Cape Elizabeth, Maine

I saw recently a very picturesque picture on my WIndows 10 screen saver. It was of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. You could see the Portland Head Light, a historical lighthouse which I think I have seen before, somewhere, but knew nothing about. It made a strong impression on me, but also on Wolfie, who also loved the look ofthe lighthouse. So yes, short story short, we want to go there one day. I don't know if it will look as nice as the screen saver picture, but I really want to visit it now. Anybody among you have visited it? Or anybody lived/is living there? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Gold Divers

A few days ago, we were flicking through channels when we stumbled a reality tv program called Gold Divers. This is the UK title. The original title is Bering Sea Gold, but I don't find it nearly as good or evocative. We watched it a few minutes, five tops, as it had big machinery and this got Wolfie interested for a little bit. I don't know if it is any good, I find reality TV pretty rubbish in general. There was a lot of bleeped swearing in it. But anyway, what I liked about it is the premisse: the show is about, as it says in the evocative British title, people digging gold in water. Shallow water, sea and even ocean. Now this premisse is fascinating and I would say way too good for reality TV. Gold is one of these perfects MacGuffins and I am surprised that nobody thought about a story in a nautical environment with gold divers, who could be the target of brigands or pirates. There's room for a lot of drama there. I think I might just watch more of this show.

The Jolly Roger

One of the things I noticed on the Isle of Wight is the presence of the Jolly Roger. This picture was taken at Sandown, but you can really find them everywhere. It is as if the whole island had been taken over and run by pirates. I guess that it cannot be worse than being invaded by tourists all the time. And I'm not sure that the island has much if any history with piracy, it's just the romantic and exotic notions of piracy these flags remind us of. But I enjoyed their presence all the same.

A treasure (for pirates?)

My parents went to Quebec City for a few days and sent me many, many pictures. I am sharing some of them, which fascinated me. One of them is this one, of a open treasure chest full of coins with the fleur de lis. I wished this chest had been there when I was a child. Because back when I was very young, we often went to Quebec City for a few days during the summer holidays, or indeed any holiday. For me, it was the tourist destination and even though it was only a two hours drive, Quebec City felt at the edge of the world. There was something about the place that fired up my imagination. Back then, I often play pirates with my brothers, as a make belief game and our stories often involved treasure hunt. Boy would I have loved to see that treasure back in those days.

Neptune? No, Poseidon!

 Here's a bit of old news which I wanted to comment on, but forgot about. It's not very old, it's from the 8th of July, but I still think it needs to be adressed. I say this because the news sort of slightly irritated me. So anyway, the BBC reported that the face of Neptune appeared in the waves during a storm in Newhaven. My initial reaction was: "Neptune? Surely this is Poseidon!" Those darn Brits conquered by the Romans and since then having no idea what the true god of the ocean is! I blame them and Caligula of course (I hope some of my readers know the historical reference here). Anyway, if this was indeed a good showing up, it was Poseidon.

Sea and river folklore

I found this picture on the Facebook page of the Wallingford Bookshop, maybe my favourite independent bookshop in England. It is advertising Treasury of Folklore: Seas&Rivers, which I now really, really want to get my hands on. I already bought (in the Wallingford Bookshop, incidentally, like many other books of folklore I have) A Treasury of British Folklore, in the same collection. I really enjoyed it and it would just make sense to have this one as well. I mean, how can you resist such cover?

Le mystère des Pieuvres géantes

Il y a des moments où je veux revisiter des vieux livres que j'avais beauoup aimés durant mon enfance. Il fut un temps où je me passionnais de cryptozoologie. Mes frères et moi étions fascinés par trois livres que l'on avait trouvés dans la bibliothèque de notre école primaire: l'un sur le monstre du Loch Ness, un autre sur les abominables hommes des neiges (j'en ai parlé ici) et leurs variantes et un sur les pieuvres géantes. Celui sur les peiuvres géantes s'appelait... Le mystère des Pieuvres géantes. C'était peut-être le moins pseudo-scientifique des trois, enfin selon mes souvenirs. On sait après tout que ça existe pour vrai, des pieuvres géantes. Je ne crois pas que c'était très bon, mais parce que je me rappelle des illustrations parfois très dramatiques et rien que par plaisir nostalgique, j'aimerais bien remettre la main dessus.

En chantant (la photo du mois)

Pour le thème de février, choisi par Thalie, j'avais quelques idées, mais rien de très proche du thème au bout du compte. Je me suis finalement décidé à utiliser cette photo. La représentation artistique d'une conque, qui peut être utilisée comme instrument de musique à vent. Bon ce n'est pas la voix humaine, mais c'est assez proche du thème, ça peut représenter le chant de la mer. Et puis c'est une jolie photo, prise dans le Derbyshire, alors c'est une bonne excuse pour la partager.

Maintenant, pour voir (écouter?) le chant des autres:

A'icha, AF News, Akaieric, Alban, Alexinparis, Angélique, Aude, Autour de Cia, BiGBuGS, Blogoth67, Brindille, Calamonique, Cara, Carole en Australie, Champagne, Chat bleu, Chiffons and Co, Chloé, Christophe, Cocazzz, Cricriyom from Paris, Cécile, CécileP, Céline in Paris, Dame Skarlette, Danièle.B, DelphineF, Dom-Aufildesvues, Dr. CaSo, E, El Padawan, Estelle, Eva INside-EXpat, François le Niçois, Frédéric, Galéa, Gilsoub, Giselle 43, Guillaume, Homeos-tasie, J'habite à Waterford, Josette, Julie, KK-huète En Bretannie, Koalisa, Krn, La Fille de l'Air, Lau* des montagnes, Laulinea, Laurent Nicolas, Lavandine, Lavandine83, Les bonheurs d'Anne & Alex, Loulou, Luckasetmoi, Lyonelk, magda627, Mamysoren, Marie, MauriceMonAmour, Milla la galerie, Mimireliton, Mireille, Mirovinben, Mon Album Photo, Morgane Byloos Photography, MyLittleRoad, Nanouk, Nicky, Noz & 'Lo, Pat, Philisine Cave, Pilisi, Pixeline, Renepaulhenry, Rythme Indigo, Sinuaisons, Sous mon arbre, Suki, Tambour Major, Testinaute, Thalie, Tuxana, Voyager en photo, Woocares, Xoliv'.

Pirates of today and yesteryear

Summertime is not quite coming, nevertheless, I have decided to read something that would be appropriate for summer. Which means mainly crime fiction. Violent, nasty crime fiction. I had not read the prolific Elmore Leonard in a long while, I have decided to read (one of?) his latest: Djibouti. I chose this one for a number of reasons. Among them, I was curious about such a contemporary novel, set in a contemporary time, with contemporary issues and background, written by... a 85 year old writer. I also chose to read this novel because it is about pirates. Modern day pirates. And I LOVE pirate stories, which I think go hand in hand with summertime. I used to play pirates a lot as a child, during summer. They were the traditional ones of folklore of course, but sometimes we did have make belief games that were modern high sea adventures too.

I also borrowed from the library a book about the history of piracy, from antiquity to today. I intend to blog more about it another day. So expect to see and read about pirates a lot on Vraie Fiction. I am very jealous of Elmore Leonard. Not only because he is a great crime writer (and remaining great as a prolific one!), but because he managed to be original again. One of my dreams was to write a book about contemporary pirates. And Elmore Leonard just did it! I envy him, but I will still enjoy the novel. Of course I will, it is about pirates.

An English winter

Today I went out. It was cold, it was sunny, there was ice on the ground, enough for me to nearly trip over it, but there was no snow. Rain fell in the morning and later on in the afternoon. I am getting used to it, or trying to. It is not always easy, especially when one feels homesick, but I try to appreciate the kind of winter that I am having and that I will most likely have. Sure, there was no snow, but at least the light was beautiful today. I never saw lights like in English winters, they take dark orange shades when evening comes. So this is something to appreciate.