http://www.frenchmoments.eu/advent-in-france-lavent-en-france/ (with music) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CXpoehZ9b4 Joyeux noël.....

 When the Central Committee member had one vodka too many, nobody imagined what far reaching consequences this would have - for the world! http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall Of course, today, as we celebrate the opening of the Berlin wall , we have a tendency to forget there are still quite a few still 'UNOPENED' -  http://socks-studio.com/2013/04/14/peace-lines-a-selection-of-walls-dividing-regions/ Mainly religious or political in reason, they are, nonetheless, dividers between peoples. I spent 2 periods of duty in the West City , one of my jobs being to drive around this wall for 'security' reasons, and this, I assure you, did NOT exist.....  There was an enormormous amount of ' grafitti ', but outside the central area, mainly wooded, which we had to patrol, there was nothing but trees - overgrown areas and posters warning people they were 'leaving West Berlin Territory'- uninteresting for the Tourists and in fact uninteresting fo