The 1881 Ar-Men lighthouse, located in the stormy Atlantic off the westernmost point of France, the Pointe du Raz. The lighthouse took 20 years to build on a rock that is rarely exposed by the turbulent waves
Photo by François-Xavier Ricardou, 2023
In France [July 7, 2024], a crowd reacts to election results showing a defeat for the hard-right political party that was expected to win big until the French people voted in greater numbers for leftists and centrists instead. This follows the complete rout suffered by the right-wing Conservative party in Great Britain just three days prior, on July 4th.
🇫🇷
The press said: Hey, look, this far right party is winning, and the people got up and said: The fuck they’re not, and went and voted like crazy.
Montagne de Bueren staircase in Liège, Belgium
March 18th 2024
Nantes, earlier this month!
Brown printed cotton walking dress, ca. 1885, French.
Met Museum.
Peach pink silk dress, 1910-1912, French.
Designed by Paul Poiret.
Palais Galliera.
Blue silk dress, ca. 1867, French.
Designed by House of Depret.
Met Museum.
David Leventi - Opera: Curtain, Palais Garnier, Paris, France (2009)
Medieval island: Le Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France.
The Rococo era was defined by seemingly contrasting aspects: extravagance and a quest for simplicity, light colors and heavy materials, aristocrats and the bourgeoisie. This culmination produced a very diverse era in fashion like none ever before. Although this movement was largely ended with the French Revolution, its ideas and main aspects strongly affected future fashions for decades.
Dinner dress made in 1878 by Parisian couturier Émile Pingat
“Napoleon and the Empire of Fashion”
Louis Braille began losing his sight at three years old, due to an accident with a toy that struck him in the eye and which became infected and spread to his other eye. By age five, Louis was completely blind. It was 1812 and there was nothing that medicine could do for either eye.
He was lucky though and was able to attend one of the first blind schools in the world, the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris. There, Louis was exposed to the “night writing” method invented by Captain Charles Barbier of the French Army. It was a series of dashes and dots intended to be read by soldiers when putting on a light might be dangerous. But the night writing system was rather complicated and difficult to use. It did, however, inspire Louis to try and make a better system on his own. By the time Louis was 15 years old, he had trimmed Barbier’s 12 dots into six and had found 63 ways to use a six-dot cell in an area no larger than a fingertip. Braille, the system still used around the world, had been born.
Just to finish off Louis’ story – his life did not end at age 15! He published his own system in 1829 and added symbols for both mathematics and music. He went on to have a number of publications about the new reading and writing system, and in 1833, Louis was offered a full professorship where he taught history, geometry and algebra. He also became an accomplished cellist and organist. Unfortunately his invention was met with skepticism by the public. It was not even taught at Braille’s alma mater, the Royal Institute. Due to a persistent respiratory illness he was forced to give up teaching and move back to his hometown at age 40.
In 1852, Louis Braille died, just two days after his 43rd birthday. He would never know how widespread his invention would become. Today there are over 250 million people with visual impairments, who are able to access the written word thanks to Louis Braille.
Château de Pierrefonds France
© marcel germany
