FEAST OR FAMINE

I have been provisionally accepted as a volunteer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games as a “substitute”, pending acceptance after training, accreditation, security, and so on to become a “full-blown volunteer.”    This summer the Paris 2024 the Games will occur as follows: Olympic Games from 26 July to 11 August and for the Paralympics from 28 August to 8 September.    Volontaire Paris 2024 The two-month application window was open in early 2023 and applicants were notified from September to December 2023 – with a registration number. Some volunteers already commenced their placements in late 2023 in preparation for the events, and the rest of the volunteers will start in 2024 – but first there are several procedures to undertake and processes to attend.    In December 2023, I was given a provisional offer of a specific venue and events placement for both the Olympics and the Paralympics which I accepted and which I’m excited about – but more about that later if, and w

  In Quicksands – A Memoir  by Sybille Bedford (2005), the German-born English author, wrote at 92 years of age. It was published a year before her death at the age of 94. It is the account of the author’s fascinating life from her birthplace in Germany to post-war Italy, France, Portugal, and the United Kingdom from the 1950s.   Born Sybille Aleid Elsa von Schoenebeck (1911-2006), she married British army officer Walter Bedford in 1935 to avoid deportation to Germany, and to obtain a British passport, when the Nazis found out about her Jewish ancestry. The marriage was short-lived and she left France during the invasion and headed to America with British writer Aldous Huxley and his wife Maria. From the 1940s, Sybille lived in Europe, settling in London with American novelist Eda Lord (1907-1976). This memoir recounts those years from her starting point – 1953 – or as she says: “I shall begin as I hope to continue: from the middle.”   Her memoir is in three sections: Part One – Segmen

Paris, Rue Paul Barruel 

Hél è ne Toulouse is exhibiting her collection of artworks called  “Espaces”  – “Spaces” – at the Town Hall in the 6 th  arrondissement of Paris from 7-28 February 2024.   Hél è ne Toulouse was born in Paris in 1941, moving with her parents to Tours in her childhood. She returned to Paris after her art studies, where she now lives and works.  MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite    I    Rainy Day Healing    I    Martinasblogs    I    Publications    I    Facebook    I    Paris Website    I    Paris blogs    I   Animal Website    I   Flower Website   I   Global Gentlemanliness SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES    Martina Nicolls is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, and foreign aid audits and evaluations. She lives in Paris.  

  Angry French farmers drove their tractors in protest into the streets of Paris on Friday 23 February 2024 – on the eve of the Paris Agricultural Fair, one of the world’s largest farm fairs. French President Emmanuel Macron will visit the Paris Agricultural Fair on Saturday for the “big debate” with farmers, supermarket managers, and environmental groups. The farmers are peacefully, but noisily, demanding more government support and simpler regulations.    Carrying the farmers’ union flags of “Rural Coordination” into the suburbs of western Paris, the protestors headed towards the Vauban Plaza in central Paris. The protest is three weeks after the farmers lifted roadblocks around Paris and the countryside after the government offered over 400 million euros (USD $433 million) to address their grievances over low earnings, strict regulations, and competition from abroad.    This current protest is part of a broader protest movement in Europe against the European Union (EU) agriculture p