The skies above Fontenay le Vicomte, Essonne, France

If you live just outside Paris, in particular in the Essonne, this sort of sky is probably familiar to you. The vapour trails are caused by airliners serving Paris’ two main airports, Orly & Roissy Charles de Gaulle.
In fact all the stacking, thats to say, aircraft waiting to head to either airport is all now right over the Essonne, where this photo was taken. Understandable that this should happen for Orly as it isn’t that far away, but Roissy is right across the other side of Paris.

Still… it makes for a spectacular skyscape.

This photo was taken late afternoon today between Mennecy and Fontenay-le-Vicomte. A nice distraction from going to get my son from school.

Leaving Fontenay le Vicomte on a Winters afternoon

As you leave the south end of our village, heading towards Ballancourt sur Essonne and La Ferté Alais, you arrive on le plateau. Open empty fields with no hedging seperating them. It looks very bare out there, but at least you’ll have the sunset to accompany you…

So here’s a selection of photos of the streets in my village, with the streetlights on when they shouldn’t be. Why were they on so early??? Who knows… but it gave me a few photo opportunities. I hope you like them…

rue de la Croix Boissy, Fontenay le Vicomte, France.

rue de la Croix Boissy, Fontenay le Vicomte, France.

rue de la Salle, Fontenay le Vicomte, France

rue de la Salle, Fontenay le Vicomte, France

La ferme, Fontenay le Vicomte, France

Grande Rue, Fontenay le Vicomte, France

rue de la Mairie, Fontenay le Vicomte, France.

Walking up rue de la Mairie, Fontenay-le-Vicomte

A nice touch was seeing French school children singing Christmas carols in English with only a slight accent. Well done them!

Dangling from a neighbouring window is this Père Noël

A few Christmases ago, don’t ask me when, suicidal Santas started hanging from buildings all over France. I’ve since been told that this was the brainchild of a Périgordin business man who saw a niche in the market for suicidal Père Noëls. Clever chap.
So as soon as I opened the dining room window shutters first thing this morning, what should I see hanging from a window in the distance? Yes… youm goddit, a suicidal Père Noël.

This telephoto shot reveals that he seems to be in quite a predicament, having obviously changed his mind after leaping out of the window. Or was he pushed?

Then the year before last, we had our sadist neighbours who left their Suicidal French Santa dangling outside until JULY!

Le pauvre… 

Seen on a Routemaster London bus

I also doubt this notice is of any use, at it was seen on the back of a London bus (RM2712) which was very far from home. This London exile was seen at the Locomotion en Fête, a yearly vehicle rally held 50km from Paris, back in June 2010.

The now closed Southgates Underpass at the bottom of Millstone Lane - August 2011

Long ago, I used the underpass here a LOT. When I was a student based at the Fletcher building on Mill Lane (De Montfort University), it was my access to Drawing Office Requisites on Marble Street.

Then I ended up working for Midland Fox on Millstone Lane (ironically my office window was opposite the junction with Marble Street), so used to cycle back home to Braunstone via the underpass.

After that I worked for Copying Services on Hinckley Road near the junction with Narborough Road – so walked into town on my lunch break via the underpass.

Will always remember when I worked on Millstone Lane, as we neared Christmas hearing drunk students passing by my office window as they made their way from the underpass into town.

Woodland Drive on the morning of the siege

Back in the early 80′s (I can’t remember exactly which year – but I’d guess at 1983-4) I remember waking up one frosty morning to seeing Police everywhere in our street on Woodland Drive in Braunstone Town, Leicester.

A Policeman knocked on our front door to ask “if we were OK”.  I remember my Dad asking him what had happened, but just got the reply “you’ll see it on the local TV news no doubt”.
So it wasn’t until later on, that we found out that down the road on Valley Drive there had been a seige during which someone had been killed.

From what we heard and saw on the TV news later, Harry Cannon, who worked now and again at “Mac & Angies” (General Store) on Sunway at the other end of our street, had been shot dead.
A boyfriend of one of his daughters, came looking for her armed with a gun. Nobody new exactly what happened next, but Harry and his family were held hostage. The Police were called and that was why we woke up to seeing them everywhere that morning.
The above photo is of a BBC Radio Leicester car parked in front of our house that morning, which I took at the time not knowing why it was there.

A Mercedes Citaro passes the old village sign in 2005

Once upon a time we had 7 buses a day through our village for a very short time, both before and since this has gone down to just a couple a day. OK it was no great shakes as bus services go. Just a link to the nearest RER train station about 4 miles away in the next town, but for many it could have been a lifeline had the service not ran around empty.
Most houses here have 2 sometimes 3 cars per household, so this “could have been lifeline” had as much luck as a Walls Magnum in a sauna.

So this service ended and shortly afterwards, the nice looking traditional French village sign was removed. You see, our village now lacking a decent bus service and nice village sign was soon to acquire another lifeline. For those who own 2 or 3 cars, the local village mairie decided to put in a cycle path to link up with an existing path from Mennecy which stopped just before the old village sign featured in the photo.
In fact the sign was removed, while the whole of the right hand side of the lane, which you can see behind the bus was dug up. Several trees that were in the way were hacked out of the way and the lane closed with an inconvenient diversion via the village bypass.

Once the work had been finished, the lane was deliberately narrowed with a couple of passing places for lorries – which service the industrial estate just before the village. A speed limit of 50km/h was imposed which those owners of the 2 or 3 cars totally ignored. Meanwhile I for one welcomed the cycle path as on foot or on two wheels I didn’t have to risk life and limb getting to the park, which is behind me as I took this photo.

Thats progress for you… run a regular rural bus service and nobody uses it. Yet put in a cycle path and everyone loves it.  Mind you, I’m still waiting for someone to clap wing mirrors (or worse) on that now very narrow lane…