Author Archives: europhilevicar

A quartet of gifts I don’t like being given gifts of books as a general rule. I buy plenty of books for myself, almost invariably second-hand. And sometimes people give me books which I then feel somewhat reluctantly that I have to read. But for my birthday this year, back in July, I was givenContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 83”

A mini-break in Laon I have just had 36 hours away in Laon, in the département de l’Aisne. It is a striking city, the medieval town perched on top of a steep hill that rises abruptly a hundred metres  above the plains of Picardy. With the very distinctive silhouette of its enormous Gothic cathedral. IContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 82”

Salut de Chantilly I am writing this from Chantilly, where I have been since the beginning of September, doing a locum chaplaincy at St Peter’s, Chantilly. There has been an Anglican chaplaincy in Chantilly since the early 19th century, established to serve the needs of the English-speaking community who came here to develop the horse-racingContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 81”

State of the Nation The UK is not currently in a good place. Lots of things are going wrong at the same time. First there is a huge cost-of-living crisis. Relatedly inflation is now running at 10% and is forecast to hit 15% sometime next year. Interest rates have gone up in the past fewContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 80”

The Vercors The Vercors is a rugged area of mountains and plateaux in south-east France, about 100 kilometres south-east of Lyon. The area measures about 50 kilometres from north to south, and thirty kilometres from east to west; straddling the departments of the Isère and the Drôme.  The corner of the Vercors is clearly visibleContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 79”

I’ve never been a wild swimmer. [Perhaps I’ve never been a wild anything ?] But swimming was part of my childhood. In the mid and late 1950s, we went, usually with my father and older brother to a variety of swimming pools. Some were municipal indoor baths, most often a 25 yard pool with greenishContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 78“

Susie and I have just been ‘up north’ for a week, up the west coast. Based mainly in and around Gairloch, where we have spent time in each of the past three summers. We had initially thought of a two-island trip, to Arran and thence on to Islay. Named in anticipation no doubt of ourContinue reading “Glass Darkly 77 – Up the West Coast”

Montebourg Montebourg is a small town in the Cotentin peninsula, just off the N13 road that leads up to Cherbourg. The town was 90% destroyed by fighting in 1944, so there are very few historic buildings in the town centre. But there are three bakeries, two butchers, one advertising prize-winning tripes and pieds de porc,Continue reading “Through a glass darkly – 76”

Family matters We went south for Peter’s funeral. Lucky to find a train given the growing chaos on Scotrail. which has just substantially reduced train numbers because of the shortage of drivers and threatened industrial action. We stayed with Jem and Anna in Watlington, the first time that we have seen them since they movedContinue reading “Through a glass darkly – 75”

A gloomy few months As I’ve already indicated it has been quite a gloomy few months.  The news from Ukraine continues to be depressing; an unknown number of civilians including children are still trapped in bunkers beneath the giant steelworks, and the Russians seem unwilling to abide by the promised cease-fire and the humanitarian corridors.Continue reading “Through a glass darkly – 74”