les Davey de France

taken either with my phone or with my compact camera. My camera has a fixed lens, at 28mm. It's a little wide for my liking really. I prefer a 35mm lens. It means you get lots of converging verticals, but you can fix those with a natty little programme called Snapseed. When I'm in the tram or the bus I enjoy loading photos onto Instagram, always with the LoFi filter and increased light.

I left on Monday afternoon for Istanbul - firstly a fast train to Paris, then an overnight flight to Istanbul. I arrived at 4am. After a bit of messing around trying to decide which bank machine to use, then eating breakfast at - oh the shame of it - Starbucks - I spent a while trying to work out how to use the transport network, then travelled to Sultanahmet, the historic heart of the city. In legend the city was founded by King Byzas who gave it the name sometimes used for the early Greek period of the city : Byzantium. Then in 330 Constantine was attracted by the strategic position of the city and founded the new capital of his empire there: Constantinople. For over 1000 years the city would become the centre of the Greek-speaking, Eastern Roman Empire, while the Western Empire and its old capital Rome was overrun and sacked by barbarian tribes. Constantine built churches. Hagia Eirene (Aya Irini) was the seat of the archbishopric and the site of the church counciles that took...

Mrs Davey is immobolised by her back problem, so I scuttled out for a quick sortie in the sunshine.  The police were gathering for this afternoon's ... meeting.  I chatted with another tram passenger. We're all fed up of these clashes taking place in our city. It's become the battleground of a conflict that is not ours.

First Brexit. Then Trump. Not to mention various other fascinating situations, like Venezuela, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, etc.. Now we heard yesterday that our beloved Mayor of Bordeaux, M. Juppé, is leaving. He's been asked to sit on the French constitutional committee and was given 24 hours to give his decision. He loves the city of Bordeaux and has presided over its transformation. The trams are from his mandate. The quotes were transformed from inner city wasteland to waterfront gardens. Our area is one of his projects. He's quick, funny, positive, optimistic and his watchword is moderation. He was banned from public office for 18 months in, I think, 2003, because of his implication in the Paris fictitious jobs scam that siphoned funds into someone's electoral campaign illegally, if I remember rightly. He ceded the job to his deputy, Hugues Martin, went to Canada to lecture at a university and afterwards came back and resumed his work. I'll miss him terribly. ...