Chanson du Jour: “LES MOULINS DE MON COEUR”

Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mindLike a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mindKeys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said?
Lovers walking along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?
Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragment of a song
Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair!
Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel
As the images unwind, like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Paris eyes vegetation to beat the urban heat

Paris authorities have been implementing a strategy to use increased vegetation to beat the urban heat effect caused by overcrowding and land surfaces covered by asphalt.

With the mercury soaring to 42 degrees Celsius, Paris authorities are turning to trees for a cool-off solution.

“Trees have this great characteristic of being evapo-transpirators: they absorb water from the soil through their roots, transmit it through their trunks, branches and leaves, where it escapes through pores. When it escapes, the water cools the ambient air,” explains Olivier Papin, an environmental engineer.

With his infrared camera, Papin measures the differences in temperature in direct sunlight, and under the shade of the surrounding trees.His aim is to map the capital’s hottest points.

“You see, the bitumen road in the sunlight rises up to 50 degrees Celsius. But when in the shade, it cools down to 35,” he explains.

The lack of vegetation, coupled with land surfaces covered with construction material such as bitumen and asphalt, results in a phenomenon known as the urban heat island, which makes cities hotter than neighbouring rural areas.

“The fact that underneath [the roads], you have dense concrete only make things worse. It acts like a giant heat reservoir, and when night falls, all the heat that has built up [during the day] is released in the atmosphere,” explained Julien Bigorgne, an engineer at APUR (Atelier Parisien d’Urbanisme).

Engineers recommend the streets’ coating be replaced by cobblestones, porous concrete or stabilised soil, a mix of sand and gravel, mostly used in parks.

Watch the video at FRANCE24: Paris eyes vegetation to beat the urban heat

Paris Hits Sweltering New Heat Record

The Paris area hit 108.3 degrees Fahrenheit, beating the previous record of 104.8 F set in 1947.

PARIS (AP) — Record temperatures are being set across Europe, including Paris, as the continent swelters Thursday in what is its second heat wave this summer.

Climate scientists warn this could become the new normal in many parts of the world. But temperate Europe — where air conditioning is rare — isn’t equipped for the temperatures frying the region this week.

Source: Paris Hits Sweltering New Heat Record | HuffPost

Moriarty at Shakespeare & Company

Moriarty is a musical collective made up of five artists of French, American, Swiss and Vietnamese origin. The members were mainly born in France to American parents. The group was named Moriarty in reference to Dean Moriarty, the hero of On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

Initially, the group consisted of eight members: singer Charlène Dupuy, drummer Médéric de Vanssay, and saxophonist Davide Woods have since left the group. Rosemary Standley joined in 1999. Moriarty went from performing traditional blues to rock’n’roll. Successive departures from the group reduced them to five members (Rosemary, Arthur, Thomas, Charles and Stephan), and forced them to play acoustically.
[per Wikipedia | See more]