Items from an 1855 exhibition commissioned by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte to celebrate France’s relationship with Britain have gone on display in Paris

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We are all going green these days, so thought it only right to extend my recycling to cyberspace. I have a general blog I ran for a while, but it was hacked and then a few plug-in issues arose. It’s been in moth balls for a good few months now, but in the green spirit I’ve decided to recycle it into a photo blog. Anyone who’s know me or have seen my websites (all on the blog roll on the right), will know I have a vast collection of photos both from my wanders around France and the globe. They are on all of my static sites but I thought it would be a good idea to blog them. So from now one I will be adding a photo every day to Richards Photo World.

Our internet connections been down for most of the day, so it was a good time for a bit of house keeping, on the computer that is, the real house keeping can always wait until tomorrow!!!! I’ve been sorting out my vast collection of images I have on the computer and binning loads, over a 1000 sent to trash so far. It is amazing how they seem to add up. It is just so easy with a digital camera to shoot far more then needed and then because of the computer disc size not worry about erasing the rubbish ones. I’m on a Mac and use iPhotos, which for some reason when I imported photos from my laptop it decided to rearrange the dates for me, so I’ve I’ve put everything in a decent order. Now all I need is a bit of free time, so that I can sort out all of the video files that are cluttering up the hard drive.

Just Finished Reading

Andy McNad - Brute Force. Classic McNad. A true boys own novel that’s well written and gripping. I must admit I’ve been a fan for years now and unlike some ‘ex special forces’ authors, you get the sense of a bit of real background and the ability to spin a good yarn. It is well researched
About the Author
Andy McNab joined the infantry as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was ‘badged’ as a member of 22 SAS Regiment and was involved in both covert and overt special operations worldwide. During the Gulf War he commanded Bravo Two Zero, a patrol that, in the words of his commanding officer, ‘will remain in regimental history for ever’. Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab was the British Army’s most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993. He wrote about his experiences in two phenomenal bestsellers, Bravo Two Zero, which was filmed in 1998 starring Sean Bean, and Immediate Action. He is the author of ten fictional thrillers. Besides his writing work, he lectures to security and intelligence agencies in both the USA and UK.

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Hercules and Omphale, 1724, canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

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An Airbus A320 jet crashed of the coast of France, near Perpignan while on a test flight after after maintenance work. 2 bodies and been recovered and the oter 5 are still missing. The plane crash while on the way to land at Perpignan airport after a hours test flight over the Mediterranean Sea. The plane is owned by Air New Zealand but was being leased to the German airline XL Airways.

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Des petits chiens tellement craquants !

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What do you feed a Praying Mantis? Being a French Praying Mantis, we have tried her on bread, cheese and even a bit of smoked salmon the stray cat left. Yes we feed the stray cat Smoked Salmon, only the best for our menagerie of stray and wild critters. I wonder if she would enjoy a bit of chicken pie, because that’s what we’ve got for lunch today and I’m sure we could leave a bit for her!

Martine Aubry is now the new leader of the Socialist Party, not that is is now much of one, after all of the in-fighting for the leadership battle. Segolene Royal is none to pleased to say the least and looks set to go down fighting. This looks like pushing the Socialist Party out into the political wilderness for years to come.

Now the winter is here I’ve been enjoying sitting in front of the fire with a good book. I’ve just finished The Lost Army by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. I’m a real sucker for historical based fiction and Manfredi his more than just an author, he is also classical archaeologist, so should know what is is talking about. The book tells the story Greek mercenaries employed by Cyrus the Younger in a failed attempt to overthrow his brother Artaxerxes II, the king of Persia. It is narrated by a woman who becomes the lover of one of the Greeks and follows the army. The historical facts are interesting and well interweaved into the story, the only negative point I would make is that it lacks a certain richness of narrative with regard to the sight,sounds and smell of a army on the move.Valerio Massimo Manfredi is professor of classical archaeology at Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. He has published ten works of fiction, including the ‘Alexander’ trilogy, which has been translated into twenty-four languages in thirty-eight countries. His novel The Last Legion was released as a major motion picture in 2007. He has written and hosted documentaries on the ancient world and has written screenplays for cinema and television.

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Hundreds of strikers and protesters protesting against the plan to bring France Television and Radio France under full government control.

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Alain Bashung - Résidents de la République

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For Christmas 1992 my better half brought me a bottle of beer. After 16 years of living in cupboards and under stairs and a move to France, I thought it was time to drink it. It is a celebration ale marking 250 years of the Whitbread brewery. It was recommended to be drank at 10 years, but I never seemed to get around to drinking it. It was with some trepidation that I opened the bottle, but it smelt O.K. so into a pint glass it went. I was a little nervous bringing the glass to my lips. Even though it smelt o.k. and the seal was intact, it had not had an ideal life and I’m sure it had got a tad warm a few times during its life. What a very pleasant surprise then, when the first sip tickled my taste buds. Wonderful rich and hoppy with notes of coffee and chocolate. It had an almost Tawny Port richness to it. Well worth waiting 16 years for. Now all I need to do is find a use for the box it came in.

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French ex-presidential candidate Segolene Royal is contesting the results of a vote to choose the leader of the French Socialist opposition.

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We have a new pet, Petra the Praying Mantis. The little criiters taken up home on one of our window ledges. When I first saw the critter I thought it had wandered there by accident so I moved it on to a plant on the ground , only for it the then climb up the wall back onto the window ledge.

Petra the Praying Mantis

Petra is adding to a long list of ‘pets’ we now have. There is a stray cat who spends her days sleeping in a flower pot in another window, the village stray dog who pops around every few days for a hand-out and then there is Patrick the Pigoen who flies down ever time I pop outside. I’m starting to feel like Dr Doolittle!!!!

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Yesterday I uploaded my 100th video to Yotube. A bit of a milestone to say the least. My only reget is that after YouTube recoded it, it’s lost a lot of clarity and it’s a bit hard to see the migrating birds swarming about our house. Here it is in all its glory.

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France is being urged by the Rwandan government to give one of their top officials a quick trial - and the chance to defend herself. Rose Kabuye is facing charges in connection with the killing of a former Rwandan president in 1994, which many believed sparked the Rwandan genocide.

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The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, detail, 1651 or 1661, oil on canvas, The Hermitage at St. Petersburg.

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French ex-Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is set to stand trail for the dirty tricks campaign during the running for the presidential nomination. A lots claims where being made that the now President, Mr Sarkozy was involved with illegal arms sale commissions. Given how the things normally work out, I’m sure there will be a 10 year investigation that will then fizzle out,, without any changes being made.

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