All Hallows Graveyard

Quick countdown to Halloween post, my third(!) of the day, but there is a lot to share until Halloween. For those living in England, especially in the South East, I wanted you to know that there is a All Hallows Graveyard in the lovely village of Wallingford. I took this picture in June 2023 quickly, to remind me that this place existed, promising myself to revisit it in autumn, near Halloween, where the atmosphere is at its best. I think this needs to be the setting of a horror story, a proper ghost story set on Halloween night. Or day. Seriously, this is on my go-to list next time we are in Wallingford.

L'Halloween à Chicoutimi

Autre photo prise par mon père lors d'une de ses promenades. Les cours deviennent vite des cimetières quand vient l'Halloween.

L'Halloween à Chicoutimi

 Photo prise par mon père lors d'une de ses promenades. C'est tout pour le moment.

Le hérisson de l'Halloween

J'ai trouvé dans nos affaires des serviettes de table de Morrisons, achetées il y a quatre ans environ, quand je travaillais pas loin d'un Morrisons. Un hérisson de l'Halloween. J'ai acheté les serviettes de table parce que je trouvais que c'était une façon pas effrayante de faire aimer l'Halloween à petit loup. Il y avait aussi un cahier d'activités avec des créatures plus associées à l'Halloween, comme les chauves-souris que vous voyez voler sur l'image. J'espère qu'ils en font encore des comme ça cette année, j'aimerais bien me restocker.

L'Halloween au/à Québec

Photo prie par mon père à Québec, dans Limoilou. Catégorie on fête ça pas rien qu'à peu près l'Halloween par chez nous. J'envie mes compatriotes pas mal, mettons, parce qu'ici on n'a pas souvent de décorations comme celles-ci, qui font toute une entrée. Le macabre prend des allures grandioses. Petit jeu: essayez d'identifier chaque nom sur les tombes.

A criminal conspiracy in a pub

The Metro is a rather "light" newspaper: tabloid, free, meant for commuters to read,there is not much in it. But sometimes, you get some gems of piece of news. In this case literally: the summary of a heist of the Hatton Garden jewellery and the trial of the robbers. So they stole among other things gold and jewelry, which always gives the crime something of a glamorous and almost nostalgic nature. Like I mentioned in this post back in September, about another jewellery heist, this one very local, jewellery heist belong to old crime stories. Then they hid parts of their loot in a graveyard, something that also could well belong to a movie (I am thinking of this classic of course). The gang is mostly composed of elderly men, pensioners even, that makes it a bit more surreal and finally, to top it all... They met in a pub to discuss the dividing of their theft. This gives the whole thing a very English feel. And, since the crime has now been solved and the perpetrators will most likely be punished, I can enjoy this bit of criminal news without feeling too guilty: it's cathartic. And like I said back in September, this could be the starting point of a great crime fiction story. I cannot help but think about it, anyway.

Le corbillard

C'est la Semaine Sainte depuis hier, et l'incroyant que je suis tient tout de même à le souligner. Depuis hier la semaine ont une ambiance mortelle appropriée à cette semaine qui mène au Vendredi Saint (où je jeûnerai aux bagels et saumon fumé, tu parles d'un sacrifice): il a plu des cordes et il fait frais. Je pensais mettre de la musique sacrée, mais une petite anecdote m'a mis une chanson de Georges Brassens en tête. En effet, j'ai en effet vu un corbillard sur le chemin du retour. Un grand véhicule noir, avec le cercueil bien visible et fleurs ostentatoires et croquemorts portant chapeaux haut-de-forme. J'ai pensé aux Funérailles d'antan. Je dois admettre que les hauts-de-forme donnent un certain décorum à la funéraille, voire un charme certain. J'ai ressenti une ombre de culpabilité à trouver charmant ce qui pour beaucoup doit être un spectacle d'une tristesse immense, mais j'ai quand même la chanson de Brassens en tête. Enfin, puisque l'on va célébrer la mort-résurrection putative d'un prophète juif, une chanson sur les funérailles colle assez bien à la semaine.

The charm of old churches

As I mentioned before, we went to a typical English village last week, and I now have enough pictures to fill the blog for quite a while.

So anyway, there was an old church in this nice little English village. I am not a religious man at all, quite the opposite as you know, but I always found old churches full of charm. Furthermore, as a medievalist I have an academic interest in them. I suspected this one was quite old, but since history of architecture is not my specialty I could not evaluate the time period when it was built. I asked at the local pub, just in case, but of course they had no clue. It appears, after researching the Internet, that the foundation dates back to the XIIth century. Just the time period when I am specialised in. Like many other ancient churches it was rebuilt later on, but it still retains some of its medieval look. Looking at a place like this, one almost feels the past centuries as if they were here and now.

I don't want to repeat what I said in the first post about this village, but looking at it, I felt a bit like a M.R. James story or a Dungeons & Dragons game, or a Ha... well, you must know about that one too. I repeat myself, but I guess that is to be expected after blogging for three years now. Even old cemeteries don't look so sinister. Or, if they do, they remain deeply atmospheric. Which is all they need to be. I got married in an old church, a XIIIth century one looking a bit like this one. I might blog about it one day, until then, you have this picture of a piece of ancient time.