Built around the year 50 – not 1950 just 50. That is special. No mortar, just stones and iron clamps and in relatively pristine condition (restored in the 18th and 19th century). A Roman aqueduct crossing the Gardon river – thus water over water. For those who like numbers it’s 50m (165 feet) high, and 275m (900 feet) long. The lower level has 6 huge arches, the middle level 11, and the top level 35 small arches containing the conduit. The aqueduct runs 50 kilometers (31 miles) with only a 17m fall. For those who like beauty, history and engineering come and see this marvel. It’s a World Heritage Site (UNESCO) and is located between Nîmes and Avignon in Southern France, in the Province of Provence. As for the name Pont du Gard – pont is French for bridge and Gard is a reference to the river always called Gardon, though the Department and the bridge are called Gard.

Original appearance Oct 29, 2005, © 2005 / ELSEWHERE / OUTSIDE PARIS / STILL IN FRANCE / PONT DU GARD / CIP 164, OO 14, RD 07, YP 30/7-7

Françoise DOLTO / THE BEGINNING & the End / 100L / A 241*

She was a physician and a psychoanalyst who believed you could talk to unweaned infants to help them grow. Conception was a meeting of 3 not 2, and development a series of ‘castrations’ (cutting the umbilical cord etc.). Perhaps if I were a cowgirl I could understand all this better. Anyway, she and Jacques Lacan started a major schism in the Paris Psychoanalytic Society which raged for years. They apparently lost all the battles, but may have, with the ‘me’ generation, won the war.

Original appearance Oct 29, 2005, © 2005 / Marcel PROUST / The Beginning & THE END / 100B / A 241*

In the end you remember. Maybe madeleine (or marzipan if you’re English) is the trigger. ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ was his masterwork, which is apparently now called ‘In Search of Lost Time’, and that in itself perhaps illustrates best the difficulty of memory. I expect Marcel Proust would have appreciated the irony. According to contemporaries his work was either brilliant or unreadable, but I suspect it may be unintelligible before, or sometimes after, a certain age.

For more relevant information see A 241 or a Two for One

Original appearance Oct 29, 2005, © 2005 / Françoise DOLTO / 1908-1988 / psychiatrist, analyst, infant / good / C-/C / 100L / 400A / 14 / Marcel PROUST / 1871-1922 / author, novelist, intellectual / better / B+/C / 100B / CIP 400, OO 14, RD 29, YP 30/6-29

Set the stage. Roland Garros Stadium, French Tennis Open, men’s single final, 1983, Yannick Noah (France) vs. Mats Wilander (Sweden). It has been 37 years since the last Frenchman won (Marcel Bernard, 1946). It will be at least 24 years more before it happens again (it hasn’t yet). 6/2, 7/5, 7/6 straight sets – a French Champion. It is impossible to conceive how big that is in France! And the guy is really good, a 12 year career; 23 singles titles, 16 doubles titles. Then he captained the French Davis Cup team to victory in 1991 (for the first time in 50 years) and repeated it in 1996 & 1997. In the meantime he reinvents himself as a singer and in 1993 begins a music career. Patterns himself after Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Marley, and is successful at that too. What is more he comes across as a genuinely good man. Maybe he is even more than a double doubles champion.

And as an update his son did rather well playing for Florida in the NCAA's March Madness this year. Of course I was rooting for UCLA so I won't go into that in depth here.

Original appearance Oct 29, 2005, © 2005 / Yannick NOAH / 1960- / sport, tennis, musician / better / B+ / 56 / CIP 356, OO 14, RD 29, YP 30/6-29

The French have a very special place in their heart for Raymond Poulidor. It is well deserved and I love him too. Every year for three weeks in July every French person lends one eye and one ear to the Tour de France, the greatest bike race in all of history. Poulidor, whose nickname was Pou Pou, had the misfortune to be sandwiched between the two great champions Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx. They always got to wear the coveted yellow jersey that signified the leader of the general classification at the end of the day. Poulidor was a great climber, attacked often, and was a very good man – manners, bearing, demeanor, the whole shebang. He won many other bike races, for example the Criterium International four times. He was on the podium for the Tour seven times (2nd 3x, 3rd 4x), and he won 7 individual stages. He was the greatest bike rider ever to never wear yellow. It is however instructive, and perhaps some consolation, that he made this list of the 100 Greatest Frenchmen – and no other bike rider did – including all those who wore yellow.

Original appearance Oct 29, 2005, © 2005 / Raymond POULIDOR / 1936- / sports, cyclist, TDF, Mercier / best / A+ / 81/ CIP 381, OO 14, RD 29, YP 30/6-29

Jean FERRAT / THE LEFT And The Right Of It / 88L / A 241*

He was on the Left and believed in the divine right of peasants. He was a talented poet, musician and singer who often headlined at the Alhambra. He was strongly active in political matters, and usually leaned towards the Communist persuasion. Jean Tenenbaum was his real name but he was known as Jean Ferrat. He was most famous for his moustache and his 1975 album ‘Woman is Man’s Future’.

Original appearance Oct 29, 2005, © 2005 / Cardinal de RICHELIEU / The Left And THE RIGHT Of It / 88B / A 241*

He was on the Right and believed in the divine right of kings, especially Louis XIII. Known as ‘ the Red Eminence’ Cardinal Richelieu ended feudalism, crushed the Huguenots, rebuilt the Sorbonne, and founded the French Academy. Mostly though he centralized and greatly enhanced the power of France vis-à-vis the Hapsburgs. He once wrote: “an honest man writes 6 lines and I can hang him.” Maybe that is why there is no Right left in France.

For more relevant information see A 241 or a Two for One

Original appearance Oct 29, 2005, © 2005 / Jean FERRAT / 1930- / musician, singer / ugly* / F-/F / 88L / 388A / 14 / Cardinal de RICHELIEU / 1585-1640 / statesman, Louis XIII / B/F / 88B / CIP 388, OO 14, RD 29, YP 30/6-29