KØBENHAVN, DISCOVERING THE CAPITAL OF DENMARK

Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have arrived to København, the capital of Denmark, to spend some days in this amazing city. They have been received by Egil and his family, members of an ancient viking family, who are going to be their guides during these days to discover the history of this wonderful city.

København in Danish, Copenhagen in English, is the capital and most populous city in the Kingdom of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the urban area. The city is situated mainly on the island of Zealand (Sjælland), with a smaller part on the island of Amager. Copenhagen is separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the Øresund strait. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road.

Originally a Viking fishing village established in the 10th century in the vicinity of what is now Gammel Strand, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century.

During the 16th century, the city served as the de facto capital of the Kalmar Union and the seat of the Union's monarchy, which governed most of the modern-day Nordic region as part of a Danish confederation with Sweden and Norway. The city flourished as the cultural and economic centre of Scandinavia during the Renaissance.

By the 17th century, it had become a regional centre of power, serving as the heart of the Danish government and military. During the 18th century, Copenhagen suffered from a devastating plague outbreak and urban conflagrations. Major redevelopment efforts included the construction of the prestigious district of Frederiksstaden and the establishment of cultural institutions such as the Royal Theatre and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

The city also became the centre of the Danish slave trade during this period. In 1807, the city was bombarded by a British fleet during the Napoleonic Wars, before the Danish Golden Age brought a Neoclassical look to Copenhagen's architecture. After World War II, the Finger Plan fostered the development of housing and businesses along the five urban railway routes emanating from the city centre.

Since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure. The city is the cultural, economic, and governmental centre of Denmark; it is one of the major financial centres of Northern Europe with the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. 

Copenhagen's economy has developed rapidly in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology, pharmaceuticals, and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has increasingly integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö, forming the Øresund Region. With several bridges connecting the various districts, the cityscape is characterised by parks, promenades, and waterfronts.

Copenhagen's landmarks, such as Tivoli Gardens, The Little Mermaid statue, the Amalienborg and Christiansborg palaces, Rosenborg Castle, Frederik's Church, Børsen, and many museums, restaurants, and nightclubs are significant tourist attractions.

Copenhagen is home to the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen Business School, and the IT University of Copenhagen. The University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is the oldest university in Denmark.

Copenhagen is home to the football clubs F.C. Copenhagen and Brøndby IF. The annual Copenhagen Marathon was established in 1980.

Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world. Movia is a public mass transit company serving all of eastern Denmark except Bornholm. The Copenhagen Metro, launched in 2002, serves central Copenhagen. Additionally, the Copenhagen S-train, the Lokaltog (private railway), and the Coast Line network serve and connect central Copenhagen to outlying boroughs. Serving roughly 2.5 million passengers a month, Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, is the busiest airport in the Nordic countries.

Copenhagen's name, København in Danish, reflects its origin as a harbour and a place of commerce. The original designation in Old Norse, from which Danish descends, was Kaupmannahǫfn, in modern Icelandic Kaupmannahöfn; in Faroese Keypmannahavn, meaning merchants' harbour (merchant in plural). By the time Old Danish was spoken, the capital was called Køpmannæhafn, with the current name deriving from centuries of subsequent regular sound change. The stemm-syllable has an au -o change as we see in Asbjörn- Osborn, and this change in pronunciation happened sometime around 1400.

The English cognates of the original name would be chapman's haven. The English chapman, German Kaufmann, Dutch koopman, Swedish köpman, Danish købmand, and Icelandic kaupmaður share a derivation from Latin caupo, meaning tradesman. However, the English term for the city was adapted from its Low German name, Kopenhagen. Copenhagen's Swedish name is Köpenhamn, a direct translation of the mutually intelligible Danish name.

The city's Latin name, Hafnia, is the namesake of the element hafnium.

More information: Visit Copenhagen

 In Copenhagen, we all ride bicycles everywhere, 

partly because it is impossible to park a car, 

but also because you can cross 

the city in 20 minutes on a bike.

Birgitte Hjort Sorensen

'I WILL LOVE YOU WITH ALL THE MADNESS IN MY SOUL...'

There are people who accompany you throughout your life and who make you happier, especially in those difficult moments when you need to disconnect or reconnect. It can be an athlete, whom you follow and enjoy her triumphs; a writer, whom you read and accompany you in the moments of greatest solitude or a musician, whose songs accompany you at all times and mark you forever.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of the most spectacular works that the history of music has ever produced: Born to run by Bruce Springsteen. It is very difficult to choose a single song from this entire masterpiece, although The Grandma's favourite song has always been Thunder Road, a song about resilience and continuing forward despite setbacks and difficulties, but the song that gives the title to this work Born to run, is no less spectacular and, just like with Thunder Road, encourages us to keep going and not give up, because that is what it is always about: not giving up.

Thank you, Bruce. We have always followed you, since that unforgettable concert at the Palau dels Esports in Barcelona in 1981, and we will continue to do so. Thank you for being the soundtrack of our lives, for writing such spectacular songs and for accompanying them with this music that is so unmistakably yours.

More information: Bruce Springsteen & BCN, I'll see you in my dreams

Born to Run is the third studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on August 25, 1975, through Columbia Records. 

Co-produced by Springsteen with his manager Mike Appel and the producer Jon Landau, its recording took place in New York. Following the commercial failures of his first two albums, the album marked Springsteen's effort to break into the mainstream and create a commercially successful album. Springsteen sought to emulate Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production, leading to prolonged sessions with the E Street Band lasting from January 1974 to July 1975; six months alone were spent working on the title track.

The album incorporates musical styles including rock and roll, pop rock, R&B, and folk rock. Its character-driven lyrics describe individuals who feel trapped and fantasize about escaping to a better life, conjured via romantic lyrical imagery of highways and travel. Springsteen envisioned the songs taking place over one long summer day and night. They are also less tied to the New Jersey area than his previous work. 

The album cover, featuring Springsteen leaning on E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons's shoulder, is considered iconic and has been imitated by various musicians and in other media.

Supported by an expensive promotional campaign, Born to Run became a commercial success, reaching number three on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and the top ten in three others. Two singles were released, Born to Run and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, the first of which became a radio and live favourite. The album's release generated extensive publicity, leading to backlash from critics who expressed skepticism over whether Springsteen's newfound attention was warranted. Following its release, Springsteen became embroiled in legal issues with Appel, leading him to tour the United States and Europe for almost two years. Upon release, Born to Run received highly positive reviews. Critics praised the storytelling and music, although some viewed its production as excessive and heavy-handed.

Born to Run was Springsteen's breakthrough album. Its success has been attributed to capturing the ideals of a generation of American youths during a decade of political turmoil, war, and issues facing the working class. 

Over the following decades, the album has become widely regarded as a masterpiece and one of Springsteen's best records. It has appeared on various lists of the greatest albums of all time and was inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2003 by the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. 

Born to Run received an expanded reissue in 2005 to celebrate its 30th anniversary, featuring a concert film and a documentary detailing the album's making.

More information: Bruce Springsteen

And when we live amongst ghosts,
Always trying to reach us,
From that shadow world,
And they're with us every step of the way.

Bruce Springsteen

THE AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC TERRITORY, EXTREME LIFE

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Australian Antarctic Territory, that was create don a day like today in 1936.

The Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) is a part of East Antarctica claimed by Australia as an external territory. 

It is administered by the Australian Antarctic Division, an agency of the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

The territory's history dates to a claim on Enderby Land made by the United Kingdom in 1841, which was subsequently expanded and eventually transferred to Australia in 1933. It is the largest sector of Antarctica by area claimed by any country. Australia is an original signatory to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959.

Under Article IV, all territorial claims are held in abeyance. Only four other countries accept Australia's claim to sovereignty, being New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, and Norway, all of which have territorial claims in Antarctica and mutually accept each other's claims.

The AAT consists of all the islands and territory south of 60°S and between 44°38′E and 160°E, except for Adélie Land (136°E to 142°E), which divides the territory into Western AAT (the larger portion) and Eastern AAT. It is bounded by Queen Maud Land in the West and by the Ross Dependency in the East. 

The Australian Antarctic Territory is the largest of any claims to the continent, and covers nearly 5.9 million square kilometres. This makes up about 42% of Antarctica, and would cover about 80% of Mainland Australia. It also corresponds to roughly twice the size of Queen Maud Land, India, Argentina or Kazakhstan.

The territory is mostly inhabited by the staff of research stations.  

The Australian Antarctic Division administers the area primarily by maintaining three year-round stations -Mawson, Davis, and Casey- which support various research projects.

These regions are split into two separate areas geographically, with George V Land and Oates Land lying to the east of the French Territorial claim of Adélie Land, and all other districts lying to its west.

Australia claims an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from the Australian Antarctic Territory. However, the Australian proclamation of an Antarctic EEZ is contested. The effect of Article IV of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty (which prohibits new territorial claims or the extension of existing claims in the Antarctic) would seem to be that an EEZ cannot be claimed in relation to territory to which that Treaty applies (south of 60° South). The provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) define the exclusive economic zone of a coastal state as up to 370 km from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured.

Whaling in Australian Antarctic territorial waters is controversial and has received international attention. Anti-whaling protest groups, in particular Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, have been active within the Australian Antarctic territorial waters. Sea Shepherd small boat crews have had multiple encounters with Japanese ships that claim to be on research expeditions while opponents argue this is only a cover for banned commercial whaling. The Australian Whale Sanctuary, in Australian Antarctic territory, is not recognised by the government of Japan.

Anti-whaling legislation passed by the Australian Government applies to Australian territorial waters. However, Australia's claims of sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory -and thus sovereignty over Australian Antarctic territorial waters- are recognised by only the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France and Norway.

The borders with Adélie Land were fixed definitively in 1938. In 1947, Britain transferred Heard Island and McDonald Islands to the territory. On 13 February 1954, Mawson Station was established as the first Australian station on the continent proper.

Australia's claim to sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory is recognised by only the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France and Norway. Ships of Japan conduct whaling in Australian Antarctic territorial waters.

In 2016, the Australian Government formulated an Antarctic Strategy and 20 Year Action Plan to improve overland transport capabilities and aviation access to the continent. The plan incorporated a strategy to protect the Antarctic environment and maintain an indefinite ban on mining and oil drilling. The construction of a research and resupply icebreaker vessel was also planned. The 25,000-tonne RSV Nuyina was delivered in 2021 and was immediately employed in support of the Casey Station. It is envisaged that the ship will support scientific research over the next 30 years.

Through Operation Southern Discovery, elements of the Australian Defence Force also provide annual support for the Australian Antarctic Division and the Australian Antarctic Program (AAP) in regional scientific, environmental and economic activities. The Royal Australian Air Force provides air logistical support using C-17 transport aircraft supported by KC-30 tanker aircraft to supply Wilkins airfield in Antarctica.

As of May 2018, the AAT was believed to have a population of around 80 people during winters and 200 during summers.

More information: Australian Antarctic Territory

You learn so much about how far 
you can push yourself and what you can do. 
How an experience like Antarctica helps you, 
it boosts your confidence.

Ben Fogle

ILDEFONS CERDÀ SUNYER, FOUNDER OF MODERN TOWN

After three amazing days in Lyon, The Grandma has returned to Barcelona. One of the good experiences when you arrive in Barcelona by plane is to contemplate the Eixample, one of the symbols of the city, which was designed by Ildefons Cerdà, the Catalan engineer, who died on a day like today in 1876.

Ildefons Cerdà Sunyer (23 December 1815-21 August 1876) was a Catalan urban planner and civil engineer who designed the 19th-century "extension" of Barcelona called the Eixample. Because of his extensive theoretical and practical work, he is considered the founder of modern town planning as a discipline, having coined the word urbanization.

Cerdà was born in Centelles, Catalonia, in 1815. He trained as a civil engineer at the Escuela de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, in Madrid. He joined the Corps of Engineers and lived in various cities before settling in Barcelona in 1848 and marrying Clotilde Bosch. After the death of his brothers, Cerdà inherited the family fortune, and left the civil service. He became interested in politics and the study of urban planning.

When the government of the time finally gave in to public pressure and allowed Barcelona's city walls to be torn down, he realized the need to plan the city's expansion so that the new extension would become an efficient and livable place, unlike the congested, epidemic-prone old town within the walls. When he failed to find suitable reference works, he undertook the task of writing one from scratch while designing what he called the Eixample, borrowing a few technological ideas from his contemporaries to create a unique, thoroughly modern integrated concept that was carefully considered rather than whimsically designed.

He continued to create projects and improve existing designs throughout his lifetime, as well as to develop his theories taking on larger planning scopes (at the regional planning level), until the very end. In the process, he lost all his family's inheritance and he died in 1876 a heavily indebted near-pauper, never having been paid for his chief masterpiece, the design of Barcelona's Eixample.

Cerdà was a multi-faceted man who, in pursuit of his vision, gave up a steady job in the civil engineering service, stood for election and became a member of the Cortes; drafted useful ground-breaking legislation, drew up a detailed topographical survey map of Barcelona's surroundings, and wrote a theoretical treatise to support each of his major planning projects.

Cerdà focused on key needs: chiefly, the need for sunlight, natural lighting and ventilation in homes (he was heavily influenced by the sanitarian movement), the need for greenery in people's surroundings, the need for effective waste disposal including good sewerage, and the need for seamless movement of people, goods, energy, and information.

His designs belie a network-oriented approach far ahead of his time. His street layout and grid plan were optimized to accommodate pedestrians, carriages, horse-drawn trams, urban railway lines (as yet unheard-of), gas supply and large-capacity sewers to prevent frequent floods, without neglecting public and private gardens and other key amenities. The latest technical innovations were incorporated in his designs if they could further the cause of better integration, but he also came up with remarkable new concepts of his own, including a logical system of land readjustment that was essential to the success of his project, and produced a thorough statistical analysis of working-class conditions at the time, which he undertook in order to demonstrate the ills of congestion.

Cerdà's plan for Barcelona underwent two major revisions; the second version, is the one still recognizable in the layout of today's Eixample, though the low height of buildings and the gardens within every city block were soon dispensed with by politicians inclined toward property speculation.

In addition, only one of the two planned diagonal streets was realized. Culturally, the Eixample was (and still is) inhabited by the well-to-do, instead of integrating social classes. Many of the architects of his time opposed Cerdà's ideas, even accusing him of promoting socialism; in the end, however, they designed the Modernista façades that brought fame to the district.

Political developments in Spain and Catalonia eventually led to the enshrinement of a revisionist version of how Cerdà secured official approval of his plan. 

Cerdà actually drew up his plan under the commission of the then competent authority with the support of the city council.

A political reversal led to a change in local government, and the new council sought to preempt the previous central government's decision by holding a project competition in 1859, which Cerdà lost; nevertheless, Cerdà's design prevailed, much to the chagrin of the major property owners.

More information: The Guardian

 The industrial revolution has tended 
to produce everywhere great urban masses 
that seem to be increasingly careless of ethical standards.

Irving Babbitt

'LE PETIT PRINCE', THE PURSUIT OF TRUE MEANING IN LIFE

The short trip to Lyon is arriving to its end. Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have said goodbye to their friends -the Little Prince, Antoine, the Fox and the Rose- and they are waiting for their plane in Lyon's International Airport, also known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

 

Claire and The Grandma have an important message:

 

They have been wonderful days where we have seen fascinating places and met lovely people. Thank you to everyone for your help in this search. To those who have hosted us, to those who have transported us up and down, to those who have made a place for us among the most amazing and kind supporters, and to all those who have dedicated a moment of your time to leave us a message or a like.

Thanks to your invaluable help in finding our beloved Northern Star (Impressive, Spectacular, Enchanting) who we had been looking for and who we finally found in this beautiful city.

As our Little Prince told us: 'For some, who are travellers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. The stars are lit so that everyone can one day find their own'.

 

We have found our Northern Star and we can assure she shines strongly. She is fine, happy and full of energy, and we know she will be one of the brightest stars on our firmament, because she already is.

 

Ancient cultures thought that the Northern Star gives hope and stability, and that it serves as a beacon of hope during difficult times. It  reminds us that constancy exists even in chaos. It is a symbol of higher wisdom and purpose in dark times.

 

The stars are points of contact with the supernatural. According to Greco-Roman mythology, the giant Argos had a hundred eyes and always had half of them open. Hera (Juno) ordered him to watch over Io, who was being pursued by her husband Zeus (Jupiter), but the god ordered Hermes (Mercury) to cut off his head. Then Hera placed the hundred eyes of Argos on the peacock's tail. Thus, the stars are considered the eyes of the night or the watchful gaze of God.

A group of stars can represent a spiritual army that fights against darkness. The Perseids, a shower of stars or tears of Saint Lawrence, is a phenomenon that can be observed at the end of summer. Now, if we consider an isolated star or a galaxy, it often takes on the value of a guide like the Star of Bethlehem, the Milky Way or the Northern Star. 

 

We trust in our Northern Star, and we will return to see her as times as we could.

 

Download The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900-31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator.

Born in Lyon to an aristocratic family, Saint-Exupéry trained as a commercial pilot in the early 1920s, working airmail routes across Europe, Africa, and South America. Between 1926 and 1939, four of his literary works were published: the short story The Aviator, novels Southern Mail and Night Flight, and the memoir Wind, Sand and Stars. 

Saint-Exupéry joined the French Air Force for World War II and flew reconnaissance missions until France's armistice with Germany in 1940. After being demobilised by the Air Force, Saint-Exupéry lived in exile in the United States between 1941 and 1943 and helped persuade it to enter the war. During this time, his works Flight to Arras and The Little Prince were published.

Saint-Exupéry returned to combat by joining the Free French Air Force in 1943, despite being past the maximum age for a war pilot and in declining health.

On 31 July 1944, during a reconnaissance mission over Corsica, Saint-Exupéry's plane disappeared: it is presumed to have crashed. Debris from the wreckage was discovered near Marseille in 2000, but the cause of the crash remains unknown.

More information: The National WWII Museum-New Orleans 

Le Petit Prince, The Little Prince in English, is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and was published posthumously in France following liberation; Saint-Exupéry's works had been banned by the Vichy Regime. 

The story follows a young prince who visits various planets, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. Despite its style as a children's book, The Little Prince makes observations about life, adults, and human nature.

The Little Prince became Saint-Exupéry's most successful work, selling an estimated 140 million copies worldwide, which makes it one of the best-selling in history. The book has been translated into over 505 different languages and dialects worldwide, being the second most translated work ever published, trailing only the Bible. The Little Prince has been adapted to numerous art forms and media, including audio recordings, radio plays, live stage, film, cinema television, ballet, and opera.

The story of The Little Prince is recalled in a sombre, measured tone by the pilot-narrator, in memory of his small friend, a memorial to the prince -not just to the prince, but also to the time the prince and the narrator had together. The Little Prince was created when Saint-Exupéry was an ex-patriate and distraught about what was going on in his country and in the world. According to one analysis, the story of the Little Prince features a lot of fantastical, unrealistic elements.... You can't ride a flock of birds to another planet... The fantasy of the Little Prince works because the logic of the story is based on the imagination of children, rather than the strict realism of adults.

An exquisite literary perfectionist, akin to the 19th century French poet Stéphane Mallarmé, Saint-Exupéry produced draft pages covered with fine lines of handwriting, much of it painstakingly crossed out, with one word left standing where there were a hundred words, one sentence substitut[ing] for a page... He worked long hours with great concentration. 

According to the author himself, it was extremely difficult to start his creative writing processes. The French author frequently wrote at night, usually starting at about 11 p.m. accompanied by a tray of strong black coffee. 

A native speaker of French, Saint-Exupéry was never able to achieve anything more than haltingly poor English. Adèle Breaux, his young Northport English tutor to whom he later dedicated a writing (For Miss Adèle Breaux, who so gently guided me in the mysteries of the English language), related her experiences with her famous student as Saint-Exupéry in America, 1942–1943: A Memoir, published in 1971.

Saint-Exupéry's prodigious writings and studies of literature sometimes gripped him, and on occasion he continued his readings of literary works until moments before take-off on solitary military reconnaissance flights, as he was adept at both reading and writing while flying. 

Saint-Exupéry frequently flew with a lined carnet (notebook) during his long, solo flights, and some of his philosophical writings were created during such periods when he could reflect on the world below him, becoming 'enmeshed in a search for ideals which he translated into fable and parable'.

In April 2017, The Little Prince became the world's most translated non-religious book, with translations into 300 languages. This number had risen to 600 by November 2024.

More information: Medium

Pour les uns qui voyagent, les étoiles sont des guides. 

Pour d’autres elles ne sont rien que de petites lumières.

Les étoiles sont éclairées pour que 

chacun puisse un jour retrouver la sienne.

 

 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

...AND AS LONG AS SHE'S THERE, WE'LL SING TOGETHER...

Un soir, sur le bord du chemin
Il y avait une étoile, je l'ai ramassée
Elle m'a souri au creux des mains
Comme si c'était normal
Je crois qu'elle m'attendait

Je l'ai prise avec moi
J'entends souvent sa voix

Tant que je peux, je t'éclaire
Ouvre les yeux
Il y a tant de choses à faire
Puisque tout est éphémère
On peut faire mieux
Pas le moment de se taire

La vie c'est gratuit, ça va sans dire
Tu devrais te resservir
Tant qu'on éclaire, on espère

L'étoile a si bien éclairé les pensées ténébreuses
Qui me ralentissaient
L'étoile a si bien expliqué que chaque minute est précieuse
Pas de temps pour les regrets

Et tant qu'elle sera là
Nous chanterons à vive voix

Tant que je peux, je t'éclaire
Ouvre les yeux
Il y a tant de choses à faire
Puisque tout est éphémère
On peut faire mieux
Pas le moment de se taire

La vie c'est gratuit, ça va sans dire
Tu devrais te resservir
Tant qu'on éclaire, on espère

Si à mon tour, je t'éclaire
Ouvre les yeux
Être ton étoile, je sais faire
Nous créerons cette lumière
C'est contagieux
Tant qu'on éclaire, on espère

Tant que je peux, je t'éclaire
Ouvre les yeux
Il y a tant de choses à faire
Puisque tout est éphémère
On peut faire mieux
Pas le moment de se taire

La vie c'est gratuit, ça va sans dire
Tu devrais te resservir
Tant qu'on éclaire, on espère

One night on the roadside
There was a star
I picked her up
She smiled at me in the palm of hands
As if it was normal
I think she was waiting for me

I took with me
I often hear her voice

I light you up as much as I can
Open your eyes
There are so many things to do we can do better
No time to just be quiet

Life is free, that goes without saying

You should serve yourself up another helping (of life)
As long as we light things up, we have hope

The star so skillfully lit up the dark thoughts
That had slowed me down
The star explained so throughly that every minute is precious
No time for regrets

And as long she's there
We'll sing together

I light you up as much as I can
Open your eyes
There are so many things to do
We can do better
No time to just be quiet
Life is free, that goes without saying
You should serve yourself up another helping (of life)

And if I light you up
Open your eyes
I know how to be your star
We'll create this light
It's contagious
As long as we light up, we hope

I light you up as much as I can
Open your eyes
There are so many things to do we can do better
No time to just be quiet
Life is free, that goes without saying
You should serve yourself up another helping (of life)

 

 Life is free, that goes without saying

You should serve yourself up another helping (of life)
As long as we light things up, we have hope.

 

Céline Dion 

FROM LUGDUNUM TO LIYON, THE CAPITAL OF THE GAULS

Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have arrived to Lyon, where they are going to spend three intense days accompanied by The Little Prince and Antoine, two old friends who will guide them to find and see a spectacular northern star who is shining very intensely in this part of France.

Liyon in Franco-Provençal, Lyon in French, is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, 391 km southeast of Paris, 278 km north of Marseille, and 113 km southwest of Geneva, Switzerland.

The City of Lyon is the third-largest city in France. Lyon and 58 suburban municipalities have formed since 2015 the Metropolis of Lyon, a directly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of most urban issues.

Lyon is the prefecture of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and seat of the Departmental Council of Rhône (whose jurisdiction, however, no longer extends over the Metropolis of Lyon since 2015).

The capital of the Gauls during the Roman Empire, Lyon is the seat of an archbishopric whose holder bears the title of Primate of the Gauls. 

Lyon became a major economic hub during the Renaissance. The city is recognised for its cuisine and gastronomy, as well as historical and architectural landmarks; as such, the districts of Old Lyon, the Fourvière hill, the Presqu'île and the slopes of the Croix-Rousse are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. 

Lyon was historically an important area for the production and weaving of silk. 

yon played a significant role in the history of cinema since Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinematograph there. The city is also known for its light festival, the Fête des lumières, which begins every 8 December and lasts for four days, earning Lyon the title of Capital of Lights.

Economically, Lyon is a major centre for banking, chemical, pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The city contains a significant software industry with a particular focus on video games; in recent years it has fostered a growing local start-up sector. The home of renowned universities and higher education schools, Lyon is the second-largest student city in France, with a university population of nearly 200,000 students within the Metropolis of Lyon.

Lyon hosts the international headquarters of Interpol, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, as well as Euronews. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute.

The name of the city has taken the forms Lugdon, Luon, and since the 13th century, Lyon. The Gallic Lugdun or Lugdunon that was Latinized in Roman as Lugdunum is composed of two words. The first may be the name of the Celtic god Lug (in charge of order and law), or the derived word lugon, meaning crow (the crow being the messenger of Lug), but might also be another word lug, meaning light. The second is dunos (fortress, hill). The name thus may designate the hill of Fourvière, on which the ancient city of Lyon is founded, but could mean hill of the god Lug, hill of the crows or shining hill.

Alternatively Julius Pokorny associates the first part of the word with the Indo-European radical *lūg (dark, black, swamp), the basis of the toponyms Ludza in Latvia, Lusatia in Germany (from Sorbian Łužica), and several places in the Czech Republic named Lužice; it could then also be compared to Luze in Franche-Comté and various hydronyms such as Louge.

Further down, in the current Saint-Vincent district, was the Gallic village of Condate, probably a simple hamlet of sailors or fishermen living on the banks of the Saône. Condate is a Gallic word meaning confluence, from which the Confluence district gets its name.

In Roman times the city was called Caput Galliae, meaning capital of the Gauls. As an homage to this title, the Archbishop of Lyon is still called the Primate of Gaul.

During the revolutionary period, Lyon was renamed Commune-Affranchie (Emancipated Commune) on 12 October 1793 by a decree of the Convention Nationale. It resumed its name in 1794, after the end of the Terror.

Lyon is called Liyon in Franco-Provençal.

The historic site of Lyon was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. In its designation, UNESCO cited the exceptional testimony to the continuity of urban settlement over more than two millennia on a site of great commercial and strategic significance. The specific regions comprising the historic site include the Roman district and Fourvière, the Renaissance district (Vieux Lyon), the silk district (slopes of Croix-Rousse), and the Presqu'île, which features architecture from the 12th century to modern times.

More information: Lugdunum-Musée et Théâtres Romains

What saves a man is to take a step. 

Then another step. 

It is always the same step, 

but you have to take it.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry