Les fleurs sur la route...(1/5)

The first of May is a special day...We have a nice song for the day, and many paid employees and workers do not need to work but enjoy their relaxing holiday. French people would buy lily of the valley 'le muguet' to remember this special day, apart from perhaps any other celebration for the social class of labours. Little stalls were set up all along the crossroad and intersections to sell the lilies on the day.

Every time when I travel on autoroutes or national roads in France, a colour spectrum of flowers, trees and vegetation fill up the scenery of season. Colour is a medium of changes and a witness of unchanged spray. I like the colour of each day, and for today, the spring time carries a vivid pale green and blossoms new hopes of the old times. When I was passing by the region of Charente-Maritime last weekend, the colouring field beside the road gives a pride to the nature and recalls me a life that has passed by.


Some nice flowers were placed on the road from time to time. This is a tragic beauty that we may have forgotten after hours of minutes. The image we see hides the rest which stores only in the sake of memory. The one in yellow above is a flower named 'immortelles', a very elegant but sorrow name.

A month of May and a wish of may, let go and let's go.

Le Retour à Paris...(23/8)

A new start of the day, and I executed my new serial of plans for another footstep of pursue in time...Got up a bit earlier this morning, and got changed with my sportswear for a jogging to Jardin du Luxembourg from my home. The sky was cloudy and misty in the morning and little raindrop fell on ground and my shoulders. It has been quite some time since I have felt this sentiment of a quiet morning. A few people with their business suit walked on the street too, but the two types of people I met most during the jog were policemen and other joggers. As of what I have thought, the Jardin is an ideal place for people to go jogging and I saw quite numerous joggers like me turning in-between the garden. Then, a shower after the exercise and a short while of rest and peace. A beginning of a day like this can be such refreshing. See, I do need some train up now.
A few observations from this week...
1. The lights in flats opposite to mine ignite again.
2. I found that the empty lots in underground are mostly filled by cars this morning when I went out.
3. Taxi goes quite frequently along the street and people come off the car picking their suitcases and luggages.
4. Reopening of restaurants...
Well, these are all signs of return of the Parisians and welcome back, holiday is over...

CAP Reform...(22/8)

The book "CAP and The Regions: The Territorial Impact of the Common Agricultural Policy," funded by EU institutions, was released and the view from the authors coincide with UK's proposition on EU budget in previous EU meeting in July...
According to the book, the authors found that "rich core regions" locate in Germany, Britain, France and the Netherlands and so these countries acquire greater proportion of subsidies than other EU less wealthy members like Spain, Italy, Poland etc. Besides, the authors analysed the 2 pillar of subsidies, and it is noted that Pillar 1 (90Bn euros) favours absolutely prosperous "rich core regions" as these areas produce grain, milk and beef, while Pillar 2 (4.6Bn euros) goes the same way as "rich core regions" support more environmentally friendly farming. This is not unanticipatable. With this logic, near 80% of CAP would go to 20% of farmers from "rich core regions", which result in uneven distribution of financial aid.
So what do the authors propose? Pillar 1 aid should be redistributed gradually to Pillar 2, aiming at less direct subsidies and more environmental friendly development to the farming industry. Yes or no, the principle question for me is if the concept of EU works, should we categorise members into rich and poor countries? should the objective be evenly distribution of subsidy to the nations? Or would the simple economic theory of comparative advantage works? The problem rises because some nations find unfair to allocate the shared EU budget, but well, this is exactly the current circumstance faced by EU when executing a collective plan or seeking a judgement. The difference of standard of living and economic environment exactly bring out endless debates and controversary. A more flexible administrative measures according to the economical situation should be thought about, though this is not an easy task.
Another observation is about the farming industry in this world. With the monotonic direction of global economic development, farming industry does not seem profitable in most so-called "developed" countried. With the developing countries like China moving quick to catch the global footsteps of economic enjoyment, the unevitable sacrification of primary production would be a problem of globalisation...
For more information about the CAP reform, please check also: http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/capreform/index_en.htm

Jardin de Saint Guillaume...(5/7)

I spent 5 minutes at the Jardin de Saint Guillaume after work today, and well...this nice garden is actually my little terrace outside the window...a natural habitat it becomes now, with bees transiting everyday between flowers...moments of education TV-like motion that we watched in primary school indeed. The world is so interesting, and it's amazing seeing a micro-ecosystem like this outside my window. Sometimes our eyes are too big that we do not see things clear...maybe. By the way, the last photo above was actually taken on a road junction next to a traffic night at Sevres I passed by last Saturday.