New architecture mixing harmoniously with the Haussman and Art Deco facades of  La Joliette, where the passenger ferries and cruise ships arrive in Provence. The district is one of many that have been redeveloped to coincide with Marseille being the European Capital of Culture 2013 and to clean up the image of Marseille for the ever-increasing hordes of tourists visiting Provence.

Steam train on the Underground at Olympia, my local station, before entering the tunnels. Yes this is trainspotting. It seems incredible now that the original Metropolitan Line was hauled by steam trains.  This weekend's re-enactments are in celebration of 150 years of London's underground railways. Locomotive Metropolitan No 1 hauled a restored carriage of the Metropolitan Line, with invited VIP passengers, on the line from Olympia to Moorgate via High Street Kensington and Paddington. The other carriages were on loan from the Bluebell Railway in Sussex. The rear was brought up by one of the first electric locomotives, No 12 Sarah Siddons.

Napoleon’s Eagles, that were captured from the vanquished Imperial French army at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), landed in Britian at Broadstairs in Kent. The originals are now in museums, however a replica of Eagle 103 still surveys Viking Bay in Kent, the sandy beach now surrounded by the town of Broadstairs, “The Jewell of the Isle of Thanet”. With the eagles came the first news of the great victory at Waterloo.

Read more: Vikings, Eagles and Clangers - Broadstairs, Kent, New Year's Day 2013

Autumn colours developing already in the trees around the lake at Sheffield Park in Sussex on the next-to-last day of September. And their big Sequoia is growing well but don't expect to drive a car through it... yet; it's the tree immediately above the white swan in the view from across the lake. The other tall tree is a redwood.