Post by Séamus on Jun 23, 2023 11:55:23 GMT
Sept 10, 2017 7:18:57 GMT Antaine said:
I thought this thread WAS about the people for a moment.
Well, a lot of Europe is very bland these days (globalism and all), but there are still nice places.
How ironic you use a picture of Belgium, which is fast becoming an absolute hole of a country.
" 'I was at home writing... I thought it was a bomb', art historian Monique Mosser said, adding that many of the windows in her building had been blown out" some sort of associated press report
As horrible as Thursday's Latin Quarter blast and fire is, those five words- I was at home writing- the very mention that this area, close to the Luxembourg where fictional Jean Valjean and Cosette found some peace in their lives,still produces writers, is almost like a bud springing from chaos...on one hand; maybe making it more tragic on the other.
It may have come as a surprise to many of us some weeks ago when headlines around the world mentioned "France Bans Short-Haul Domestic Flights In Favour Of Train Travel". Or similar.
One thing that came to my mind was the rail-journey taken by another popularly-romantic and, in ways literary also, Nineteenth Century family:
"She and Louis decided she should visit Lourdes to pray for a miraculous healing. Zélie took her three oldest daughters on this pilgrimage of faith. It was a difficult trip- two of the girls got train sick, Marie and Pauline lost their favourite rosaries. Zélie fell and injured her neck...reminding them of Our Lady's promise to St Bernadette: 'I will not make you happy in this world...' " cf Family of Saints, (once titled Story of a Family)
No blissful image entirely what it seems.