SUSANA JONES: 'VOLE PETITE AILE, CHANGE D'UNIVERS'

George Cayley's Monoplane Glider

I'm Susana Jones. Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called The History of Aviation. It was a picture of George Cayle's Monoplane Glider. Here is a copy of the picture...

Some months ago, I joined to The Jones family in the search of the lost dream. I have been living with them until today. I've just decided to follow my own path and do something that I really love: flying.

Yes, I'm a professional pilot who found her inspiration in the figures of Hélène Boucher and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I want to fly over these wonderful French lands, over the Loira's Castles, over Paris, over Britain, Alsace, the French Basque Country and cross Occitania and French Catalan Lands to arrive to Gulf of Lion, where I want to join my soul in that point where sky becomes heaven. 

Yes, I want to stay with my little prince and share as moments as I can with him because he's my rose and I want to see the heaven in his eyes.

Download Cháteaux of the Loire by The Grandma

Susana Jones and her Little Prince

The Jones are going to continue their searching, knowing that the most important isn't what are you going to find when you arrive but all the experiences that you have lived while you were arriving.

This is, to me, the loveliest and saddest landscape in the world. It is the same as that on the preceding page, but I have drawn it again to impress it on your memory. It is here that the little prince appeared on Earth, and disappeared.

Look at it carefully so that you will be sure to recognise it in case you travel some day to the Gulf of Lion. And, if you should come upon this spot, please do not hurry on. Wait for a time, exactly under the star. Then, if a little man appears who laughs, who has golden hair and who refuses to answer questions, you will know who he is. If this should happen, please comfort me. Send me word that he has come back.

Watch Vole English Version: Fly by Céline Dion

 Vole vole petite aile, ma douce, mon hirondelle.
Va t'en loin, va t'en sereine qu'ici rien ne te retienne.
Rejoins le ciel et l'éther, laisse-nous laisse la terre
quitte manteau de misère: Change d'univers. 

Céline Dion

Hélène Boucher

Hélène Boucher was the daughter of a Parisian architect; after an ordinary schooling she experienced flight at Orly and then became the first pupil at the flying school run by Henri Fabos at Mont-de-Marsan. She rapidly obtained her brevet (no. 182) aged 23, bought a de Havilland Gypsy Moth and learned to navigate and perform aerobatics. 

Her great ability was recognised by Michel Detroyat who advised her to focus on aerobatics, his own speciality. Their performances drew in crowds to flight shows, for example at Villacoublay, and her skills gained her public transport brevet in June 1932. After attending a few aviation meetings, she sold the Moth and bought an Avro Avian, planning a flight to the Far East; in the event she got as far as Damascus and returned via North Africa, limited by financial difficulties.

In 1933 she flew with Miss Jacob in the Angers 12-hour race in one of the lowest-powered machines there, a 45 kW Salmson-engined Mauboussin-Zodiac 17; completing 1,645 km at an average speed of 137 km/h and came 14th. They were the only female team competing and received the prize of 3,000 francs set aside for an all-women team as well as 3,000 francs for position. The following year, on a contract with the Caudron company and in a faster Caudron Rafale she competed again, coming second.

Download The Story of Flying by The Grandma

 

Hélène Boucher, Cirrus (left) and Caudron (right)

During 1933 and 1934 she set several world records for women, set out below; exceptionally, she held the international, male or female, record for speed over 1,000 km in 1934. 

Most of these records were flown in Renault-powered Caudron aircraft, and in June 1934 the Renault company also took her temporarily under contract in order to promote their new Viva Grand Sport.

On 30 November 1934 she died aged 26 flying a Caudron C.430 Rafale near Versailles when the machine crashed into the woods of Guyancourt. Posthumously, she was immediately made a Knight of the Légion d'Honneur and was the first woman to lie in state at Les Invalides, where her funeral obsequies were held. She is buried in Yermenonville cemetery. Parts of the press and others held Detroyat to be responsible for her death, spurring a young, innocent girl to such a dangerous sport.

More information: Air Charter Service USA

After her death several memorials of different kinds were set up. A brand new, art-deco styled, Girls High School-Lycée Hélène Boucher built in 1935 in Paris was named after her as she was considered a model for future generations of modernistic, forward thinking girls.

There is a stone in the Guyancourt woods where the crash happened, a tomb monument at Yermenonville and various squares and street names remember her. 1935 saw the first running of a competition for female pilots, the Boucher Cup.

 Past the planets and the stars, leave this lonely world of ours,
escape the sorrow and the pain and fly again.

Your endless journey has begun, take your gentle happiness
far too beautiful for this. Cross over to the other shore.

Céline Dion

THE JONES & RAMON LLULL, THE GREAT ART OF LEARNING

Víctor Jones & the Lullian Wheels, the first computers

The Jones are still in Hogwarts enjoying the world of magic, spells and potions. Today, they have assisted to a Minerva McGonagall's conference about Ramon Llull, one the most important European figures during the 13 century thanks to his knowledge in Philosophy, Teology, Science and Languages.

The Grandma has offered her point of view talking about S'Estaca, a wonderful possession in Majorca where Llull created a Language School joining the best students and masters of the century in an effort to transmit values and knowledge to arrive to be better people, in particular, and better societies in general.

More informarion: Quis est Lullus?

The Ramon Llull's idea of using communication and dialogue between cultures and religions to avoid wars and conflicts converts him in one of the most brilliant and pacifist minds of his time. His influence in all kind of knowledge is demonstrated, especially in computers, where he's considerated the first creator of a computing language and nowadays recognized like the Computer Science patron. 

In addition, The Grandma has also talked about the importance of salt and fennel in Sant Boi and Majorca's history.

Cristina Bean-Jones in Brecha de Rolando, Ordesa

After this interesting conference, the family has revised some aspects of grammar to improve little details, in this case with The Articles and the position of the adjectives in historical texts.

Following with the idea of creating compositions, The Jones have created some circular writings paying attention to the  structure rules and they have practised some activities to eliminate information in searching of the true one. 

They have also read some interesting information about Ordesa, in Aragon and Joaquín Jones has explained some characteristics of the world maps and their scales.

 

Joaquín Jones and a fascinating old World Map

Finally, the family has played Cluedo before rescuing Susana Jones, who was locked in a small red English-style cabin box inside a picture. 

The rescue has been possible thanks to Owlie, Claudia Jones's owl, who is a clever big white animal, with a great sense of orientation and a perfect hunter into the dark places, which was adopted from El Cim d'Àligues in The Montseny.

More information: Cim d'Àligues

Ramon Llull (1232-1315) was a philosopher, logician, Franciscan tertiary and Majorcan writer. He is credited with writing the first major work of Catalan literature. Recently surfaced manuscripts show his work to have predated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He is also considered a pioneer of computation theory, especially given his influence on Leibniz.

Claudia Jones & Owlie in El Cim d'Àligues

Llull was born into a wealthy family in Palma, the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of Majorca. James I of Aragon founded Majorca to integrate the recently conquered territories of the Balearic Islands into the Crown of Aragon. 

Llull's parents had come from Catalonia as part of the effort to colonize the formerly Almohad ruled island. As the island had been conquered militarily, the Muslim population who had not been able to flee the conquering Christians had been enslaved, even though they still constituted a significant portion of the island's population.

More information: Ramon Llull Routes

In 1257 he married Blanca Picany, with whom he had two children, Domènec and Magdalena. Although he formed a family, he lived what he would later call the licentious and wasteful life of a troubadour.

The Grandma visiting Ramon Llull in La Real, Palma

Llull served as tutor to James II of Aragon and later became Seneschal -the administrative head of the royal household- to the future King James II of Majorca, a relative of his wife.

In 1274, while staying at a hermitage on Puig de Randa, the form of the great book he was to write was finally given to him through divine revelation: a complex system that he named his Art, which would become the motivation behind most of his life's efforts. He finally achieved his goal of linguistic education at major universities in 1311 when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean (Aramaic) at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris, and Salamanca as well as at the Papal Court.

 

Ramon Llull with Samanta & Marta Jones

In 1315, he died at home in Palma. It can be documented that Llull was buried at the Church of Saint Francis in Mallorca by March 1316.

Llull was extremely prolific, writing a total of more than 250 works in Catalan, Latin, and Arabic, and often translating from one language to the others. While almost all of his writings after the revelation on Mt. Randa connect to his Art in some way, he wrote on diverse subjects in a variety of styles and genres.
The romantic novel Blanquerna is widely considered the first major work of literature written in Catalan, and possibly the first European novel.

His first elucidation of the Art was in Art Abreujada d'Atrobar Veritat (The Abbreviated Art of Finding Truth), in 1290. The version used 16 figures presented as complex, complementary trees, while the system of the Ars Magna featured only four, including one which combined the other three.

More information: CCCB

Hello? It's me. Hello from the other siiiiiide...

This figure, a Lullian Circle, took the form of a paper machine operated by rotating concentrically arranged circles to combine his symbolic alphabet, which was repeated on each level. These combinations were said to show all possible truth about the subject of inquiry. 

Llull based this notion on the idea that there were a limited number of basic, undeniable truths in all fields of knowledge, and that everything about these fields of knowledge could be understood by studying combinations of these elemental truths.

The method was an early attempt to use logical means to produce knowledge. Llull hoped to show that Christian doctrines could be obtained artificially from a fixed set of preliminary ideas. For example, the most essential table listed the attributes of God: goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, will, virtue, truth and glory. Llull knew that all believers in the monotheistic religions—whether Jews, Muslims or Christians—would agree with these attributes, giving him a firm platform from which to argue.

Arguing is a fantastic method to learn new things, discover new points of view and realize that there isn't only a real truth, something that one family works every day: The Jones.

 

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Imagination imagines at night 

that which is not daytime. 

Ramon Llull

SPRING IN HOGWARTS: NEW CHANGES, NEW CHANCES

Joaquín Jones and Carcassone's picture

Today, The Jones have had an intensive day in Hogwarts. 

The family is advancing in their English classes learning more grammar every day, writing better compositions and questioning more and more things, the real way to understand things.

First, the family has done some exercises of Social English to practise expressions, dialogues and structures.

Second, The Jones have revised some grammar with the Adverbs of Manner.

More information: Adverbs of Manner I & II

Next, The Grandma has explained a short story about the word Hazard and its Arabian origin connected with the flower of the orange tree. This story has introduced a long one: A theory about the origins of The Game of the Goose which involved two cultures -the Cathars and the Gypsies- and a common final: the exile.

King Jaume I, Merche A.H. Jones and Paqui Jones

Moreover, the exile has been the linchpin to connect the hidden meaning of The Goose Game with the hidden meaning of Salvador Espriu's Poetry. 

In fact, the three stories have something more in common: the spring. Flowered trees in spring; routes of exile in spring -never in winter because of the extreme weather conditions-; and them metaphoric meaning of 'spring' in Espriu's poetry as the end of dark ages and arrival of better ones.

More information: Article 'The'

Finally, the family has learnt some clues to work with the article The and has been talking about an incredible mystery: the missing of Susana Jones in Hogwarts. Nobody knows where she is.

Tomorrow, the family is going to find Susana Jones and learn how to create good compositions following the essential rules: cohesion, coherence and adequation. Additionally, they are going to talk about equality comparisions.

Download Adjectives

Look for the difference...

Carcassonne, Carcassona in Occitan, is a fortified town in the French department of Aude, in the region of Occitanie. 

Inhabited since the Neolithic period, Carcassonne is located in the Aude plain between historic trade routes, linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean sea and the Massif Central to the Pyrénées. 

Its strategic importance was quickly recognized by the Romans, who occupied its hilltop until the demise of the Western Roman Empire. In the fifth century, it was taken over by the Visigoths, who founded the city. Its strategic location led successive rulers to expand its fortifications until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.

More information: Aude Tourisme

The city is famous for the Cité de Carcassonne, a medieval fortress restored by the theorist and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1853 and added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997.

Carcassonne became strategically identified when Romans fortified the hilltop around 100 BC and eventually made the colonia of Julia Carsaco, later Carcasum. The main part of the lower courses of the northern ramparts dates from Gallo-Roman times. In 462 the Romans officially ceded Septimania to the Visigothic king Theodoric II who had held Carcassonne since 453. He built more fortifications at Carcassonne, which was a frontier post on the northern marches; traces of them still stand. 

Old memories of Elena Jones in Carcassonne

Saracens from Barcelona took Carcassonne in 725, but King Pépin le Bref drove them away in 759-60; though he took most of the south of France, he was unable to penetrate the impregnable fortress of Carcassonne.

A medieval fiefdom, the county of Carcassonne, controlled the city and its environs. It was often united with the County of Razès. The origins of Carcassonne as a county probably lie in local representatives of the Visigoths, but the first count known by name is Bello of the time of Charlemagne. Bello founded a dynasty, the Bellonids, which would rule many honores in Septimania and Catalonia for three centuries.

More information: Camí dels Bons Homes (Catalan Version)

Carcassonne became famous for its role in the Albigensian Crusades, when the city was a stronghold of Occitan Cathars. In August 1209 the crusading army of the Papal Legate, Abbot Arnaud Amalric, forced its citizens to surrender. Viscount Raymond-Roger de Trencavel was imprisoned whilst negotiating his city's surrender and died in mysterious circumstances three months later in his own dungeon. 

The Grandma in the Cemetery of Sinera

The people of Carcassonne were allowed to leave -in effect, expelled from their city with nothing more than the shirt on their backs. Simon De Montfort was appointed the new viscount.

In 1240, Trencavel's son tried to reconquer his old domain, but in vain. The city submitted to the rule of the kingdom of France in 1247. Carcassonne became a border fortress between France and the Catalan-Aragonese Crown under the Treaty of Corbeil (1258). King Louis IX founded the new part of the town across the river. He and his successor Philip III built the outer ramparts.

More information: Visat

The city is also famous for being the set of Robin Hood, The Prince of the Thieves, a film performanced by Kevin Costner, Mary-Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Alan Rickman and Sean Connery.

When you stop where my name calls you, 

you want to sleep dreaming calm seas, 

the clarity of Sinera.
 

Salvador Espriu

A TRIBUTE TO A GENIUS: WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER?

A day with The Jones in Scotland

Today, The Jones have received two new members: Susana and Noelia Jones. They have arrived to Scotland directly from their countries, Austria and Belgium. Now, all the family is united and they're going to start their English course officially.

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. 

Stephen Hawking

The family has played a little to welcome the new members and they have been describing cards with few words. For other hand, The Grandma has explained a curious story about the common origins of the oldest Europeans guards, a story that connects Sant Boi with Scotland; and squares with yards during the Middle Age.

  

There is no unique picture of reality - Stephen Hawking.

It's not possible to understand our History without paying attention to the Middle Age and this is one of the reasons because The Grandma always explains stories about it and pays a lot of attention about words and their meaning and etymology. She has also spoken about her sad feelings because of the last goodbye of Stephen Hawking, one of the most intelligent scientist and without any kind of doubt, the cleverest mind of our century who gave answers to some questions that seemed impossible to resolve.

More information: Stephen Hawking

 

The Jones in Calton Hill, Edinburgh

After paying tribute to Stephen Hawking, Connor MacLoud and his family have offered a Scottish breakfast to welcome The Jones to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland and one of the most beautiful European cities.

 

The MacLouds have guided The Jones across the city and they have visited some of the most important sites and taken thousands of photos and selfies.

However difficult life may seem,

there is always something you can do and succeed at. 

Stephen Hawking

The Jones have decided to take profit of their Scottish visit and meet J.K.Rowling and the magic world of Harry Potter. This is the main reason because the family is going to travel to Hogwarts and spend some days in that magic place before visiting the Highlands. They have written about the favourite activities that they want to do in Hogwarts. The list is long and interesting, and The Grandma has a lot of work to prepare this travel but she's not worried because she's in contact with an old friend who is going to help them, Minerva McGonagall, one of the most prestigious masters in Hogwarts and, as her surname indicates, a Scottish woman.

Finally, The Jones have played again to test their vocabulary with Scattergories and The Bomb. It has been a different day before starting the official travel.

Download Edinburgh Guide by The Grandma

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. 

Be curious. 

Stephen Hawking