You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed It started with reports of mass nausea and vomiting more than 230 people in Pont Saint-Esprit had been struck with a mysterious combination of sickness Then people started jumping out of windows By the time the dust had settled almost a fortnight later and investigations honed in on the town’s bakery – it was said to be a case of pain maudit Anyone who has read Sophie Mackintosh’s previous two novels might guess that this strange story would capture her imagination It seems to fit the author’s literary sensibility almost too perfectly – like a dark fable and the sense that the everyday world can be suddenly overturned and irrevocably altered That’s before we even get to the troubling theory that Pont-Saint-Esprit was not the victim of a dodgy batch of flour but of a CIA field test of the effects of LSD Mackintosh takes this disturbing and mysterious story and runs rings around it to create a novel that itself feels somewhat poisonous – riddled with secrets and all-consuming obsessions which threaten to spill out like lethal toxins emotional and intellectual unfulfillment collides with the arrival of two enigmatic strangers: the ambassador and his dark-haired Why are Violet’s wrists covered in bruises does Elodie’s reality seem increasingly unstable I spoke to Sophie Mackintosh about speculative history Eloise Hendy: I’m so fascinated by the real-life story of what happened at Pont-Saint-Esprit and I wondered how you found out about that I was just scrolling through Twitter and it was one of those things – “stranger than fiction This weird town where everyone lost their minds and hallucinated” but I just thought it was such a weird story And it wasn’t just the actual story itself – even though there was a whole town suffering from hallucinations which obviously is really interesting – but that there are all these weird theories around it You don’t really expect bread to lead to an event like that and wondering what I could do with the idea of this town that basically gets flipped on its head EH: The story still has this speculative quality because no one knows exactly what happened It feels like you’re more interested in getting at the emotion of what could have happened rather than the straight facts which is quite a different way of approaching a ‘historical novel’ SM: I wanted to use the story more as a jumping-off point I’ve described it as ‘historical speculative’ Cursed Bread is so much about the baker’s wife When you’re writing about a real event – and this was really quite a traumatic event – there is a sense of responsibility I didn’t want to have anything too drawn from real life EH: You wrote Cursed Bread during the pandemic Did it feel very different writing it then I was just in the house 12 hours a day and feeling really unhinged and I think that definitely came through in the book [there was this feeling of] everything being tipped upside down actually [these events are] not massively different the shadow of World War II is always there as well and the idea of this massive collective trauma that everyone has lived through already What will that do to our sense of how we see ourselves Covid just showed how easily the wheels do come off It doesn’t take much for everything to suddenly switch “I was just in the house 12 hours a day and feeling really unhinged and I think that definitely came through in the book .. It doesn’t take much for everything to suddenly switch” – Sophie Mackintosh EH: I love how much of the book is about storytelling and the instability of knowledge and truth and the book opens with her saying “did it really happen like this SM: It is so much about narrative storytelling I just think there are so many ways that something can be told Elodie tells herself a story – she tells herself a story about falling in love with Violet and a story about what Violet’s life is like She’s just existing in her own little world I was talking to someone recently and they said Did Violet and the Ambassador even exist?” And I was like no but it’s interesting that people would have that response Although Elodie is such an unreliable narrator I didn’t see her as completely fabricating other people even if it’s not what I originally intended I was thinking more about the narratives we tell ourselves about our relationships she’s [also] so angry at the idea that she can’t know everything she wants to know and that’s a really understandable impulse for me It would be nice to know everything about the people we love I think with Violet too – not to say she’s a boring character – but I think obsession and desire can really project things onto people it’s the projecting that’s the interesting thing “[Elodie is] so angry at the idea that she can’t know everything she wants to know But you never actually can” – Sophie Mackintosh but you constantly break up the narrative with letters Elodie writes to Violet in the present SM: I wanted to tell the story of the town but also knew that I wanted to look back from where Elodie is now you know what happens and what the story is building towards But then you don’t necessarily know everything and you don't know what happened to the characters So I wanted to slowly reveal that information while we’re also learning about the event The letter form seemed like a good way to do that Just thinking about Elodie physically writing down her thoughts EH: Elodie is read as stable and trustworthy but obviously the reader knows that there’s uncertainty around her all the time constantly evoking the gap between what’s hidden and what’s on the surface and the idea of what you don’t see – you only see a part of it and you can totally misinterpret it She just overhears a little bit of a conversation between the ambassador and Violet I just think that gap between what we know and what we don’t know is so interesting to me You can really let your imagination run away with you And why shouldn’t Elodie have this incredible inner life Why shouldn’t she be passionate and want these things Why can’t there be this whole part of her that nobody sees and has never really been allowed to flourish That’s part of the reason I wanted to have the present-day scenes too because even though she’s very traumatised and be living in a way this life that she did envy – not even the life she envied in Violet but a different life Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh is out now. tells the story of a massed hallucination event in 1951 in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France became sick with what appeared to be food poisoning Their doctors observed the usual gastric upset but also a few uncommon symptoms: enlarged pupils The sickest patients smelled like stale urine and dead mice but they felt wonderfully vigorous and alert “I think this illness—whatever it is—has done me a lot of good I’ve never had so much energy in my life.” M Delacquis’s body expanded massively as he rode past holographically shimmering vineyards his bicycle flying over roads like the golden chariot of Apollo her muscles locked and small limbs spasming They are going to bite me!” She saw tigers in her bedroom walls There is blood dripping from the ceiling!”  believing that he was a strongman in the circus and the bed a series of iron bars he was bending with his hands Mme Moulin was terrorised by visions of a tall doctor in a black suit Sometimes the patients felt euphoric; other times they felt a terrifying urge to kill themselves morphine and chloral hydrate were all useless Those who didn’t hallucinate became obsessed with absurd notions A young technician from the glass factory found he could not stop thinking about potatoes Marie-Joseph’s father begged the doctor not for medicine but for a beaded curtain so he could give the flies somewhere to sit 24 August 1951 is remembered in the village as the Night of the Apocalypse the hallucinating patients became violently psychotic The elderly Mme Rieu jumped out a window and landed in a trellis A married couple chased one another around their kitchen table with knives convinced that enemies were besieging his house He barricaded the doors with furniture and pointed a loaded shotgun into the street tomorrow I am getting married!” he shouted at the gendarmes Charles Veladire tried to hurl himself into the Rhône My head is made of copper and I have snakes in my stomach burning!” It took seven men to drag him off the embankment The village hospital had only one ambulance and three straitjackets; it was rapidly overwhelmed by dozens of weeping A woman screamed at her doctor to stay back and I can fly!” He ran 50 metres down the street with both legs broken bones protruding through his skin and blood soaking his pyjamas Healthy volunteers from the village arrived to help but at least one was so horrified by the scenes inside the hospital that he too reported seeing visions Bandits with donkey ears pursued one patient wherever he went Another saw the hospital attendants as giant fish with gaping Several patients got loose and fought each other with tomato stakes in the garden An older man implored the ambulance crew: “My belly is full of snails I am sending out radio messages everywhere like a machine made for straitjacket tearing so terrified of the massive tiger in his cell that he didn’t notice his teeth breaking M Sauvert was transformed from a circus strongman into a tightrope walker he slipped out of his house and down to the Rhône where a temporary suspension bridge still stood in place of the pont that had been bombed in the war he performed a death-defying routine on a cable high above the river A fireman who spent the night volunteering at the hospital was heard to say “I hope God will never allow again what I have lived through this night.”  The disaster continued long after the Night of the Apocalypse Depression and fear continued to oppress the patients M Delacquis wrote compulsively for three weeks filling pad after pad with poetry to distract himself from a terrible urge to leap from his bedroom window counted the six panels in his bedroom window over and over again The spectre of the headless doctor continued to haunt Mme Moulin’s home At least five people died as a direct result of the poisonings at Pont-Saint-Esprit their organs failing after days or weeks of torment Other victims remained physically or mentally maimed Some spent the rest of their lives in hospitals or rest homes It seemed clear that the villagers had been poisoned by their bread; most of the victims had bought their loaves on 17 August at the same bakery They’d felt the first symptoms within hours of eating it with lunch or dinner and pets and farm animals had died after sharing their crusts the New York Times of August 29 reported definitively that the villagers were “stricken by a poison contained in bread from one of the town’s bakeries” which must have seemed more urgent than ever after the deprivations of the recent war the French government had authorised an organisation called the Union Meunière to distribute all the flour in France this should have ensured that everyone got their daily bread even where harvests were poor; in practice the union was a rich and much resented private monopoly No longer free to choose their own millers bakers had to work with whatever the union delivered cut with inferior grains or dirtied with insect parts even when bakery customers became sick; after the events of 1951 it seemed likely that the negligent union had delivered something even worse than usual Pont-Saint-Esprit’s three doctors blamed ergot and concluded that the flour delivered to M Briand’s bakery must have been contaminated A hydraulic engineer reported finding arsenic and nitrites in the water supply Still others claim to this day that the CIA dosed the village with a then-new drug called LSD Believers point to the CIA’s mid- century mind control experiments under MKUltra only proof that they weren’t above doing it There is a lot of space between ‘would have’ and ‘did’ and if anything the symptoms seem too extreme and 13 years of litigation between the Union Meunière and a victims’ association nicknamed “the society of the not-all-there” The official ruling was that fungicide had accidentally been spilled onto a sack of flour as it travelled by train towards Pont-Saint-Esprit and M Briand’s bakery This explanation had the advantage of being no specific person’s fault and requiring no reforms or further action But eating fungicide has never been shown to cause hallucinations or madness nor most of the physical symptoms recorded but over the years their faint protests faded into nothing as their health failed or they simply gave up Pont-Saint-Esprit’s tigers slipped back into the wallpaper the whole strange episode is referred to simply as le pain maudit—”the cursed bread” The Chthonic Cycle by Una Cruickshank ($35, Te Herenga Waka University Press) is available to purchase from Unity Books The Spinoff Books section is proudly brought to you by Unity Books and Creative New Zealand. Visit Unity Books online today.  A complaint must be first directed in writing the complaint may be referred to the online complaint form at www.presscouncil.org.nz along with a link to the relevant story and all correspondence with the publication a man smashed furniture to ward off imaginary beasts What made residents of a small French town lose their minds – and some lives Yvonne C. Garrett holds an MLIS, an MFA-Fiction, two MAs (NYU), and a Ph.D. with a dissertation focused on women in Punk. Home and the Holy Spirit.” These are the words that thousands of catechumens around the world are preparing to hear on Easter night when they are baptized Aleteia is sharing with you the stories of some of these men and women At the dawn of her adult life, Kenza, 19, already knows what she wants. Two years ago, this young woman with a strong character began preparing for the biggest leap of her life: baptism “I can't wait. I've been preparing for two years,” she says. “I was afraid I wouldn't be ready, because two years goes by fast. But I feel ready, I have no doubts, no fears.” Kenza forged this iron will in the trials of life with her family. “I grew up as a Muslim,” she explains It turned me off to religion as an adolescent.” But the young woman didn’t abandon the conviction that God exists Becoming reacquainted with a friend from high school while in Valencia led the young woman to turn to the Christian faith She would tell me about her weekends when she went to church Kenza nourished her nascent faith by reading the Bible and praying Visiting Valencian churches with her friend was also important to her but a bad experience kept her away from Mass for a few months you don't have a lot of self-confidence and you're easily destabilized,” she says she came across a parish community that welcomed her and where she felt at home “I know that he’s always there with me; it's the first thing I think of in difficult times,” she says I’m also getting baptized for him to prove that my faith is very real,” she adds She even insisted on taking the step after reaching the age of majority “It's very good to be baptized at a very young age because you feed on faith from a very young age,” the young woman continues “But I will remember my baptism all my life she’s completing her preparation with about 10 other catechumens “I want to move forward with Christ and with the whole Christian community,” says the young woman “The parish does me a lot of good; I go to Mass every Sunday and we get together At her side in the group of catechumens is another young woman who’s involved in the same basketball team the whole team will be there to support them who have welcomed her decision and are supporting her When asked which prayer she likes the most “The Hail Mary prayer is the one I learned first.” Her voice changes as she talks about the Virgin Mary Many people must’ve seen it in a strange light She’s a very inspiring woman!” Fighting for Christ: is there a more beautiful promise on the eve of her 20th birthday Articles like these are sponsored free for every Catholic through the support of generous readers just like you Please make a tax-deductible donation today Help us continue to bring the Gospel to people everywhere through uplifting Catholic news This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page the Pont d'Arc is a colossal geologic feature that acts as a gate to the Ardèche Canyon where the world's oldest cave paintings are located Carved out of a solid stone wall over millennia the large stone arch is often thought of as the gateway to the winding canyon Countless canoe enthusiasts flock to the site each year to swim and embark on leisurely trips downstream The rocky overpass also gives its name to the nearby Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave which contains the world's oldest cave paintings and was made famous by the Werner Herzog documentary Harry Potter once visited this massive limestone cliff which was carved by an ancient glacial river Some of the ancient-looking huts among these strange rock formations aren't ancient at all Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful These phallic stone spires once served as Tolkien's Paths of the Dead A seemingly simple canyon that was the backdrop to a number of famous movies Three columns of volcanic rock shoot out of the ocean A seemingly endless landscape of pure salt stretches far across Bolivia A remote Arctic mountain range is home to "granite cities" found almost nowhere else Devereux Milburn came a long way from his work on shorts to directing his first feature film in Honeydew out on their own seeking refuge with a mysterious farmer and kin Little does the couple know; they'll be in their fight for their lives and sanity I spoke with Milburn about how he took the project on from Dark Star Pictures "I had been writing a feature adaptation of the George Saunders script called the 400-Pound CEO at the time for almost two years," Milburn recalled and I was getting a little anxious about the fact that I hadn't really directed anything in over a year When I was sort of just scrambling to figure out how can I get this other film off the ground 'Would you like to shoot a horror feature next month?' I immediately said 'Yes.' I was dubious as to whether or not we'd be able to get that done in such a short period of time We were initially going to be a few friends out acting and some crew going to work for free meals It quickly became something more elaborate He sent me an outline that was basically a couple on a camping trip They basically went from being sort of a creature film to what it wound up being which is somewhat of a body horror backwoods thriller and an inspiration for the fungus came while I was right in the beginning stages of writing a draft." some creative inspiration came in the form of a mid-20th century tragedy "A friend of mine sent an article about mass poisonings in a small French village in the 1950s called Pont-Saint-Esprit where a large portion of the residents of the town became infected by ergot which is a fungus commonly found on rye," Milburn explained I was amazed this happened as recently as the 1950s I was also struck by the idea that it could be really effective through-line that could connect this couple to the land and connect them to someone who lived there who sort of took them in and gave them shelter and seemed like a benign force but who actually was infected by the fungus." shifting from his shorts to a feature-length film proved a dramatic change "The biggest difference is obviously length and preproduction," he said "Every aspect of getting a film off the ground requires more people I obviously hadn't really experienced that before I'd also expected the scale of the film as a very in-depth process in all phases of production and I think my reference being the short format stuff that I worked on did come in handy in that there is a bootstrap effect to working on a small film You get used to working with what you have We were lucky with the cast we have and the locations we got [We were] lucky in a lot of respect and a great crew I think the biggest challenge is that basically all the difficulties you have the challenges you face making a short film are magnified by a thousand when it becomes a feature project." Milburn loved the way his leads played off of each other "We cast Malin about a week or two before we cast Sawyer," he said It was obviously one that's born out of this conflict that these characters are experiencing borne out of the frustrations they feel for one another they just really clicked and were able to sort of work in this comedic effect." In addition to the breakout of ergot the director also inspiration from horror legends like Tobe Hooper Sep 09, 2022 / Written by: Ben Broussard Nestled between dense swampland and the mighty Mississippi River on one side and the vast expanse of Lake Pontchartrain on the vast expanse of Lake Pontchartrain on the other lies the city of New Orleans Spanish moss gently sways in the breeze from the live oaks lining the bayous and choruses of bullfrogs make their homes nearby The sweltering heat and the ever-present threat of hurricanes have long made this land Yet the ways of Divine Providence destined this unique corner of the earth to be the setting for one of the most stunning victories in all of history we celebrate the bicentennial of the event which brought about one of the greatest military triumphs at the hands of the Blessed Mother The Sisters of Saint Ursula arrived in Louisiana in 1727 to begin the education of young women and girls in New Orleans The sisters quickly set themselves to their intended task their work soon largely including the spiritual needs of the colonists Wars between the European powers saw the territory of Louisiana change from French to Spanish hands in 1769 Several Spanish Ursulines had come to help the growing convent but with another change of government the sisters’ stay was cut short The seven remaining French Ursulines in New Orleans quickly became overwhelmed doing their best to maintain their boarding school an orphanage and a regular course of instruction for Negro slaves the French Revolution brought with it the shuttering of all the religious orders in France Sister Saint Michel of the Ursulines of Pont Saint-Esprit in the south of France was forced to quit her convent and return home The dawn of the nineteenth century brought some relief to the French plight and Sister Saint Michel quickly set about her apostolic tasks establishing a boarding school for girls in the city of Montpellier to the delight of the bishop of Montpellier who had in sight the full restoration of the Ursulines within his diocese Sister Saint Michel received a letter from her cousin begging for help with the immense apostolic labors in Louisiana Sister Saint Michel petitioned her bishop to allow her to go to the aid of her fellow Ursulines in the New World insisting the sisters’ work in education was necessary for his diocese ravaged by the Reign of Terror This lowly sister had only one hope of recourse: the Holy Father.In 1807 sending a letter to the Vatican and receiving a reply would take at least four months Pope Pius VII was a prisoner of the Vatican kept under house arrest by Napoleon and his soldiers Sister Saint Michel kept the letter for months finding no opportunity to send her petition Sister Saint Michel confided in the Queen of Heaven Locating a statue that had been discarded in her convent’s attic she fell on her knees before the Mother of God and made the following vow: “O Most Holy Virgin Mary if you obtain for me a prompt and favorable answer to this letter I make the promise to have you honored at New Orleans under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.” In just two days she was able to send the letter after many months with no success The good sister then stood astonished when one month later a messenger arrived with the Holy Father’s reply sending his apostolic blessing to her and her fellow sisters to proceed with their mission in Louisiana She immediately went about the task of honoring Our Lady as she had promised commissioning a life-size statue of the Blessed Mother holding the Infant Jesus could not help but be impressed and demanded to bless the statue when it was finished *A replica of the original statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor brought from France affectionately called “The Little Sweetheart.” Sister Saint Michel and her fellow Ursulines finally arrived in New Orleans on December 30 The statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor was placed in the chapel of the Ursuline convent and the devotion to the Mother of God under this title soon began to spread engulfing much of what would later be known as the French Quarter their convent in imminent danger of being destroyed by the inferno One of the sisters wrote an eyewitness account: commanded the nuns and school children to leave the building she was horrified to see Sister Saint Anthony Mother discovered she was carrying a small statue of Our Lady Sister Saint Anthony hurried to the window on the second floor She set the statue on the sill facing the fire then knelt and prayed with great confidence: ‘Oh Lady of Prompt Succor save us or we are lost!’ At that very instant the wind veered and the flames were blown back over their path of destruction and soon died out.” Our Lady of Prompt Succor thus saved the city from a raging fire and word spread quickly of the Queen of Heaven’s intercession France and England again found themselves at war and the Royal Navy went to extreme measures to man their ships After years of forced enlistment of American sailors into the Royal Navy the British support of Indian raids on America’s western settlements and measures preventing American ships from entering French ports President Madison and Congress declared war on Great Britain on June 18 At first the war was limited to small engagements in Canada and along the Great Lakes but the Treaty of Paris in 1814 soon allowed the British to focus all their resources on defeating the Americans British ships blockaded all American ports and an invading army burned the capital of Washington in August 1814 before withdrawing Sir Edward Packenham was given charge of the British fleet in the Gulf of Mexico with his sights aimed squarely at New Orleans The final review of his expedition at Negril Bay that would attack New Orleans is described by James Parton in his Life of Jackson: “Here was a force of nearly 20,000 men a fleet of fifty ships carrying a thousand guns and perfectly appointed in every way The elite of England’s army and navy were afloat on that bright day of November General Andrew Jackson was quickly dispatched for the defense of New Orleans President Madison issued urgent pleas to the governors of Georgia stating: “Hasten your militia to New Orleans; do not wait for this government to arm them; let every man bring his rifle or musket with him.” Of the 2,250 Kentuckians who arrived shortly before the battle and only one man in three had any arms at all A biographer of Jackson did not overstate the situation when he wrote “There was neither money nor credit in the city All kinds of arms and munitions of war were scarce never was a city so defenseless as New Orleans in the fall of 1814.” The British themselves were well aware of the total lack of defenses and therefore confident of their victory to the degree that the future tax collector for the British crown and a full staff of civil officials had already been appointed and were aboard ship with the invading army Jackson stood at the head of a few thousand men composed mostly of militia from half a dozen states it became widely known that more than 8,000 British troops were preparing for an assault on the city These were the finest soldiers in the world at the time hardened by years of fighting Napoleon’s armies in Europe all hope of defeating such a force was deemed impossible The residents of New Orleans had much to fear from a British invasion not simply the loss of their property and wealth Penal laws targeting Catholics for their faith were still in force in England and many of its colonies and a religious persecution could come with the victorious invading army Memories of persecution were still fresh in the minds of the descendants of Acadian exiles as well as any Irish or Scottish Catholics living in the city The entire population began storming heaven filling the city’s churches while the battle preparations took place General Jackson personally visited the convent of the Ursulines begging their prayers for an American victory Father Dubourg led all the people of the city in prayer before the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor at the Ursuline Convent The sisters made a vow to have a Mass held in honor of Our Lady of Prompt Succor yearly should the Americans emerge victorious Earthworks had been set up at Chalmette Plantation Large bales of cotton rested atop the rustic fortifications to provide protection from the invading enemy The men in the encampments on the American side watched and waited for the superior force they knew would come General Packenham arrived at the battlefield and saw to the preparations for the British advance only to discover the ladders necessary for storming the American position were left on the ships he nonetheless ordered the assault on the defending soldiers and as the morning dawned the British sent up rockets signaling the charge but what happened next stunned the American defenders The British soldiers began hearing conflicting orders and in the confusion the “elite of England’s army” collided with one another When American spies gave the signal that the British were in range General Packenham was unhorsed and killed early on and no natural explanation exists for the chaos and disorder that reigned among the invading troops The lone remaining general sounded the retreat after a mere thirty minutes of engagement The aftermath of the battle had the defenders jumping for joy According to numbers verified by General Jackson more than 2,600 British soldiers lay dead or dying on the battlefield Numerous soldiers on both sides testified to the defenders firing with deadly accuracy Yet half of the American troops never even fired a shot and it was all said and done in only half an hour Our Lady’s victory was as prompt as it was complete A messenger was quickly dispatched to the city and throwing open the door to the convent chapel where Holy Mass was being offered Victoire!” Father Dubourg immediately switched to a Mass of thanksgiving and had the Te Deum solemnly sung in gratitude General Jackson rode to the Ursuline Convent to thank the sisters for their prayers crediting the prayers of the sisters with this stunning victory against the British and always visited them when in New Orleans The news of the victory spread like wildfire now rejoiced at this miraculous turn of events Grand celebrations took place in cities throughout the United States and popular acclaim eventually propelled him to the presidency A triumphant parade took place two weeks after the battle in front of Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans complete with processions and a solemn Mass in thanksgiving The 8th of January was celebrated throughout the United States as a national holiday until the Civil War have yearly honored Our Lady of Prompt Succor on January 8th with a Solemn Mass of thanksgiving held in their chapel Since the miraculous victory granted through Our Lady of Prompt Succor devotion to the Mother of God under that title has only increased in Louisiana and throughout America and the world The sisters’ original convent soon became too small to host the numerous pilgrims and a larger one was constructed in the French Quarter and then an even larger shrine was built which stands today in uptown New Orleans The life-size statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor stands above the high altar of the National Shrine with Catholics coming to seek Our Lady’s intercession in all their needs the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor became the first Marian statue in the United States canonically crowned by a papal delegate pilots began visiting the shrine and begging Our Lady’s protection before taking to the skies Similar testimonials of Our Lady’s maternal care fill the shrine and serve as a living testimony to the power of her aid let us echo the cry of generations of Catholics as we recall this miraculous victory and pray for many more: Print this prayer As seen in Crusade Magazine January/February 2015 Our Lady of Fatima's promises and devotion of The Five First Saturdays given to the Fatima seers in 1917 I want to help America Needs Fatima spread the Fatima message Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker As well as being our primary source of nourishment food can also be one of life’s great joys and quite literally a source of life There have been many recorded cases throughout history in which food has been a source of death and terror And we're not talking about the fact that eating Big Macs every day for 30 years might lead to a heart attack or the fact that you could choke on anything you're eating at almost any time mass poisonings and other accidental catastrophes in which food items themselves are agents of mass destruction and death See some of the strangest food disasters in the gallery above Next, see more unbelievable photos from the Boston Molasses Disaster. Then, check out some of the most bizzare historical photos ever taken Ardèche in south-east France will welcome the first passenger train to stop in the department in 50 years today (August 29 The service to Le Teil station will only be used to reverse trains on their way to Gard It is part of SNCF’s decision to re-open a local line and serve four daily round trips from Pont-Saint-Esprit to Avignon (Vaucluse) and one to Nîmes (Gard) SNCF is expected to open a second regional line and it is hoped Le Teil will then be included as a passenger stop in 2024 a local association representing the interests of public transport users which has long campaigned for local train stops said: “The fact the department is ‘train-free’ was so ingrained in our minds that we’d come to believe they would never come again.” SNCF chose Le Teil as the station is already equipped with technology to reverse trains The station is due to undergo a €12million renovation SNCF uses it around 200 times a year when the line on the left side of the Rhône is under maintenance The return of a passenger service has been talked about since 2010 but many locals had lost hope Cutpsa members plan to meet at Le Teil on August 28 to celebrate the event “My job is now to let people understand they will soon be able to hop on a train from Ardèche,” said Mr Pallier “People had lost faith that it would ever happen over the years.” ‘Smelly’, ‘exceptionally clean’: Your views on French train conditions Are trains in France legally required to have AC during summer months? French train firm SNCF offers railcards at 50% off for one week only Recent power cut in Spain and Portugal is warning to holidaymakers to ensure they are prepared for worst-case scenario The resort is set to remain open to the public and not only to professionals Storms from the weekend will persist across some areas Angry French workers facing layoffs at a Caterpillar factory held four of their bosses Tuesday at the U.S manufacturer's plant in the Alps to protest job cuts It is the third time in the past few weeks that French workers have seized their bosses to protest job losses stemming from the global economic crisis workers at a 3M plant south of Paris held the company boss for two days and earlier this month workers at a Sony plant held a similar protest the mayor of the small town of Pont-Saint-Esprit in southern France was prevented from leaving city hall by townspeople angry over municipal management amid the economic downturn Phone calls to the mayor's office went unanswered but the local police confirmed there was a "crisis." Several hundred workers occupied parts of the Caterpillar plant in Grenoble on Tuesday morning and detained five managers Police later moved in to clear out the seized areas and the managers were allowed to move freely chief of communication for the regional government met with the detained managers and told The Associated Press that their health was good was seen exiting the factory in early evening "The situation is now calm," Aubert said in a telephone interview workers later demanded immediate resumption of talks Management said they would only start talking Wednesday according to a police official who visited with the four Caterpillar officials being held the mangers were still being prevented from leaving their offices The two sides were at odds over the amount of the layoff package being offered to workers with the workers demanding 110 million euros and management holding firm at 48.5 million euros Ill.-based Caterpillar said it was hoping for a quick solution to the problem "Our utmost priority is to find a solution that guarantees the sustainability of our presence in Grenoble," said a statement quoting senior Caterpillar executive Chris Schena "We are committed to continue to provide employment in Grenoble." Unions representing the workers said they had detained the managers because they wanted new talks on Caterpillar's layoff plans at the site in Grenoble The plant that produces building equipment is supposed to cut 733 jobs in two of its factories in France but simply pressure so they restart negotiations," said Pierre Piccarreta "At a time when the company is making a profit and distributing dividends to shareholders we want to find a favorable outcome for all the workers and know as quickly as possible where we are going," Piccarreta said Caterpillar France says the layoffs are justified the company said it was facing a 55 percent loss of orders between 2008 and 2009 In response to the worsening economic prospects Caterpillar in January announced job cuts that will ultimately eliminate 20,000 positions worldwide the leaf blower war or the anti-'woke' backlash World Subscribers only Germany's Friedrich Merz is embracing pragmatism World Subscribers only Trump-Carney meeting: Canada seeks reconciliation World Subscribers only Friedrich Merz bets on two private sector converts to revive the German economy and reform the state World Subscribers only Founder of Sant'Egidio community fears next pope could undo Francis's legacy Opinion Subscribers only 'Russian gas and Europe is an old story that ended badly Economy Subscribers only Europe's steel industry flattened by crisis World Subscribers only How European countries plan to fund defense efforts France Subscribers only Macron announces citizens' convention on school schedules France Subscribers only 21 charged over French prison attacks as investigation narrows in on drug traffickers France Subscribers only French mosque stabber was driven by 'morbid fascination,' prosecutor says France Subscribers only At the trial of Kim Kardashian's robbers Videos World expos: From Paris 1855 to Osaka 2025 Videos How the Trump administration is attacking scientific research in the US Videos Tesla cars set on fire in Las Vegas as calls to boycott Musk's company grow worldwide Videos Can France's nuclear deterrent protect Europe Opinion Subscribers only 'The American dream is dying' Opinion Subscribers only John Bolton: 'The term chaos is commonly used to describe the top of the Defense Department' Opinion Subscribers only 'It is pointless to imagine a significant wave of American academics leaving' Magazine Subscribers only Tracking down the pianos taken from French Jews during the Nazi Occupation Magazine Subscribers only Eve Rodsky the American helping couples balance the mental load Magazine Subscribers only Desecration or more glory Joan Didion's private diaries are revealed Magazine Subscribers only For Jewish cartoonist Joann Sfar 2025."> Pixels Subscribers only Golden Owl solution is revealed but leaves players of 31-year hunt disappointed Pixels Subscribers only Secrets of decades-long Golden Owl treasure hunt to be revealed Lifestyle Inside Chanel's French leather workshops Culture Subscribers only The marvelous bronzes of Angkor on display at the Musée Guimet in Paris the 60-year-old retired to his house in southern France and lost interest in acting He finally agreed to star in Jacques Audiard's first film which cast him in the role of another scoundrel inspiring disgust This was the name written by Jacques Audiard at the top of his notebook when he started working on his first film Michel Audiard's son had some success by writing about 15 film scripts it was time to make a proper name for himself and by himself He wanted to adapt the detective story A Hopeless Trio in which a salesman goes in search of his friend's two murderers Jean Yanne was to play the salesman and it was obvious to the man who was about to go behind the camera that the role of the middle-aged mobster watching over his naive and inexperienced sidekick When Audiard was asked what image he had in mind of Trintignant where the actor gave a lesson in posture and seduction When he asked the question "What is it to talk to a woman?" Audiard had an answer ready: "Well we press the 'Jean-Louis' button and it's wonderful." To define that voice he had this expression: "It makes your hair stand on end." The filmmaker wanted to dress this voice differently Trintignant was used to playing psychopaths and bastards since The Sleeping Car Murders and The Conformist he had always wrapped them in a sharp steely elegance He would be the evil man oozing sweat and inspiring disgust You have 90.89% of this article left to read Lecture du Monde en cours sur un autre appareil Vous pouvez lire Le Monde sur un seul appareil à la fois Ce message s’affichera sur l’autre appareil Parce qu’une autre personne (ou vous) est en train de lire Le Monde avec ce compte sur un autre appareil Vous ne pouvez lire Le Monde que sur un seul appareil à la fois (ordinateur En cliquant sur « Continuer à lire ici » et en vous assurant que vous êtes la seule personne à consulter Le Monde avec ce compte Que se passera-t-il si vous continuez à lire ici Ce dernier restera connecté avec ce compte Vous pouvez vous connecter avec votre compte sur autant d’appareils que vous le souhaitez mais en les utilisant à des moments différents Nous vous conseillons de modifier votre mot de passe Votre abonnement n’autorise pas la lecture de cet article merci de contacter notre service commercial A woolly history of stage acting; a sensuous tale of deadly obsession in a French town; and a seminal exploration of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate The English Actor: From Medieval to ModernPeter AckroydReaktion The biographer and historian Peter Ackroyd is justly celebrated for his innovative and enthralling writing his previous flair has left him and its loss is to be much mourned Ackroyd takes a fascinating and potentially rich subject – the evolving role of the theatre actor in Britain from medieval times to the present day – and smothers it beneath windy generalisations and Wikipedia-level summaries of actors’ careers There is a brilliant book to be written about this topic but this Sophie Mackintosh’s remarkable third novel is loosely inspired by a still-unexplained historical event in which the inhabitants of the French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit succumbed to a mass poisoning in 1951 This is the backdrop to a sensuous and thrillingly written account of the growing obsession that the frustrated baker’s wife Elodie comes to feel for the glamorous mysterious Violet and her ambassador husband who arrive in town and set about causing discord among the local people Mackintosh’s evocation of longing and desire is so tangible that the reader can smell the aroma of illicit sex There have been countless books written about the leading players in this period but in this ceaselessly fascinating account of one of the most epochal events in the country’s history the deserved winner of the Pol Roger Duff Cooper prize Anna Keay skilfully delves beneath the well-worn cliches about the Commonwealth and brings a time of quiet uncertain and ultimately fruitless revolution to vivid life It is hard to imagine a better examination of the Protectorate To order The English Actor, Cursed Bread or The Restless Republic go to guardianbookshop.com This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media Dozens of communes across the south of France have been listed as natural disaster (catastrophe naturelle) zones as a result of drought conditions in 2023 Property owners in the 84 communes – in the Alpes-Maritimes Lozère and Gard departments – now have 30 days to make insurance claims if their homes were damaged by the droughts.  The classification has been made for communes that were affected by the “differential ground movements caused by drought and soil rehydration” between April and June 2023 (for the commune in Lozère this is between July and September 2022).  To make claims for damage caused by natural phenomena such as this insurance companies require the commune where a property is situated to be classed as suffering from a natural disaster.  This classification comes after a weather event such as flooding or drought The issue with drought damage though is that it may not immediately show but in fact can take several months to appear often creating cracks in a property’s walls Homeowners will need to lodge a compensation claim – you can read how to do this below.  Read more: France’s ‘catastrophe naturelle’ insurance system: how to claim Note the rules are the same both for main residencies and second homes If your home was damaged by last year’s droughts and your commune has not been listed in the Journal Officiel you can contact your mairie to see if a claim has been submitted.  If you have evidence of your property being affected Read more: Second-home owners in France could soon face insurance surcharge One commune is affected in Lozère: Vieille-Brioude Communes affected in the Alpes-Maritimes are: Antibes Full information can be found in the Journal Officiel These communes were declared as natural disaster zones after being assessed by government experts French succession laws can qffect inheritance of property from a step-parent Couple may sue French council over drainage issues in their bargain property Stricter regulations and rising costs are challenging landlords prompting a reclassification as 'touristic accommodation' The Barry Troglodyte Village ("Village troglodytique de Barry") is a series of underground houses that were inhabited continuously—as far as we know—from the Neolithic era to the early 20th century the houses started to fall apart in the 18th century the number of inhabitants in the village fell to only about 50 only one widow and her servant remained in the village and they were convinced to leave after a number of collapses killed off their neighbors the hill that contains the village was a strategically chosen site and south and watch for approaching threats Archeologists digging in the area have found Paleolithic arrow heads and a collection of other prehistoric tools Driving north only 2 km from Bollène on the D26 The small road zig-zags up a narrow valley and ends at the village This spaceship-like structure was once a popular roadside restaurant A cluster of cylindrical apartment buildings nod to the city’s vegital past A medieval shrine set into a towering canyon wall A grand Buddhist temple with Indian influences A never-finished memorial to the heroes of the Napoleonic War has become "Scotland's Folly." these three clustered bridges were just one part of a Slovenian architect’s grand vision one of London’s most iconic city gates was dismantled A German “baron” built this castle for his wife Powered by Bury Free Press, Suffolk Free Press, Newmarket Journal & Haverhill Echo Powered by Bury Free Press, Suffolk Free Press, Newmarket Journal and Haverhill Echo Home   Haverhill   News   Article It is hoped that a first ever visit to the two secondary schools in Haverhill by 38 students from a French school will be the first major step towards creating long-lasting links between the three schools The group of 14 and 15-year-old students and three teachers from Notre Dame College in Haverhill’s twin town of Pont-Saint-Esprit spent a day in Haverhill last Tuesday The visit saw the students spend a morning sharing lessons with Year ten students in Haverhill – half of them at Samuel Ward Academy and the rest at Castle Manor Academy They then got to tour Haverhill Arts Centre with a free drink and popcorn and had some fish and chips from Benny’s Bar-B-Q while visiting The Royal Exchange pub on High Street before returning to Coulsdon in south London The visit to Suffolk was arranged as part of a mission to forge the links between the schools one involving not just the schools but Haverhill Town Twinning Association (HTTA) and the Pont-Saint-Esprit Twin Towns Association a teacher of English at Notre Dame College said: “The best thing for me would be that we can host families in France and families here can host us and that would be the top thing that we could do with the twin towns committee because I know some families don’t have the money to pay for a trip because it is quite expensive “One of the teachers told me that some of the students have never been anywhere else because of that problem so If we can build many links we can host each other and make friends It is really difficult for us to find English speaking pen pals for our students.” When the Notre Dame students return to France they will have a first-hand experience of sampling a different culture and language and of meeting people of their own age in another country that they can share and recall She added: “They are experiencing it and when you experience it “I think its great for the children to be here.” Headteachers Vanessa Whitcombe (Castle Manor) and Andy Hunter (Samuel Ward) said: “We were delighted to welcome the students and give them an insight into our education system it gave them a valuable opportunity to ask questions and integrate with students from another country “It was mutually beneficial and hopefully something we can do more of in the future.” After the visit the HTTA thanked Sara Marsh and all arts centre staff Elena Kitsis and staff at Benny’s and Dionne and Brian Walford and their staff at the Royal Exchange The installation of new town signs at five different entrances into Haverhill have been welcomed New boards displaying the names of Haverhill’s twin towns in both France and Germany - Pont St Esprit and Ehringshausen - have been added to the existing signs The signs had previously displayed the twin towns’ names but those names were removed following a decision in January 2012 by the Haverhill Area Working Party - at the recommendation of ONE Haverhill - to have new signs put up that carried the cb9 logo The loss of Pont St Esprit and Ehringshausen from the signs led to a request from Haverhill Twin Town Association (HTTA) to Haverhill Town Council for help in having the new ones put up She said: “On behalf of the twin towns association I would like to thank Haverhill Town Council and (Haverhill Mayor) Roger André for doing this for us because they are wonderful “When our visitors come to us it’s not very nice to see Haverhill signs with no twin towns mentioned on them Haverhill is mentioned on their signs so it’s a bit embarrassing when they come here “We were not asked about them ( the new signs put up in 2012) at all They just went up and suddenly there was no twin towns mentioned at all on the signs.” Mr André said: “We are delighted that the town twinning signs have been restored at the gateways to our town “We are proud of our long tradition in our links with Ehringshausen in Germany and with Pont St Esprit in “Exchanges between our twinned communities support cultural links and demonstrate our outward looking engagement with our European cousins “The life of our community is enriched through our links and our shared histories “Our young people are growing up in a world of international commerce and community co-operation – our international links provide a springboard for their aspirations.” A group of 18 students from St Michael School accompanied by four others from St Aloysius' College recently returned from a week-long visit to the region of Bagnols-sur-Cèze The visit reciprocated an earlier visit to Malta by a group of French students from Collège Bernard de Ventadour and the student exchange formed part of an e-twinning project that St Michael School has with the college the soirée théâtrale at Uzès the Musée d'Art Sacré de Pont-Saint-Esprit apart from going for walks in woods and by rivers In Bagnols-sur-Cèze's salle de la Pyramide the Maltese students performed in both French and Maltese the play Matti written by Joe Friggieri and directed by Clive Piscopo and Elaine Pace accompanied the students during the visit For their week-long visit to Malta the French students attended the school's sports and cultural evenings and were taken on excursions around the Maltese Islands including tours of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra and visits to Mdina and Gozo arranged by project co-ordinator Tonio Caruana please register for free or log in to your account.