Puy de Dome 26 years after

 

26 years after at the top of the Puy de Dome

Back in the days, we drove our car all the way to the summit, now a train is the only way to access it ( or walking).

Vulcania - July 2023 - France

 

Inside Vulcania

france oldies tv

Watching the world cup [2014]

Another world cup is upon us, this time taking place in Brazil, and I have seen myself dragged (on my own will), into watching the opening ceremony and the first game of this competition.
I think the last time, I watched the opening game of a World Cup, was 20 years ago.

1994, the World Cup was held in USA, the opening ceremony was memorable with a Diana Ross singing, then kicking a ball in high heels, a wide shot, missing the goal ... which still opened split.
France was not part of that world cup, due to 2 losses against Israel and Bulgaria... The commentators at the time, before going those games, were adamant France would qualify, since it only needed a draw out of those... a draw not 2 losses - and yes both games were played on home turf. The defeat to Bulgaria was the last time I saw Eric Cantona scoring a goal with the French jersey.
I was still interested in football, still under the influence of my childhood with the Michel Platini era, with its highlights:

• The win over Brazil in quarter final of Mexico 1986. Followed by another defeat to Germany in semis.

• The win in the Euro 1984.

• The epic semi-final against Germany in 1982, a loss... but probably the most dramatic game I have ever seen. 4 goals scored in extra time, and France leading 3-1 after 100 minutes only to lose to penalty shoot-out in the end.

France Team in 1982. Mundial

• First the total disrespect to the referee, every single decision is contested, seeing half a team bullying the man in black, shouting at his face is an awful sight. Worse, we spectator are either engaging in the same behaviour (via the safety of a screen) or just watch impassably the bullying. Every time I see one of those scene, I am reminded of that Jean Pierre Mocky movie: "A mort l'arbitre" , where a set of fanatical supporters go on a manhunt for a referee.

• Then there is the acting, and the fake "diving", which we saw another instance of that first game. Last night dive was a textbook example, as studied  in this paper: 

• It turns out that diving is more common when there’s more to gain by it: in the offensive half of the field – specifically, in or near the penalty box – and when scores between the teams are tied.

• Source: David GK, Condon CH, Bywater CL, Ortiz-Barrientos D, Wilson RS (2011) Receivers Limit the Prevalence of Deception in Humans: Evidence from Diving Behaviour in Soccer Players. PLoS ONE 6(10): e26017. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026017

• Finally the sport has been turning more and more individualistic, the Real Madrid celebration during the last champions league, were an example of a bunch of splitted egoes celebrating around the field, not of a team.

• respect of the rules and the referees decisions.

• solidarity with your teammates.

I have to admit that as a result, of not so exciting preparation games, I did not follow the 1998 world cup from the start. I should have known better, Aime Jacquet after all was the manager of Bordeaux during what I personally consider France soccer team golden years, with many player under his elm (Giresse, Tigana, Tresor .... ). He certainly learned the lessons from this era, before he took charge of the national team.
Lets' go back to the present and this first game played between Brazil and Croatia.

Brazil was very lucky to win, helped by some dubious referee decisions.

That game make me realize why I somehow lost interest in the football game. I still think this is a brilliant game, the most fantastic you can play, it's basic are easy and simple, any kid in any city can and will play it, sometime without needing a ball, a tin can is a valid substitute. 

You can make a ball out of plastic bag, and then go on to dream you are winning the world cup.

So why don't I watch soccer.... few things are annoying me in todays soccer shows:

I have to make a comparison with Rugby Union here, we often talk about the values of the rugby ( sometime in an ironic way ), though I think Rugby exhibit some venerable values, we sometimes mistake them for what they are.

I am not talking about fair play, Rugby Union is a contact sport, and players want to win, so you will see as many acts of non-fair play on a rugby field than any other sports (eye gauging, high tackle, taunting opponents ... ). Where I think Rugby Union exhibit values is in 2 aspects:

Now those two things do not happen by chance. The respect of referee decision is strictly enforced. When you contest a penalty, you have the risk of seeing that penalty brought forward by 10 meters. Only the captain is allowed to talk to the referee, and arguing with referee can lead to a yellow card. Some of those things could easily be implemented in soccer. Also the rugby referee, constantly talk and warns player about their behaviour, the italian soccer referee Collina used to do that constantly during the game, so this could also be an improvement.

On team solidarity, it is a necessity in Rugby by the nature of the game, you have to rely, have trust in your partner to win the game, you cannot win a rugby game on your own, a solitary exploit will not be enough. Soccer has slowly evolved to the opposite direction with the raise of individualistic star with inflated egoes. I watched recently "Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos" about the rise and fall of this USA soccer franchise, who brought Pelè in the states, this story can be seen as a precursor of what was bound to happen with the influx of money in the soccer world.

Finally on the faking and diving, we could also take the example of Rugby Union, with a discipline committee reviewing action of the payer after the games using videos, and condemning unfair play and simulation acts with match suspension.

I ended up watching that first game with mixed feelings, yes the game can be brilliant, but is at the moment spoiled by other interests - I won't go into the FIFA scandals, John Oliver did a much better job than me explaining it ( by showing his sausage ).

I am happy to see Brazil win, unhappy by the way they did, still hopeful that I will see some fantastic football display... which probably mean I will most certainly watch more games. And yes that also include watching France play....

Looking back at 2013

I have been neglected this blog, since a couple months now, just realise this post was in my draft since the first of January 2014, so with a bit of delay here it is....

Looking back at 2013:

• January: Starting the year with walks in charming company on Dun Laoghaire pier.
• St Patrick in Düsseldorf -  My first steps as a contractor.
• Tea parties.
• H-cup final ASM defeat in Dublin.
• DIY and shelves.
• Bourkes Pub.
One of my favourite in Limerick, excellent provider of gigs.
• Summer in Cambridge.
• Airport, airport and more planes.
Between fortnight trip to Germany, then UK, and France, 2013 have been dominated by airflight to the point of sickness. Not good for my carbon footprint.
• Trip to London: Science Museum
• Electric Picnic 2013
Back to the Electric Picnic, to celebrate a special anniversary <3
• The Dubliners in Whelans.
• Depeche Mode in O2.
• Heatwave in Ireland. Snorkel in Clare.
• Forbidden Fruit
• Jerry Fish.
Somehow I miss his circus in the EP, so now I am in chase mode to catch up on his performances.
• New socks - so popular someone steals them from me.
• Dublin beaches.
Thanks to the heatwave, my transition from the west coast to the east coast beaches was easy :D
• Dublin Zoo.
• Saying goodbye to Limerick.
I finally moved all my stuff out of limerick city, where I first moved to Ireland 8 years ago.
• Starting as a student again - Statistics in UCD
Here it is the big one, back on the student benches for one year. UCD campus:
Back in ampitheatre:
First homeworks:
• Enjoying Dublin.
I am still in discovery mode with this city.
• Cats time.
• Introducing my girlfriend to my beloved Auvergne.

Reeling the years - 2012

Almost forgot that post this year, so lets go for another spin of reeling the years. I actually think since i've been round the 5 year cycle, I will not do the post next year.

The idea is very simple and based on a simple question: Where was I 5 years ago, 10, 15 ...etc ?

Previous post were: 2011,  2010, 2009 and 2008.

2007: Limerick, Ireland

Limerick

Third year in Ireland, and still living in  Dooradoyle but soon i moved to live in the city centre.

This is also the first time I am seeing the ASM playing in Thomond park against Munster...

Le Renard in Thomond Park.

Note: on the following pictures, there might be some imprecision with the year it was taken ( it was around that, but it's grand)

2002: Grenoble, France:
Third year in Grenoble, working full steam in analog layout.
And I have starting scuba-diving in Marseille with that crazy guy:

The Master showing off ... 

1997: Clermont-Ferrand, France
In CPGE... eating mathematics and physics ..... amongst other things

L'inversion

1992: Hauterive, France
Le Lycée, en premiere scientifique...

1987: Hauterive, France
College Victor Hugo

Not the right year ... this one was 1990...

1982: Hauterive, France

Guess where ....

1977: Hauterive, France
One year old .... happy days ...

Who is this ?

My Computer History .... so far

My very first computer was an Alice, a french made computer ; a very impressive beast (RAM : 8 kb  CPU: Motorola 6803 )

The original box with tapes.... yes tapes

The beast itself

It meant a lot to me ( actually I still have it in a storage room in France ), first because my grandfather bought it to me - for reason I have never explained or understood, may be he had some insight - a good one - that this would be the future, secondly because the manual was illustrated by one of my favorite comic artist Moebius ( but I did not know that at the time ).

Illustrated by Moebius....

I remember soon after, the school started using T07 and MO5 as a part of a sponsored state program to promote informatics.

You can read more about Alice history (in French) on this wiki: http://alice.system-cfg.com/
There you can also find links to some emulators.

----

My second was an Amstrad CPC464 ( 64 kB RAM CPU: Zilog Z80A )

 I started to play games ( a lot more than previously ) with that, I particularly fondly remember: "Infernal runner" by Eric Chahi

Infernal Runner

You can actually find a very good Java emulator online here : http://www.cpcbox.com/ you can even load games - without the dreadful line by line loading time.


Somehow the computer through more powerful, became less exciting and more an utility tool.
My third was a PC intel 486, it was still under MS-DOS, but had the very premise of a GUI (an ultra basic explorer), but it allow me to be a bit more productive with word processing and some early spreadsheet - which if I recall correctly I use to keep track of my game scores.
My fourth was a PC tower, and finally a jump to today familiar Windows ( 95 I think ), it survived for a long time, throughout my college years and even at the beginning of my fully fledge worker years, helped I have to admit by multiple and regular upgrade ( memory / hard drive / OS .... ).  By that time i was mingling with unix at college and later at work.

I then switch to laptop with a sony vaio, before succumbing 5 years ago to an Apple White MacBook....

Reeling the years 2011

Another spin of reeling the years.

The idea is very simple and based on a simple question: Where was I 5 years ago, 10, 15 ...etc ?
Previous post were: 2010, 2009 and 2008.

So let's go back in time by 5 years leap....


2006: Limerick, Ireland
My second year in Ireland, which saw my first dives in Ireland

Probably the year, I have visited the most Ireland, thanks to those guys: les boulets

2001: Grenoble, France
My first work ( permanent contract ) in France, Grenoble ( actually Meylan to be more precise ), as an engineer. And discover the nice bar in Grenoble:The Loco Mosquito
Also the year I graduated Clermont-Ferrand university.

1996: Clermont Ferrand, France
Still in CPGE at Lycee Blaise Pascal


1991: Hauterive, France
Starting in French High School

1986: Hauterive, France


1981: Hauterive, France
I think this is the year I started going to school, or was it the following.....

1976: Hauterive, France
That christmas I am barely 9 year month old, and I have many dogs to take care of me ( in the photo below i think it was atos )

Hauterive

My village .... Hauterive
The Main street, it has not changed that much actually

Hauterive - Main square

And the famous mineral source, actually one of the 4-5 mineral water sources which surges the Village, most of them are exploited by St Yorre nowadays:

mineral water Ad 

 

Revoir Clermont....

Spend a week back in France, and use a day to go back to Clermont, walking back to memory lane.

Walking errantly through the small streets...

Discovering old sculptures on the wall...

Finding even poseidon...

Remembering what a proper cinema is, with an interesting choice...

In display that day: "A Serious Man" the ferocious latest Cohen, "A Single Man", ....

Passing in Vercingetorix shadow...

Seeing the cathedral.

And finally re-discovering the beauty of the Lecoq garden...

Reeling the years (08)

I am stealing an idea from some French blogs (Fabienne and Olivier who started the thing ).

The idea is very simple and based on a simple question: Where was i 5 years ago, 10, 15 ...etc ?
So let's go back in time by 5 years leap...


1978
I am 2 years old, living with my parents and my grandad in a small village in Auvergne, France near the river Allier.
According to the pictures taken by my dad, i've got a brilliant future in construction or maybe woodworking.

May be i should have gone this road... because the shed we were building is still there.

1983
Still living in Auvergne, we move to a different house in the same village ( i've calculated that my father moved at least 6 times in his life without actually leaving the village ).


The familly got bigger, with th addition of my brother.
I am also starting going to school in Hauterive.
This is also the year, my first computer began to be sold: Alice (8kb RAM, no hard drive...), first contact with informatic which would become predominant in my professional career and also the comic artist called Moebius which made the packaging illustration.

1988
Moving to junior School, in St Yorrre "ca va fort", and also moved to the best computer in the world the Amstrad CPC 464. Yeah I know, from now on I am and will be a geek.

1993
High school, I am in scientific section (is it a surprise ?) and have strangely terribly low notes in my favourite subject: physic. May be i was distracted by girls...

1998
I am in Clermont Ferrand, still in Auvergne, student in Blaise Pascal University.
And guess what, I am studiying physics.
I've started taking interest interest in photography with an old argentic canon (an old T60).

This is also there, I felt deeply in love with cinema, mainly because of the International Short Film Festival.

2003
I've moved to Grenoble at the end of my master to (finally) start working in a small company but on the winter of that year, I was actually on a mission in Milano Italy.

My first real taste of expatriation, I did not stay long enough to be able to speak Italian fluently but it was 4 great months, with some disturbing discovery. I actually discovered that italian girls have the same taste for decorating their bedroom as my 12 year old cousin (except one room was red and black while the other was white and blue ).



2008
I am in Ireland, on the west coast, since 2005.
Enjoying a lot of scubadiving and a bit of guiness.

Sachons cacher notre joie [FR]

Dailymotion a signé un accord de diffusion sur les sketchs de Desproges.

Sachons cacher notre joie
Uploaded by pierredesproges

Etonnant non ?

Inventory....

Kilkee, Ireland

France

Books:

- Freakonomics (ISBN 006089637X)
- Le Magasin des Suicidés de Jean Teulé (ISBN-13: 978-2260017080)

French are always complaining....

And it turn out...it's true.A study by FDS International found exactly that: French workers are the world's biggest whiners.In the same study, it appears Irish complain least about their lot.

Brits ( 37% feel they don’t get enough holidays, putting them at No.1 in the Holiday Whinge rankings) enjoy an average of 33.5 days annual leave and public holidays – but despite having less holidays (29), only 13 per cent of workers in Ireland whinge about their lack of holidays.

The report is called: What Workers Want: A Worldwide Study
of Attitudes to Work and Work-Life Balance (by FDS International)

The study findings are based on (amongst others):
- satisfaction with issues including pay levels.
- work-life balance.
- average working hours.

---

Wisdom ranking
Got 4.2 at this test: Wisdom scorecard

NY times related article: The Older-and-Wiser Hypothesis.

American view of France

Groland ...

For translation: "gréve" = strike

[EDIT] Video removed from Youtube, here's the link of the show on canal plus website.

Air France La Grève C'est Notre Metier
Uploaded by franktox

What do you miss from France ?

What i miss from France:

1. Food... in all his form, the market on Sunday morning full of vegetables, spices, mushroom, and fruits.... real cooked food, cheese ( real not chedar) , charcuterie, andouillettes, fish ( which is not deep fried cooked ), real mustard ( not the fluorescent English one ), real bread freshly bake ( a baker please).
2. Real market ( though there is an ersatz in limerick every Saturday morning ). The smell of it. Antiquities market too.
3. Cinema: movie theater who provide a large and varied choice of films ( not necessary French), i just want variety and not only the American blockbusters of the moment. "Art & Essais" movie theaters.
4. Comic Book: Library where i can find and discover vast choice of comic book ( French-Belgian school or not ).
5. Arte... funny one TV channel, i enjoy rediscovering every time i go back to France.
6. Vigne, the collect of grapes in autumn to make wine...
7. Cheek kiss when meet friends
8. Apero time...not quite the same as an evening in the pub.
9. "les terrasses", have a drink, on a table outside the bar... just after work... ireland not really the country for that.

10. my favourite cavist back in Grenoble: L'Echanson ( rue Lakanal, Grenoble, France )... and this lovely white vine: "Tariquet - Premieres Grives"
11. The nice bars of grenoble (..... ) and the outdoor concerts (Cabaret Frappe) in summer in the parc in the middle of the city...

France - Scuba Diving

Activities: Airplane, Scuba-diving, Restaurant (4), Pub (1), Apero (evryday), sea, sun and friends......


Back to France ( Nice - Marseille ) for easter week-end, to enjoy some sea, some scuba-diving, some food and some friends.

Taking Off from Dublin

Dublin Airport

Landing in Nice, and straight heading direction Marseille (Massillia):

Marseille

Diving in La Vesse (Again), where I first dive and pass my first 2 level of diving:

La vesse

again

Younger me

Apero....

And sunday, again diving, small "pelerinage" in "Le vieux Port" in Marseille.

Listening a lovely percussion band in the sun:

Apero....

Monday, back to Nice, diving, and walk in Nice Harbour....

Tuesday Back to Ireland, nice reading...

merde