#arras

[theworldatwar]

British and Canadian soldiers prepare their defences - Arras, France, April 1917

[regis-chupin-photos]

[robespapier]

I need y'all to know the Rosati (yes, the club is still alive) have this in their meeting room at the Hôtel de Guînes

[retrogeographie]

Arras, le centre administratif municipal.

[philoursmars]

L'année du Dragon arrive !

Une longue série de dragons arrive... Ici, des dragons baroques, classiques et apparentés...

Versailles, le Bassin du Dragon

Rome, Piazza del Popolo

Marseille, MuCEM - limonaire - Paris, 1909

Tarascon - la Tarasque

Arras, musée des Beaux-Arts- expo Versailles - le Dragon du Labyrinthe

Louvre-Lens, expo "Les Tables du Pouvoir" - aiguière - Brésil, 17ème s.

idem, expo "Animaux fantastiques" - Jean Gargot - "La Grand Goule" - Abbaye Sainte-Croix de Poitiers, 1677

idem - Hendrick Goltzius, gravure d'après Cornelis Cornelisz - "Le Dragon dévorant les compagnons de Cadmos" - Haarlem, 1588

[imashadowalker]

Fuck. Fuck.

Again. AGAIN.

On Friday October 16th, 2020, history and geography teacher Samuel Party, who taught in the suburbs of Paris, was assassinated by a radical islamist.

Today, on Friday October 13th, 2023, a professor was killed in the northern city of Arras in France. His name was Dominique Bernard, he was a French teacher. The profile of his killer is oddly similar to Samuel Paty's murderer. The main difference is that this French teacher was not specifically targeted. However, it seems the attacker actually was looking for a history and geography teacher (according to an interview on BFMTV related in an article of The Guardian).

Even without the similarities that are probably not completely coincidental, the timing of the attack is just... God. 3 years, nearly to the day. Some say it might also be linked to the current situation in Israel-Palestine, and while I have a hard time seeing a direct link, I can't deny it may have been a spark. (Some part of me can't help but wonder if there is also a linked with Friday November 13th, 2015.)

I just... Fuck. Samuel Paty's assassination affected me in the way that the previous islamist terrorist attacks in France (including those of 2015) just didn't. Part of it was probably because I was older and I actually let myself be affected instead of protecting myself by being emotionally distant. But the main reason is that I couldn't help thinking of the history teacher that I had when the 2015 attacks happened. I was thinking of all of my teachers, especially those I had admired and respected, and this one man in particular. I remembered the way he had talked about those attacks with us, the way he was always careful to be as neutral as possible while making us think, even debate. I remembered him teaching us, both years. I remembered feeling at 12 y.o. that I was finally learning and understanding the way the world around me worked. I remembered that he had been serious and yet fun, an authority figure yet someone that was friendly instead of distant. I remembered that he wanted us to learn, not just facts (though it is important to always have context) but also to think critically, to analyse, those skills that are so essentials for future citizens who will one day be called to cast their ballots.

And upon learning of the attack on Saturday 17th, I thought that instead of Samuel Paty, it could very well have been him.

God, there's a lot of problems with the education system in France. And the worst thing about that, is that teachers are not responsible for most of these problems, yet they're always the scapegoats for everyone's anger, and the ones expected to fix every single problem even though they really can't. Not every teacher is perfect or even good, far from it : but I have had good teachers. Every single year I had good teachers. Some were more memorable than others, more passionate or eccentric, more inspiring; but as a rule they were good, and I really respected them as people. In the end, I remember those good teachers much more than those who were not really fit to teach.

I respect them for being teachers, when they got so much shit from the students, the parents, and even their hierarchy. Today, anyone becoming a teacher in France is not in it for the lousy pay or the difficult work conditions : they become teachers because they actually want to teach. And as someone who chose not to go down that road because I never thought I was strong enough to deal with all that, I really admire all my classmates who do want to become teachers.

So I hate this. I hate that teachers are being targeted for doing their fucking job and teaching.

I'm French, damnit. And because my teachers were good, because the history teacher I had in 2015 was good, I trust the values I've been taught are ours. "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité". Freedom of opinion, expression, press, association, consciousness, religion. Justice, tolerance. Democracy. The values and ideas of the Enlightenment which inspired the French Revolution. The light of knowledge and reason driving away the darkness of ignorance, prejudice and superstition.

Those are the ideas I trust, and school is not only any institution passing down those values, it also embodies many of them. As such, teachers, in particular history and geography teachers who are the ones tasked to teach about our history and values, are, in a way, a symbol; a living representation of those values.

So it's just horrifying that teachers have been targeted, when they're, in general, just good people doing a job disregarded by so many people, when they get so much shit from everyone and so little rewards.

I hate this.

[itsmergb]

What if I was a wolf and you were a fox and we were friends, and we lived together in an abandoned fort that we rebuilt with our own hands?

[postcard-from-the-past]

Houses of the Main Square in Arras during the First World War, Artois region of northern France

French vintage postcard, mailed in 1921 to Puteaux

[helshades]

[theworldatwar]

A US paratrooper with a Statue of Liberty tattoo receives a Mohican haircut in preparation for the airborne assault east of the Rhine - Arras, France, date unknown

[citoyenneprzybyszewska2]

Discover Arras in the footsteps of Robespierre

by Association des Amis de Robespierre

[robespapier]

Y'all I'm in Arras

And I have a few questions

Who did this? Why?

Why is Arras' belfry on fire?

TROUSERS INSTEAD OF CULOTTES??

A SLOPPILY TIED CRAVAT???

[mali-umkin]

ARBR members must have received the e-mail a few days ago already, but for those who don't know, the administrator of the association and her mother have been violently attacked by a far right Neonazi in their own home. They were beaten up, he threatened to burn their home and kill their dog. This man is the leader of the supremacist action Theuz, a member of l'Action Française in Arras (far-right monarchist political movement), a supporter of Éric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen as well as a fervent royalist. They have been repeatedly threatening the ARBR and its members because of the Robespierre Museum the association aims to open in four years.

This is a striking example of how important Robespierre's and the French Révolution's legacies still are today, and of how deeply, deeply political they are. It's also a good reminder of the true face of the far right and royalists in this country. La France Insoumise, la Ligue des droits de l'Homme, le Parti socialiste and le parti Communiste have all made their support for the ARBR public.

[retrogeographie]

Beaurains, agglomération d'Arras.

[philoursmars]

Une journée à Arras avec le copain Philippe : ici, le rez-de-chaussée de l'Hôtel de Ville, avec les Géants de la cité, un gisant de femme du XIVe s., des vestiges de la Première Guerre Mondiale, quand les soldats britanniques étaient en poste dans les lieux (ici, une tête creusée dans de la craie et des bouteilles en verre anglaises).

Puis c'est la préparation pour la visite des souterrains, les boves : casque et charlotte obligatoires !

[cedricenergeticien]

Le massage balinais est une technique de massage traditionnelle de l'île de Bali, en Indonésie. Il est caractérisé par des mouvements doux et rythmés, combinant des étirements, des pressions et des pétrissages. Le massage balinais vise à détendre le corps et l'esprit, à améliorer la circulation sanguine et lymphatique, à soulager les tensions musculaires et à réduire le stress. Des huiles essentielles sont souvent utilisées pour ajouter une dimension aromathérapeutique au massage.