MetaFilter posts tagged with france and england

Love Lego? Love Rugby?

Scottie_Bob — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:01:28 -0800

Ever wanted to see rugby highlights animated in lego? Of course you have! The Autumn Rugby Internationals finished a few weeks ago, with England famously upsetting the odds in their win over New Zealand, adding to their total of only seven wins in 35 occasions, while both Wales and Scotland slumped home with zero wins over Southern Hemisphere opposition. If you want to watch the highlights, there are plenty online. But perhaps the best of the bunch is this one here. Animated by Graham Love, he's done a bunch of stuff with lego and famous sporting events.

A Mighty Wind

kcds — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:01:49 -0800

Twenty-five years ago today, southern England and northern France were struck by the Great Storm of 1987. Although the storm did not go entirely unforecast, the exact track and ferocity of the storm were not as predicted, and the resulting devastation killed at least 22 people, and destroyed six of the seven oak trees that are symbolic of the eponymous town of Sevenoaks, in Kent. I was in college at the time, at the University of Kent at Canterbury. I slept right through the storm itself, but my first inkling that something had happened came when I woke up to the site of fallen leaves on the floor of my dorm room - leaves which had been blown under the door to my room, which, I hasten to add, was not an exterior door. The power was out, and everyone traipsed over to the college I resided in, Darwin, because it was the only dining hall that was open, and that was primarily because its large expanse of windows afforded it a great deal of natural light, a necessity due to the power outage. Breakfast that morning consisted of fruit, untoasted bread, and cold beverages. People immediately started referring to it as a hurricane, which, technically, it was not, although the maximum straight-line gusts were of comparable strength to hurricane-force winds.

Charles de Thierry: man of many lands, king of none

filthy light thief — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:30:53 -0800

Charles Philippe Hippolyte de Thierry lead a storied life, and many of those stories are ones he made up. His family was associated with the French court, though there is doubt to his claims of noble lineage. In England, he met two Maori chiefs and an English missionary from New Zealand, and attempted to purchase a northern portion of New Zealand in 1820. He then sought to turn this land into a colony first for Britain in 1822, then the Dutch government in 1824 when the English offer fell through. The Dutch, too, turned him down, so in 1825 de Thierry made the same offer to the French government, and was similarly refused. Fleeing creditors, he left for America. In 1834, he traveled south, where he was granted concession for cutting the Panama Canal. That, too, fell through, and he sailed west, reaching Tahiti in June 1835, where he elected himself king of Nuka Hiva. The kingdom was never his, and so he continued west and south, arriving at his plot in New Zealand in 1837, where again he offered land up to France for a colony. His efforts to claim a colony and a kingdom came to an end in 1840, with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, sealing a deal between the British Crown and the Māori. Born of in 1793 to French parents who were associated French court, the family left France to escape the French Revolution, first to the Netherlands, then England. It was in England that de Thierry's father, Charles Antoine de Thierry, assumed the title of baron. This was a title the younger de Thierry would claim for his own, too. The family was close enough to nobles that during a visit to Edinburgh in 1796, Charles Philippe Hippolyte became the godson of the exiled comte d'Artois (later Charles X of France). In 1814, the younger de Thierry accompanied the Portuguese delegation to the Congress of Vienna, and in 1816 served briefly as an attaché at the French embassy in London. He married Emily Rudge in 1819, and the couple would have four sons and a daughter. In 1820, de Thierry met the Māori chiefs Hongi Hika and Waikato, who had traveled to England with missionary Thomas Kendall, who had returned to work on the book A grammar and vocabulary of the language of New Zealand (Google books). De Thierry, possibly posing as an exiled French adventurer, arranged for a purchase of a portion of New Zealand, with Kendall working as the intermediary between de Thierry and the Māori chiefs. De Thierry gave Kendall £800 worth of goods to buy "all the land from North Cape to Tauranga." Depending on the telling, this purchase was made with 36 axes, or possibly 500 muskets plus powder and ball, though it could be that Hongi Hika convinced Kendall to take him to London, where he sold gifts to acquire at least 200 muskets, playing a pivotal role in the Musket Wars of from 1818 and the early 1830s. However it worked out, de Thierry had the deed for 40,000 acres at Hokianga executed in 1822. According to the 1966 Encyclopedia of New Zealand,

Thierry requested British protection for the colony he was then assembling in London, but was rebuffed by the Colonial Office. He next approached the Dutch Ambassador in London in February 1824 with a proposal to purchase Holland's “rights” in New Zealand for £50,000; in April with an offer “to secure to the King of the Netherlands the Sovereignty and possession of New Zealand, which would … ensure His Majesty a yearly revenue of upwards of Five Millions of Pounds Sterling”. He modestly suggested that his appointment as “Viceroy of New Zealand” would be a fitting reward for his services, adding that he was born in Brussels and descended from the Counts of Flanders.

This effort also failed, and in October 1824, de Thierry was in France, where his godfather was now king. Despite this fact, he had no more luck getting support for his colony-to-be in France, and was again "financially embarrassed." He returned to England to again attempt to gather a colonizing party, only to fall short of his goal. He headed to the United States in 1827 with his family. Little is recorded about this period until de Thierry's family left from Virginia in 1832, possibly heading for Brazil, though de Thierry would later tell that New Zealand was always his destination. Thierry went through the Caribbean, gathering followers, subscriptions and supplies, stopping in Panama in December 1834. There, de Thierry received a franchise for a canal at Panama from General Simón Bolívar, the President of the Republic of (New) Granada. "Baron" Thierry was more enterprising than practical in his thoughts, and was unable to raise the required capital to make the necessary surveys and begin the work (Google books). Later, a more organized and qualified French group would actually start work on a canal, which the US would take over and complete. De Thierry was not done yet, and on his journey towards New Zealand he stopped in Tahiti in June 1835, where he elected himself king of Nuka Hiva, which two decades earlier, Captain David Porter of the United States Navy tried to annex in the name of the US. Porter, the first American imperialist, renamed the island Madison's Island, and named the American military settlement Madisonville (Google books preview), in tribute to President Madison. Neither Madison nor Secretary of State James Monroe ever acknlowedged Porter's unauthorized annexation. De Thierry fared little better, raising a flag and mustering a military force, but Robert FitzRoy denounced de Thierry as an imposter and unfit to have a military force at his disposal. FitzRoy was not de Thierry's only opposition of this sort. News of de Thierry's land claims and plans for a colony traveled faster than he did. De Thierry reached Sydney, New South Wales in July 1837, with British Resident James Busby striking the first three blows against de Thierry in a duel with quill pens, culminating in the 1835 Declaration of Independence of New Zealand, with support from 34 northern chiefs. Though Governor Bourke of New South Wales referred to the Declaration as ‘a paper pellet fired off at Baron de Thierry,’ the Declaration was a first step towards the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, which formalized the British sovereignty over New Zealand, annexed the country, protected the Māori, regulated British subjects and secured commercial interests. That was still five years away, and de Thierry had a colony to set up. He recruited colonists and money from Sydney, and sailed for Hokianga, arriving in northern New Zealand on November 4, 1837. Nene and Patuone denied the validity of Kendall's purchase of 40,000 acres, but Nene and Te Taonui granted Thierry 800 acres at Hokianga on condition that he give up his larger claim, much which was already claimed by other European settlers. His claim greatly reduced in size, de Thierry lost the confidence of his assorted colonists. Again down, but still not out, de Thierry sent inflated accounts of his success to France, still hoping to win support for his plans for a French colony. The Treaty of Waitangi ended de Thierry's hopes of being any sort of ruler in any land. The Flagstaff War (also known as Hone Heke's Rebellion, the Northern War, the First Māori War and the War of 1845–46) sent de Thierry south to Auckland, where he lived in meager conditions until news of the California gold rush hooked him, and he sailed off in hopes of riches. His luck was now on a sour streak, as he was left behind with four other passengers, stranded Pitcairn Island for a month. Their ship, headed to Honolulu, stopped to get fresh water. The tides turned or the winds picked up, and the captain decided it was better to leave than endanger the ship. But de Thierry did make it to California, though he only stayed for six months. He returned to Honolulu to work at the French Consulate until March 1853, when news of his wife's ill health took him back to Auckland, where he taught piano. In 1856, the New Zealand Government presented de Thierry with one hundred and six acres of land, in compensation for his claim of 40,000 acres. He continued to teach music until his sudden death on July 8, 1864. If this story is too short, or lacking in narrative flourishes, you might well enjoy Check to your King, which reads like an enthralling historical novel rather than conventional biography.... [Also offering] clear insight into the relations between white men and natives, by Robin Hyde, the most common pen-name for Iris Guiver Wilkinson, one of New Zealand's major poets (1906 – 1939). And you can read more of de Thierry's lineage at Lessels Website, a genealogy site for Lynly Lessels Yates. Note: many links lead to PDFs.

You eat too fast, and I understand why your antidyspeptic pill-makers cover your walls, your forests even, with their advertisements.

The Whelk — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 09:36:40 -0800

In 1891 author and lecturer ”Max O’Rell” (being the pen name of one Léon Paul Blouet) published an amusing account of his travels through the States and Eastern Canada - "A Frenchman In America" - that, along with the charming illustrations, reflect on then popular national stereotypes and character and is presented on Project Gutenberg in its entirely. (via)

Animated Histories of European Football

hoyland — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 06:03:21 -0800

In advance of Euro 2012, the Guardian has made animated histories of six of the competitors: England, Spain, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Germany and France. (Autoplay video in last six links.)

Free camping in Europe by bicycle

latkes — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:03:17 -0800

Adrift in a bleak economy and our isolated urban bubble, in 2010 my sweetheart and I set out to see the world the old-fashioned way: by bicycle. We did it on the cheap and without any itinerary, gadgets, or training. We moved south with the sun as the seasons changed, cooked food we found at local markets, and slept in fields or on strangers’ couches. And part II: When we came across the shepherds’ hut in the middle of nowhere after a long, rainy day, we asked Giovanni for water. Instead, he gave us wine and raw eggs to eat, and let us spend the night in his perfect pasture, at peace beneath the oak trees among the smell of damp wool. This is the type of generosity, the unfettered sharing, to which we became accustomed.

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

villanelles at dawn — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:34:06 -0800

The Solitary Walker - a blog (mostly) about walking.

Journeyman Pictures

Kattullus — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:06:04 -0800

Journeyman Pictures has uploaded nearly 4000 videos to YouTube. Many of these are trailers for the documentaries they sell, but they have also posted hundreds of full-length videos. Most are for short documentarie, but there are a lot of features too. It's somewhat daunting to explore, but the playlists are a good place to start, and so are the shows: Features, Shorts, News and Savouring Europe, a European travelogue series. Here's a few interesting ones: Gastronauts, about French culinary students working to make astronaut food more palatable, Demon Drummers, about student Kodo drummers, India's Free Lunch, about the effects of free school lunches on Indian society, The Twitter Revolution, about YouTube and Twitter's role in the 2009 Iranian uprising, Europe's Black Hole, about Transnistria, the breakaway region of Moldova, Small Town Boy, about a gay male carnival queen in a small town in England, The Vertigo of Lists, Umberto Eco talks about the ubiquity of lists in modern culture and Monsters from the Id, about scientists in the science fiction films of the Fifties.

Podcast about the history of the Normans

Kattullus — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:24:17 -0800

Norman Centuries is a new podcast by Lars Brownworth, best known for his podcast series 12 Byzantine Rulers (previously). Norman Centuries, as the name suggests, recounts the history of the Normans, those literal vikings who gained Normandy and then England, Sicily, Malta, Antioch and, well, a whole heck of a lot of other places too. They were a conquering bunch. First two episodes are out with more to follow. [iTunes link]

Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail

huskerdont — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:11:41 -0800

Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail. Best known as the drummer for 1970s punk band The Damned, Rat Scabies grew up with a father interested in the mysteries of the French town of Rennes-le-Château, which may or may not contain the Holy Grail and in the enigmatic priest Berenger Sauniere. Conspiracy theories surrounding the town first popped up in the 1970s book Holy Blood, Holy Grail and gained a certain amount of infamy in recent years from The DaVinci Code. Upon striking up a friendship with his neighbor, journalist Christopher Dawes, Scabies discovered common interests in conspiracy theories and all things paranormal and a shared hatred of the DaVinci Code. Now the pair wrote a book about their alcohol-sodden quest for the Holy Grail that asks the question: What happens when an ex-punk rocker goes looking for the Holy Grail?

Jonah Goldberg on why the British are like dogs,

Ty Webb — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 10:23:14 -0800

Jonah Goldberg on why the British are like dogs, and the French like cats.