Lonely figure: François Hollande, with approval ratings of 20%, is the most unpopular president in French postwar history.
A desolate image broadcast live this week to a French public that has all but despaired of his presidency summed up the plight of François Hollande.
Flown by helicopter to the windswept island of Sein off the rocky west coast of Brittany for a ceremony to commemorate the liberation of France from Nazi occupation 70 years ago, Mr Hollande stood to give his speech unprotected from a lashing Atlantic rainstorm.
No presidential huissier, no aide-de-camp, not even an alert public relations official stepped forward with an umbrella. Instead, the most unpopular president in French postwar history was left alone and bedraggled against a bleak island backdrop, the rain obscuring his spectacles, soaking his hair and running down his neck.
“Avec moi, le déluge,” joked the satirical newspaper Canard Enchaîné on its front page…..
The rest of the article is a lamentation of the state French culture, economics, and apparent lack of Joie de vivre and may be found at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/03b35434-2f5b-11e4-a79c-00144feabdc0.html
This article lead me to digging for information about Île-de-Sein, which turned up Mário Gonçalves’ Quest for Tule blog on remote islands. His July 2010 post is about Île-de-Sein and I have taken the liberty of reproducing it here together with a comment on the origin of “Thule” and an additional picture at the end. – wej
Thule (Greek: Θούλη, Thoúlē – Pytheas, 320 BC) also spelled Thula,Thila, or Thyïlea, is, in classical European literature and maps, a region in the far north. Though often considered to be an island in antiquity, modern interpretations of what was meant by Thule often identify it as Norway, an identification supported by modern calculations. Other interpretations include Orkney, Shetland, andScandinavia. In the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, Thule was often identified as Iceland or Greenland. Another suggested location is Saaremaa in the Baltic Sea.The term ultima Thulein medieval geographies denotes any distant place located beyond the “borders of the known world”. Sometimes it is used as a proper noun (Ultima Thule) as the Latin name for Greenland whenThule is used for Iceland. – Wikipedia
Sein island (Île-de-Sein)
Brittany, France
Now this Ultima Thule in France´s Finistère may not be so remote and northernly as others I have reported here, but it is surely magic in its wilderness, situation and life style. Getting there is not a hard adventure, but living there is.
This piece of rock is certainly the strangest island off the coast of Brittany, one of the six Celtic nations.
Île-de-Sein is a french islet in the Atlantic Ocean, 10 km off the extreme northwest of Finistère, 2 km long for at most a few hundred metres wide. Nowhere does it rise more than six metres above the surrounding ocean.
Lying on the sea routes going south from the English Channel, Sein is well known for the dangers of its waters. The Chaussée de Sein, a vast zone of reefs, stretches for more than thirty miles from east to west, requiring numerous lighthouses, to prevent increasing the large numbers of shipwrecks in the past.
The Island of Sein has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and it was reputed to have been the very last refuge of the druids in Brittany . Some menhirs can be found there.
Three hundred islanders continue to make their living from the sea, gathering rainwater and seaweed and fishing for scallops, lobster and crayfish.
Quai des Paimpolais
The village
In order to be protected from the sea and storms, the village has very narrow streets, a real labyrinth. The streets twist and turn against the wind, and in most places are built only wide enough to roll a barrel. Only bicycles are allowed.
Details of sea life decorate most houses, in the dominating blue colour.
On the blackboard – “croissants available by command for Christmas and New Year’s Eve”. That shows how isolated the island is from mainland.
Phare de la Vieille
One of the most famous French lighthouses, this tower is built on a rock that half way from mainland to Île-de-Sein. In big sea storms, waves crash against the lighthouse and seem to swallow it – but La Vieille always keeps working.
Heavy seas.
http://ultima0thule.blogspot.com/2010/07/sein-island-ile-de-sein-brittany-france.html
2 comments:
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Stéphane Bidouze said…
- Hey, it’s not the phare de la vieille, but the four lighthouse, phare du four, it is also in brittany, but north from the la vieille!
regards
STéphane -
Mário said…
Merci bien, Stéphane, j’ai déja fait la correction, cette nouvelle image est aussi impressionante que l’antérieure.
Mario
18 October 2012 21:15
Western Marches 