It's sad to walk in an european city

I have to say, that Lloyds building pictured above is simply hideous and inhuman. Rather than think art and architecture are evolving, it seems to me they are devolving.

 

In may respects we can look at ancient things which still exist like Roman aquaducts and realize they are over 2,000 years old and then look at things we build today,none of which will last 500 years let alone 2,000.It also takes us forever to build things today, despite the fact we now have machinery doing the heavy labor.

 

There's not much of Hadrian's Wall left. Bleedin locals stole it.

 

Not that sad. The contrast has never bothered me much. Just looking at any cathedral in a major European city can be breathtaking due to the "artwork". Yes, "art" - because I can't really see that in modern buildings nowadays.

If one looks at some buildings in the US (particularly NYC) - built in the early 20th century - one sees an architectural desire to copy some of the more magnificent architecture of ancient cathedrals in Europe. That device no longer exists in modern architecture as a guiding principle.

The buildings of the 16th through 19th century were mostly constructed by monarchs, who thought that building a church just might get them into heaven. They were all very Christian. (As if that matters one iota, which it does not.)

Yes, today's buildings are more modern but - believe me - they are a lot more safe than those of the past. Come a major earthquake and you'll be better off rushing into a modern building than a church in which to pray to save you life.

Frankly, I think most modern buildings are ugly. The churches were real architectural marvels that often took centuries to complete. History records show 5/7 successive families were very often involved in the construction. The Vatican took more than 120 years to complete in the 16th/17th century.

Stone is a very difficult material with which to build and particularly if height is a major consideration of a building's design - especially given that hydraulic-devices were not invented until the late 19th century ...

 

When the Romans wanted to build the colosseum, they knew that they would be needing a considerable amount of water. People spent hours upon hours looking at the "games". Rome did not have that many wells.

The Roman "engineers" (yes, that is what they were given their talent) went to a mountain about 40 kilometers outside of Rome and bore a tunnel through it from which poured water onto a viaduct. The hole they dug out has been measured by laser. It is exact to within a variation of 1cm throughout its length of about 2 kilometers ...

The aqueduct (parts of it still there in the Italian countryside today) took the water to the outskirts of Rome and underground directly to the Colosseum.

Roman aqueducts are all over the place - a country they colonized could not exist without them ...

 

If I saw that I would think there must be a fast food joint nearby.

 

Where else on the planet is there such exquisite architectural beauty!

 

French (like most Latin-languages) is a verbose language, but only because the French have a bad habit of listening to themselves and repeating everything in a different form just to hear it. Moreover they get carried away emotively.

English is more succinct and repetition of any thought is frowned upon. The American variant of the language has become guttural. The English learn their language at school. Americans assimilate commonly anything they hear on the BoobTube. Which is why words change constantly.

Fortunately, the Brits had a French monarchy for a long period of time and some of British English's best words are of French origin ...

 

Yes, I'm from Normandy. It's ironic because for the middle age times, you find almost more french text in england than in France because french author prefered to writte either in latin or in occitan (for the southern part).

 

is it still spoken?

 

it does look odd huh...its designed so all the utility crap is on the outside so that the inside is basically just free space. The ground floor is an open space about the size of an aircraft hangar..it terms of functionality its good - the main trading floor is open and well lite but the trading galleries (1 to 3) are a bit pokey and in summer the air-con is pretty ineffective so it gets pretty warm. Trouble is its now past its sell by date and cannot be upgraded to a modern standard so from a practical perspective it sucs

 

Extremly rarely, but it has people who defend this language with a lot of conviction and try to keep it alive. It was much closer to italian or spanish. French is a latin language BUT its phonetic come from celtic, occitan, italian and spanish are latin language with latin pronunciation.

 

..good for them!
Its good that some people like to keep their historical culture going

 

Thanks for the additional information

 

A very interesting description of the early languages employed between England and France here: Anglo-Norman Language - but perhaps you know this history already given that you're from Normandy.

Most Brits I know here in France are hapless at French. But they remain nonetheless fascinated by the language. This may change finally with the present generation - they seem less inhibited and willing to absorb everything like sponges.

L'on verra ...

 

Yes.

The most essential today is to learn english. In a way, american and british are unlucky, because it's a strength to have to learn another language, english. "Difficulties strengthen the mind as labour strengthen the body".

I don't know if french will matter that much in the future, France is a not that big country, but Africa is developping.

I speak mostly english, I know some words in german, I would like to learn spanish and russian too.

 

French is spoken in a great many different countries other than France, so it has got "legs".

Learning other languages can be fun and rewarding. But as time goes on, if not constantly in use, they fade away ...

 

...the quote you used...where did that come from...did I say that?

 

I think so, since I copy a quote always to indicate to whom I am directing a message.

Then again, this system, though not bad at all, can get "screwed up" by presenting two different quotes.

It happens rarely but it happens ...

 

I'm all like...

because I'm in England.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are the only ones with sugar in them; no Sprite, 7up, Fanta, Dr. Pepper, all aspartame.

 

Maybe what Europe was really doing was preserving a bit of Greek and Roman civilization for a time...but now that time is passing?

 

PLANET EARTH

I beg to differ, Votre Altesse.

Europe is continuing its evolution along the same line as begun in the 19th century. The 20th century was largely a "hiccup" with two World Wars both of which were started and finished in Europe. (What a waste of time, people and energies.)

Which for some (like me) is simply the time spent in evolving our species to a higher plateau of existence. And that higher level is a Social Democracy that is just taking root. And not dieing. On the contrary.

It is high-time that the world realizes what philosophers have been saying for more than a century. That is, "We are all in the same boat", called Planet Earth.

The planet is presently (after a brief hiccup called The Great Recession) set to expand very energetically with the advent of the Information Age - the upstart of which is new-jobs in new-places. (Since the old-jobs have mostly moved to southeast-Asia, which (in turn) is moving some of those jobs to East Africa that badly needs them. One should see the report on Chinese factories being built there. Find it here.)

But, as I am fond on insisting, this new Information Age that is upon us does have its special requirements. First and foremost of which is a highly professional work-force. Yes, we still need farmers and snow-plows to clear the roads in winter, but those roads lead increasingly to jobs not in factories but in offices.

The clear necessity for Europe therefore is clear: Graduate more Tertiary-level Degree holders. Yes, our economies in Europe are moving 'up-market". And to sustain them we must put even more people into and out of post-secondary schooling. (Which, unlike the US, is mostly free, gratis and nearly for nothing.)

Given the devastation of WW2, Europe has gone full-speed ahead in rebuilding its workforce back up to an acceptable level of tertiary education attainment: