La France profonde

Courtesy of The Guardian, the Atlas des Régions naturelles. Photographer Eric Tabuchi and painter Nelly Monnier are halfway through a project to photograph every region of France: prevented by Covid restrictions from continuing their travels, they have put the work-in-progress online.

There's an intriguing tension at the heart of the project. France's 500-odd régions naturelles are not, whatever The Guardian may tell you, "a bit like British counties", they are more like the tourist designations, the 'South Lakes' or 'Heritage Coast': you might expect the Atlas a guide to the beauty spots, the attractions of the region. Instead it favours the downbeat, the abandoned or ruined. The organisation is by 'natural' region, but the majority of the pictures show artificial structures, buildings (many of them derelict), advertising signs, lots of concrete. There are no interesting camera angles, and the sun does not shine. Despite which...

These are not, on the whole, the pictures I would take; but many of them are things I would regret not being able to photograph, as we drive past. Individual images have a perverse appeal, and the cumulative effect, viewed as a grid, is a portrait of France which reminds me (as if I could forget) how frustrated I am not to be able to visit. I could lose myself for hours in the searchable archive: choose a region, or a colour, or a theme (heritage or discotheques, synagogues or coastal scenery) or a combination of these, and enjoy...

Apples and snakes

Wiltshire man discovers new variety of apple while out jogging.

I don't think it spoils the story to know that Archie Thomas, the hero of the tale, works for a wild plant and fungi conservation charity (Plantlife) and wasn't entirely taken by surprise by his discovery.

I love that he lives in the Nadder Valley: I don't know the origin of that place-name, but I do know that a nadder is an adder - so the apple was given to him by a snake.