Friday Photo Shoot Out: Power

This week's theme is Power, so here are some examples of power that I've come across in my recent wanderings.

The power of the state. Government buildings in Europe tend to be very grandiose, an architectural expression of their importance.

The power of the state might be grand, but it doesn't, and can't, keep every last person happy clothed and fed, like this homeless man sleeping in the doorway of city hall in Lyon.

Power of the Church: buildings dominating towns, holidays on our supposedly secular calender, ideas for some. The church in La Tour du Pin, built on the hill in the middle of town, is the visual focal point of the town, though today it is no longer the focal point of life there.

The Lyon Cathedral is upstaged by the Basilica on top of the bluff overlooking the city.

In Culoz, too, the church is built on a prominent spot from which it surveys the village.

The power of water, giving us life, and joy, and making just about everything possible on earth.

Rivers often divide cities

- the Saône and Rhone dividing Old from New Lyon, like the Seine in Paris and its Rive Gauche,

The water in the Saône is deceptively calm. It's moving at quite a clip, and when it joins the Rhone in a few hundred meters, it'll be one of the strongest forces in this part of France.

Rivers also divide countries : our German neighbors are 'over the Rhine', the Jordan divides Jordan from Israel, the Danube divides Romania from Bulgaria, and many, many others.

and even continents (the Ural, dividing Europe from Asia).

The power that makes our lives go smoothly. Nuclear generators of electricity giving off steam in the distance. Train engines hauling passengers to their destinations and goods all around the continent.

Yep, I just had to get a train picture in!

I do apologize if this is a rather superficial treatment of "Power". It's a subject that merits more, but time and inclination don't always coincide with the weekly theme. I'll come back to this later for a more considered post.

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