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Exploring the unlikely intersections of walking, photography and making

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CDMX: Three Homes

An architect, an artist, a revolutionary. (more…)

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Posted in Local Walks, Mexico City and tagged architecture, artist, barragan, casa, casa azul, Colonia Del Carmen, communism, coyacan, homes, houses, kahlo, marxism, mexico, Mexico City, Photography, rivera, Tacubaya, trotsky on December 10, 2018 by David Firman. 2 Comments

Welcome to Walkclickmake

David Firman, photographer, writer and creator of WalkClickMake. I'm usually behind the camera which makes this photo fairly rare. Thanks to my wife, Gail Perry for taking it (we were on the Camino de Santiago) and, more importantly, editing the text for every post!

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Walking to Rome: Via Francigena Day 13 The Via Francigena may have originated as a religious pilgrimage dating back to the 900s (if not earlier). But here, today, as Gail and I walk through the rolling farmland of northern France, we are reminded over and over again that the line we follow is as much informed by the Great War as it is by religion. Yes, there are the small villages dominated by tall-spired churches. But even these carry the weight of war. In Sapignies we are surprised by the unique design of Saint-Pierre parish church. Its slender red brick tower is embedded with starkly modern stone crosses. Below, two highly stylized stone caryatids support the massive tower. The church is, unmistakably, a fine example of the Art Deco style popularized in the twenties and thirties, soon after the war was over. Implying, of course, that an older church, perhaps going back a century or two or three, once occupied this site and was destroyed during the war, just a few years earlier. Here, in northern France, Art Deco transcends architectural style. It invokes a sense of loss, remembrance and rebirth from those four tragic years. As we continue along the Western Front, marvelling at Art Deco architecture in Arras, Bethune and many small villages and towns, we are ever-reminded that the style is code for “war was here first.” #viafrancigena #longwalks #pilgrimage #greatwar #worldwarone #commonwealthwargravescommission #france

Walking to Rome: Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Vaast #arras #viafrancigena #pilgrimage #stvaast #cathedral #architecturelovers #france

Walking to Rome: Arras, Saturday Market. #arras #outdoormarket #france #foodphotography #viafrancigena

Walking to Rome: Vimy As I write this, back in Winnipeg, I am aware that tomorrow is November 11, Remembrance Day. Tomorrow, Gail and I will attend, as we do every year, the Valour Road Memorial Day Service, a short walk away from our Wolseley home. Valour Road, formerly Pine Street, commemorates three recipients of the Victoria Cross for their acts of bravery during World War One. Remarkably, all three lived on Pine Street in Winnipeg before heading into battle in France and Belgium. It is a matter of good fortune that today’s entry in my day-by-day photo diary of our Via Francigena pilgrimage takes us to the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, just 10 kilometres north of Arras, where we are taking a rest day. The Great War has preceded us daily as we trek across France, roughly following the Western Front. Canadian, Commonwealth and German cemeteries have dotted our path. Just yesterday, we stood on a ridge with the war-ruined towers of Mont-Saint-Éloi. And today, on September 21, 2019, a short taxi ride from Arras will deliver us to the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. The Battle of Vimy Ridge, which took place from April 9 to 12, 1917 was one of many significant battles in which Canadian troops were engaged and paid dearly There are restored fragments of trenches and tunnels that once faced German trenches and tunnels as little as 25 metres away. The pockmarked landscape created by artillery fire and tunnel explosions is partially softened by a landscape of manicured lawn and trees. Off to the side are two graveyards. Canadian Cemetery No. 2 holds 3,000 Commonwealth soldiers. 370 of them are Canadians who perished on Vimy Ridge. the adjacent Givenchy Road Canadian Cemetery holds 100 more Canadians. But it is a small reminder of the 3,598 Canadians killed during that four day battle on the ridge. Standing some distance from tunnels, trenches and cemeteries and perched high atop Hill 145, the memorial is intended to commemorate the 11,285 Canadians who died in France and whose final resting place was unknown in 1921. 11,285 names are inscribed in the base of this magnificent memorial to the cost of war. Rest In Peace. #vimyridge #remembranceday #worldwar1

Walking to Rome: Via Francigena Day 12 Frévin-Capelle/La Grenouillère/Anna; Abbaye de Mont-Saint-Éloi; Église catholique; Saint-Martin d’Écoivres; Le Marais de Mareoeuil; Arras Poor Mont-Saint-Éloi. Its abbey was established as far back as the 7th century. Over the next many hundreds of years, it rose to prominence as a major religious centre. That power sealed its fate in the late 1700’s with the French Revolution. The abbey was sacked and its stone walls dismantled, leaving just the west-facing porch and its two tall towers. During the First World War, it suffered yet one more humiliation. The French used the towers to spy on German troop locations on nearby Vimy Ridge. The Germans took note and promptly bombarded the towers, reducing what was left of their intact 55 metre height to a crumbling 44 metres. Perched atop a modest mound overlooking the low-slung countryside, the sad towers are reminders of centuries of conflict, visible for miles. Visible in 1917 to Canadian soldiers at Vimy. Visible yesterday on the horizon as we approached Frévin-Capelle. Ever more visible today as we walk several kilometres up to their white limestone walls. Our visit is less-than-serene. Programmers, a light and sound crew, pyrotechnicians, carpenters have all invaded this war-torn site with their ATVs and props. Models of German tanks aim at the towers. Sheet metal planes are strung up on wires ready to zip-line across the grounds. Over the next two nights, there will be a sound-and-light spectacular. But we will be gone. We will be in Arras, exploring cathedrals and grand squares. But we will not escape The War. #pilgrimage #viafrancigena #arras #france #thegreatwar #worldwarone #landscapephotography #cathedral #walking #vimy #vimyridge

Walking to Rome: Via Francigena Day 11 It’s November, 2019. Gail and I have been back in Winnipeg for six weeks. I’ve been occupied with a book project, just now completed. So it’s time to get back to our Via Francigena pilgrimage, starting where you last saw us. Back to September 29 as we leave the coal mining town of Bruay le Buissiere on a gentle 22-kilometre saunter across rolling farmland. We walk through quiet villages too small to support a grocery or a cafe. Just tall churches surrounded by small stone houses and farm complexes. Dogs bark from fenced yards. Boys and girls cycle by, curiously observing the two strangers with backpacks And we end our day in yet another tiny hamlet, Frévin-Capelle, also free of any restaurants or grocery stores or boulangeries. There is only our chambre d’hôtes, La Grenouillère. And Anna, our gracious host, who has agreed to drive us to nearby towns to collect groceries and wine so we can prepare dinner in our cottage. Who decides, while driving us to these various shops in assorted towns and villages, that she will cook our meal that evening. And, with that, our day ends with a lively dinner, in a small town, on a traditional farmstead, with Anna, her husband, their daughter and son gathered around the family table. #viafrancigena #longwalk #pilgrimage #france #france🇫🇷 #landscapephotography #northernfrance

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Here are direct links to my pre-June 2015 posts located on my former blog at firmangallery.com:

Walk
Photography
Books
Walker's Tools
Psychogeography
Dogs/Greyhounds/Styxx
Prague to Vienna on Foot
Camino de Santiago (Days 1-17)

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