Education by Feedjit.

My knowledge of the geography of Europe is atrocious. Of course I can point out the countries (mostly,) but deeper than that I can rarely go. I’m much better on the geography of North America, South America and Australia, probably because we ‘did’ them at school.

Position

Structure

Climate

Vegetation

Occupations

Towns

Trade

(That was how you structured an essay on Bolivia, Saskatchewan or New South Wales back in the days when life was bigger than education.)

But to the point:

This is where my trusty Feedjit comes in useful. I get a visit on the blog from some kind person in Aquitaine, so I Google it and find out where it is. Aha! South west corner. (I did know it was in France, by the way.)

On the Atlantic

And therefore Romantic

I realised that I know two things about Aquitaine:

1. Katherine Hepburn was the Duchess there before she married Peter O’Toole, became Queen of France, and descended into truculence. She then got on Peter’s nerves so much that he became very nadgy and inadvertently ordered the murder of Samuel Becket. (Or was it Thomas? I can never remember.)

2. On discovering that its capital is Bordeaux, I remembered once reading a story called The Bordeaux Diligence which made a big impression on me. I remember that it was in a book of horror stories and was maddeningly surreal, but I remember nothing at all of the plot. That’s the problem with surreal stories; they’re good while they last, but they give you no hooks on which to hang your memory cells.

All in all, however, the cause of erudition is well served.

(I’ve never had a visit from Bhutan, unfortunately – I suspect the King doesn’t permit computers – but at least I know it isn’t in Europe. Oh, and 'thank you' to the person from Aquitaine. I hope it's nice there.)