The railway staff at Nancy station have been kind and helpful with my queries over the past couple of days, helping me to change a ticket to Paris and with some other things. Yesterday a woman with blond hair and an oversized SNCF coat helped me. The railway workers have smart uniforms here in France.Continue reading “The Battle of Good and Evil in Metz”
Author Archives: DannyB
Bon Weekend
The train from Reims to Nancy moves in a dream-like state through the French countryside. Waves of hills and hedgerows, yellow fields of rape crop, clusters of trees on the horizon, deep greens of ripening wheat and barley. There are low lying clouds and as the train hits them at speed they burst and fillContinue reading “Bon Weekend”
Rue de Mars, Reims
Reims has an atmosphere of wealth and understated power; the old power of landed aristocracy. These may just be ideas rattling around in my head, but these ideas have power over us. It is curious how the immediate impressions we have of an unfamiliar place can form. These things should be studied closely. For atmosphereContinue reading “Rue de Mars, Reims”
As a Tourist, in Paris
Paris is infected with building-itis too. As the train comes through the outer suburbs and into the city itself, lines and lines of tower cranes. Half built luxury apartment blocks, leisure and retail complex investments, gated communities, poor quality cheap builds (and expensive lets) that will quickly become the new slums. The city has concentratedContinue reading “As a Tourist, in Paris”
Towards a Republic
A great luxury in the early morning is to have a cup of black coffee with a single spoon of demerara sugar. There was a vague memory, dusty cobwebs in the mind, the last thoughts before sleep. A book. Which book had I been thinking of? It was noticed by accident while the thought wouldContinue reading “Towards a Republic”
Shore Line Strolling
Complete silence seems the wrong environment for meditation and contemplation. I would for ever be listening for any possible noise. All that silence would drive me to distraction. Sitting on a piece of rock armour on the beach works much better. The slosh of the waves messing about on the shore line is part ofContinue reading “Shore Line Strolling”
Refugees on the Train
There were refugees on the train. They’re coming from everywhere. They looked tired. The air of exhaustion that living on the road for months creates. Towns and villages bombed. No one can remember when the war started or where. Was it British jets bombing farms and factories in Libya or the United States carpet bombingContinue reading “Refugees on the Train”
The End of Capital
What I really wanted to do was to walk along the Kings Road. There are more immediate things that I ought to be doing and streets and buildings with more urgent research needs. But I want the luxury of freedom; to drift and float through the streets, to turn left here and right there withContinue reading “The End of Capital”
Love Each Other
We don’t really have a government in England. There is a small group of political millionaires who belch out their bigotry and prejudices. Many of them make a great deal of money through corruption and the high paid jobs that await them in the private sector. Earning dividends from the privatisation they push through whileContinue reading “Love Each Other”
Rich Mlk the Poor
There is a powerful memory of Lisson Grove in 1981. And walking along the Edgware Road having just bought the 12″ version of Joy Division’s Atmosphere. There was some inexplicable urge to repeat that walk this afternoon. Leaving work, travelling under London on Crossrail, immersed in the city, a mixture of cinematography, the inner lifeContinue reading “Rich Mlk the Poor”
Cornucopia City 