VERSAILLES, THE 'ANCIENT RÉGIME' HAS COME BACK

Merche Jones climbs Vermell del Xincarró, Montserrat

Today, The Jones have revised Countable & Uncountable before visiting the Palace of Versailles. The family has visited this amazing palace and has rested in its gardens sharing personal experiences and talking about their preferences in literature, music and places.

More info: Uncountable List

The Grandma has remembered that today, April 27, is the festivity of our Mary of Montserrat, patron of Catalonia, a black virgin very adored and respected by its populations, believers or not, that represents more than a religious symbol. Montserrat is also a symbol of cultural resistance during the darkest years of prosecutions and disctatorships.

More information: Abbey of Montserrat

If you didn't visit Montserrat, The Jones would recommended to do it. You will enjoy of one of the most incredible natural landscapes, full of activities to do; one of the most libraries around the world; and a spiritual place to rest for believers. Montserrat is much more than a mountain, it's the spiritual symbol of a whole culture which has resisted and survived along the history and which is alive and showing its black virgin to the world.

More information: Alpinist

Joaquín Jones and Ildefons Cerdà's Plan

Versailles is a place of contrasts. For one hand you can visit the Palace but for other hand, in the same city stands up one of the biggest banlieues of Paris.

The family has been talking about last French colonies in North Africa and its results nowadays in architecture, urbanism, immigration, social policies and human rights.

Joaquín Jones has offered his knowledge about Ildefons Cerdà's Urbanistic Plan in l'Eixample in Barcelona, an incredible plan which searched the convivence between all the social classes offering the possibility of living together, offering facilities to everyone and avoiding social exclusion.

More information: Failed Architecture & The Guardian

The Jones have decided to rest in Versailles gardens and talked about their preferences and wishes. They have recommended some books. Ana Bean-Jones has chosen, Banana Yoshimoto's books and Claudia Jones has proposed Màxim Huertas with No me dejes-Ne me quitte pas. 

Some members of The Jones and their preferences

Moreover, Merche Jones has talked about Fernando Aramburu's Patria and Michelle Jones about Masterchef's books. 

Finally, Joaquín Jones has recommended Eduardo Mendoza's No word from Gurb and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World while The Grandma has chosen Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Faïza Guène's Kiffe kiffe demain.

The family has also talked about places to visit. Next week, they're going to leave Paris and their destination is unknown. Paqui Jones has recommended Aix-Les-Bains, a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It's as a beautiful place to visit although the family has talked about other interesting places like China.

Download Brave New World by Aldous Leonard Huxley

Joaquín Jones is very interested in laboural conditions in this Asian country, especially now when May, 1st is arriving, and The Grandma, who is a great fan of human towers, has expressed her surprised about Chinese culture and its capacity to adapt to new goals without any kind of problems explaining the case of the Xiquets of Hanzghou as a example.

Download Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Ne me quitte pas. Il faut oublier tout 

peut s'oublier qui s'enfuit déjà.

If you go away on this summer day, 

then you might as well take the sun away.

Jacques Brel / Barbra Streisand 

The Palace of Versailles, in French Château de Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France. It is now open as a museum and is a very popular tourist attraction.

King Louis XIV in the Palace of Versailles

When the château was built, the community of Versailles was a small village dating from the 11th century. Today, however, it is a wealthy suburb of Paris.

Versailles was the seat of political power in the Kingdom of France from 1682, when King Louis XIV moved the royal court from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789, within three months after the beginning of the French Revolution. 

Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.

More information: Château Versailles

Especially under Louis XIV, the senior nobility were pressured to spend large amounts of time at Versailles, as a form of political control. Louis XIV evolved a rigid routine of court life as a performance, much of which took place in front of large groups of people, at some points in the day including tourists. 

Château de Versailles and its gardens

Building the château and maintaining the court there was phenomenally expensive, but did a good deal to establish the dominance of French style and taste in the whole of Europe, giving French luxury manufacturing advantages that long outlasted the fall of the Ancien Régime.

Louis XIV's expansion of the building was begun around 1661, with Louis Le Vau as architect. 

It was not completed until about 1715, having been worked on by architects including François d'Orbay, Charles Le Brun, interiors especially, Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte. 

André Le Nôtre began the gardens and structures in them. There were a range of satellite buildings around the grounds. While the main château building remains essentially intact, though without much of its contents, some of these other buildings have been destroyed.

Download Château de Versailles by The Grandma

It is legal because I wish it. I am the state. 

Louis XIV

THE JONES CRY LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND FRATERNITY

French Revolution: Fraternity, Equality and Freedom

Today, The Jones have had an intensive day. After visiting Disneyworld Paris and the Stade Roland-Garros and talking about their feelings and impressions about them during last three days, the family has returned to the English lessons. 

Then, they have revised a modal verb Have to/Don't have to and its importance to talk about routines.

More info: Have to I & II

Later, they have read another chapter of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and they have been talking about the first reactions to the construction of Disneyworld Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, and about the pros and cons that the park offered to the inhabitants of this little town.

More information: Must vs. Have to

FRATERNITY. Tomorrow, the family is going to spend a great day in Paris because they have been invited to participate in MJ's birthday. For this special event, the family is going to sail by the Seine River meanwhile they are going to read some fragments of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. They have already written some postcards to celebrate this important day.

The Jones are visiting Le Place de la Bastille

EQUALITY. The Grandma has explained a lot of stories today.

On the one hand, she has talked about the French aristocrats and their life-style during the first decades of the last century. They had noble titles, practised some sports like tennis or equestrian, and had interesting jobs like pilots, writers or diplomats. It's the case of famous people like Roland Garros, René Lacoste or Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This life-style was available only for rich and aristocratic people, because the rest or the population needed working to survive and they didn't enjoy free time and leisure.

FREEDOM. On the other hand, The Grandma has explained the influence of nature over important historic events. It's the case of the eruption of one of the Icelander volcanoes, Eyjafjallajökull, Bardarbunga or Laki, over the beginning of the French Revolution (1789); the Sicilian one, Etna, over the Reapers' War (1640) or the Neapolitan one Mount Vesuvius over Pompeii (79 AD) and Naples (1944).  

Merche Jones's memories with Open Arms

Marta Jones has also talked about the influence of droughts in the migratory movements and Joaquin Jones about the wars caused by the control of the natural resources, like Syria. 

The migrations like a linchpin has been taken by Merche Jones to talk about the last good news about Open Arms's boat which was detained in Sicily some days ago accused of illegal trafficking of humans, an accusation as unbelieved as false that has affected the whole crew and has avoided its normal work in the Mediterranean sea rescuing hundreds of people who escape from these insane horrible wars that seem, sadly and tragically, not to have an end.

More information: Open Arms
 

Finally, the family has written some predictions for Elena Jones's next participation in Roland Garros Tournament. The family is pretty sure she will win the slam.

The Jones are predicting the future

The Bastille was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. 

It was stormed by a crowd on 14 July 1789, in the French Revolution, becoming an important symbol for the French Republican movement, and was later demolished and replaced by the Place de la Bastille.

The Bastille was built to defend the eastern approach to the city of Paris from the English threat in the Hundred Years' War. Initial work began in 1357, but the main construction occurred from 1370 onwards, creating a strong fortress with eight towers that protected the strategic gateway of the Porte Saint-Antoine on the eastern edge of Paris. 

The innovative design proved influential in both France and England and was widely copied. The Bastille figured prominently in France's domestic conflicts, including the fighting between the rival factions of the Burgundians and the Armagnacs in the 15th century, and the Wars of Religion in the 16th. The fortress was declared a state prison in 1417; this role was expanded first under the English occupiers of the 1420s and 1430s, and then under Louis XI in the 1460s.

More information: History

The defences of the Bastille were fortified in response to the English and Imperial threat during the 1550s, with a bastion constructed to the east of the fortress. The Bastille played a key role in the rebellion of the Fronde and the battle of the faubourg Saint-Antoine, which was fought beneath its walls in 1652.

The Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789

Louis XIV used the Bastille as a prison for upper-class members of French society who had opposed or angered him including, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, French Protestants. 

From 1659 onwards, the Bastille functioned primarily as a state penitentiary; by 1789, 5,279 prisoners had passed through its gates. Under Louis XV and XVI, the Bastille was used to detain prisoners from more varied backgrounds, and to support the operations of the Parisian police, especially in enforcing government censorship of the printed media.

More information: History Today

Although inmates were kept in relatively good conditions, criticism of the Bastille grew during the 18th century, fueled by autobiographies written by former prisoners. Reforms were implemented and prisoner numbers were considerably reduced. In 1789 the royal government's financial crisis and the formation of the National Assembly gave rise to a swelling of republican sentiments among city-dwellers.  

Michelle Jones & the Génie de la Liberté

On 14 July the Bastille was stormed by a revolutionary crowd, primarily residents of the faubourg Saint-Antoine who sought to commandeer the valuable gunpowder held within the fortress. Seven remaining prisoners were found and released and the Bastille's governor, Bernard-René de Launay, was killed by the crowd. The Bastille was demolished by order of the Committee of the Hôtel de Ville. 

Souvenirs of the fortress were transported around France and displayed as icons of the overthrow of despotism. Over the next century, the site and historical legacy of the Bastille featured prominently in French revolutions, political protests and popular fiction, and it remained an important symbol for the French Republican movement.

Almost nothing is left of the Bastille except some remains of its stone foundation that were relocated to the side of Boulevard Henri IV. Historians were critical of the Bastille in the early 19th century, and believe the fortress to have been a relatively well-administered institution, but deeply implicated in the system of French policing and political control during the 18th century.

More information: French Revolution (Causes & Consequences)

The French revolution taught us the rights of man. 

Thomas Sankara

THE JONES MEET ÉDITH PIAF, L'HYMNE À L'AMOUR

Memories of Merche Jones in Ponferrada, El Bierzo

Today, The Jones have revised some English Grammar like Future Simple, Present Simple vs. Continuous, Relative Pronouns, the Comparative and the Superlative. The family has talked about some women who were the best in their professions: Édith Piaf, the best French singer; Audrey Hepburn, the best Belgian actress and Mercè Rodoreda, the best Catalan writer.

More information: Future Simple vs. Future Continuous

Merche Jones has talked about Ponferrada and its wonderful Templar castle and The Grandma has taken profit to talk about the Templar Order and its influence in all the Mediterranean, from Malta to Aragon, from Rhodes to Jerusalem, from Catalonia to Syria, from Campania to Sicily firstly and other lands in the Atlantic like France, England or Scotland later.

More information: Present Simple vs. Present Continuous I, II & III

Templar Knights helped all the pilgrims who need protection to escape or to exile until Friday, October 13, 1307 when French Templars were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Philip, following the order of the Pope Clement, later to be tortured into admitting heresy and other sacrilegious offenses in the Order and killed. It has been a terrific story that has explained the origins of the legend of Friday, 13 as a day plenty of misfortune.

More information: Comparative vs. Superlative I & II

This afternoon, The Jones are going shopping in the best and the most luxurious Parisian shops in Avenue Montaigne before travelling to Euro Disney to spend this next weekend.

More information: Templar History & Real Mof History

In tough times, we all hope for knights in shining armor, 

or the cavalry, to show up and effect change. 

Dean Devlin

Édith Piaf (1915-1963), nee Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer, songwriter, cabaret performer and film actress noted as France's national chanteuse and one of the country's widely known international stars.

Piaf's music was often autobiographical and she specialized in chanson and torch ballads about love, loss and sorrow. Her most widely known songs include La Vie en rose, Non, je ne regrette rien, Hymne à l'amour, Milord, La Foule, L'Accordéoniste and Padam, padam.

Édith Piaf

Much of Piaf's life is unknown. She was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, Paris. Legend has it that she was born on the pavement of Rue de Belleville 72, but her birth certificate cites that she was born on 19 December 1915 at the Hôpital Tenon, a hospital located at the 20th arrondissement.

She was named Édith after the World War I British nurse Edith Cavell, who was executed for helping French soldiers escape from German captivity. Piaf –slang for sparrow– was a nickname she received 20 years later.

In 1935, Piaf was discovered in the Pigalle area of Paris by nightclub owner Louis Leplée, whose club Le Gerny's off the Champs-Élysées was frequented by the upper and lower classes alike.

More information: Biography

Piaf's career and fame gained momentum during the German occupation of France. She performed in various nightclubs and brothels, which flourished during the 1940–1945 Années Erotiques. She lived above the L'Étoile de Kléber, a famous nightclub and bordello close to the Paris Gestapo headquarters.

Piaf was deemed to have been a traitor and collaboratrice. She had to testify before a purge panel, as there were plans to ban her from appearing on radio transmissions. However, her secretary Andrée Bigard, a member of the Résistance, spoke in her favour after the Liberation. Piaf was quickly back in the singing business and then, in December 1944, she went on stage for the Allied forces together with Montand in Marseille.

Edith Piaf's Homebirth

Although she was denied a funeral Mass by Cardinal Maurice Feltin because of her lifestyle, her funeral procession drew tens of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the cemetery was attended by more than 100,000 fans.  

Charles Aznavour recalled that Piaf's funeral procession was the only time since the end of World War II that he saw Parisian traffic come to a complete stop.

In 1973 the Association of the Friends of Édith Piaf was formed followed by the inauguration of the Place Édith Piaf in Belleville in 1981. Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina named a small planet, 3772 Piaf, in her honor.

In Paris, a two-room museum is dedicated to her, the Musée Édith Piaf. On 10 October 2013, fifty years after her death, the Roman Catholic Church gave her a memorial Mass in the St. Jean-Baptiste Church in Belleville the parish into which she was born.

More information: History Today

Singing is a way of escaping. It's another world. 

I'm no longer on earth. 

Édith Piaf

Mercè Rodoreda i Gurguí (1908-1983) was a Catalan novelist, who wrote in Catalan. She is considered by many to be the most important Catalan novelist of the postwar period. Her novel La plaça del diamant, translated as The Time of the Doves (1962) has become the most acclaimed Catalan novel of all time and has been translated into over 30 languages.

She was born at 340 carrer de Balmes, Barcelona, in 1908. In 1928, just 20 years old, she married her uncle Joan Gurguí, 14 years her senior, and in 1929 she had her only child, Jordi. 

Grandma's memories with Mercè Rodoreda

She began her writing career with short stories in magazines, as an escape from her unhappy marriage. 

She then wrote psychological novels, including Aloma which won the Crexells Prize, but even with the success this novel enjoyed, Rodoreda decided to remake and republish it some years later since she was not fully satisfied with this period of her life and her works at that time.

At the start of the Spanish Civil War, she worked for the Generalitat de Catalunya, the autonomous Government of Catalonia. She was exiled in France and later Switzerland, where in 1957 she broke her silence with the publication of her book Twenty-Two short stories, which earned her the Víctor Català Prize.

 More information: Fundació Mercè Rodoreda (IEC)

With El Carrer de les Camèlies (1966) she won several prizes. In the 1970s, she returned to Romanyà de la Selva in Catalonia and finished the novel Mirall trencat in 1974.

Amongst other works came Viatges i flors and Quanta, quanta guerra in 1980, which was also the year in which she won the Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes. During the last period of her lifetime, her works developed from her usual psychologic style to become more akin to symbolism in its more cryptic form.

In 1998 a literature prize was instituted in her name: the Mercè Rodoreda prize for short stories and narratives. She was made a Member of Honour of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana, the Association of Writers in Catalan Language. 

She died in Girona and interred in the cemetery of Romanyà de la Selva.

More information: Visat

I write because I like to write. If I did not look exaggerated 
I would say that I write to please me.

Mercè Rodoreda