#belle-ile

is based on the name of the ballan wrasse.

It’s the most common fish where I go snorkeling.  They live in reefs and they’re, basically, easy to see and have nothing impressive about them (unless we’re talking about the bigger ones, which look like a bit groupers; and they sometimes have very pretty colouring for fish from the northeastern Atlantic, a marbling of red-and-green, or the grouper-like white-on-brown dots).

In French we call them “vieilles”, which can be literally translated as “Old Ones.”

Cue many jokes about searching for/cooing over/being disappointed in/hunting and eating tiny elder gods.

Two Women sewing at Belle-Ile   -  Jean Puy, 1923.

French, 1876-1960

Needles  -   Euan Macleod, 2017, 

New Zealand, b.1956-

Bangor, Belle Île  -    Luke Sciberras  , 2018, 

Australian,b.1975-

Belle-Ile, Rocks at Port-Goulphar    -    Claude Monet, 1886

French,1840-1926