Castelnau

The Boileau Arms sat on the south side of Hammersmith Bridge at the beginning of Castelnau Road. Since the 1980s it has changed hands and name many times and is now The Castelnau. All this is terrifically relevant to Gascony where Castelnau is a common place name.

Arnaud de Môles

It is a few years since I visited Auch and its magnificent cathedral. It has eighteen windows by Arnaud de Môles. If I saw this glass in an English church I would label it Victorian but I’d be wrong, big time.

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Bastide Town

The French are better at preserving their architectural heritage than the English. Gascony (aka the Gers) teems with bastide towns built from the 12th to the 14th centuries.

An AGM

To the AGM of the PG Wodehouse Society on Monday evening. They have moved around a bit over the years.

Negroni Sbagliato

I expect you have had some bad experiences with builders. Cobby found that they had built the fireplace off-centre in his drawing room. (He is the sort of person that could never have a lounge or a sitting room.)

Cranes

This is a whooping crane. I doubt you have seen one in the wild although there are plenty of grey cranes around.

Crown, Shamrock & Brexit

Instituted in 1783 to assist Irish persons in need, resident in London. Registered Charity Number: 214824. President: Lord Aylmer. Patron: The Duke of Abercorn KG The President and Committee of The Benevolent Society of St Patrick request the pleasure of your company at a Talk by Mary Kenny, “Crown, Shamrock & Brexit”, on Wednesday 8th… Continue reading Crown, Shamrock & Brexit

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Risotto & Ratio

My great-great-great-great grandfather is a distinguished Spanish mathematician and scientist. It would be repetitious to write about him as older readers will remember the story from a September 2015 post, A Spy in the Family.

Parkes Police

Robert remarked that he’d seen a plethora of Parks Police cars; a lot of alliteration today. Today Hammersmith and Fulham have a joint police force (the Parks Police Service) to patrol the parks on their patch. They look like police but in fact only have the same powers as any other citizens.

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Categorised as History

Five Go Down to the Sea

The title may ring a bell if you grew up on a literary diet of Enid Blyton. In fact we were four as our fifth had a knee injury and we didn’t have Timmy, the dog in the Famous Five series.

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