeMars on the 2011 contemporary classical album Troika.[37]
The piece "Suite Provencale", written for symphonic band by Jan Van der Roost.
Painters
The 14th-century ceiling of the cloister of Fréjus Cathedral is decorated with paintings of animals, people and mythical creatures
Triptych of the Burning Bush, by Nicolas Froment, in Aix Cathedral (15th century)
Artists have been painting in Provence since prehistoric times; paintings of bisons, seals, auks and horses dating to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC were found in the Cosquer Cave near Marseille.[38]
The 14th-century wooden ceiling of the cloister of Fréjus Cathedral has a remarkable series of paintings of biblical scenes, fantastic animals, and scenes from daily life, painted between 1350 and 1360. They include paintings of a fallen angel with the wings of a bat, a demon with the tail of a serpent, angels playing instruments, a tiger, an elephant, an ostrich, domestic and wild animals, a mermaid, a dragon, a centaur, a butcher, a knight, and a juggler.[39]
Nicolas Froment (1435–1486) was the most important painter of Provence during the Renaissance, best known for his triptych of the Burning Bush (c. 1476), commissioned by King René I of Naples. The painting shows a combination of Moses, the Burning Bush, and the Virgin Mary "who gave birth but remained a virgin", just as the bush of Moses "-burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed". This is the explication according to a plaque in the cathedral. A more likely reason for the juxtaposition is that in 1400 a shepherd, or shepherds, discovered a miraculous statue of the Virgin and Child inside another burning bush (thorn bush specifically), in the village of L'Epine in the present day department of La Marne. The site and statue were later visited by the "Bon Roi René". The wings of the triptych show King René with Mary Magdalene, St. Anthony and St. Maurice on one side, and Queen Jeanne de Laval, with Saint Catherine, John the Evangelist, and Saint Nicholas on the other.[40]
Louis Bréa (1450–1523) was a 15th-century painter, born in Nice, whose work is found in churches from Genoa to Antibes. His Retable of Saint-Nicholas (1500) is found in Monaco, and his Retable de Notre-Dame-de-Rosaire (1515) is found in Antibes.
Pierre Paul Puget (1620–1694), born in Marseille, was a painter of portraits and religious scenes, but was better known for his sculptures, found in Toulon Cathedral, outside the city hall of Toulon, and in the Louvre. There is a mountain named for him near Marseille, and a square in Toulon.
Paul Cézanne, L'Estaque, 1883–1885
Vincent van Gogh, Cafe Terrace at Night, September 1888
Paul Signac, The Port of Saint-Tropez, oil on canvas, 1901
In the 19th and 20th centuries, many of the most famous painters in the world converged on Provence, drawn by the climate and the clarity of the light. The special quality of the light is partly a result of the Mistral wind, which removes dust from the atmosphere, greatly increasing visibility.
Adolphe Monticelli (1824–1886) was born in Marseille, moved to Paris in 1846 and returned to Marseille in 1870. His work influenced Vincent van Gogh who greatly admired him.[41]
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was born in Aix-en-Provence, and lived and worked there most of his life. The local landscapes, particularly Montagne Sainte-Victoire, featured often in his work. He also painted frequently at L'Estaque.
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) liv
Bajo estos Arcos , hasta hace pocos años , se reunían los 50 personajes más poderosos del Orbe, en una fecha que no me conviene señalar. Tras invocar extraños arcanos y antiguos conjuros , su oculto Maestre de la Iniquidad decía el nombre de una persona en voz alta, para en completo silencio y concentración, dedicarse los Conjurados a desear con todas sus fuerzas e intención el peor de los males a la persona señalada. Al amanecer , tras una noche de intensa meditación , cuando ya todos habían partido , el Maestre entregaba al Emisor un sobre lacrado con todos y cada uno de los nombres de los asistentes, cual era su condición y poder, espiritual o terrenal , y El Emisor cumplía la misión de entregar el sobre a la víctima , explicarle a que sé dedicaba la Oculta Iniquidad y comunicarle que la misma no pararía hasta causarle el más horrible desastre por medio de solamente su Deseo . Y funcionaba….
Qué no… qué es broma hombre…. Qué no era aquí….qué lo siguen haciendo… pero en otro lugar…. Y no son los del Club Bilderberg aunque algunos Conjurados pertenezcan a las dos Sociedades...
Under these arches, until a few years ago, met the 50 most powerful people in the world, at a time that I should point out. After invoking strange and ancient arcane spells, his Master of the hidden wickedness said a person's name aloud, in order to complete silence and concentration, spells devoted to desire with all his strength and intention of the worst evils of the person indicated. At dawn, after a night of intense meditation, when all had departed, the Master Issuer delivered to a sealed envelope with every one of the names of attendees, which was their status and power, spiritual or earthly, and this was the mission to deliver the envelope to the victim, who was devoted to explaining the hidden wickedness and inform you that it does not stop to cause the most horrible disaster only by your desire. And it worked ....
What no ... man ... what a joke. What was not here .... What are doing ... but somewhere else .... And are not those of the Bilderberg Club although some spells belonging to the two Companies ...
En vertu de ces arches, jusqu'à il ya quelques années, se sont réunis les 50 plus puissants dans le monde, à un moment que je devrais souligner. Après l'invocation étrange et sorts des arcanes antique, sa maîtrise de la méchanceté caché dit le nom d'une personne à haute voix, afin de compléter le silence et la concentration, consacré à la volonté précise de toutes ses forces et de l'intention des pires maux de la personne indiqué. À l'aube, après une nuit de méditation intense, lorsque toutes les avait quitté, le capitaine émetteur livré à une enveloppe scellée avec tous les noms des participants, qui est leur statut et leur pouvoir, spirituel ou terrestre, et ce fut la mission de fournir de l'enveloppe à la victime, qui a été consacrée à l'explication de la méchanceté cachée et vous informe que cela ne s'arrête pas à cause de la plus terrible catastrophe que par votre désir. Et ça marche ....
Qu'est-ce que l'homme ne ... ... quelle blague. Ce qui n'était pas ici .... Que faire ... mais ailleurs ....Et ne sont pas celles du Club de Bilderberg bien que certains sorts appartenant aux deux Sociétés ...
Kids having fun with me in the small village of Sohan, outside of Islamabad ;-)
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of Pakistani Lifestyle (Recommended as a slideshow)
Le vieux séchoir à tabac de Kiki et Annie , souvent les visiteurs demandent une explication pour comprendre l'utilité et le fonctionnement de ce bâtiment .
The old tobacco kiln of Kiki and Annie, often visitors ask for an explanation to understand the usefulness and functioning of this building.
The Spectra installation by Ryoji Ikeda, at the Montparnasse tower during the 2008 edition of the Nuit Blanche in Paris.
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of Nuit Blanche 2008 (Recommended as a slideshow)
In the rue de la Banque, where the Ministère de la Crise du Logement is located, kids were playing during the day. A bunch of them got very interested in me and my camera once I started showing them their pictures ;-)
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Hello, as I have been asked for a motion blur tutorial, here it is with GIMP :
Step 1 : select the area that you dont need to process
step 2: invert the selection
Step 3 : blur the border of the selection (20 pixels in this case)
Step 4 : go in the motion blur filter
Step 5 : select Zoom and the correct length (16 in this case)
Step 6 : The result
You can click on the image to watch it with a bigger resolution.
I hope that it can help few people here.
Great Carolus Linnaues (1707-1778) was born in Stenbrohult, Småland, Sweden. In his early publication, the Flora Lapponica (1737), on Lapp Plants, he discusses what he still calls Anthericum - later (1762) it was renamed Narthecium by William Hudson (1734-1793).
Linnaeus in the description of our plant growing in his native land of Stenbrohult waxes prolixly eloquent. He praises its great beauty, and - I translate freely from the Latin - writes that he can't take his eyes off of it. He goes on to say that it's called 'Ilagraes' in the local Swedish, and that it's believed to do great harm to sheep. They gorge themselves on it and get fat; but the next year they die of a nasty worm infection. Linnaeus is sceptical although he says there must be some other explanation than eating Anthericum. He doesn't solve the riddle.
The Latin specific - 'ossifragum' - means 'bone-breaking'. There are several theories about the origin of that designation. One is that sheep in bogs easily break their legs; another that their legs are weakened by a lack of calcium in the fens in which Narthecium grows... I've tried to find the first use of 'ossifragum' in this context in the hope there might be a further explication. Haven't found one. That would have been 'too good to be true'...
Minimalist snow art in Russia. I cannot explain these km-long paralel lines
Pas vraiment d’explication pour ces lignes parallèles en Russie, longues de plusieurs kilomètres...
Credits: ESA/NASA
145A5160
© Ben Heine || Facebook || Twitter || www.benheine.com
_______________________________________________
I took this picture near Spa in Belgium.
I added the UFO. It's digitally painted.
_______________________________________________
For more information about my art: info@benheine.com
_______________________________________________
The UFO Enigma
A poem by Fin Handley
Flying saucer, shiny disc, floating in the sky
Some would rather think it was a hoaxer or a lie
Was it really Jupiter, or were you on the weed?
If the answer's no then it's anomalous indeed!
How about if you're the one who's standing underneath
Filling up your trousers, swearing, stunned, in disbelief?
Then it's really very real so what is there to hide?
Was it an E.T. who came or were there blokes inside?
Well, I have my theories and my ears are triple-lobed
But if I'm from Uranus I've not been anal-probed
So 'till then I'll keep mouth shut and bum in tighter jeans
Some day maybe I'll work out what all of this stuff means
--------------
The poem appeared on www.alienexistence.com
Les Enfants de Don Quichotte ont organisé un campement sur la Seine face à Notre Dame, immédiatement évacué par la police. Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Lors de l'évacuation par les forces de l'ordre, un militant des Enfants de Don Quichotte, Martin, tombe dans la Seine.
Part of Don Quichotte à Notre Dame (Recommended as a slideshow)
Pour les besoin de macro monday j'ai recherché sur internet l'histoire de ma pièce je suis tombée sur l'explication qui disait ceci " c'est un faux " et oui en 1980 il fut créé des fausses pièces en zinc-alu qui ne valent rien a ce jour, For the need for macro monday I have Internet search the history of my coin I fell on the explanation which said this " it is a forgery " and yes in 1980 it was created forged coins out of zinc-aluminum which are not worth anything to date,
Le pont de Vroenhoven se situe à quelques mètres de la frontières avec les Pays-Bas. Un musée se trouve sous celui-ci, retraçant son histoire durant la guerre, mais également des explications sur le Canal Albert, qui passe dessous.
Le premier pont à cet endroit était un pont en arc en béton construit lors de la construction du canal Albert en 1935. Il a été détruit en 1944 par l’armée allemande qui battait en retraite. Un pont à travées a temporairement remplacé ce pont jusqu’en 1947, après quoi le pont a été reconstruit dans sa forme originale en 1947.
En 2007, la construction du nouveau pont de Vroenhoven a commencé, juste à côté de l’ancien pont existant. Le 16 janvier 2009, l’ancien pont a été détruit à la dynamite et le nouveau pont a été mis en service en juin 2010. Le remplacement du pont a permis d’élargir le goulot d’étranglement du canal, de sorte que deux navires peuvent désormais passer simultanément. Cet élargissement n’était pas possible auparavant car les piles de l’ancien pont étaient trop proches les unes des autres.
La construction du nouveau pont comprend également un espace pour un musée – le Pont de Vroenhoven, un théâtre en plein air, un mur d’escalade et un café-restaurant.
L’histoire est également dominée par la bataille pour le pont pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Ce pont a été capturé intact par les troupes allemandes lors de l’invasion du 10 mai 1940. Une douzaine de soldats belges ont été tués dans le bunker situé près du pont. Un jour plus tard, sept aviateurs belges sont tués lors de leurs attaques sur les ponts de Vroenhoven et de Veldwezelt, abattus par les canons antiaériens allemands.
The Vroenhoven Bridge is located a few meters from the border with the Netherlands. There is a museum underneath it, which tells the story of its wartime history, but also explains the Albert Canal, which runs underneath.
The first bridge at this location was a concrete arch bridge built during the construction of the Albert Canal in 1935. It was destroyed in 1944 by the retreating German army. A span bridge temporarily replaced this bridge until 1947, after which the bridge was rebuilt in its original form in 1947.
In 2007, construction began on the new Vroenhoven Bridge, right next to the existing old bridge. On 16 January 2009, the old bridge was blown up with dynamite and the new bridge was put into service in June 2010. The replacement of the bridge widened the bottleneck of the canal, so that two ships can now pass simultaneously. This widening was not previously possible because the piers of the old bridge were too close to each other.
The construction of the new bridge also includes space for a museum – the Vroenhoven Bridge, an open-air theatre, a climbing wall and a café-restaurant.
The history is also dominated by the battle for the bridge during the Second World War. This bridge was captured intact by German troops during the invasion of 10 May 1940. A dozen Belgian soldiers were killed in the bunker near the bridge. A day later, seven Belgian airmen were killed during their attacks on the bridges of Vroenhoven and Veldwezelt, shot down by German anti-aircraft guns.
Le pont de Vroenhoven se situe à quelques mètres de la frontières avec les Pays-Bas. Un musée se trouve sous celui-ci, retraçant son histoire durant la guerre, mais également des explications sur le Canal Albert, qui passe dessous.
Le premier pont à cet endroit était un pont en arc en béton construit lors de la construction du canal Albert en 1935. Il a été détruit en 1944 par l’armée allemande qui battait en retraite. Un pont à travées a temporairement remplacé ce pont jusqu’en 1947, après quoi le pont a été reconstruit dans sa forme originale en 1947.
En 2007, la construction du nouveau pont de Vroenhoven a commencé, juste à côté de l’ancien pont existant. Le 16 janvier 2009, l’ancien pont a été détruit à la dynamite et le nouveau pont a été mis en service en juin 2010. Le remplacement du pont a permis d’élargir le goulot d’étranglement du canal, de sorte que deux navires peuvent désormais passer simultanément. Cet élargissement n’était pas possible auparavant car les piles de l’ancien pont étaient trop proches les unes des autres.
La construction du nouveau pont comprend également un espace pour un musée – le Pont de Vroenhoven, un théâtre en plein air, un mur d’escalade et un café-restaurant.
L’histoire est également dominée par la bataille pour le pont pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Ce pont a été capturé intact par les troupes allemandes lors de l’invasion du 10 mai 1940. Une douzaine de soldats belges ont été tués dans le bunker situé près du pont. Un jour plus tard, sept aviateurs belges sont tués lors de leurs attaques sur les ponts de Vroenhoven et de Veldwezelt, abattus par les canons antiaériens allemands.
The Vroenhoven Bridge is located a few meters from the border with the Netherlands. There is a museum underneath it, which tells the story of its wartime history, but also explains the Albert Canal, which runs underneath.
The first bridge at this location was a concrete arch bridge built during the construction of the Albert Canal in 1935. It was destroyed in 1944 by the retreating German army. A span bridge temporarily replaced this bridge until 1947, after which the bridge was rebuilt in its original form in 1947.
In 2007, construction began on the new Vroenhoven Bridge, right next to the existing old bridge. On 16 January 2009, the old bridge was blown up with dynamite and the new bridge was put into service in June 2010. The replacement of the bridge widened the bottleneck of the canal, so that two ships can now pass simultaneously. This widening was not previously possible because the piers of the old bridge were too close to each other.
The construction of the new bridge also includes space for a museum – the Vroenhoven Bridge, an open-air theatre, a climbing wall and a café-restaurant.
The history is also dominated by the battle for the bridge during the Second World War. This bridge was captured intact by German troops during the invasion of 10 May 1940. A dozen Belgian soldiers were killed in the bunker near the bridge. A day later, seven Belgian airmen were killed during their attacks on the bridges of Vroenhoven and Veldwezelt, shot down by German anti-aircraft guns.
.
Qui ne comprend pas un regard, ne comprendra pas une explication non plus
Proverbe arabe.
*
Quien no comprende una mirada, tampoco comprenderá una explicación
Proverbio árabe
*
Photo : Automne.
*
Foto : Verde otoño
[Voir ci-dessous pour l'explication en francais].
Menton was formerly a fishing village owned by the Prince of Monaco. It became part of France in 1861, but is very close to Italy being the last town before the border. One might almost be in Italy, except baguettes are sold here. ;o)
Thanks for your visits dear Flickr friends. I must go work now, but will return to comment on Your streams and add to the groups very soon! I have some catching up to do!
A bientot! More Menton tomorrow. =)
From Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menton
"Menton (IPA: [mɑ̃tɔ̃]; Occitan: Menton in classical norm or Mentan in Mistralian norm; Italian: Mentone) is a town and commune in the Alpes-Maritimes département of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur région of France. It has been called the most beautiful town on the French Riviera, and its nickname is La perle de la France ("The pearl of France").
Menton is located on the Franco-Italian border, within the confines of the Côte d'Azur and the Ligurian Alps. It boasts a warm micro-climate favorable to lemon, tangerine, and orange groves.
The fishing industry was devastated in the 1980s and 1990s when the "killer Algae" Caulerpa taxifolia (a non-native Asian tropical green algae first discovered in the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco in 1984) that was introduced to the local environment spread throughout the coastal sea floor decimating the local fish life.
Menton was founded by the Count of Ventimiglia as château de Puypin (ca. 1000) and inhabited by Ligurian people. It was owned by the Grimaldi family from 1346 until 1848, before breaking away from the principality of Monaco and, after civil unrest, was sold to France for 4 million francs in 1861. This sovereignty was officially recognised by the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861. During the 19th century, Menton became popular for its warm climate, and many famous people chose to vacation in the town.
During World War II, Menton was annexed by Italy following the Fall of France in 1940. Menton enjoyed a steady flow of goods and services during this period as an example of the benefits of Italian government, but French residents were forced to assimilate into Italian culture. In 1943, German forces took control of the city. Menton was liberated by the Allies on September 8, 1944.
Menton was devastated by the conflict and it was not until the 1960s that its reconstruction was concluded. Since then, it has regained its appeal as a tourist destination."
A FEW OLD POSTCARDS OF MENTON: www.oldstratforduponavon.com/menton
All Star Comics No.8 (1941)
So right off the bat, this book opens up with a good refresher on who the official JSA members are, while promoting (or demoting, depending on how you see it) others to “Honorary Members” meaning 'hey kids, Supes, Bats, Jay, and GL won't be in this book! Go buy some other comics ya dead beat!'
Okay... well maybe it's not 'that' harsh... but you get the idea :P
Anyway, the first page of actual story (page 4 at this point) is all about how Hawkman (the new leader of the team) has his feathers in a twist about a mob/gang that isn't interesting or important unless you were a kid in the 40s. Other JSA members are asking him for help with their own problems with this gang but he's all flustered about the case, when literally out of nowhere pops in Dr Mid-Nite! No explication on where he came from or how he got there... actually come to tell you the truth, they're not actually anywhere... All of these characters are being drawn on single colored backgrounds so I really shouldn't judge.
Anyway, so Dr Mid-Nite decides to bust out a tale to The JSA!
*queue twelve page flashback!*
So Doctor M heard some shenanigans on the radio of some dude who broke out of prison so he checks up with some newspaper clippings he had in a filing cabinet then leaps out a window to go... fight crime... or catch the crook... it isn't quite clear.
Regardless, by the very next page Dr M finds this dude and reacts the same way I first did by saying something like “oh shit that was fast” before immediately tackling the dude and getting into a knife fight! But if you were hoping for a cool fight... TOO BAD! He knocks him out within five panels!
After that, he just up and kidnaps this dude, takes him back to a lab, draws a few blood samples and just ditches him for some other scientist to help with his analogy of the blood. But when he get's to his buddy's lab, the dude isn't there! Instead Dr Mid-Nite finds his assistant and the assistant tells him that he'd left for Africa for some ambiguous reason conveniently right before Doctor M got there.
So despite not just having the assistant be the actual scientist for the addition of a few extra panels, Mid-Nite finds one of the scientists' formula's just lying around and get's the lab assistant to help him inject it into an ape that just so happens to be chillin in the basement!
Some how during all of that Dr M had been working on some kind of tranquilizer antidote formula and after only just injecting the ape with something, he then injects it again with the antidote right before he's attacked by this ape who's mad at him for getting poked or something (look it's all a bit convoluted...)
So anyway, Dr M whisks back to where he left the criminal dude he beat up and injects the guy with the antidote. The criminal dude is all like 'yo man, my lawyer injected me with the crazy serum man, thanks for helpin me bro'
So then Mid-Nite has this criminal write down the address for him and takes off again to find yet another needle and syringe in the lawyer's office. Dun dun dun! *drama*
Then as if this story wasn't convenient enough already, the lawyer walks in with (I kid you not, this is his actual title) The Notorious Political Boss of The City.
So Mid-Nite is all like 'sick! Imma get these fools!' … So he jumps out of the closet he was hiding in and beats them up, then ties them to chairs and interrogates them by threatening to use the crazy drug on them (which is kinda cool actually... felt kinda batman-ish)
So after all that, Mid-Nite gets the two to write confessionals of their crimes. He notices that they don't mention anything about a Dr Elba (which I don't recall reading that name up until that point so I don't understand this dude's purpose but it turns out he's the villain of this overarching story)
Then there's actually a really cool moment where this Elba dude had snuck up on Dr Mid-Nite during this exchange, whacked him in the back of the head and Dr Mid-Nite looses his vision temporarily. So Hooty (Dr Mid-Nite's sidekick owl friend) swoops in and saves him from being shot in the back!
*end twelve page flashback!*
Hawkman is all like, 'Yo! We've been chasing the same dude! This Elba fella is gonna get what's coming to him!' and so Dr M is all like 'Sweet! Here's some of those tranquilizer drugs, and a shit ton of needles!'
After that, there's a few pages where Doctor Fate meets up with Inza (his GF) and some dude named Bill who runs a Bus Company who was effected by The Notorious Political Boss of The City and like a typical Golden Age superhero Doctor Fate is all like 'This looks like a job for me!' then flies off without saying goodbye to anyone
So what does he do next you ask? Why, he breaks into some random place and starts beating people up of course! At one point he throw's a couch at some dudes and makes a pun like 'SoFA so good' or some crap and it's terrible :P
Anyway, Doctor Fate get's some info on the whereabouts of some lady named Marge and, yep, you guessed it, he breaks in guns blazing and takes out a bunch of dudes before rescuing this Marge chick who has been given no character up to this point.
...Wait... Turns out it was Bill's wife or something. Doesn't mater, because it never comes up again and the writers didn't give her any kind of character anyway!
So then after all this, some of the gang members that Doctor Fate beat up, regroup and hop on a bus and plan to hijack it to taint Bill's name or something idk... but PLOT TWIST the bus driver was Doctor Fate wearing a Bus Driver uniform over his Doctor Fate costume and he gets them again oh my god this story is ridiculous!
After that he hops off the bus and politely returns the uniform to the original bus driver. Then he chases down this gang boss (named Goopy Gus... ya know, a mobster name) and totally wrecks his car, rips him out of the drivers seat, and throws him into the side of the bus he just hopped out of!
Dr fate then takes him to prison yadda yadda... Dr Elba is still up to something and I can't believe I'm now nineteen pages into this book.
The Atom and The Sandman also have their own solo stories like this lasting until page thirty one! (geez this book is long) Then we finally get The Starman's story!
And honestly... it's just as convoluted as the other stories! This one has to do with a haunted house and some kid named Billy that finds a chest full of money and then almost get's ran over by a car but its not any car, it's Ted Knight's car (aka Starman) and Ted brings him back to some mansion where Billy spills the beans on this cash and then Starman goes back to this haunted house to find some criminals and what does he do....?
He... he beat's them up. That's how all of these heroes solved their problems.
THEN HAWKMAN AND THE SPECTRE GET THEIR OWN SPERATE STORIES THAT GO UNTIL PAGE 50 THEN THE BOOK ENDS WITH NO CONCLUSIONS!
IT'S VERY FRUSTRATING
I read this book in hopes to have more to talk about than this, but you know what, it just kind of burned me out. Now don't get me wrong, they're not a terrible group of stories (if read on their own) but like as an over arching narrative for an entire book, it was pretty thinly tied together. I mean that Spectre story is kind of neat; he strands some dude on an asteroid as a method of interrogation. Hawkgirl shows up in Hawkaman's story... but yeah.
Apparently this was the good stuff back in the day. I can see why (because it has like eight stories in this giant comic book featuring like forty characters) but I've read better stories from DC around this era. Sayin' jus sayin'
Take that DC!
...Nah, we cool.
(EDIT PS: I'm beginning to think that the copy of the issue I read was incomplete because upon further inspection, All Star Comics No.8 also has a backup story introducing William Moulton Marston's newest character; Wonder Woman! ...But that wasn't in the copy I read so maybe there was a conclusion to the story but I couldn't find it so whatever I guess, this was a weird post to write for anyway)
***
The main reason I shot this shoot was because of ParisCustomBricks most recent release of his Doctor Mid-Nite figure! It's a great design even though I didn't receive my entire promised fig. Despite my pre-order of it from November of 2017, I didn't receive the dual molded boots or the Owl piece I was promised. However, I hope that Gabe can rectify this in the future. But at least the figure arrived! I'm glad to have it now than wait another six months for those two details. However, I won't forget about them and felt inclined to mention it on this post.
***
If you'd like to support my artwork, join my Patreon! It's only a dollar a month for a bazillion behind the scenes posts and photos and videos and gifs and yeah from all my past photos! In fact I'd like to thank my newest Patron, DoctorLate28! What a champ! Thank you for the support buddy! :)
Remember, I post more content there on Patreon than any of my other social media pages! So check it out! Plus, if you join you'll get a personal shout out from me on my next public flickr post just like DoctorLate28, along with a follow from yours truly! :)
***
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Un Cormoran pendu par le cou...
-----------------
Vu de loin, je pensais que c'était un sac de plastique noir accroché à une branche... Mais non!
Voici un Cormoran à aigrettes, la tête coincée dans une branche, suspendu par le cou à 10 m dans le haut d'un arbre aux abords d'un ruisseau !
Que fait-il là ?
Est-ce un prédateur qui l'a "remisé" là à l'abris d'autres prédateurs ?
un accident de la nature ?
De plus, c'est probablement arrivé là cet hiver... Ce qui ajoute à l'étrangeté de la chose, car les Cormorans sont normalement partis dans le sud sous nos latitudes.
En tous les cas, c'est la première fois que je voyais quelque chose du genre... et personne ne semble trouver d'explication.
=======================
Viewed from a distance, I thought it was a dark plastic bag hanging at the top of a tree.
Well, no it isn't! This is a Double-Crested Cormorant the neck stuck between 2 branches, hanging 10 meters above the creek.
WTH is it doing there?
Was it left there by a bird of prey?
An accident of nature?
It's more strange due to the fact this should have happened during the winter, where cormorants are normally down in the south in our latitudes...
Anyways, never seen that before, and nobody seems to understand this unusual situation.
Galanthus (Snowdrop; Greek gála "milk", ánthos "flower") is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. Most flower in winter, before the vernal equinox (20 or 21 March in the Northern Hemisphere), but certain species flower in early spring and late autumn.
All species of Galanthus are perennial, herbaceous plants which grow from bulbs. Each bulb generally produces just two or three linear leaves and an erect, leafless scape (flowering stalk), which bears at the top a pair of bract-like spathe valves joined by a papery membrane. From between them emerges a solitary, pendulous, bell-shaped white flower, held on a slender pedicel. The flower has no petals: it consists of six tepals, the outer three being larger and more convex than the inner series. The six anthers open by pores or short slits. The ovary is three-celled, ripening into a three-celled capsule. Each whitish seed has a small, fleshy tail (elaiosome) containing substances attractive to ants which distribute the seeds. The leaves die back a few weeks after the flowers have faded.
The inner flower segments are usually marked with a green, or greenish-yellow, bridge-shaped mark over the small "sinus" (notch) at the tip of each tepal.
An important feature which helps to distinguish between species (and to help to determine the parentage of hybrids) is their "vernation" (the arrangement of the emerging leaves relative to each other). This can be "applanate", "supervolute" or "explicative". In applanate vernation the two leaf blades are pressed flat to each other within the bud and as they emerge; explicative leaves are also pressed flat against each other, but the edges of the leaves are folded back or sometimes rolled; in supervolute plants one leaf is tightly clasped around the other within the bud and generally remains at the point where the leaves emerge from the soil. Snowdrops are sometimes confused with their relatives, snowflakes, which are Leucojum and Acis species.
Some snowdrop species are threatened in their wild habitats, and in most countries it is now illegal to collect bulbs from the wild. Under CITES regulations, international trade in any quantity of Galanthus, whether bulbs, live plants or even dead ones, is illegal without a CITES permit. This applies to hybrids and named cultivars as well as species. CITES does, however, allow a limited trade in wild-collected bulbs of just three species (G. nivalis, G, elwesii and G. woronowii) from Turkey and Georgia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galanthus
Set in rural Wiltshire, Lacock village is famous for its picturesque streets, historic buildings and more recently as a TV and film location.
The Abbey, located at the heart of the village within its own woodland grounds, is a quirky country house of various architectural styles, built upon the foundations of a former nunnery. Visitors can experience the atmosphere of the medieval rooms and cloister court, giving a sense of the Abbey's monastic past.
The museum celebrates the achievements of former Lacock resident, William Henry Fox Talbot, famous for his contributions to the invention of photography.
On a day out in Lacock there is plenty for you to see and do. It’s the perfect place to spend a whole day.
On your visit you can discover the history of the Abbey and newly opened rooms, take a walk in the grounds and enjoy spring bulbs, summer borders and the greenhouse.
Wander through the historic village with many great shops and places to have a meal, and don’t miss the wonderful changing exhibitions in the upper gallery of the Fox Talbot Museum
Permettez moi de vous présenter Marine, qui a été notre guide lors de notre visite du Château de Puymartin. Visite que je recommande chaleureusement! Et je remercie Marine pour la visite qui a été très enrichissante grâce à ses explications.
Let me introduce you to Marine, who was our guide during our visit to the Château de Puymartin. Visit that I recommend warmly! And I thank Marine for the visit which was very rewarding thanks to her explanations.
Inner Images Of The Soul.
Virtù inconsce piacere amabile dell'educazione poesia invidia ostinazione argomenti impiantati che influenzano divisioni di tempo incerti false,
חיקויים נימוסים יצורים מוזרים סגורים יצירה דוממת דומם טבע דעות הפקות אהבה אלוהית פרודוקטיבית,
ملاحظات تقلیدی مربوطه ملاحظات متمایز علیه اعمال نادان فراوان نمونه های آموخته یادگیری خواص,
μεταβλητοί λόγοι δημιουργίας διαφορετικές τέχνης παραγωγικές επιδράσεις ιδιωτικότητα φύση υπονοούμενες πρωταρχικές ορθολογικές μορφές συζητώντας μεταβλητά μαθήματα,
awgrymiadau plannu maetholion maethus sy'n trafod achosion sy'n achosi sylfeini angenrheidiol rhai prosesau gallu wedi'u cynhyrchu,
les explications représentaient des actions distinctives compositions versets tragédie éléments pensées dramatiques prologues longs épiques,
驚くべき文章を喚起する複雑なセクションを刺激する極端な同情悲惨の中間完璧な淡い部分列挙された言葉普通の手段.
Steve.D.Hammond.
Une autre Sainte-Chapelle que celle de Paris. Très belle elle aussi et ouverte au public après des travaux
La Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes est fondée en 1379 dans l'enceinte du château de Vincennes, à la demande du roi de France Charles V, afin d'y abriter les reliques de la Passion du Christ.
Les travaux sont confiés aux architectes Raymond du Temple et Pierre de Montereau. Le plan de base reprend celui de la Sainte-Chapelle du Palais de la Cité à Paris. Cependant celle de Vincennes ne comprendra qu'un seul niveau de 20 mètres de hauteur au lieu de deux. C'est un chef-d'œuvre de style gothique flamboyant.
You can find a very famous Holy Chapel in Paris. That one is in Vincennes and it is very beautiful and open to visitors after works
The Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes is a Gothic chapel within the fortifications of the château de Vincennes near Paris, France. It was founded in 1379 by Charles V of France to house relics of the passion of Christ. Its design by Raymond du Temple and Pierre de Montereau was based on that of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, although the version at Vincennes only had a single level (20m high) compared to the two levels of the Paris version.
Merci à Wikipédia pour les explications : fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-Chapelle_de_Vincennes
Thank you Wikipedia for the explanations : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-Chapelle_de_Vincennes
On Nov. 28, 2009, the demonstration against the Interministerial Conference of the WTO in Geneva quickly turned into chaos after a couple of hundred black blocks started smashing windows of banks and luxury stores, and burning cars.
Here, a burning car is exploding.
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album et de parcourir les photos par ordre chronologique / Please read the explanation at the beginning of the set and view the pictures in chronological order.
Part of WTO Geneva Conference
Tent pegging is a popular sports in Pakistan, especially in Punjab, and competitions are regularly organized. The objective if for one or more riders to pierce, pick up, and carry away a small ground target (a symbolic tent peg) with his lance. Judges evaluate the performance of the rider(s), including how the target is picked, and how fast the horse is going.
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of Pakistani Lifestyle (Recommended as a slideshow)
Félicitations papa ou maman (voir ci-cessous pour l'explication)
Congratulations Mom or Dad (see below for the explanation)
20160702191246ZW6N41918E13.369G1.596E3H0
[Myrmica Latreille 1804: 187+†7 (IT: 22+†0) spp]
[Histiostoma Kramer 1876: 222 (IT: 5) spp]
[Oplitis Berlese 1884: 153 (IT: 9) spp]
Conspecific parapatric concurrent ☿, lateral sx habitus.
Citrus juice based anti-mite treatment successfully applied to M. scabrinodis ♀♀. Citrus limon juice contains up to 47 kg/m³ and 8% DM of citric acid. After the first local application, only a few Histiostoma sp phoretic deutonymphæ remain on M. scabrinodis ♀a and ♀b; ♀c is a young uninfested Myrmica ♀ found isolated nearby, presumably conspecific to ♀a and ♀b.
Myrmica scabrinodis specific group is undergoing a major speciation event at the current time, largely in response to
anthropogenically altered habitats. Over its range, it might comprise several (perhaps 4-5) cryptic species and in any region perhaps 2-3 of these live sympatrically, being ecoetologically separated. Therefore, if ecotypes 1 and 2 are recognized in region A and ecotypes 3 and 4 are recognized in region B, far away from A, there is no reason to suppose that 1 and 2 are genetically identical to 3 and 4. Such a problem can be solved definitively only with PCM. When Emery described Sifolinia lauræ ( = M. lauræ) in 1907, it was presumed to be a social parasite though its host was unknown. In 1987, M. Mei identified the host of Myrmica samnitica ( = M. lauræ) as M. sabuleti. However, in the non-type series which M. Mei collected from Abruzzo and Lazio, the ☿☿ mounted with them as hosts were treated by A. Radchenko in 2003 as atypical M. scabrinodis, with relatively large scape lobes, and they could easily be mistaken for M. sabuleti. Now, morphometrics of these conspecific Myrmica ♀♀ and ☿☿ collected in 2016 differ significantly from morphometrics of individuals found in other parapatric M. scabrinodis populations, corresponding to the very description of the atypical M. scabrinodis specimens collected from the same geographic region by M. Mei in 1987; therefore, it could be assumed that they are likely to belong to a new cryptic species of Myrmica which most probably evolved parapatrically, a quite common process among non-parasitic ants.
Besides antagonistic relationships between organisms such as parasitism and competition, the more neutral phoresy exists. It appears in some animal groups, for example within Hexapoda; larvæ of Meloidæ get transported by some Hymenoptera. But phoresy appears especially frequently within Nematoda and Acari. Phoresy evolved several times convergently within Acari. Because all Histiostomatidæ produce phoretic deutonymphæ, this phenomenon is the most important part of their biology. Phoresy is a phenomenon in which one individual of a species ascends an individual of another species at a given time of its ontogenesis. It is carried for a limited while to get to a new habitat. Usually they don’t feed during that time. Terms for the partners of such a phoretic relation are “phoret” for the ascending animal and “transporter” for the carrier. Phoresy is commonly found in habitats which change their conditions rapidly and elapse after a short time. Such habitats are called “ephemer biochoria”. Biochoria are parts of ecological systems distributed like islands, with a characteristic inventory of species. Examples for biochoria are: animal dung, carrion, compost. These habitats arise at uncertain locations to uncertain times. They differ from biochoria as puddles or formicaries, which regularly arise at certain locations. “Waving”, a behavior of the juvenile phorets in some groups of Nematoda and Acari, appears to find their transporters. Phoresy is a common phenomenon in the life cycle of free-living Astigmatina, a diverse and widely distributed monophyletic group. Some of them are permanent parasites of Aves and Mammalia, but ancestral Astigmatina are free-living and fungivorous. From there, the group has colonized many habitats. Deutonymphæ of Astigmatina most commonly occur in association with Coleoptera and Hymenoptera in arboreal and soil habitats; they can respond to both genders of the carrier or respond selectively only to one gender. Naiadacarus arboricola responds only to Syrphidæ ♀ carriers which visit water-filled treeholes to oviposit; Rhizoglyphus echinopus responds mainly to Osmoderma eremicola ♂♂. Kennethiella trisetosa only matures on ♂ larvæ of Ancistrocerus antilope: these mites propagate in the brood chambers of the wasp; then all mite stages except the deutonymphæ feed on the hemolympha of wasps in the stage immediatly before the pupa phase without damaging them. Deutonymphæ can only ascend the adult ♂ wasps, because ♀ wasp larvæ kill the mites before growing up. During the wasp’s copulation, the mites change actively into the genital chambers of the ♀ wasps. From there, they leave that ♀ during the egg deposition. During the transport, the deutonymphæ are always positioned on the propodeum of the ♂♂ on small polished cuticula areas. Because up to now no other function could be assigned to that structure, it is assumed that it evolved for the transportation of the deutonymphæ. Such a structure is called acarinarium. A satisfying evolutionary explication is missing. It is assumed that a mutualistic relationship between phoret and transporter exists; it cannot be ruled out that this relationship bears advantages for the transporter, but this is still unproved. Alternatively, the acarinaria could be evolved in a parasitic or in a “neutral” relationship. It could be beneficial for the transporter to have the mites restricted to areas where they are as less hindering as possible. Up to now, acarinaria are unknown for Histiostomatidæ. But because it could be assumed that some Histiostomatidæ bear advantages for their carriers, probably acarinaria will be found in future times on some carriers. The preference of one carrier gender is unknown for Histiostomatidæ spp but could probably exist. The act to ascend the carrier, in Astigmatina as in Histiostomatidæ, can occur spontaneously or can be provoked by a tactile stimulation of gnathosomal setæ or solenidia. The deutonymphæ of the non-Histiostomatidæ Carpoglyphus lactis show a conspicuous behavior and wait in a position with the body anchored to the substrate by the caudoventral suckers. Jumping to a height of 25-50 mm allows the mite to spring onto a passing Drosophilidæ carrier. Deutonymphæ of Sancassania spp remain on the carrier when it dies and subsequent stages exploit the carriers as saprophages of necrotic host tissues. Such a strategy is called "necromeny" and derived from phoresy. Sometimes, deutonymphæ are positioned in similar numbers on both sides of the carrier to minimize interference with the carrier's flight. An example is Glyphanœtus nomiensis (Histiostomatidæ) which is attached to Nomia melanderi (Halictidæ). It is less known concerning the detachment stimuli in Astigmatina. It could correlate with the oviposition of the carrier, as observed for non-Astigmatina mites. Deutonymphæ of Histiostoma polypori, which change from one earwig stage to the following of the same individual, may respond to chemical changes in the transporter's cuticle.
REFERENCES
B. Seifert 2024: Myrmica scabrinodis pleistocenic differentiation.
B. Wermelinger 2021: Forest insects in EU.
P. Klimov & al. 2017: Acariformes phylogeny.
B. Seifert & al. 2014: Myrmica martini sp.n.
M. Dabert & al. 2010: Acariformes phylogeny.
A. Radchenko & G.W. Elmes 2010: Myrmica ants of the Old World.
On Explore, #180.
-->> Click , click
© View LARGE on BLACK
or white, or grey
__ For your Eyes only ©
•
Highest position: 180 on Sunday, September 8, 2013
Places / Germany / Baden-Wurttemberg / Freudenstadt
Famous Landmark
Greatest marketplace of Germany, surounded with old buildings.
Old Marketplace of
The City Freudenstadt, 1599 anno Domino,
a new founded City by the local Lord.
xplor-stats.com/index.php?id=40036489@N00&mod=history
CHECK
ALL MY EXPLORED PHOTOS
°°
Deutschlands größter umbauter Marktplatz
219 x 216 m, erbaut ab 1599 nach den Plänen von Baumeister Heinrich
Schickhardt, Arkadengänge, seit 1999 großzügige Wasserfläche mit 50
sprudelnden Fontänen.
°°
1/1600 sec
27 mm Weitwinkel - panoramic -
•
....
Stadt auf dem Reissbrett entworfen: Freudenstadt
Deutschlands grösster Marktplatz
Höhe: 732 m ü. NHN
... in Freudenstadt ist der größte umbaute Marktplatz in Deutschland und mißt 219 x 216 Meter, erbaut wurde er 1599 nach den Bauplänen von
Hof-Baumeister Heinrich Schickhardt. ( * 5. Februar 1558 in Herrenberg; † 14. Januar 1635 in Stuttgart)
1599 begann er mit dem planmäßigen Bau von Freudenstadt im Schwarzwald, wobei dort größtenteils die vom Herzog favorisierte Planvariante nach „Mühlbrettsystem“ anstelle der von Schickhardt vorgeschlagenen schachbrettartigen Grundkonzeption ausgeführt wurde.
Die Stadt wurde 1599 von Herzog Friedrich I. von Württemberg gegründet.
Die Förderung des Bergbaus in Christophstal und die Ansiedlung von protestantischen Glaubensflüchtlingen sollten im merkantilistischen Sinne die Einnahmen des Landesherren sichern.
Bereits 1536 wurden die Bergleute mit besonderen Privilegien ausgestattet.
1598 wurden 87 Tonnen Erz gefördert, das je Tonne bis zu 1800 Gramm Silber und 140 Kilogramm Kupfer enthielt.
Die Silberschmelze wurde mit Holzkohle aus den Wäldern der Umgebung beheizt.
1603 betrug die Förderung 94 Kilogramm Silber. Daraus entstanden die sogenannten Christophstaler.
Später konzentrierte sich der Abbau auf Kupfer und Eisen.
Am 6. Mai 1602 , wurde die „Stadt ob Christophstal“ erstmals urkundlich als „Freudenstadt“ erwähnt. Wie es zu dieser Namensgebung kam, ist nicht geklärt.
Münze
...
Ob die Bergleute gerne ihr Geld (Christophstaler) in der Stadt mit vollen Händen ausgaben und sie deshalb Freuden-Stadt nannten ist eine naheliegende Vermutung, weshalb danach der Name "Freuden-stadt" entstand.
Am 3. November erfolgte eine Ausschreibung, mit der gezielt Ansiedlungswillige angesprochen wurden, denen Bauplatz, Holz und Felder versprochen wurden.
Auf diese Art wurden vor allem von der habsburgischen Gegenreformation betroffene protestantische Glaubensflüchtlinge aus den österreichischen Kronländern Steiermark, Kärnten und Krain in die junge Stadt gelenkt. Da viele Flüchtlinge aus Krain nur slowenisch sprachen, predigte bald auch ein slowenischer Pfarrer.
Auf einer schiefen Fläche von 45 x 18 Meter wurden 50 Wasserfontänen angelegt.
Direkt bei der Wasserfläche sind die Bodenplatten als Mühlebrettspiel verlegt, die Spielsteine können bei der Tourist-Information ausgeliehen werden.
Der Grundriss wurde dem Mühlebrettspiel nachempfunden. Der Marktplatz wird von Straßen durchkreuzt und ist somit in drei Teile gegliedert. Sie werden als Oberer Marktplatz, Unterer Marktplatz und Postplatz bezeichnet.
webcams
The Olympic torch was carried through Paris on April 7th. Despite heavy security, the relay was seriously disrupted by numerous pro-Tibet protesters and human rights activists such as RSF, resulting in a partial cancellation of the event.
Here, near the Eiffel Tower (or as close as one could get as the whole area was off-limits), pro-Tibetan and Chinese supporters engaged in a war of flags and banners in front of the media.
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of Paris torche les JO ! (Recommended as a slideshow)
Musée de Shitamachi
Le musée de Shitamachi (下町風俗資料館, Shitamachi Fūzoku Shiryokan) se trouve à Ueno, dans l'arrondissement de Taitō à Tokyo. Situé sur les berges de l'étang de Shinobazu au sein du parc d'Ueno, il est consacré à la culture traditionnelle du quartier de Shitamachi.
Shitamachi, terme traduisible par « ville basse », est le nom officieux donné à la plaine de Tokyo, qui est la zone allant de Taitō à Chiyoda et Chuō1. Le Shitamachi tire son nom du fait que c'est la partie basse de la ville à côté, et en particulier à l'est de la Sumida-gawa. Bien que n'étant pas nécessairement pauvre, elle était habitée par les classes inférieures d'Edo, dont les artisans, les pêcheurs, les marins et les marchands. Le quartier produisait l'essentiel de ce qui faisait l'originalité de la culture d'Edo et était le centre touristique et commerçant de la capitale. Ce qui reste de l'ancien Shitamachi peut aujourd'hui se retrouver dans et autour de l'arrondissement de Taitō, à Asakusa par exemple. Le musée Shitamachi est consacré à l'explication de cette région et sa culture distinctive grâce à des objets originaux.
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_de_Shitamachi
________________________________________
The Shitamachi Museum (下町風俗資料館 Shitamachi Fūzoku Shiryokan) is a museum in Ueno, Taito, Tokyo, Japan. Located on the shores of Shinobazu Pond within Ueno Park, it's dedicated to the traditional culture of Tokyo's Shitamachi.
Shitamachi, term translatable as Low City, is the unofficial name given to the Tokyo flatlands, that is the area of Tokyo going from Taitō to Chiyoda and Chuō. The Shitamachi got its name from the fact that it's the physically low part of the city next to, and particularly east of, the Sumida River. Although not necessarily poor, it was inhabited by Edo's lower classes, including craftsmen, fishermen, sailors and merchants. The area produced most of what was original in Edo's culture and was the entertainment and shopping center of the capital. What remains of the old Shitamachi can nowadays be found in and around Tokyo's Taito, for example in Asakusa. The Shitamachi Museum is dedicated to explaining this area and its distinctive culture through original artifacts.
Les petites explications c'est par ici : lobjectifdethursday.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/ppr-theme-11...
A butcher in a small market in the outskirts of Islamabad. He spoke very little English but insisted to have his picture taken. Then he mentioned a few words in Urdu about Al Qaeda and Talebans. Nothing to be worried about however: this is a joke I heard several times. Because the western media always portray Pakistan as a land of dangerous terrorrists, people sometimes make jokes about it, esp. with foreign journalists ! I guess they would find it very funny if you were scared, but at the same time, it's sad and revealing that even at the "lowest" levels, people feel betrayed by the perception of their country abroad. In other discussions I had, including with highly educated people (incl. some working for the government), this was a recurrent theme. People are desperate to show that most of Pakistan is safe, and that the main problems are poverty and unemployment, not terrrorism and religious extremism...
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of Pakistani Lifestyle (Recommended as a slideshow)
*Please read the notes for explication (I hope you can understand I am not very good to explain in English the Crochet work.. but I try to give you the best of me ^-^)
I make this time a tutorial of a different and funny way to work
I really love this Ruffle work
Is really pretty for scarf or dresses (specially for dolls XD)
*The next tutorial is in rounds*
*************
*Por favor lean las notas para la explicacion
Esta vez hice el tutorial de una diferente y divertida manera de trabajar
realmente me gusta este punto
Es hermoso para bufandas o vestidos (especialmente para muñecas XD)
*El siguiente tutorial es en redondo*
On Sept. 12 and 13, 2008, the pope Benedict XVI visited Paris, with more than 200.000 people attending.
On the morning of Sept. 13, tens of thousands of people wait for the morning mass after a tough night on the lawn of the Invalides. At 7am, there are still 3h to wait and the sun is slowly rising, warming up the crowd.
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of "Au nom du père" (Paris) (Recommended as a slideshow)
Explication - Exterior
The vision is for five parts. As of now, I have this image and one very near this composition. The fifth and final image will determine number one.
Hasselblad 501C/M
Zeiss 80mm CB
1/60 @f/16
Linear polarizer
Ilford Delta 100
D-76 1:1
Demonstrators playing with flares.
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of Régimes Spéciaux (Recommended as a slideshow)
On January 3, 2009, 20 to 25 thousand people demonstrated in Paris to condemn the killings of Palestinians in the Gaza strip by Israel since the beginning of the offensive on Dec. 27. Similar demonstrations took place in other French cities. Spirits were high, and the organizers had a tough time maintaining order.
Incidents broke out around 5pm in St Augustin, where the rally ended, when approx. 200 to 300 people started attacking the police with stones, bottles, etc. as well as vandalizing cars, storefronts, phone booths, bus stops, etc. all the way to the Opéra. 3 or 4 cars were burnt down, others flipped upside down, and dozens had their windows smashed.
While many protesters complained and tried to stop the violence, some also attacked the photographers (sometimes physically), accused of showing the "wrong" side of the event.
Here, "protesters" pose in front a burning car.
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of Stop the killing in Gaza ! (Recommended as a slideshow)
On March 31st, a group of approx. 100 people demonstrated near the headquarters of the Olympic Committee (CIO) in Paris, to demand that the olympic torch is not carried through Tibet.
Merci de lire les explications en début d'album / Please read the explanations at the beginning of the set
Part of Free Tibet ! (Recommended as a slideshow)
Voir aussi la photo précédente .....J'écrirai d'autres explications demain, et aussi en Anglais....
The 70 m (230 ft) high Saviour Tower is the most magnificent of the Kremlin towers, the very symbol and emblem of Moscow. From time immemorial it has been the principal entrance to the Kremlin. The tower, like its two neighbors tothe north, was built in 1491 by the Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solari.
The tower was given its name in 1658, when an iconof Christ was set up over the entrance. It was not tall originally but then it was added to in 1624-1625 by the architect Bazhen Ogurtsovand adorned with white-stone sculptures.
The first clock was set into the tower in the 16th century. The Kremlin chimes that adorn the tower today were made in 1851-1852 by the brothers N. and P. Butenop. The gigantic mechanism (about 25 tons) of the carillon occupies three storeysof the tower. The clock now only strikes the hours.
The ruby star was installed in 1937. Sure it's not a real ruby. Just a name and color.