Glad to see that Michel has resumed his blog.
They have had an unusual amount of rain I believe. I have heard from another source that the heart shaped waterfall is in full flow. It was dry when were there only a couple of months back.
They have also had a lot of power cuts - Michel says that one lasted from 9.00 a.m. until 8.00 p.m. I should know why they are having such problems, but I don't.
Meanwhile, in addition to doing guard duty at Longwood House after the departure of the Chief Secretary and his wife, Michel is finalising preparations for the exhibition celebrating 150 years of the French Properties on St. Helena.
He has announced a list of distinguished French visitors who will be there by the end of April
M. Victor-André Masséna, prince d'Essling
Le comte et la comtesse Walewski
M. Emmanuel Suchet, duc d'Albufera
Mme Annie Meunier
M. Bernard Chevallier
M. Daniel Alcouffe
M. Jean-Claude Le Parco
M. Marcel Guery
M. Pierre-Jean Chalençon
M. Philippe Montanari.
An interesting list which includes as far as I can see one descendant of Napoleon, two descendants of Napoleon's Marshals, a curator of the Louvre and a young passionate collector of Napoleonica who is making I think his third trip to St. Helena.Pierre-Jean Chalencon
I wonder if this is the first time that a descendant of Napoleon has visited St. Helena? The answer is no; Count Walewski has visited before; last time accompanied by his brother.
Finally Michel's blog shows some pictures from his collection by Raoul Serres(1881-1971) and Claude Quiesse(1938-) , who visited St. Helena as part of his world tour in 1966-1968 - I liked his portrayal of Sandy Bay and Lot.
Well worth a look.
Finally,finally, a plug for the St. Helena Independent. Always an interesting read; I usually find the weekly column of Mr Cairns-Wicks, St. Helena's equivalent of "Disgusted of Tonbridge Wells", very entertaining. I doubt if the Governor does.
1 comment:
The link here to Clause Quiesse isn't working I'm afraid and I wanted to look it up as I have an original pencil drawing done by Clause Quiesse while he was in St. Helena of a guitar player and I know I have but cannot find at the moment a watercolour of his too of one end of Longwood House from the garden, showing the famous end balcony. My uncle Sir Dermod Murphy was Governor of St. Helena for several years around that time (1969-1971) and that is how I come to have these in my house in Ireland. Not sure what to do with them actually.
charlesdudley@eircom.net
Post a Comment