Richelieu - the Ideal City

Cardinal Richelieu

The notorious cardinal wasn’t as evil as he was presented in the Three Musketeers.  He founded the “ideal city” that bears his name to this day, in his fiefdom in the Loire Valley. His magnificent chateau however has long gone. The bi-annual festival “Cape et épée” (Cape and sword), held there, takes us back to the time of the musketeers.

Richelieu City Centre

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Festival Cape et Epée (July 2018)

Festival Cape et Epée (July 2018)

SERDICA

                                                               
After extensive excavation work in connection with the tunnels for a metro line, parts of Decumanus Maximus and Cardo Maximus, at their intersection, are once again exposed to the elements, just a few metres beneath the street level, showing us the open heart of Roman Serdica.

Cardo Maximus (the main north-south thoroughfare of the Roman city), which was the main shopping street

Decumanus Maximus (the east-west orientated thoroughfare)

Roman remains

Roman remains

Roman remains

The Eastern city gate

Serdica (present day Sofia) was founded at the dawn of time around thermal mineral springs at the foothills of a mountain. It had quite a chequered history and has been part of three empires during its life.

Find out more in The City That Does Not Age:

https://www.amazon.com/City-That-Does-Not-Age/dp/0955687535/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487589437&sr=1-1&keywords=%22the+city+that+does+not+age%22

MOTHER'S DAY

What to do when you forget to send a Mother’s Day card to your Mum?

Imagine this scenario:

London, England. It’s 8:00 pm on a Saturday and you see somewhere – Internet, TV, a newspaper or a magazine that the following day is Mothering Sunday; a day that falls on a different date each year (just like Easter with which it is connected) but for the English it usually happens sometime in March. A busy and sometimes scatterbrained male like me can easily overlook such an important date and find himself in the dog house. You see, I say “male”, because the female part of the population has the rather annoying habit to watch out for such things like birthdays and stuff. Anyway! To someone like me, an English male who has had a stressful week at work, who has had to do overtime on Saturday and who then finds himself in the above stated awkward situation, I’ll give the following piece of advice: just follow the steps below:

·         Don’t panic!

·         Take a few deep breaths!

·         Get out your credit card!

·         Go on the online florist site!

·         Order a bunch of flowers and send them to Mum!

Job done.