23 August: King Louis XVI

This date in 1754 was the birthdate of King Louis XVI of France, who reigned from 1774 to 1793 and was married to Marie Antoinette. 10 facts about him.

1. He was never supposed to be king. Like Henry VIII, he had an older brother who died young.

2. Because he wasn’t first in line to the throne, the young Louis was virtually ignored by his parents and grandfather while his older brother was with praise and gifts while being groomed for kingship. King Louis XV, his grandfather, called his grandson "ungainly" and "dimwitted", even though he was actually very intelligent.

3. After the death of his elder brother in 1761, and his father in 1765 aged just 36, Louis became the new dauphin at the age of 11 and his kingly education had to begin. His tutors, however, weren’t that good, teaching him that being timid and shy was a great attribute for a king, as was never letting on to anyone what you might be thinking about.

4. Louis was 15 when he married the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette. The marriage was arranged for political reasons. The marriage got off to a bad start when Louis decided he was going to organise the Firework display to end all firework displays as part of the celebrations. He ordered piles of fireworks to be set up on a wooden podium in the middle of Paris. People crowded in to get the best view. The wooden podium caught fire and people fled. 130 people lost their lives in the stampede to get away from the fire. It was here that Louis showed he wasn’t a cruel and heartless king: he met with the families of the victims personally and supported them financially. He did care, and wanted to be liked; he just didn’t know how.

5. Louis and Marie Antoinette had no children for several years, leading to rumours that the king couldn’t “get it up”. There was speculation he suffered from a condition that made the required marital relations very painful for him, if not impossible. In the end, Marie Antoinette’s brother, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, concerned that the Austria-France alliance was in danger, decided he needed to go to Versailles in person and get to the bottom of the problem. He showed up incognito as the Comte de Falkenstein and stayed for a while. The story goes that Joseph was blunt enough to ask Louis what he and Marie Antoinette actually did when they were in bed together. Joseph wrote that Louis told him that he "introduces the member," but then, "stays there without moving for about two minutes." Then he’d get up and leave. So it seems as well as not teaching him how to rule a country, or the health and safety around fireworks, his teachers didn’t teach him how to do sex properly, either. Presumably Joseph gave him a few pointers and Marie Antoinette got pregnant soon after, although now the rumours circulated that Louis wasn’t actually the father of her kids.

6. Louis became king aged 19, in 1774. He did try and do some good stuff. He signed the 1787 Edict of Versailles (also known as the Edict of Tolerance), giving non-Catholics civil and legal status and freedom of religion in France.

7. He also tried to get France out of debt by introducing new taxes. Needless to say, that didn’t go down well and most of his efforts were blocked by the nobles.

8. Some may dispute that he was a caring sort on reading the following fact. One of his favourite pastimes was shooting Cats. It’s possible Louis developed a dislike for cats because his grandfather Louis XV loved them and let them roam and breed all over Versailles. So whenever Louis XVI came across a cat in the grounds, he’d shoot it. He didn’t stop to consider that it might be someone’s pet and at least once shot a female courtier's beloved moggy by mistake. To be fair, when he realised what he’d done he was most apologetic and even bought the lady a new cat.

9. When the revolution happened, Louis and his family were held in the Tuileries in Paris. While there, Louis came up with an escape plan. They would sneak out at night disguised as servants and flee to safety in Austria, where they would regroup and return in due course to take back the throne. The plan went well to start with. They got out of the Tuileries and made it as far as a small village near the Austrian border before it all went pear-shaped. The story goes that a local man recognised the king because his face was on all the money and shopped him. So the family was captured and returned to a more secure prison in Paris.

10. Louis had made a fatal mistake, because he wrote a manifesto on why he should be kept on as king and left it behind in the Tuileries when he left. Needless to say, it didn’t go down well with the revolutionaries who merely saw it as evidence of treason to be used to condemn him at his trial. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. Just before he was executed he pardoned those who had signed his death warrant and proclaimed his own innocence. His execution marked the end of 1,000 years of continuous French monarchy.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

26 July: Brittany

Today is the feast day of St Anne, the patron saint of Brittany, France. 10 things you might not know about Brittany.

1. If you’re thinking that “Brittany” sounds a bit like “Britain”, that’s not a coincidence. In the 5^th and 6^th centuries, Celtic tribes from Britain, Wales and Cornwall, to be exact, emigrated here to escape the Anglo Saxon invasion. Hence the area became known as “Little Britain”. This is reflected in the French word for the region, “Bretagne” and the word for Great Britain: “Grand Bretagne“.

2. In Roman times it was part of a region called “Armorica” which was derived from the Celtic word for “seaside.” Which was an apt name as Brittany is the largest peninsula in France and has more than 2,860 km (1,780 miles) of coastline, representing a third of the coastline of France as a whole. It borders the English Channel to the north and the Bay of Biscay to the south. This coastline includes The Pink Granite Coast (Côte de Granit Rose), which is famous for its distinctive pink-hued granite rocks.

3. Needless to say, the area has much maritime history. Pirates were active in the area back in the day, ambushing ships crossing the Channel. They would return to Brittany to spend their spoils, making the area rich. St Malo in particular is known for its pirate history. There’s also an annual yacht race here. Brest is a significant port city which is home to a naval base and an aquarium. Brest is the westernmost port of France on the English Channel, only 160 miles from Plymouth as the crow flies, but 375 miles from Paris. The Breton shirt, a striped top which has become a fashion staple and a symbol of France, was originally worn by the sailors here.

4. The capital city is Rennes, although Nantes is bigger in terms of population.

5. Brittany was an independent kingdom and a duchy. It became part of France when Anne de Bretagne died in 1514 without a male heir, so her cousin King Francois I, who was also her son in law, inherited the throne and in 1532 formally united the two kingdoms. He also banned the regional languages and insisted everyone spoke his language, “françoys” – French. To this day, though, there is a nationalist movement which would like it to be an independent kingdom again.

6. Brittany has its own flag and an unofficial national anthem. The flag is called The Gwenn-ha-du, meaning “Black and White” in Breton and was designed in 1923 by Morvan Marchal, an independence activist. The flag features eleven black-and-white stripes representing the traditional dioceses, and an ermine canton, ermine being a symbol of the old rulers. It was inspired by the American flag.

7. The anthem is called Bro Gozh ma Zadoù which translates as "Old Land of My Fathers". The lyrics were written in the 19^th century and the music is a combination of the Welsh anthem with a similar name, and Bro Goth agan Tasow, the national anthem of Cornwall.

8. There is a strong connection with Arthurian legend, especially around the Paimpont forest, which, it has been claimed, is the enchanted forest of Brocéliande. There is a ruined castle here, by a lake, giving rise to the possibility that this was where the Lady of the Lake hung out. There’s a dolmen said to be Merlin’s tomb and a path said to be Morgan le Fay's Val sans Retour.

9. The culture of the area continues to have strong Celtic influences. Breton is a Celtic language, still spoken by some residents, and some street signs appear in both Breton and French. There are festivals of Celtic music and dance held annually around the region.

10. Brittany is home to many megalithic monuments. In fact, the words menhir and dolmen come from the Breton language.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

21 July: Strasbourg

Today is the feast day of St Arbogast of Strasbourg, patron saint of the city of Strasbourg, largest city of the Grand Est region of northeastern France and the official seat of the European Parliament. 10 things you might not know about Strasbourg.

1. Until the fifth century AD, the city was known as Argantorati, which is derived from the Gaulish words for Silver and fortified enclosures. It then became known as Strasbourg, which means 'town (at the crossing) of roads'.

2. If you’re thinking that the name sounds more German than French, that’s probably because Strasbourg has changed hands between France and Germany five times since 1681. This is reflected in the culture of the city where French cafes serving escargots sit beside German Beer gardens, and Alsatian, a Germanic dialect, is spoken widely along with French.

3. It is home to the oldest Christmas market in the world (dates back to 1570 when it began as a market to celebrate St Nicholas. When Strasbourg became Protestant in the 16th century, they rebranded it as a Christmas market) and the oldest barrel of white Wine which is even older, dating to 1472. It is located in the cellars of the Strasbourg Hospices and only sampled on the most special of occasions, the most recent being in 1944 to celebrate the liberation of Strasbourg.

4. It has more Bridges than any other city in France (more than 230).

5. From 1439 to 1874, Strasbourg cathedral was the tallest building in the world, with its single spire rising to 142 metres. It is visible from the Vosges Mountains or the Black Forest on the other side of the Rhine on clear days. It is a distinctive colour because it is made from sandstone.

6. The French national anthem, "La Marseillaise" was first sung here, not in Marseille. Its composer, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, an army officer stationed in the city, wrote it in a single night during the French Revolution. Originally titled War Song for the Army of the Rhine, it was adopted by volunteer revolutionaries from Marseille, hence its current name.

7. Notable people who once lived here include Johannes Gensfleisch, better known as Gutenberg, who was a resident between 1434 and 1444. There is evidence that it was here that he began building his printing press. Another famous resident was Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who wrote The Little Prince. He was here to learn to fly. Aged 21 and with financial help from his mother, he spent three months in Strasbourg taking flying lessons, leaving with his pilot’s licence in 1921.

8. The siege of Strasbourg took place from 13 August to 27 September 1870. It was one of the first sieges to massively affect a civilian population, with around 200,000 shells fired at it by the Prussian army. 8 of these shells can still be found embedded in the town's facades.

9. Four sections of the Berlin Wall can be found in Strasbourg, in the gardens of the European Court of Human Rights to be exact. Erected in 1961 during the Cold War, the Berlin Wall represented separation; here it symbolises the freedom and unity of Europe.

10. Strasbourg is the unofficial Stork capital of France. In the 1970s, storks were on the brink of extinction in the region, but there was a successful reintroduction programme, and Strasbourg now boasts a thriving stork population.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

15 April: Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral

On this date in 2019, a fire broke out at the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral. 10 things you might not know about Notre Dame (“Our Lady of Paris”):

1. Its postal address is 6 Parvis Notre-Dame – Pl. Jean-Paul II, 75004 Paris, France, and its vital statistics are: Length: 420 feet (128 meters); Width: 157 feet (48 meters); Nave roof height: 115 feet (35 meters); Tower height: 226 feet (69 meters); Spire height: 315 feet (96 meters). The two towers aren’t identical: the south tower is slightly smaller.

2. Construction began in 1163 and was mostly completed by 1345. It may have been built on the site of a Roman Temple. An excavation in the 18^th century discovered pieces of a sculpted altar dedicated to Jupiter. It’s not known for sure, however, that these pieces hadn’t been recycled there from elsewhere. It is known that this is the case for one of the cathedral’s three portals: the Portal Sainte-Anne features a much earlier style of sacred sculpture than the others. This tympanum (semi-circular area of decoration), was recycled from a previous Romanesque church and had been adapted to fit the new space.

3. For centuries it was the home of what was believed to be the Crown of Thorns that was placed on Jesus Christ’s head during the crucifixion. This was one of the things which survived the 2019 fire and is currently being kept in The Louvre.

4. Among the survivors of the fire is a hive of around 180,000 Buckfast bees. The hive was installed in 2013 on the Notre-Dame sacristy. Buckfast bees were originally bred by a monk named Brother Adam and are known for being gentle. They make their Honey from Flowers in nearby gardens, and the honey was distributed free of charge to the poor. When the fire broke out, the bees simply hunkered down in the hive, protecting their queen and lived off their honey until it was safe to emerge. By 2020, they were back in business, producing honey as usual.

5. The ancient timber frames dating back to the 12^th century weren’t so lucky. Before the Fire this was one of the oldest surviving structures of its type. Each beam was made from an individual tree sourced from 52 acres of trees. This framework was, for this reason, nicknamed “The Forest”.

6. There was some damage done during the French Revolution when most churches were rededicated to the new Cult of Reason. Statues of Biblical kings inside the cathedral were decapitated by mobs and thrown away to be used as building materials. In 1977, however, they were found during work on the basement of the French Bank of Foreign Trade and installed at the nearby Musée de Cluny. Another casualty was most of the bells. Aside from a large one called Emmanuel which dated back to 1681, they were melted down to make cannons. New bells installed in the 19^th century weren’t as tuneful and it was 2013 before new bells were installed which sounded as good as the original ones.

7. Statues of the 12 apostles surround the spire. St Thomas bears the face of the architect, Viollet-le-Duc.

8. Notre Dame may have the largest organ in France. It has almost 8000 pipes (some dating back to the 18th century) and five keyboards. It was restored in 2013 to mark the 850th anniversary of the cathedral, and survived the fire with only some water damage caused by firefighters putting the fire out. Some some claim, however, that Saint-Eustache has a larger organ.

9. By the 19th century, Notre Dame de Paris had fallen into disrepair and could have crumbled to a ruin if not for two people. One was Napoleon Bonaparte who decided it was the perfect venue for his coronation, and Victor Hugo who raised awareness of the cathedral and its plight in his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Incidentally, the main character in the story was always intended to be the cathedral and not the hunchback.

10. It was one of the earliest buildings to make use of flying buttresses. They were constructed around its nave in the 12th century to lend support to the thin walls. There’s some debate over whether Notre-Dame was the first church to have them, but whether it was or not, it certainly set a trend for them in Gothic architecture.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

2 September: Avignon

St Agricolus (Agricola) of Avignon, patron of Avignon, France. 10 things you might not know about this French town.

1. It’s located on the left bank of the Rhône river, a few kilometres above its confluence with the Durance. It’s about 580 km/360 miles south-east of Paris, 229 km/142 miles south of Lyon and 85 km/53 miles north-north-west of Marseille. It’s the capital of Vaucluse département, Provence–Alpes–Côte d’Azur région, and in 2022 had a population of 91,760.

2. There has been a settlement here for around 5,000 years. It went from a stronghold of the Gallic tribe of Cavares to a Roman city called Avennio, and an independent city until King Louis VIII occupied it in the 13^th century.

3. It was the home of the Pope for almost a century. In 1309 it was chosen as the papal residence by Clement V, because it was more central in the Christian empire than Rome. In 1348 Clement VI, the fourth of seven Avignon popes, bought the town from Queen Joan of Provence. It wasn’t a move supported by everyone. A number of people, St. Catherine of Siena among them, believed the Pope should be based in Rome. For a time there was something called the Great Schism (1378–1417), when there were Popes ruling from both locations.

4. The Palais des Papes is a tourist attraction to this day, located in the historic centre near the cathedral and the famous bridge. The area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. The palace is the largest surviving Gothic palace in Europe, with walls which are 10 feet thick.

5. Every July, Avignon is host to the Festival d'Avignon, an arts festival founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar. It is the oldest existent festival in France. Performances take place in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes and in other venues throughout the town.

6. Another big attraction is the Bridge, which was made famous by the song, Sur le Pont d'Avignon. The official name of the bridge is Pont Saint-Bénézet and the first bridge on the site was begun in 1177 after a shepherd called Bénézet claimed to have had a vision in which Jesus told him to build a bridge there, despite the current of the river being particularly strong, which had put off numerous potential bridge builders in the past. You can’t argue with Jesus, though, so the bridge was built, a wooden one to start with. Bénézet died before the bridge was completed but he was made a saint (feast day 14 April) and is the patron saint of bridge builders. The wooden bridge withstood the currents until 1226 when it was destroyed, not by the river but by the forces of Louis VIII of France who laid siege to the town. Beginning in 1234 the bridge was rebuilt in stone, but the stone bridge tended to collapse when the river flooded and was abandoned in the mid-17th century. Only four of the original 22 arches and the gatehouse survive. The song is actually a misnomer because the dance described in it took place under, rather than on, the bridge.

7. Avignon was also home to a mystic called Marie Robine, Marie la Gasque, or Marie of Avignon. She was originally from Gascony, but made a pilgrimage there in 1387 and believed she was cured of an ailment after visiting the tomb of the cardinal Pierre of Luxembourg in St Michael’s cemetery. She settled in Avignon and became famous for her visions, including one about a virgin, bearing arms, who would deliver France from its enemies. So she predicted Joan of Arc, who would certainly have been aware of the prophecy.

8. The city is the headquarters of the International Association of the Mediterranean Tomato, the World Council of the Tomato Industry.

9. A scene in Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 was inspired when the author was serving as a bombardier in the US Air Force. One August day in 1944, he was flying over Avignon and came under heavy fire. The G forces generated by his evasive manoeuvres had him pinned to the perspex dome of his craft. He wrote about it later in the scene where Yossarian gets pinned in a similar position, leaving him dangling from the ‘ceiling’.

10. Picasso’s painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is actually nothing to do with this town at all. The painting shows five prostitutes in a house on Calle de Avinyó (which translates as Avignon Street) which is actually in Barcelona.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

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5 October: Versailles

On this date in 1789 a crowd of angry women, protesting about the price of bread, gathered in the marketplaces of Paris. They were joined by revolutionaries and in due course thousands of people marched on the Palace of Versailles. This was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. And a good excuse to present 10 facts about the Palace of Versailles.

1. The Palace of Versailles is located in the Yvelines département, Île-de-France région, northern France, 10 miles (16 km) west-southwest of Paris. It attracts over 8 million visitors a year. Since 1979 the palace has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

2. It started life as a hunting lodge for Louis XIII and his family. He enjoyed hunting and wanted a place to stay in the country rather than have to travel home in the dark. His son Louis XIV, “the Sun King” installed the Court and government there in 1682 and set about transforming the place in to the palace it is today. Every detail of its construction was intended to glorify the king. The entire property is laid out from East to West, following the daily path of the Sun.

3. The gardens were designed by André Le Nôtre and took 40 years to create. The gardens covered more than 30,000 acres, with 400 sculptures and 1,400 fountains. There were so many exotic plants and Flowers that the combined smells were said to make people in the nearby town feel sick. That didn’t stop members of the public from coming to visit the gardens, which were open to the public. There was a strict dress code, although if you didn’t own the right kind of clothing you could rent an outfit for the duration of your visit.

4. It was the location of the first Toilet in France. It was installed for Marie Antoinette and was known as the “lieu anglaise” or “place of the English”. This may well be where we get the English slang word “loo” from. However, nobody else had an en suite. Everyone else had a chamber pot. Made from Silver, of course. These were emptied out of the windows. It was said people carried leather Umbrellas in the courtyards to avoid being hit by something nasty.

5. The fountains caused problems. Versailles was not located near a river so sourcing the Water for them wasn’t easy. Artificial ponds had to be created, but even they didn’t provide enough water to keep the fountains going 24/7. Hence the gardeners devised a secret whistling code in order to warn each other when the king was walking in the gardens, so that as he approached, the fountains could be turned on and off again when he’d passed by, allowing him to think it was all working perfectly. Eventually, to have enough water for everything to work as planned, they had to pump water from Seine. Some of the fountains still use the same hydraulics network today.

6. Inside, the palace has 2153 Windows, 1200 fireplaces, 700 rooms (although sources differ and some say over 2,000 rooms) and 67 staircases. Everything used to construct and decorate the Palace was created in France.

7. Which brings us to the Hall of Mirrors. This room contains 357 mirrors and is flanked on opposite ends by the Salon of Peace and the Salon of War. Impressive as it is, it was designed merely as a passageway to get from one room to another and wasn’t a venue for ceremonies. The mirrors, however, posed a problem for the designers in their quest to make sure everything in the palace was made in France. This was because at the time, Venice was the only place making mirrors. So, they lured some of the mirror makers to France. Venice wasn’t happy about this and ordered all the mirror makers who’d gone to France executed for giving away the secrets of mirror making. The treaty that ended World War I, the Treaty of Versailles, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors.

8. The palace was so huge that there was quite some distance between the kitchen and the king’s dining room. Hence the meals would have left the kitchen piping hot but would have been cold by the time they reached the king. The sheer amount of marble used in the palace didn’t help, making it so cold in winter that it has been said that in March 1695, Wine froze in glasses on the King’s table.

9. Marie Antoinette had a rustic village built in the grounds which it was said was for her to go and play at being poor with her ladies, doing their own cleaning and cooking for themselves. Officially, though, it was a working farm and may equally have been a place for royal children to learn about farming.

10. In 1789, the French Revolution forced the royal family to return to Paris. The golden gate of the palace was destroyed by revolutionaries (there is a replica there now, installed in 2008) and many of the artworks were moved to The Louvre. The palace itself wasn’t ransacked however. Rather the king’s servants saw it as a chance to do repairs. It was never again a royal residence. It became the Museum of the History of France in 1837 by order of King Louis-Philippe.

NEW!!

The Gingerbread Man

A short story collection including aliens, princes and princesses, dragons, superhero origin stories and of course, a gingerbread man.

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30 July: La Marseillaise

Today is Marseillaise Day in France. The day honours the National Anthem of France, the Marseillaise, on the anniversary of the day in 1792 when it was first sung in Paris (by 500 men from Marseilles).

10 things you might not know about La Marseillaise, the French national anthem:

1. It was written on 24 April 1792 by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a captain of the engineers and amateur musician. He was staying in Strasbourg at the time. War had broken out between France and Austria and P.F. Dietrich, the mayor of Strasbourg, declared that a song was needed "that will rally our soldiers from all over to defend their homeland that is under threat".

2. His song was called “Chant de guerre de l’armée du Rhin” (“War Song of the Army of the Rhine”), but after it became popular among volunteer army units from Marseilles it became known as “La Marseillaise”.

3. It was first adopted as the French national anthem in a decree passed on July 14, 1795.

4. Napoleon and Louis XVIII both banned it because of its revolutionary lyrics. in 1879, it was restored as France's national anthem, and has remained so ever since.

5. Rouget de Lisle wrote six verses of which just the first and last are generally sung on official occasions. Later on a seventh verse was added especially for children. This might have been because some of the lyrics are quite violent, referring to throats being torn out and mothers’ breasts being torn apart.

6. In more peaceful times, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing once said it was somewhat inappropriate to sing a song about killing Prussians when the German Chancellor was in attendance. However, attempts to change the words have never been successful.

7. The Russians used the song as an anthem as well during the 18^th century. After the February Revolution of 1917, it was the semi-official national anthem of the new Russian republic.

8. Tchaikovsky uses it in his 1812 Overture to represent the invading French Army under Napoleon. It is drowned out by cannon fire, symbolising the Russian victory at the Battle of Borodino.

9. During World War I, bandleader James Reese Europe played a Jazz version.

10. The opening bars of "La Marseillaise" form the introduction to The Beatles song All You Need is Love.

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

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14 May: National Brioche Day

Today is National Brioche Day. 10 things you might not know about brioche:

1. What is brioche, exactly? It’s a type of Bread, made in the same way as bread but with extra ingredients added, such as Eggs, Butter, cream or Sugar. Fruit, chocolate chips and even brandy might be added as well.

2. The word brioche is French, a derivative of the old Norman word for broyer, meaning ‘to knead’.

3. It’s pronounced “bri-yosh”.

4. Brioche is believed to have originated in Normandy, but by the 1800s most cities and regions in France had developed their own signature brioche recipe.

5. The first recorded use of the word in French dates from 1404. In in Cotgrave's 1611 A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, it is described as "a rowle, or bunne, of spiced bread" and its origin given as Norman.

6. One of the most famous brands is Brioche Pasquier, founded in 1974 by Serge and Louis-Marie Pasquier in Cerqueux (Vendée). The brans is known for its plaited shape.

7. In France, brioche bread is mostly eaten for breakfast with jam or Nutella or as an afternoon snack for children after school.

8. Because brioche bread has a higher sugar content than most other breads, it can burn more quickly. Hence you need to keep an eye on it if toasting it.

9. It’s easily confused with cake. It’s actually considered a Viennoiserie – a sweeter, more indulgent form of bread, made with an enriched dough.

10. When Marie Antoinette allegedly said, “Let them eat cake”, what she probably said (although there is dispute as to whether she ever said anything of the kind at all) was "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", and it was mistranslated.

New!!!

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

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19 July: The Paris Métro

On this date in 1900 the Paris Métro inaugurated with an underground route connecting Porte de Vincennes to Porte de Maillot. Franz Kafka wrote “The Métro furnishes the best opportunity for the foreigner to imagine that he has understood, quickly and correctly, the essence of Paris.” Here are 10 things you might not know about the Paris Métro.

1. There are 14 lines (some sources say 16, as they include a couple of smaller lines, similar to London Underground’s Waterloo & City line) and the total length is 214kms. The Paris Métro runs more than 600,000 miles per day – the equivalent of 10 times around the world.
2. There are 303 stations, all roughly 500m apart. It’s also said that every building in Paris is within 500m of a Métro station. Many stations have striking individual themes - Arts et Métiers station is designed to look like a submarine; Bastille station walls depict the historic French Revolution and Concorde has the words from the Declaration of the Rights of Man from the French Revolution on its walls.
3. It’s called the Métro because the founding company was called La Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris. It is thanks to the Paris Métro that so many underground railways in cities around the world are referred to as The Métro.
4. The average speed is 20 km/h (12 mph). A trip between two stations takes 58 seconds on average, about half the time it takes to travel between two London Underground stations on average. Hence the record for visiting all the stations in the shortest time stands at around 13 hours in Paris compared to 15 hours for London Underground, even though the Paris Métro has 33 more stations.
5. Unlike London Underground the trains don’t go really deep underground. Abbesses is the deepest metro station in Paris, 40m below ground (Louis Vuitton named a bag after this station). During world war II it wasn’t possible, as it was in London, to use the Métro as an air raid shelter. It was, however, used as a meeting place for the French Resistance.
6. Before 1914, the Métro had stations called Allemagne (Germany) and Berlin, but the names were changed after the outbreak of the first world war. Allemange is now Jaures and Berlin is now Liege.
7. There are a number of “ghost stations” on the network which are no longer used, but some are opened to the public on specific days so if you time your visit to Paris right, you might get to see one. Arsenal, Haxo, Porte Molitor and Saint-Martin are ghost stations. Saint-Martin was closed because there is another station just 100m away, and it’s now used as a shelter for homeless people. There’s also a platform Porte des Lilas station which isn’t used, except as a location for films featuring the Paris Métro.
8. The tunnels were purposely designed to be smaller than the standard trains at the time, so that bigger railway companies wouldn’t muscle in and take it over.
9. The biggest station is Châtelet – Les Halles, which is actually the biggest Metro station in the world. The busiest is Saint-Lazare – around 47 million passengers pass through it per year.
10. While there are no “Mind the Gap” safety announcements, the Métro does have the "rabbit of the subway", a Rabbit depicted on stickers on the doors to warn people, children in particular, not to get their hands stuck in the closing doors.

MY LATEST BOOK!

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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March 8: Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris

On this date in 1974 Charles de Gaulle Airport opened in Paris. Here are ten things you may not know about France's busiest airport.

1. It's France's busiest, Europe's second busiest (after London Heathrow) and the world's tenth busiest. 65,933,145 passengers and 472,950 aircraft passed through in 2016.
2. In terms of cargo traffic, it's the twelfth-busiest in the world and the second-busiest in Europe (after Frankfurt).
3. The airport has two pairs of runways, capable of handling 120 aircraft movements an hour. One of each pair is used for take-off and the other for landing, which minimises noise disturbance from air traffic.
4. It is named after Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces during the Second World War, founder of the French Fifth Republic and President of France from 1959 to 1969. Until the day it opened, it was officially called Aéroport de Paris Nord (Paris North Airport).
5. An alternative name for it is Roissy Airport, after the district it is located in, 25 km (16 miles) north-east of Paris.
6. From 1957, a location was sought for a new airport to serve Paris. Construction began in 1966 and was completed in 1974. 950 million passengers have passed through its terminals since then. A fourth terminal may be added in 2025 when the airport reaches its maximum capacity.
7. Charles de Gaulle Airport has three terminals: Terminal 1 is the oldest and was built to resemble an Octopus. It's a circular building, ten storeys high surrounded by seven satellite buildings. In the centre of the main building there are a number of escalators, covered with transparent tubes to protect people from the elements outside. The Alan Parsons Project album I Robot features these escalators on its cover.
8. Terminal 2F was used for the video for the U2 song Beautiful Day. The artwork for their album All That You Can't Leave Behind also features this terminal. The airport has also featured in films such as Frantic, Private Benjamin and Rush Hour 3.
9. In 2004, part of Terminal 2E collapsed, killing four people. The subsequent enquiry found that while there was no single fault, the design had little margin for safety. The architect, Paul Andreu denounced the building companies for working as close to the limits as they could to save money. The airport's worst disaster was in 2000 when a Concorde flight to New York crashed into a hotel after take-off, killing everyone on board and four people on the ground. That disaster is thought to have been caused by debris falling off a previously departing aircraft which caused a burst tyre, which tin turn ruptured the fuel tank.
10. If you're flying from here, look out for Rabbits and Hares. The area around the airport is notorious for them.

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