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Note for startups: we haven’t seen this here yet.

In brief – a gift card for “a hotel stay” or “dinner in a restaurant” with a catalog of options. In the supermarket (the photo shows Intermarché in Lannion specifically) there’s a stand with books at the audacious price of 50-230 euros. The book contains real estate renting offers, but all for a fixed price equal to the catalog price and includes one day (or several days) of leisure which is part of the price. You can choose the leisure time later on their website. A wonderful gift, in my opinion.

http://wonderbox.fr

Sergey Molchanov

It all started with the family estate of René Chateaubriand, which I visited in France, in the small town of Combourg. There on the wall hung his diploma, issued at the end of the 18th century by the academy of arts. The academy’s logo was something peculiar (see photo).

I began to investigate. It turned out that it was a drawing based on the sculpture “Capitoline Wolf”, which in turn reflects the legend of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.

According to the legend, they were the children of the daughter of the local king at that time, Numitor, Rhea Silvia, and the god Mars. Numitor’s younger brother, Amulius, ordered the infants to be thrown into the Tiber River in a basket, while their mother was locked in a dungeon. However, the basket washed up on the Palatine Hill, where the infants were found and nursed by a she-wolf. They later grew up, killed Amulius, restored Numitor to the throne, and later became the founders of Rome. Incidentally, the name of the city comes from one of the brothers, Romulus.

There are several versions of this she-wolf in various variations. During the time of Benito Mussolini, the Capitoline Wolf was used as a propaganda symbol, embodying the fascist regime’s aspiration to revive the Roman Empire.

Another interesting story is associated with the Roman bronze sculpture – until 2006 it was dated to the 5th century BC, but in 2006 radiocarbon analysis showed it to be from the 13th century. So now there’s a debate.

In old buildings, for the second time I encounter such sockets. As an engineer, I couldn’t rest until I figured it out. It’s a French telephone socket F-010, which is no longer used in new homes.

Traveled the first 1200km on a Mercedes Benz B200 CDI (2014).

I really like it, even compared to my X-Trail. The car insists on a coffee after a long drive, engages the parking brake automatically when the door is opened, and releases it when starting; it has seven gears and a distinct sport mode. There’s also a built-in navigator and a convenient multimedia system. I’ll remember this little car)

http://www.kolesa.ru/test-drive/test-drayv-mercedes-benz-b200-tvoy-pervyy-mersedes-2013-01-20

Visited a Breton church where

a) the Virgin Mary LIES under a blanket, with Jesus also under a blanket beside her

b) ships are around

c) the altar is made in clay modeling technique.

Chapelle du Yaudet. There is no information available in Russian or English online, so I will translate some details.

Handwritten text on the wall states that at the bedside sits God the Father in a crown with a scepter and the book of biography (more precisely “Le livre de la généalogie”), flanked by Mary’s parents, St. Anne and St. Joachim. The Holy Spirit appears as a dove.

The image of Mary lying down is generally a rare thing. In Brittany, there are other places where this is found (listed).

In the evening in the outskirts of Le Mans, we were the only odd ones out walking the forest trails without lanterns after a heavy downpour. Normal French people – dinner at 7, bed by 9.

The Samsung Note 4 has an excellent WiFi adapter. It catches the network where nothing else can. Right now, I have two bars and working internet, while two laptops (Lenovo/Apple) and three Apple phones don’t even show the network in the list. This is not the first time this has happened.

Kicked off the swimming season in the north of France. The water is still 10 degrees, windy and rainy, but Liza and I are happy!

In a house in France, I found a book with a chapter about the history of the Kremlin, where a legend is told that I had never heard before and seems to be unknown to the Russian-speaking internet as well.

A free translation from French:

Boyar Stepan Kuchka and his lads stopped at a hunting lodge. The next morning, he gathered people for a boar hunt. But the boar was quicker and attacked first. Kuchka and his comrades were about to get scared, but then a miracle bird with two heads appeared, lifted him onto a hill and there pecked the boar to death. Thus, the hill washed by the Moskva and Neglinnaya rivers became the village of Kuchkovo, the place where the city of Moscow and the Kremlin would later emerge. And the two-headed bird became the symbol of the Russian Empire.

Visited Le Radôme near Lannion (Brittany), the largest inflatable structure in the world (50 meters) – a 2mm parachute covering 1 hectare, weighing 27 tons itself + 6 tons of paint, with a rotating antenna on rails inside, from 1962, weighing 350 tons. Made the first direct video broadcast from Europe to the USA via satellite, where a similar device existed (the Americans dismantled it). Cryogenic signal receiver, minus 261°C. Inside the sphere, the pressure ranges from 4 to 12 millibars. The youngest national monument in France.