Latest news with #NantesUniversity
Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Wine with Leslie: Ireland's connections to Brittany go deeper than music and culture
I realise you are probably fed up hearing about my travels this year, but my next trip (but one) is accessible to everyone in Ireland. I am off to one of my spiritual homes, Brittany. I have been visiting Brittany since the mid-1990s, almost always via the Cork-Roscoff ferry, and I can already taste the oysters and Muscadet, and the crêpe complète with cidre fermier. My son will be studying in Nantes University from September, so we will be visiting that great city and also visiting friends near Lorient, home to the annual Interceltique music festival (the 2025 festival finishes tomorrow). Ireland's cultural connections with Brittany extend beyond music, of course, and in the early days of Irish farmhouse cheese production, some producers would travel to markets in France to sell their cheese, which was more appreciated there than in Ireland. Brittany is home of great seafood too, but they also buy lots from Ireland. Brittany now has a number of wine producers but it is early days for them so best to seek out wines from historic Brittany. Muscadet is just south of Nantes and still considered Breton by me and most right-thinking folk (Nantes having been annexed by the collaborationist Vichy government in 1941). I recommend a fine one below from Wines Direct but most Muscadet is worth a try these days, thanks to the warmer climate - e.g. the Marquis de Goulaine Muscadet (made by a wine geese family), or the Nicola Reau 'La Pentière' (l'Atitude 51). I hope to make a day trip into the Loire Valley to visit a producer or two and maybe pick up a few bottles of Savennières, Coteaux-du-Layon and Anjou Villages. Suggestions below are all from the Loire and include a red Sancerre which is making its debut. Domaines Landron 'La Louvetrie' Muscadet, Loire, €19-21.75 Domaines Landron 'La Louvetrie' Muscadet, Loire, €19-21.75 Wines Direct Athlone & Mullingar; Jo Landron was a pioneer of organic and biodynamic viticulture in the Loire, long before it was fashionable and the 'natural wine' boys and girls moved in. This is zingy and fresh with a touch of ozone and flint mixed with lemon and apple fruits. Taut and crisp, this is a fine match for oysters (Irish or Breton) not to mention prawns, mussels and clams. Max Roger Sancerre Pinot Noir, Loire, France €20.40 Max Roger Sancerre Pinot Noir, Loire, France €20.40 Dunnes Stores This is reduced from €25.50 until August 26, with similar reductions on the Max Roger Sancerre Blanc and Menetou Salon. Finding quality French Pinot Noir under €30 is almost impossible, so this is solid value; it's a shame that red Sancerre is so rare. Earthy red fruit aromas, lively strawberry fruits on the palate with a touch of crunch, pleasingly fresh and taut on the finish. Marc Brédif Vouvray Classic, Loire, France €26.95 Marc Brédif Vouvray Classic, Loire, France €26.95 JJ O'Driscolls; Vintry; Redmonds; Independents. The finest white wines of the Loire are not Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé in my view, but the Chenin Blancs of Vouvray and Savennières. Marc Brédif is one of Vouvray's best producers and this is aromatic and complex on the nose with ripe pear and tropical fruit notes. On the palate, it's textured and intense with vibrant acidity, layers of flavour and good length. Beer of the Week Trouble Brewing Vietnow IPA, 5.5% ABV, 440ml €3.99 Trouble Brewing Vietnow IPA, 5.5% ABV, 440ml €3.99 Bradleys; JJ O'Driscolls; Sweeneys; Cassidys and Blackbird pubs on draught. Initially brewed in partnership with two fine Dublin pubs, Cassidy's and Blackbird, luckily it is also available in cans for the rest of the nation. Pouring with a fluffy head, an orange gold hue and citrus and tropical fruit aromas, this is juicy and punchy with five hoppings (yes 5) to add aroma, bitter fruits and a tangy finish.
Time of India
28-05-2025
- Time of India
Who is Joel Le Scouarnec, a paedophile surgeon who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison?
Image credits: X/@nexta_tv Not all doctors are forms of god, some are the devil reincarnated when they use a profession as revered as theirs to prey on innocent victims just to pacify their psychotic urges. Joel Le Scouarnec, a 74-year-old former surgeon has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after he confessed to raping hundreds of his patients. Who is Joel Le Scouarnec? Joel Le Scouarnec, born on December 3, 1950, is a former French surgeon who is now a convicted child rapist and paedophile. He studied medicine at Nantes University, graduating in 1981 and then specialised in gastrointestinal surgery. He married Marie-France Lhermitte, a healthcare assistant in 1974 with whom he had three sons. The couple began living apart in 2005 and got divorced in 2023. However, Scouarnec is not the only abuser in his family. One of his sons testified in his father's trial that his grandfather has raped and sexually abused him between the age of 5 and 10. The former surgeon has a history of sexual abuse with him being convicted in 2005 of downloading images of child sexual abuse and in 2017 for exposing and molesting his neighbour's daughter. It was in this year that he was convicted of the rape and sexual assault of four children and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo What's shocking is that two of these were his own nieces. Why has Joel Le Scouarnec been jailed? Image credits: X/@SnapMediaLive After his arrest in 2017, Scouarnec's property was searched and officials found evidence of extensive criminal activity in his journals where he recorded the instances of rape and sexual assault. He sexually abused his patients, mostly children between 1989 and 2014 and thus, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He had 299 victims out of which 158 were boys and 141 were girls. He has been dubbed as France's most prolific paedophile, considering he abused all his victims when they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations. Additionally, he kept diaries where he described the assaults in graphic detail. Scouarnec was dressed in black in the court as he listened to Judge Aude Buresi deliver the verdict. "I can no longer look at myself the same way because I am a paedophile and a child rapist," Le Scouarnec said during his last statements to the court last week. "Many things have been said. I don't necessarily remember everything now. It will no doubt come back to me when I'm in my cell, but what I've witnessed [in court] is the suffering for which I am responsible," he said. He added he neither wanted nor expected to be given any leniency. How many years will Joel Le Scouarnec be imprisoned? The sentence has a mandatory minimum term of two-thirds as he has already served seven years in prison, meaning he could be eligible for parole by 2030, a fact that has upset many of his victims. "To think one day he could walk down the street, see people - that upsets me. We [the victims] no longer have a normal life while they're giving him back that life, and that disgusts me," said Amélie Lévêque one of Scouarnec's victims. "I never saw tears running down his cheeks," said another victim named Manon Lemoine. However, according to AP Scouarnec offered his apologies during the trial. 'I didn't see them as people. They were the destination of my fantasies. As the trial went on, I began to see them as individuals, with emotions, anger, suffering and distress,' he told the court. 'I don't show emotion, that's just how I am. That doesn't mean I don't feel it, but I don't express it,' he added.
