Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Souvenir of La Rochelle

Since I mentioned about La Rochelle in the earlier post, you might have wondered: where the heck is the place located? If you try to reach the city of La Rochelle from Paris, it will be about 500 km to the southwest of France. If you come from Spain, it will be also around 500 km away from the nearest city to the border, Barcelona.

If you drive, you can reach La Rochelle by Autoroute A10 (highway) from Paris. But to most visitors coming from outside of France territory, the practical transportations are either aeroplane or train (another possibility is by boat if you try to enter France soil illegally, but I would not recommend that :)).

There is a flight scheduled from Paris and you can land either at La Rochelle (Aéroport de La Rochelle) or Bordeaux (Aéroport de Bordeaux-Mérignac). For me, taking the train is more convenient and efficient (only less faster compared to taking flight). If you are in a hurry, the plane will carry you for about 45 minutes.
But if you prefer a relaxing, sight seeing journey, then choose train aka SNCF. There is a choice between express train and TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse – High Speed Train). The fastest train from Paris will reach Le Gare de La Rochelle in less 6 hours.

Even though La Rochelle is a small city (about eighty thousand of population), it will be crowded with tourists between May and September of the year. This is the place where everybody likes to go during summer. And everybody means almost every Europeans! Just imagine, La Rochelle welcomes about three million tourists per year. 

What make the city so special? Its nice weather maybe. Or its people, warming and welcoming. Or the scene and background of the city. And how about a view of Atlantic Ocean from a restaurant? Yes, the heart of the city is located facing the ocean. Which mean it has some old building like ports, castles, and islands not far away from its’ beaches. Some attractions that will always pop up include Vieux Port, Tour Saint-Nicolas, City Hall, Aquarium, Musee de Maritime etc. You can also go island hopping to Ile de re, Ile d'Aix and Ile d'Oleron (of course not to forget Fort Boyard also).

Hmm.. sound interesting, right? The city or also called port-town is quite warm throughout the year due to the influence of the Gulf Stream waters, and insolation is remarkably high, on a par with the French Riviera on the Mediterranean Southern coast of France (where the more popular Cannes and Nice located). In other words, it’s not too cold in winter and not too hot in summer. But beware, sometime it can be very windy during autumn and it can reach 160kmph!

And in case I didn’t inform you, this is where I stayed for about 3 years to finish my Degree.

Souvenir of Fort Boyard... and La Rochelle

Many many years ago, i went to do my Degree of Computer Science in La Rochelle, France. The best thing about La Rochelle is its located nearby beautiful beaches and islands. My studio apartment and my university was just a few hundred meters away from the Atlantic sea.

Another attraction that we might have heard is Fort Boyard. The fort is located between the Ile d'Aix and the Ile d'Oleron. Fort Boyard is also a reality show (aired on NTV7 every Saturday at 8.30pm) whereby the contestants have to complete challenges to win prize money.

It was told that the construction of the fort started back in 1801, under Napoleon.
The fort had a purpose to protect the coast (and especially the arsenal of Rochefort) from possible incursions by foreign navies (the British especially). At that time, cannons only had a limited range, and the distance between the two islands of Aix and Oleron was too large to block the passage.



You can have a nice view of Fort Boyard for a few euros with a boat trip from La Rochelle to l'ile d'Aix.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Fusillade Toulouse (Toulouse shootings)

About 2 weeks after French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a remark that there were too many immigrants in France, four people were shot at a school in Toulouse. Nice coincidence?

I remembered staying in Toulouse for almost a year between 2001-2002. There was no violence. I believe it's still a peace and safe place to be. Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry with the presence of big corporations such as Airbus, CNES's Toulouse Space Centre and the SPOT satellite system.

Back to the question: is it a coincidence that this incident happened after someone very important made a remark on immigrants ahead of France's presidential elections at the end of next month? Hard to tell...

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Un Seul Moyen (Only Way)


Il n'y a qu'un seul moyen
Pour que je cesse de pleurer
Donne-moi simplement la main
Et je te promets d'arrêter.

Il n'y a qu'un seul moyen
Pour cesser de me voir rire
C'est d'éloigner ta main
En me laissant souffrir.

Il n'y a qu'un moyen
Pour enfin me voir heureuse
C'est d'entrelacer nos mains
Comme le début d'une histoire merveilleuse

Le monde Est Stone



Like A Stone

on a cobweb afternoon
in a room full of emptiness
by a freeway i confess
i was lost in the pages
of a book full of death
reading how we'll die alone
and if we're good we'll lay to rest
anywhere we want to go

in your house i long to be
room by room patiently
i'll wait for you there
like a stone i'll wait for you there
alone

on my deathbed i will pray
to the gods and the angels
like a pagan to anyone
who will take me to heaven
to a place i call
i was there so long ago
the sky was bruised
the wine was bled
and there you led me on

in your house i long to be
room by room patiently
i'll wait for you there
like a stone i'll wait for you there
alone

and on i read
until the day was gone
and i sat in regret
of all the things i've done
for all that i've blessed
and all that i've wronged
in dreams until my death
i will wander on

Mon Cher Journal

How do you call 'diary' in french?
Journal, that's diary in francais. Something that you put in to tell what is happening in your life in that day. So Journal is for something personal. but what about professional diary for appointment? That will be Agenda.
Confusing isn't it? Don't be, you'll get used to it with a little practice.. :p

Sunday, March 18, 2012

J for Jean



Jean Reno came to France at the age of 17. He was born in Casablanca, Morocco, to Spanish parents (from Andalucía) who later moved to North Africa to find work. Working in both French and English, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible and Ronin, but also in European productions such as the French films Les Visiteurs (1993) and Léon (1994) along with the 2005 Italian film The Tiger and the Snow. Needless to say, Jean Reno speak Spanish, English, French and Italian.