Author: Hypatia

“Avignon, the rose of the world”

…wrote Lawrence Durrell, and I agree. We just kinda lazed around this morning, enjoying being on the river…then spent the afternoon walking around the city.  It’s like how Paris must’ve been before Emperor Louis Napoleon and Haussmann got at it, eliminating all the narrow, twisting little alleĂŠs and opening up the broad boulevards.  It is … Continue reading “Avignon, the rose of the world” →

“Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a ‘grève’ man..”

….”grève” being the French word for “strike”.   As you may have read, Macron’s government survived a ‘no confidence” vote, in spite of the somewhat high-handed way in which he increased the retirement age, so now the French are really angry.  The workers who operate the locks on the RhĂ´ne river have joined the national … Continue reading “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a ‘grève’ man..” →

Pope Culture

We were back in Avignon today for more extensive exploration; went through the Palais des Papes this morning. It’s the largest medieval palace in all Europe, made of the local custard coloured soft limestone, just like the Gothic crenelated walls of the city.  As you know the Popes were here 1309-1377, sometimes called the Babylonian … Continue reading Pope Culture →

We do RhĂ´ne RhĂ´ne RhĂ´ne…

Incredibly smooth flight to Brussels, short layover till our flight to Marseille, where a charming Frenchman in Viking’s pay met us and drove the remaining distance to Avignon, where we’re now docked near the famous pont, above the Viking Hermod. (An aside: in the Norse pantheon Hermod is Mercury’s counterpart, messenger of the gods and … Continue reading We do RhĂ´ne RhĂ´ne RhĂ´ne… →

The Wanderings of Si—I mean, Oisin

Wrote this two years ago. Happy St Patrick’s
Day, Simon, Ettes and all our readers and followers!

Hypatia's avatarST UnWoked & UnVaxxed!

This is for St. Patrick’s Day.

Yes, i know it isn’t here yet, but….you gotta have a bit of anticipation, and I’ll be celebrating this weekend , so I’m going to tell you the story of Yeats’ dramatic poem The Wanderings of Oisin.

And—I hope our host won’t mind, this makes me think of him. After bravely defending his homeland, he has gone off to an exotic land and the arms of a succession of beautiful, eternally youthful, faery brides. In that regard he’s like a Fenian, a member of a band of legendary warriors who defended Ireland before the coming of Christianity, and specifically like Oisin (pronounced O-SHEEN) , the Fenian who departed the mortal world with an enamored faery.

Yeats’ poem is a conversation between Oisin and St Patrick , and it transpired thusly:

Niamh, one of the host of the Sidhe, approached the Fenians after one of…

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What’s in our name?

Simon was right to change the name of our site here,(the last outpost of verbal freedom!) to “UnWoke”. It is a succinct rejection of the awful term “woke” which is an ugly, ungrammatical, deliberate besmirchment of our glorious language. Only from the chrysalis of “Un-woke” can the glorious butterfly emerge, the majestic, wide-winged many-colored creature, … Continue reading What’s in our name? →