Dodie feels the same way.

Ouch, not something to try to experience, even for blog research.

Probably not many still in use.

Of course you are correct. We passed some hunters today, who when asked what they were hoping to shoot, almost literally said "anything that moves." Good thing the Grampies preferred cycling colour is bright yellow.

Hi Betsy, we have not yet looked at your references, but we will. However in general we think that it is not wise to live based either on general fear or especially media reports that can be sensationalist. The number of lithium battery fires needs to be weighed against the billions currently in use, not only for bikes but for phones, drills, mowers, etc. The National Fire Protection Association (https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Top-fire-causes/Electrical) certainly does mention a growing incidence of ebike fires, with growing ebike use, but the top causes of house fires remain cooking, heating, bad wiring, smoking, and candles. That's why, as the conflict with our hosts "heated up" I stressed to the lady that if she wanted to be paranoid about fire safety she should first get a fire extinguisher for beside her stove, rather than harrassing cyclist customers with $1000 each Bosch batteries quietly sleeping (and not charging) in a bag. Read tomorrow's entry for the gory details.

Interesting about the e-bike charging situation. There have been lots of battery-caused fires recently, and more landlords are starting to ban bikes from being stored indoors. Yes, the fires are probably mostly from crappy batteries and/or 'universal' chargers. The Atlantic had an interesting take on it: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/07/e-bike-battery-lithium-ion-fire/674622/
Numerous fires and deaths in New York City this year have raised awareness - this article may be behind a paywall, but googling will find others: https://www.nytimes.com/article/ebike-laws-nyc.html
I don't have an e-bike, but I have lithium ion batteries for some yard equipment, and I don't leave them on the charger overnight.

I would not linger on this bridge, then, no matter my advanced age.

Light is the biggest reason for the switch from Romanesque to gothic. Notre Dame is romanesque and St.Pierre gothic, not to restate the obvious. One more reason to love Poitiers.

Sting would be painful? Can confirm.

One horse or maybe ox charrette for hay.

Hi,
Definitely a pheasant tail poking out of the game pouch. Faisan aux crème et truffes anybody?
Cheers

They were sure large. Dodie thought they might be hornets because of their size. It looks like a sting would be very painful indeed.

Matches well with yellow legged hornet. Looks like a male if I remember my entomology (1967) correctly. You can tell by the antennae, males with longer, curved antennae and females with shorter jointed antennae. You can tell by the stinger on females as well, but I'd rather not do that! :-)

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/560197-Vespa-velutina-nigrithorax

https://bugguide.net/node/view/221260#:~:text=males%20have%20very%20long%20antennae,you%20get%20used%20to%20it.&text=I%20found%20a%20few%20cases,in%3A%20Sex%20Differentiation%3A%20Tips.

You are probably correct. There was an information panel about them, but only so much info can be absorbed, and in this case it must gave gone to overflow.

Their proportions are strange all around, which makes me think they may have been designed to be viewed from below.