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The green cross on this roll-down security gate is not part of the grafitti that has been added to the gate. The green cross indicates a pharmacy. I took the photo in Paris recently.

It’s that time of the year again. BP - before poppy.

Here is another photograph from my walk yesterday to look at the bluebells.  Great Earls Wood was acquired by the Woodlands Trust in 1987 and Little Earls Wood was acquired by 1995, both with the aid of money donated by local residents and the County, District and Parish Councils. The site is predominantly a mixed broadleaved woodland. It is thought that the wood was part of a Royal hunting forest in Saxon times.

Link du jour: The Woodland Trust.

I’m walking in the woods, and despite the intermittantly overcast weather, with spots of rain, it’s warm and the bluebells are looking splendid. Particularly when the sun does shine down through the young leafed wood.

I’ve been back to Stonehenge, and while in the area visited Woodhenge, Silbury Hill and Avebury Henge too. 

The sign in the back window of the car reads: Amesbury wants ASDA. When I saw it I wondered if it was some kind of astroturfing campaign.  A bit of googling shows that the early proposals by ASDA to open a supermarket in Amesbury hit a wall of opposition. That was in 2002. A more recent article at the same website group suggests that there is substantial local support. It looks like someone has become a bit more organised.

In any event earlier this year, ASDA announced that their programme of expansion would create 9000 jobs.  However Friends of the Earth - in a 2004 press release - has challenged this viewpoint and has outlined the problems that the ASDA expansion programme would create:

As Asda announced massive expansion plans today, Friends of the Earth warned that the company’s growth would be bad news for local traders, local communities, and farmers; and may not live up to its job creation claims. And the environmental campaign group accused Asda of avoiding local scrutiny of their plans by exploiting current loopholes in the law.

Asda claims that it will create “new” jobs, but does not say how many other jobs in local communities may be lost as a result of its new superstores opening, or how many may be simply replacing existing retail jobs. Trends in retail employment show that growth in superstores has led to an overall reduction in the number of retail jobs, and a trend from full to part time employment [1].
Friends of the Earth Supermarkets Campaigner Sandra Bell said:

“The increasing domination of our grocery shopping by giant retailers like Asda is bad news for local traders and farmers and means less choice for consumers, especially for those without a car. Asda is exploiting the UK market for all it is worth. Meanwhile our Government sits back and watches as retail giants take over our towns and squeeze farmers out of business. Planning rules must be tightened urgently to protect local shops, and the power of the supermarkets must be checked.”

Friends of the Earth has criticised superstore expansion plans because of the impact on small shops, the impact on farmers and on local communities and has called from planning rules to be tightened. Some 50 independent shops close every week, leaving less choice for shoppers, especially those without access to a car. The new Asda superstores threaten local shops and town centres in Dorset, Somerset, London and Merseyside, by diverting trade away from existing shops. 
Local planning authorities, including Tamworth, have told Friends of the Earth that they are very concerned about large mezzanine floor extensions to out-of-town Asda stores which make it hard to protect town centre shops [2]. Mezzanine floors can currently be put in without planning permission but, following a Friends of the Earth campaign, the Government has committed to changing the legislation. Asda seem determined to go ahead before new rules come into force, avoiding the need for local scrutiny.

The expansion will also increase Asda’s buying power, which will be bad news for farmers. Asda already has 16% of the grocery market in the UK putting it in a very powerful position over its suppliers. Asda is owned by retail giant Wal-Mart which is the world’s largest company with net sales of $244.5 bn. Suppliers recently told the Competition Commission that the situation had got worse since Wal-Mart took over Asda, twice the amount that said things had got better.

I’ve not had this before now - the Eurostar train stopping between stations outside a village somewhere in France (not sure exactly where).  It’s a bit disturbing in the light of recent events but we only stopped for about 10 minutes and then were on our way again.

Pet Peeve:
Every BBC story on the Eurostar is illustrated by the same photograph of a high-speed train. Surely our national broadcaster can do better. I have moaned about this kind of thing in the past: the BBC uses the same photos of tame boar for every story they ever have about wild boar!

For Becky’s birthday, which is today.

Graffiti with a social or political message, spotted at Stade de France in Paris. Presumably there’s supposed to be an acute accent on the last letter of each verb, making it “exploited and assassinated”. But what does does it refer to, and at whom is it directed?

I’m back in Paris this week and there’s something going on in rue Bayen (just of Avenue Niel) in the 17éme arrondissement. A few minutes ago the fire brigade were the only emergency services on the scene. However a police car has just pulled in too. There is no smoke or any other sign of fire. Perhaps it’s a training exercise.

Promenade Pereire is widely used as a jogging avenue, by young and old alike. Wander down the avenue on an evening and you will be passed by several people jogging, like this spritely soul who did a few circuits of the promenade as I walked up and down its length. 

This is where two buildings used to meet (one left a gap) in the 17éme arrondissement of Paris. I took the photo while walking down Promenade Pereire admiring the architecture lining the way.

I have been watching these bicycle racks just off Place de l’Étoile since the beginning of the year and they have been always empty. On 8 April I spotted two bicycles.  It’s quite exciting to now see so many (photo above) and wonder if there are just more at this particular spot during the day than after hours.  If you haven’t been following the story, these bicycles are part of the Vélib scheme ("freedom bikes"). Bicycles are available for a cheap fee from any of their sites around the city and can be returned to any Vélolib site. You need to swipe a credit card to access a bicycle, but they are free for the first 30 minutes and cheap thereafter.

”But for all the hype, has Vélib’ actually stopped people using their cars?” (asked The Guardian in August last year (probably prematurely since the scheme was only one month old at the time!):

Anecdotally, most people using the bikes are coming off public transport, seeking an alternative to bus, metro and expensive Paris taxis at night. At rail stations, so great is the rush for suburban commuters to jump on bikes rather than cram into Metro carriages that some have tried to lock up bikes on stands at night to secure them for the morning. But the increase in people cycling does seem to be boosting bike awareness and challenging the car mentality. Paris, with its wide streets, is already a better city for cyclists than London. And no, you don’t wear shorts, helmet or pollution mask; most people prefer a suit or high heels. Blase cyclists can be seen negotiating the high-speed free-for-all that is the Place de la Concorde while puffing a cigarette and calling a friend.

“If a critical mass of people get on these bikes, it will change the way drivers react to cyclists - it will force the city to put in more cycle lanes,” says Alexandre, an IT technician who has cycled to the Champs-Elysées for lunch with a colleague who hasn’t ridden a bike since he was 12. Wisely, they have taken the pedestrian underpass rather than negotiate the Étoile roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe.

I’ve done the test over at Vote Match and (surprise!) this is the person I would be voting for on 1 May 2008 (if I lived in London).

I have posted a number of times about graffiti tags: Graffiti in Paris, Graffiti tags in history, graffiti tags on the M25, and Graffiti tag. And I have talked about them here: Symmetry.

So these photographs of a truck in Paris, covered with graffiti tags, are a continuation of this theme. Even if I wish the authors had used Graffiti Creator instead.

I am also posting these photographs in response to looking at the statistics of the bluemeanie webserver, which show that in the first half of this month over 450 visitors came to this site having searched for “graffiti tags” (with or without other additional words).

Today is the start of National Downshifting Week:

Downshifting is about slowing down your pace, finding a better work/life balance, consequently embracing living with less and leading a simpler, greener and happier life!

Downshifting isn’t about moving to new counties or countries, in fact, if you are looking to start a ‘completely’ new life, you’ll arm yourself with the best chance of success by ‘dipping your toes’ into a few of our ideas and making changes within your own four walls, long before you reach for a map!

The suggestions from the InterNational Downshifting Week team are relatively easy to adopt, yet can have great bearing on your everyday life and the way you spend your time and money.

The website has a number of suggestions for ways to take part.  There is also information on the Green Family Blog over at Sustained magazine.