Chinese Dragons in Brighton

I took this picture in Brighton, at the Royal Pavilion. To make a long story short, because back in the days, they were really into exotism, more specifically Chinese exotism, they drew heavily on Chinese culture, or at least its stereotypes, to decorate the place. Among other things, Chinese dragons. They were not really genuine (many have wings, for instance), but they are everywhere. Anyway, this dragon is obviously a modern addition, part of a special exhibition. All the same, it's a cool dragon and I wanted to share it here. Life is always better with dragons.

Jouer aux Bouquinistes

 Voici une petite nouvelle heureuse pour les lecteurs de ma région. J'ai trouvé cette photo il y a quelques jours sur la page Facebook des Bouquinistes. Il fallait que je la partage, parce que ma librairie préférée du Saglac et sans doute du Québec vient de prendre un degré de plus de coolitude. Parce que oui, imaginez-vous donc qu'on peut maintenant y jouer aux échecs, au backgammon et aux dames. Bon, je n'ai pas joué à ces jeux depuis des années. Et je vais à Chicoutimi très rarement. Mais quand même, les jeux de société, surtout ceux qui demandent de la concentration et du silence, ça se joue bien dans une librairie. En fait, une librairie est pas mal le lieu idéal pour y jouer.

Camp Night

We are going to a special evening tonight: Wolfie's school is holding its annual camp night. So families of the pupils go camping for one night, or others, like us, just spend the evening there. It is a sort of tradition. I'm never been a fan of camping, having only done it once or twice in my life, I don't really care about minimal comfort and early mornings after a late night, but I don't mind an evening. I actually enjoy the carefree atmosphere. Wolfie never wants to go there, yet once we are there, he doesn't want to go back home. I wonder if the same will happen this year.

Poutine maison

 Petit billet gastronomique: mon père a fait une poutine maison la fin de semaine dernière, quand mon cousin a visité mes parents avec sa blonde et sa mère. Avec frites maison, fromage en grains de la Fromagerie Boivin et de la vraie de vraie sauce brune bien épaisse, pas du petit gravy granulé. La vraie affaire, dans tous les sens du mot. Enfin bref, il m'a envoyé cette photo du festin et il fallait vraiment que je la partage ici.

Scorpio Rising (crime fiction)

 I blogged a few times already about South African crime writer Deon Meyer's latest novel Skorpio. I was hoping to get its translation in English this year, but sadly not. I did a bit of research recently and learned that it's going to be available in... February 2027. That's late, but never mind. I pre-ordered it already. Its English title is Scorpio Rising and, well, scorpions, or a scorpion might be involved. I don't know, it might just be a symbolic association, but all the same, I love when there's the word scorpion in the title of a book, just because. It just sounds dangerous and cool, and kind of nasty in a scary way.

Alexandre le Grand VS les éléphants

 Photo prise dans un livre d'histoire sur la Grèce et Rome, un cadeau de mes parents que j'ai dévoré durant mon enfance. Vous voyez ici une représentation très dramatique de la campagne indienne d'Alexandre le Grand. Je la partage parce qu'enfant, elle m'a fait une forte impression. L'illustration, je veux dire, pas la campagne indienne en elle-même. Mais on croirait y être.

Shadow Chaser

Oh the things I can find in the local bookshop sometimes. I was going there with Wolfie once, I was in the children section with him, and I saw Shadow Chaser. Because I had promised my wife to behave, I did not buy it. That said, I do want to. It's a gamebook and, from what I understand, a medieval fantasy book like the ones I used to read as a child. But a bit less gory than the ones I am used to. All the same, it looks like a great read and I might buy it for his birthday. It should also give us inspiration for our Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Funnily enough, there is a villain, Wolfie's nemesis in the game, with the nom de guerre Shadowman. He looks a bit like the shadowy figure on the front cover of this book. So yes, I think it has my name, errrmmm... I mean, Wolfie's name on it.

Goéland ou mouette?

J'ai pris cette photo à Weymouth dans le Dorset, en 2023, dans la résidence où nous avons passé nos vacances. Comme Weymouth est au bord de la mer, on y trouvait beaucoup de goélands et de mouettes. Je ne sais jamais faire la différence, je crois que c'est une mouette, corrigez-moi si je me trompe. Dans tous les cas, je ne suis pas un grand fan, parce qu'ils peuvent être agressifs quand il en veulent à votre bouffe. Sinon, ben, c'est pas torp mal comme photo.

Pinecone Construction

I took this picture back in 2024, during our holidays in the Isle of Wight, at Robin Hill. There was a whole section of the theme park looking like a building site. I thought it looked kind of funny, something as mundane as a construction company, turned into an attraction for children. For little boys at least: my son Wolfie used to love, and loves still, any construction vehicles. Also, I love pine cones. Pine cones are cool. And it makes for a great name for a construction company. I wish it really existed.

Dix ans ici (Jour du Déménagement)

Photo prise à Brighton. Cest l'Upside Down House et je la partage ici parce qu'elle illustre un peu le sujet du billet. Nous avons emménagé dans notre maison il y a dix ans cette année. En fait non, ce n'est pas tout à fait vrai. Pour être exact, nous sommes devenus propriétaires le 1er juillet 2016. Nous avons emménagé le lendemain. J'ai toujours trouvé ça amusant que le hasard fasse que nous devenions propriétaires ce qui au Québec est le Jour du Déménagement. Notre maison n'est bien entendu pas à l'envers, enfin pas comme la maison de Brighton. Dans un autre sens, oui, elle l'est. Ouch. Désolé, il fallait que je commette ce calembour.

The End of June

Today we are the last day of June. One month of summertime done and dusted, and it has been a trying month from yours truly. Because we had one of the worst heatwaves in history, for one, which really made me struggle. I used to like the month of June, a long, long time ago. Not so much now. Especially since as I got older, I started to seriously struggling with heat. And since June is now generally way hotter than it used to be... Well, it's going to be over soon. Thankfully, the heatwave is gone, for now. I'm bracing myself for the next one, whenever it may be. Until then, I can find some solace knowing that I survived the first month of summer. And you, how was your June? Did you enjoy it?

Barrière de lavande

 Je vais faire un aveu: je ne porte pas dans mon coeur certains de mes voisins. Surtout l'une de nos voisines, que j'appelle la vieille grebiche. Mais il faut lui donner ça: elle est meilleure jardinière que moi. Pas que ce soit très difficile. Le jardin qui borde le nôtre a une allée de lavande. Ma femme déteste l'odeur de la lavande, mais moi j'aime bien. Et je me dis que ça fait entre elle et nous une barrière naturelle plutôt jolie.

London, City of Espionage

This post is part of my City of Espionage series started earlier this year, about, well, cities associated with espionage and intelligence world in both fiction and the real world. This series is itself a part of a broader series of posts about spy thrillers. Today is about London. Of course, London is famous for being the residence and office base of the most famous fictitious secret agent in the world. But he is not the only secret agent that lives in London when he is not on a mission. Of course, London is the city where the headquarters of SIS/MI6 are. Also called Vauxhall Cross. Impressive piece of architecture, which unfortunately I haven't seen in real life just yet. It's in my bucket list. If I can ever take pictures of Vauxhall Cross (one never knows, with the intelligence community), I will share them here. In any case, just because of the MI6 Building, London deserves to be mentioned as a city of espionage. Obviously, it's also an essential centre for the intelligence community.

Larousse 2015

J'ai pris cette photo chez mes beaux-parents, lors de notre dernière visite. Ma belle-mère, qui est francophile et parfaitement bilingue, a donc un Larousse, édition 2015. Je sais que le Larousse n'est pas aussi bon que le Robert, mais je l'ai toujours aimé comme ouvrage de référence. Je me rappelle mon premier Larousse, édition 1990 je crois. La couverture a changé, mais elle a toujours le fameux pissenlit. Quand je vois des pissenlits, je pense d'ailleurs toujours au Larousse.

Dracula (a memory)

Well, the solstice is done and dusted, so days are slowly getting shorter, hopefully the heatwave should be over soon and this is thus time to... get ready for Halloween. I'm not kidding: I start preparing round this time of year. Yes, because this. But it is nothing new to me, I've always started getting on a spooky mind and preparing for Halloween months before. More than 35 years ago, if I'm not mistaken, in the summer of 1990, I first read Dracula by Bram Stoker. Before I watched any adaptation of the famous novel. I had been wanting to read classics of horror for a while and found a copy of Dracula in the local library. I blogged about it in details in a post from 2018. The memory came back to my mind recently. The novel was a revelation to me and it truly started my love of horror. I was interest in the macabre and scary stories before, but as a child my mother wouldn't let me read such things. As a teenager, she couldn't stop me.

Un vieux globe terrestre

Autre photo prise au Royal Pavilion à Brighton. Vous connaissez sans doute (peut-être) mon intérêt pour les globes terrestres et les Atlas. Surtout les globes terrestres. Surtout les vieux globes comme celui-ci, avec des couleurs plus vieilles et défraîchies, un peu fades, et sur un support de bois. On dirait que l'on voyage dans un monde ancien, dans une autre époque. J'aimerais avoir assez de place pour en avoir un comme ça ici. On peut rêver.

A Secret Passage?

 I took this picture in Brighton. To be more specific, at the Royal Pavilion. It looks like nothing, just a wall with wallpaper, but look closer and you will see that it hides a door. A secret door opening to a secret passage. Well, maybe it does. According to what I heard in the audio tour, the Pavilion has or had secret passages. From what I remember, to help staff move from one room to the other without being seen or heard while doing service. But it could be used in a more dramatic setting. Secret passages are a staple of old(er) mystery literature, either crime stories or spy thrillers. In a modern story, they come off as cheating, but I always liked them all the same.

"Du bon fromage pour du bon monde"

Photo prise sur la page Facebook de la Fromagerie Boivin lors de la Saint-Jean. C'était pour souligner la Fête, mais ce n'est pas pour revenir sur le 24 que je le partage ici. En fait, j'ai surtout aimé le message dessus, chaleureux et sans prétention. "Du bon fromage pour du bon monde." Oui, je fais une plogue pour ma région et pour un commerce de la région, je n'ai aucune gêne.

Heat in Isola

I know I'm blogging a lot about Ed McBain's 87th Precinct crime novel series these days, as I am reading the books in order of publication (as much as possible). But it struck me that one novel would be very fitting for this summer, either this heatwave or the next. I blogged about Heat back in July 2024, more specifically about a grossly lying cover on its French translation. I hate heatwaves, but they are more bearable when I read seasonal crime fiction. It makes me hate the heat more, ironically enough. But hey, it's not the only novel of McBain set in summertime. He seemed to consider sunshine as evil as I do (see this post). But hey, if you are looking for summertime crime fiction, you can't go wrong with Ed McBain.

Qui a vu le lièvre?

Je bloguais jeudi dernier sur le lièvre qui visitait mes parents et leurs voisins. Mon père l'avait baptisé Bozo. Je suis conscient que Bozo n'est peut-être plus de ce monde, mais s'il y a eu un lièvre dans les environs, il y a de fortes chances qu'il y en a d'autres. Je vais mettre mon père là-dessus. J'aime bien les animaux sauvages en milieu urbain.