The French city of Darnetal is offering residents honey in exchange for cigarette litter, reports Euro Pulse
For each 1.5 liter bottle filled with butts
volunteers receive a pot of honey from local apiaries
200 kilograms of cigarette butts end up on the sidewalks of Darnetal every year despite the fact that France punishes litterbugs with a fine of €135 per improperly discarded butt
The plastic contained in the filters presents risks for water and soil
The initiative is designed to motivate people to think about their contribution to environmental pollution
European cities have been getting creative in tackling the problem of cigarette litter. In January, Slovakia announced a project to turn discarded butts into asphalt
The first road made of cigarette butts was constructed in the city of Ziar nad Hronom
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In 2011-12 Damien Hall received funding from the Leverhulme Trust for a project on French linguistics; however
the research reported here predates that funding
Newcastle University provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK
View all partners
but it is spoken by people of all ethnicities
This is society influencing language, but it can also work the other way: linguistic findings can also tell you about society. At the highest level, if North American indigenous languages are becoming endangered
that might be because the cultures that once spoke those languages widely have been overtaken by an English-speaking culture
if an accent feature that was once regional spreads somewhere else
it could be evidence of a culture spreading
That’s what I found in my research on the regional French of Normandy
I focused on a particular accent feature and found something quite revealing about shifts in French culture – and the types of people setting the agenda
I analysed recordings of interviews with people from communities at both ends of Normandy: the rural village of La Bonneville
My aim – as for many initial sociolinguistic studies – was to describe interesting aspects of the accent and to see whether there was a correlation between accent differences and social differences
For this part of the research, I approached the question through the sociophonetics of the final vowels in café (meaning “café” or “coffee”) and secret (“secret”)
In standard French, these two vowels are “supposed” to be pronounced differently
listen to the difference between the last sound in “hay” (which is like French café) and the e in “red” (which is like the vowel at the end of French secret)
in these parts of Normandy pronounced them the same: at the end of words
You might think that a regional accent would get a lot of its features from another language spoken in the same area. But the merger (that’s the technical term) of café and secret doesn’t necessarily come from Norman – the language historically spoken in the region
Norman itself has several regional varieties and most (though not all) do pronounce café and secret differently
I propose that the merger might instead come from Paris – and that’s why it tells us something interesting about French society
The capital city is the centre of French life and culture – including high culture, in which speaking the standard form of the language is very important. It is where the Académie Française sits and is dominant in French life generally
the suggestion that Paris could be a source of non-standard language might be a shock
Parisian speech is still as prestigious as ever
It’s just that the way of speaking that is labelled “prestigious” in Paris is changing – so
when younger people now pick up a prestige way of speaking from there
they are picking up something different to what the older people picked up a few generations ago
This is why we can propose that both older and younger people in Normandy get their accent from Paris
even though they may have different accents
This is the kind of thing that sociolinguists normally do: we use society to find out about language
But we can also turn findings like this on their head and use language to find out about society
So here’s why research into a particular feature of one French accent might be important and interesting even if you don’t speak French – and why social facts about any linguistic feature might matter beyond the place where people speak with that feature
the café/secret example gives us a glimpse of the changing nature of what French people consider to be “prestigious”
Where once they might have sought to sound like they come from high culture
they now might prefer to emulate a linguistic culture that is more dynamic
What started as an investigation of a few French vowels
ends up contributing evidence about something that might be important to more people: the relationship of capital cities and their hinterland
If people’s language is affected by the society they live in
then we can use language to learn about society – and that’s something that should interest us all
Hamel’s beatification process to move forward within 3 yearsCorinne SIMON/CIRIC
24 mars 2017 : 9e édition de la Nuit des témoins organisée par l'Aide à l'Eglise en Détresse (AED)
French priest killed by Islamic State was “a priest and nothing more
and that speaks to all mankind”The cause for the beatification of an elderly French priest killed a year ago by adherents of Islamic State is moving along quickly
Father Jacques Hamel was an 86-year-old priest celebrating a morning Mass on July 26
Entering through the rear door of the church
two men yelled allegiance to Daesh (ISIS) and killed him
born in 1930 in Darnétal and ordained a priest in 1958
was vicar of the parish of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray
Now the archbishop of Rouen is saying that the diocesan phase of his cause for beatification will be wrapped up within three years or so
Archbishop Dominique Lebrun said this in the July 24-25
explaining that the rapid pace of the research and study that goes into preparing a beatification cause is motivated by the fact that most of the eye-witnesses of the attack are elderly
Archbishop Lebrun said he asked Pope Francis permission to expedite the procedures
prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes
Pope Francis already invoked a rarely-used exemption and waived the five-year waiting period after a person’s death
before a cause for beatification can be initiated
“to collect the testimony of other victims of the attack
The first session for the study of beatification took place May 20
during which the tribunal heard from a dozen witnesses
has “a reputation of holiness or martyrdom.” “He was not a media priest,” he added
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I am writing these notes at breakfast in an old French inn
The sight before me is powerfully evocative
a generous coal fire roars as fires should in a large brick grate
The floor tiles are age-polished terracotta
I could be in the photographic cover of Elizabeth David's francophiliac love song
The picture on her 1960 classic launched a thousand interior design stories and fed even more French fantasies
Searching for this idyll remains a preoccupation
so what's the first opportunity to engage with the myth
where you found a splendid old dining room with framed menus showing that André Simon's Wine and Food Society had also found it a convenient stop on the journey into real or imagined France
So for the precious first sensation of being lost in France you need to go to the Boulonnais
I was introduced to the this lovely area by the late David Sweetman
a raffish film-maker with an acid wit and author of popular lives of Van Gogh and Mary Renault
His proposition was: did you know that just a couple of hours from London you can access la France profonde
About 45 miles from Calais you are in the arrière-pays of Boulogne
It is not true that the English have completely ignored this area: John Ruskin spent productive time hereabouts and modern Le Touquet has a notable number of English-registered Porsches
but the general inclination for travellers by road is to get through the area as quickly as possible
Nor is it true to say that the terroir is unspoilt
since the French are expert at systematically spoiling their country
The agreeable sense of isolation is now keener still since the last cross-Channel ferry stopped serving Boulogne (although a high-speed service from Ramsgate is rumoured)
this has had a depressing effect on a once prosperous town
beginning the journey that led to his Travels through France and Italy
the curmudgeonly Tobias Smollett noted the "putrid vapours" of the harbour
He found the locals "very ferocious and addicted to revenge"
Today the locals are more depressed than ferocious: deckhands have become barflies
One of the last remaining reasons to visit Boulogne is the cheesemonger Philippe Olivier
Killing an hour waiting for his shop to open
I sat in an ineffably depressing café just outside the fortified walls of the Vieille Ville
the drunks were tippling flutes of a thin rosé
whose sunny origins mocked the encompassing bleakness
Their florid complexions competed with the joylessly garish Lotto posters
came from the north and its harshness drove him south
Easy listening made it difficult to stay: decline is not picturesque
I bought my boulette d'Avesnes and aged mimolette and left muttering "never again"
A short drive from Boulogne's putrid vapours is Montreuil-sur-Mer and its windswept fresh air
A girdle of fortifications has kept the contents of this hill town intact: there are almost none of the hideous architectural interventions which debauch so many French towns
It is unchanged since Victor Hugo used it as a source for scenes in Les Misérables
if a little self-conscious: the landmark restaurant is Le Darnétal
Along with pitilessly polished copper chafing pans and " bibelots en cuir" (leather trinkets)
The landmark hotel is the Château de Montreuil
where Michelin has scattered its fickle stardust
Despite its lofty Relais & Chateaux status
there is peeling paint on the shutters and faded colour snaps in smeary vitrines
a life-size cut-out of a jolly chef stands bearing a chalked menu in the silent street
gently rising and falling road called the Vallée de la Course follows a modest river and leads to the Auberge d'Inxent where this article began
a graveyard with those glossy black tombs that bring death into disrepute
the occasional buzz of a distant moto ridden by a youth briefly taking a break from the local tradition of eating crisps in a bus stop
The Auberge d'Inxent is truly a Proustian édifice du souvenir
Elizabeth David stayed here when researching that very same French Provincial Cooking
and her account of dinner is so perfectly redolent of a seductive French dream world that it is worth reproducing at length:
"In a country inn in the village of Inxent ..
the dining-room and the service are modest
the cooking is famous both because of the excellence of the materials employed and the skill and simplicity with which the dishes are chosen and presented
served with melted butter so white and creamy that it practically is cream
Almost certainly the next course will be a chicken
the cooking so perfectly timed that you begin to wonder if you have ever really eaten a roast chicken before ..."
The current proprietors are Jean‑Marc and Laurence Six
who continue a commitment to local produce
A map on the menu shows snails from Airon-St-Vaast
fish from Etaples and bière de garde from from Beninfontaine
These find their way into interesting dishes including tarte a l'andouille
lapin du haut pays aux pruneaux and Mrs David's very own truite au bleu (although her favourite sweet omelettes are missing)
the historical reach of the Auberge d'Inxent exceeds its contemporary grasp of modern cooking and hospitality realities
An ambitious-sounding rognons flambés au genièvre (kidneys in jenever) was without point or taste
A request for chablis was met with a crestfallen look and an indifferent minervois offered instead
M'sieur serves dinner wearing a not particularly fresh-looking woolly
the fragile charm of the Auberge does not exceed its practical shortcomings
heating arrangements noisily comic and there is nowhere to sit in the public spaces
my tolerance of French kitsch is diminishing with age; there is no pleasure to be had from the rabbit made of straw which decorated my room
but at least I was grateful there was no television
the same year other diligent French administrators decided to classify in perpetuity the wines of Bordeaux
In the forest are not wild animals and evil spirits
It feels like East Hampton or Virginia Water
The town is built on a grid and filled with cartoonish architecture of gables and turrets which gives way
Le Touquet's international shmutter shops sell these rich their worthlessly expensive baubles
but the rich are evidently not much interested in eating
Best bet is a quick visit to Pérard's oyster bar for a glass of champagne and some natives at the back of the poissonnerie
Here you can also stock up on jars of the excellent own-brand fish soup
fat-armed women stirring vast cauldrons with paddles
across an ugly bridge to the other side of the sluggish River Canche
Aux Pêcheurs d'Etaples is a wonderful French idiosyncrasy: a large restaurant above the fish co-operative's pavilion which has
one of the best glistening and still-twitching arrays of God's finned
shelled and tentacled marine bounty you are ever likely to see
The temptations of fish kitsch have not been avoided and the interior aesthetic depends on marine ropes and portholes
Loo seats are transparent blue with disconcerting fish motifs
The plat du jour was a petite bouillabaisse at €24
The solid fish elements of the soup were fresh
but it was an otherwise undistinguished dish
Mayonnaise was served in the sort of plastic flute used for holding pens and inclined to gather dust
A weekend in the Boulonnais has pleasures and pains
I drove back to the Tunnel with mixed feelings: dreams cannot stand too much critical analysis
La France profonde still exists surprisingly close to London
but the profondeur of the culture is not as deep and impressive as it once was
But that's the mutability of dreams for you
Euroferries (0844 414 5355; euroferries.co.uk) plans to launch a 75-minute service between Ramsgate and Boulogne later this year
Alternatively, Eurotunnel (08443 35 35 35; eurotunnel.com) operates between Folkestone and Calais; a short-break saver ticket costs from £47 each way per car
Auberge d'Inxent, La Vallée de la Course, Inxent (00 33 3 21 90 71 19; auberge-inxent.fr)
Fromagerie Philippe Olivier, 43 rue Thiers, Boulogne-sur-Mer (00 33 3 21 31 94 74; philippeolivier.fr)
Restaurant Le Darnétal, 1 place de la Poissonnerie, Montreuil-sur-Mer (00 33 3 21 06 04 87; darnetal-montreuil.com)
Aux Pêcheurs d'Etaples, Quai de la Canche, Etaples-sur-Mer (00 33 3 21 94 06 90; auxpecheursdetaples.fr)
agglo-boulonnais.fr
tourisme-nordpasdecalais.fr
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