these central-southern regions of France are maybe less mediatized than the glamourous cote d'azur, but worth it.
I lived in Montpellier few months, I kept a good memory.
I don't know really Albi, the city of origin of Toulouse-Lautrec, as we see on the shop...
the famous painting of the parisian "bordels"... and "la goulue"
I'll go to Basque country and Cantabria next week !
Interesting.
I advise you to visit Gernika, a basque culture symbol.
Gernikako Arbola (Gernika's tree), where kings of Castile then Spain swore to respect freedom of Basque provinces, it resisted of 1936 Bombardments.
You can go to Donosti, Gazteiz (Vitoria), Iruna (Pamplona) Spanish-Basque beautiful cities, and then Bilbao a modern and traditional basque capital.
If you go to the French basque side, you can go to Soule/Xiberoa province, mysterious, charming and attractive.
And this summer there was-are many basque traditional festivities: fêtes de Bayonne (which attract 1 million festayres during 1 week), Sanfermines on July and Encierros (7-14 of July), one of the most important festivity of the world (with Rio de Janeiro's carnival and Beer party of Munich.), etc...
In Donostia, soon there is la Semana Grande (12-19 august) with many activities... And great fireworks.
Toros de Fuego en la calle...
Concurso Internacional de Fuegos Artificiales:
You can admire and eat some Tapas (some are very expensive...):
The trees in the second picture are very distinctive... I've seen pictures of quite a lot of cities in South Africa, so I suppose it just looked familiar somehow. What's its other name, incidentally?
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject:
That looks like Edinburgh... a very sunny and bright Edinburgh.
Benjamin wrote:
The trees in the second picture are very distinctive.
You were able to name the city based on its trees?? There are trees like that in LA!
Quote:
What's its other name, incidentally?
From what I've read, there's been an awfully contentious and divisive debate going on on whether to change its name to "Tshwane", which is already the name of its metropolitan municipality.
That looks like Edinburgh... a very sunny and bright Edinburgh.
Yes, indeed. I was there this weekend for the Scottish Green Party Autumn Conference — it was very gloomy yesterday, but today it was actually very sunny (until it gets dark at like 3pm). We were in a wonderful conference hall at Napier University which was halfway up one of those hills you can see in the background, and had huge windows at the front so we could see the view.
The trees in the second picture are very distinctive... I've seen pictures of quite a lot of cities in South Africa, so I suppose it just looked familiar somehow. What's its other name, incidentally?
Those purple trees are jacarandas, and Pretoria is famous for it. It's nickname is actually Jacaranda City.
Elaine is right about the name, there is a huge fight going because of the proposed name change. The Tshwane metro council's area includes not only Pretoria, but also the city of Centurion, as well as towns such as Acacia. The metro council insists that "Pretoria" only refers to a small part of the city (essentially the city centre), and that the rest of the city should also be called Tshwane. It hasn't been changed officially yet, and the fight continues. Many blacks also oppose the name change, not only whites.
Here's the latest:
Quote:
City residents opposed to the change of the city's name to Tshwane may have something to celebrate.
The Minister of Provincial and Local Government on Monday announced that he had informed all provinces and municipalities to halt the planned replacement of the name.
Sydney Mufamadi said his actions were in compliance with an order granted by the Pretoria high court that instructed him to "communicate" with all provinces and municipalities that the replacement of the name on road signs be "provisionally prohibited".
This came after the Freedom Front Plus filed an urgent court application in August this year which prevented the council from re-naming any signposts in the city or anywhere else in the country.
The council has indicated that it will do everything to change the name from Pretoria to Tshwane as the court order was temporary.
AfriForum and the FF+ have indicated that they will ask for a "declaratory order" for the name Tshwane to be used only for the municipality but not as a geographical area over which the council has jurisdiction.
Recently AfriForum objected to the council's request to the SABC not to refer to the city as "Pretoria".
Mufamadi's spokesperson, Thokozani Mtshali, said the minister had also urged all premiers to convey the decision to all relevant MECs in the country and letters had been sent to all mayors on the court's instruction.
_________________ Toe ek jonk was, het ek al die antwoorde geken. Nou verstaan ek nie eens die vrae nie.
Benjamin, so now you study in Scotland? Since you live there, did your vision of it has changed? or do you still think that its culture is very different from English's as you've said before?
Another picture question (ps; easy one: it is in relation with something that happens every year at this time of year...)
Yes, I now live in Scotland, and I absolutely love it here.
fab wrote:
Since you live there, did your vision of it has changed? or do you still think that its culture is very different from English's as you've said before?
I never said that Scotland is 'very different' from England. I said that there are certain differences between England and Scotland, and that I would support increased autonomy or 'independence' for Scotland. So no, my view of Scotland in this sense has basically not changed, although I think you have a mistaken idea of what my view of Scotland was all along anyway.
What has changed though is that I now find that I feel more at home in Scotland than in England (or at least the parts of Scotland that I've been to — the Western Isles would be quite a different story, I'd imagine). I actually went to England this weekend, first to see my friend in York, and then to a kind of environmentalist conference in Sheffield. It was a bit weird — on the one hand, it's obviously familiar, but on the other hand, it actually seemed slightly 'foreign' (for what of a better word), because I've got used to how things are in Scotland.
When I was buying drinks in Sheffield last night, I handed over a Scottish £10 note. The woman at the bar frowned, and then examined it very carefully for about a minute. She eventually accepted it, though very reluctantly, still frowning as she shoved the change into my hand. I'm not sure if she just suspected that the note wasn't real, or whether this was yet another example of the 'anti-Scottish sentiment' which has been increasing in England in recent times.
Equally, I was very aware during the conference that it was very 'England-centric' — there was no mention of the climate change bill which the Scottish Government is currently preparing, for example, although the UK Government's climate change bill was mentioned a lot. I might not really have noticed this sort of thing before. Also how people kept talking about how none of the 'three main political parties' were taking sufficient measures — but there are four 'main' parties in Scotland.
Incidentally, I apparently sound sort of Scottish now — very posh Scottish though, or so I'm told, which means that my speech has only really changed very slightly, though enough for people to notice a difference.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:18 pm Post subject:
fab wrote:
Another picture question (ps; easy one: it is in relation with something that happens every year at this time of year...)
fab wrote:
well, it has to ee with a famous bad wine...
Oh! I think I got it now! This "bad wine" you speak of... are you referring to Beaujolais Nouveau? Beaujolais Nouveau, you're probably aware, is supposed to be the perfect complement to a lovely Thanksgiving meal, but I myself prefer the rich and full-bodied flavor of Pinot Noir. In fact, sometimes that's the only thing I consume on Thanksgiving Day!
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There are trees like that in LA!
