Europe 2024

Today was the last day of our 4 week visit to Europe. We figured a good way to finish, was with a trip to what is often referred to as little Africa.
Goutte d’Or is a neighbourhood in the 18th arrondissement and can best be accessed from Barbès-Rochechouart or Chateau Rouge metro stations. We jumped off at Chateau Rouge and wandered around the for area 30 minutes or so with no real plan and, in hindsight, it was the best way to begin the day. There was a vibrant street market right at the metro exit with vendors selling mainly fresh fruit and vegetables and spices. By the way, ignore anyone who tells you this area is 'dangerous' or words to that effect. Secure your belongings, like you would in any big city, enjoy the buzz and leave the stereotypes where they belong.
Once we worked out the lay of the land it was time to do a little more serious exploration of the area. Boulevard Barbes is the main connecting thoroughfare and you'll notice a distinct absence of African culture along this stretch. It's one of those classic high street stretches, with every second shop either selling mobile phones or hawking fake Louis Vuitton travel gear. We made a beeline for the Louxor – Palais Du Cinema, which has a fascinating history and should be high on your priority list when you visit the Goutte d’Or neighbourhood. Here's a link to give you a short history of the cinema
https://vingtparis.com/bobo/louxor-palais-du-cinema/
If you don't want to read that article, the shortened version goes something like this. The cinema was built in the 1920s at the height of the art deco era and has the classic Egyptian influences from the time. Ironically that Egyptian link kind of fits in with how the area has developed with its connections to north Africa.
The Louxor had a couple of near escapes from developers with jackhammers and it's been restored to its former glory and its original purpose.
We were there at the wrong time so we couldn't get into the actual cinemas or the bar, but out of screening hours you can go up to the second floor where they have provided a good background to the history of the cinema. It's in French, but even with a basic understanding of the language you'll get an idea of the life and near death of Louxor – Palais Du Cinema. The cinema looks like it screens mainly arthouse stuff and the French have a habit of dubbing rather than subtitling, but if nothing else I will come back on a future visit and sample the bar. It looks like a great place to spend a couple of hours.

If you visit the area on a Saturday, make your next stop the market that runs under the railway line along Boulevard de la Chapelle. It's close to the cinema so it's a logical place to head next. There's lots of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as meat and fish but it's not a place for the faint of heart, especially if you don't like crowds. It's noisy, busy and, on the surface, it appears to be chaotic, but spend a few minutes here and you'll realise that it's actually a well oiled machine. Don't bring your camera; it's a working market, not a tourist attraction. In fact, as a general rule the locals don't like being subjected to close up photographs, so respect their wishes and you'll have no problems.
One other tip is to regularly look up. The area backs onto Montmartre and occasionally you'll get a great glimpse of Sacre Couer. The pic below gives you an idea of what I am talking about.

After surviving the hustle and bustle of the market we dropped into a pastry shop. It's near the eastern end of the market and my guess is that it was located in Rue de Chartres. The pastry is sensational and there's a nice buzz in the shop. If you can track the place down using my vague directions, do yourself a favour and indulge. You won't regret it even if it doesn't help your cholesterol count.
Next we tracked down FGO Barbara. It's a local community hub that helps kids record hip hop and rap music. The woman on the door was really engaging and will tell you all you need to know about the facility, including that it started life as a public swimming pool.

We found a great place for lunch called Les Trois Freres at 14 rue Léon. We were given a table beside another couple who had a copy of Le Figaro with them. My French is very limited, by I know that anyone who reads Le Figaro, is probably the kind of person with whom I would enjoy lunch. The waitress told us that the owners have a Berber background and the food also has Moroccan influences. Given that the restaurant was called Three Brothers, we decided to have the three meat dish, a plate of vegetables and couscous. Together with a locally sourced IPA, the bill came to 27 Euros. You won't get much better value and the atmosphere in the restaurant is really buzzy.

After lunch we continued our walking tour with a stroll past a bunch of shops on rue Des Gardes that sell high quality African influenced clothing and footwear. The shop called Little Africa Village is especially enticing to the eye and it's impossible to leave without buying something. After your shopping indulgence walk around the area a little more and check out some of the street art and enjoy the vibe. It's one of those areas in Paris where you can operate on a budget and have a day you won't forget.

It was now time to head to a very different part of town for an insight into a very different cultural phenomenon, the Frech music icon Serge Gainsbourg. Gainsbourg made his home in the 7th arrondissement and lived there right up until his death in 1991. Serge was a notorious womaniser, a rotten drunk and a hugely successful singer and songwriter in 1960s France. He also pushed a lot of boundaries, including some boundaries that should never be pushed.
Gainsbourg dated Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin and had affairs with god knows how many other women. His song with Jane Birkin, Je t'aime moi non plus was a huge hit until the powers that be realised that Birkin's vocal was punctuated with sounds that the less naive would recognise as a sexual orgasm. On its own, this stunt was a bit of harmless fun and sat comfortably within the mores of the sexual revolution that was happening at the time. This film clip shows Serge and Jane busting a move in a very G rated way near the Eiffel Tower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlpDf6XX_j0
If you read more about some of Gainsbourg's antics you'll realise this guy was completely out of control, so much so that he probably should have been behind bars.
In her memoir, Jane Birkin said that Gainsbourg had, at times, been physically violent to her during their relationship. Equally disturbing, in 1984 Gainsbourg recorded a duet called Lemon Incest with his 12 year old daughter Charlotte whose mother was Jane Birkin. In the video, she is seen in bed wearing her panties while her father sits in the same bed with his shirt off singing about “the love that we will never make together'. The song made it to number 2 in France in 1984 and although there were some voices expressing disgust, it just seemed to add to Gainsbourg's reputation as a loveable bad boy.
Gainsbourg eventually drank and smoked himself to an early death which may well have saved him serving some time in the big house. His public drunkenness probably reached its low point on this French TV show when he had a shameful encounter with Whitney Houston.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHLIHrN95Vg
Now you're probably wondering why I would be interested in visiting Gainsbourg's house after what I have just said about him. I have to admit I really like Je t'aime and, in my opinion, his work with Brigitte Bardot on the song Bonnie and Clyde is also a high point. Gainsbourg wrote a number of songs for the French Yeh Yeh girls in the 1960s and he had that rare talent of being able to create music across almost any genre. So I have a kind of grudging admiration for his work as a musician, but what most fascinates me is that the French see this guy as something of a national hero. Upon Gainsbourg's death, François Mitterrand called him “our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire,” and attended his funeral. It's just all too hard to contemplate. Even in the post #metoo era Gainsbourg seems to be forgiven for most of his sins. There's now plans afoot to name a Metro station in his honour. There's some people actively campaigning against the plan, but it looks like the opposition is going to lose out on this one.
So what's the significance of his house? Gainsbourg had lived and smoked and drank at, 5 Rue de Verneuil for many years. When he died, Charlotte, his daughter wouldn't hand over the body for four days. The house had sat empty for 30 years, exactly as it was when his body succumbed to a lifetime of self abuse. It's now open as a museum, but booked out until September. There's a gift store and bar across the road that sell lots of Serge stuff at vastly inflated prices. The bar at the back is attended by impeccably dressed men and they are ready to clean out your credit card, so don't try and emulate Serge's drinking habits while you are here or you'll go home with more than a hangover. The front wall outside Gainsbourg's house is covered in graffiti created by his obsessive fans. It's quite an eye opener. I have also been to his grave in Montparnasse cemetery and it's kind of one part Jim Morrison mixed with a little Oscar Wilde. If you've been to their graves in Pere Lachaise, you'll understand what I'm getting at.

After all that exposure to lascivious desire we thought it would be a good idea to complete our Paris experience with a visit to the tea rooms at the mosque. It's just out the back of the Latin Quarter and you can get good pastries and a cup of mint tea here for a very reasonable price. It used to be a bit of a Paris secret but based on my experience this afternoon it's a secret no longer.
You might also want to visit the adjoining mosque. It costs 3 Euros and it's a lovely place to experience some peace and quiet in the hurly burly of pre Olympic Paris.

It's easy in this city to get caught in the usual tourist traps and, to be honest, to understand Paris, you need to visit those classic tourist sites at least once; although I'm not sure that logic should be applied to EuroDisney. Today we decided to continue our architecture theme from yesterday with a self curated metro/walking tour of Le Corbusier sites throughout the city.
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, as his parents knew him, is better known to architecture buffs as Le Corbusier. He was born in French speaking Switzerland only a few kms from the French border. Remarkably, Le Corbusier was a self taught architect. He created the name Le Corbusier, which was an altered form of his maternal grandfather's name, reflecting his belief that anyone could reinvent themselves. (That's something everyone should try at least once). It's probably fair to say that he not only re invented himself, but also architecture.
There's some good information on the internet to help you plan your own Le Corbusier tour but here's our story. We started at Villa La Roche (10 Square Du Docteur Blanche your GPS will think there's a locked gate here, but just persist and you'll be inside in a flash). The building was commissioned by a Swiss banker (what is with Swiss bankers and money) Raoul La Roche in 1923 and was one part house and one part private art gallery. When you come to what appears to be a locked door with a bar code and specific instructions about needing to be on a booked tour to obtain entry, simply ignore the instructions, open the door and you'll be greeted by a charming gallery attendant who will take your 10 Euros and let you have a free run through the building. There's some nice pics of how the site looked way back when and the best news is that the building actually feels like it's one hundred years old rather than having been renovated within an inch of its life.

Next stop was the Hotel Molitor. It's not a Le Corbusier building but it was built in the 1920s and is just down the road from, our next stop, Le Corbusier's apartment. The Hotel Molitor has had a checked history. The complex was built in 1929 and opened by Olympic swimmers Aileen Riggin, Matthew Gauntlett and Johnny Weissmuller of Tarzan fame. The pool was the centrepiece of the hotel and it was probably the first place a bikini was worn in public way back on 5th July 1946. The model was a Parisian, of course, Micheline Bernardini and it was part of a fashion parade at the pool. Somehow or other this uber cool building and pool fell on hard times. In the early 1970s, the pool became an ice skating rink and the whole complex closed in 1989, whereupon it became a hangout for street artists and people who generally liked a good time that often didn't fit within the parameters of the legal system. Apparently it was a site for illegal warehouse style parties including one such gathering that attracted over 5000 people in 2001. There was talk of demolishing the site, until a developer stepped in with plans to bring the building back to its former glory.
It's now reopened as a luxury hotel and the owners have done a great job of reviving a 1920s aesthetic. You can easily imagine Johnny Weismuller swinging from a balcony and plunging in for a few laps of the pool. However, the hotel foyer is another story. It seems that some overpaid smart arse interior designer has decided to make a statement by incorporating elements of old and new into the foyer with a Rolls Royce covered in graffiti greeting you as you enter the front door. There's also graffiti in other parts of the lobby, together with some really beautiful 1920s furniture. It's one of those post modernist statements that seek to blend the past with the present and end up an aesthetic dud! Here's some pics that might give you some idea of what's going on at Hotel Molitor and trust me it's not all bad.

From Hotel Molitor it's a short walk to Appartment Atelier de le Corbusier at 24 Rue Nungesser et Coli. The great man designed this block of apartments and reserved himself the penthouse. He liked it so much he lived here until his death in 1965. It's a steep walk up seven flights of stairs to the museum. Persist, it's worth the effort. Again it all looks locked up but turn the handles on what appears to be a locked door and you'll be greeted by a Le Corbusier enthusiast who will take your 10 Euros and give you access all areas to the apartment. It was all very cool, although I'm still trying to come to terms with the idea of a bed on extra high legs.
From his rooftop garden, Le Corbusier gave himself what must have been an uninterrupted view of the Bois du Boulogne back in 1923. He could also have watched the action on centre court at Roland Garros which is just across the way. Modern residents of the building can also see Paris St Germain play home games in their you beaut new stadium directly across the road from the apartments. Who knew Le Corbusier was so into sport. Interestingly, all the apartments, with the exception of Le Cobusier's rooftop residence, were designed with no interior rooms apart from the bathroom. Owners could live open plan if they so desired or erect some walls with panels purchased from your local Bunnings if you liked a little more privacy.

After the excitement of the apartment grab a cup of tea and scones at TEAthécha (119 Rue de la Glacière). It's only a short walk and you can spend some time trying to work out the thinking behind that bed on high legs.
You can then swing by Ozenfant House which looks like it can't be accessed by mere mortals, but there's a pretty good view from the street which gives you some idea of the genius of Le Corbusier, if you needed more proof of that by this stage. This was built as a house and studio for his mate Amedee Ozenfant, a Cubist painter. It's a famous example of early minimalist architecture and not to be missed.

Next stop is the stunning, Swiss Pavilion in the grounds of the Cite International University. As a bonus you get to walk through Parc Mont Souris, which translates to Park Mount Mouse. That's more confusing than Le Corbusier's bed on high legs but it's a stunningly beautiful park and a great place to watch Parisians relaxing on a Friday afternoon. As is the case with every Le Corbusier building you'll need to push a doorbell to gain access. Be patient eventually someone will come. At the university they only want 2 Euros, but you'll need to have cash. The Pavilion is a residential student college and the common room on the bottom floor is home to a magnificent mural painted by Le Corbusier. For your money, you also get access to a student room on the first floor in original condition. The Cite International University is where the 1968 riots started and it was home to Red Danny who I talked about in yesterday's post. So there's more than just Le Corbusier to this place.

We were following a blog site of a Le Corbusier enthusiast to help us track our hero's Parisian works. The blogger told us the next segment was a 'quick stroll' from Swiss House to Maison Planeix, a Le Corbusier house dating back to the 1920s. The quick stroll took 45 minutes and I would suggest jumping on the tram to make the trip more efficient. It's a nice enough neighbourhood with a big Olympic Stadium, but there's no good reason to walk all that way. Again there's no access to Maison Planeix, but the look is unmistakable and apparently it contains his signature rooftop garden and needless to say the design of the exterior is timeless. Some modern architects would do well to complete this walking tour to remind them what good design looks like. The 45 minute 'quick stroll' could be an act of penance for the many ugly buildings they have given the world over the last 50 years.

Next stop was the Fondation Armee du Salut at 12 Rue Cantagrel. This was built for the Salvation Army in 1930 as a shelter for homeless people and it still fulfills the same function in 2024. It is actually a short stroll from the previous site and it's a very striking building, albeit in need of a lick of paint. The colours on the facade were considered radical at the time, but they still work and given that the Salvos still operate from this place almost a hundred years after it was built, it gives you an idea of Le Corbusier's practical genius as well as his aesthetic prowess. From here it's an easy walk to Biblioteque Francois Mitterand, which has a range of transport options to get you back into the centre of the city.

The last time Paris hosted the summer Olympics was way back in 1924. It was only five years after WWI had finished and Paris was, to use modern parlance, a hip city. In the course of the 1920s, it was frequented by a 'lost generation' of hipsters such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein James Joyce, Ezra Pound, F Scott Fitgerald, George Orwell and others, too numerous to mention. What brought them here in the first place? Perhaps more than anything, they wanted a cheap place to live, eat and drink, (the latter especially applied to Hemingway), where they could move on from the horrors of WW1. Given that the north of France, not too far from Paris, was devastated by World War One, it was a kind of odd place to come in order to move on from the war! It was the Olympic Games in 1924 that helped make Paris hip amongst the general population rather than just a few creative types. To be honest the city wasn't an especially desirable place to live at that point of time. This documentary by Dan Snow might give you some insights into how ingrained the sanitary problems were in Paris. In places like the Latin Quarter, things hadn't improved much since the middle ages.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xiu79c
Paris has been on a program of constant self improvement since the 1920s and nothing better illustrates this process than La Defense, the modern high rise area on the outskirts of the city. It's so unParisian, sometimes it's hard to believe you're in Paris. The area is named after the statue La Défense de Paris which was erected in 1883 to commemorate the defence of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. The modernists moved in during the 1950s and started constructing high rise in an area that had previously been dominated by factories, shanties and a few small farms. I'm not in love with all of the construction in La Defense, but there is pretty much something for everyone here if you give yourself at least half a day to wander. It's been an ongoing stop start project since the 1950s and look above and you'll recognise the era of each building even if you're not an architect. There's some good brutalism and reasonable modernism, but the overall feel is post modernist, which might just be where it misses the mark in my humble opinion. Probably the most striking piece is the grand arch which stares down the Arc de Triomphe. It was commissioned by Mitterand and inaugurated in 1989. It's certainly not modest, but then neither was Mitterand. Anyway, it's an interesting idea and definitely worth a look. There's also an attempt to incorporate some public sculptures into the area. Again, it's a bit hit and miss. but one thing is certain, the civic fathers and mothers need to give some of the sculptures a good coat of paint. This especially applies to the Alexander Calder work which looks sadly unloved.

After a brief encounter with a transport police inspector, which also came with a hefty fine, we retreated back to our hotel. We then headed out this evening to check some of the houses inhabited by the lost generation of hipsters in the 1920s. Here's a few pics of those dwellings which sit modestly in the Latin Quarter, just behind where we are staying. It's a lovely neighbourhood full of bars and students from the Sorbonne. If you do a Google search, you'll find enough houses with a literary connection to keep you busy for day. There's also plenty of info on their interconnected lives and the places they frequented. Here's a little slice of the lives of Hemingway, Joyce and Orwell. I might add that when these guys lived here it wasn't exactly pretty, unlike today.

The Latin Quarter has a vital place in modern Parisian history. It's where some of the most serious students riots took place in the 1968 uprising. The area was all cobblestones up until the time of the riots, but given the students used cobblestones as weapons, along with the odd molotov cocktail, the authorities thought it best to pave the area which bitumen in case a future generation of students tried to bring down a president. At one point, President de Gaulle fled the country fearing for his safety. Not the bravest action from a WWII hero, but he was getting long in the tooth by this stage. One of the most interesting facts about the 1968 riots is that they didn't start at the Sorbonne, although they most certainly finished there! The riots had their genesis at the University of Paris where students protested against restrictions on dormitory visits that prevented male and female students from sleeping with each other. Check out some of the pics of the protesters with a Google search. There's also some good videos on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjyKJQ-oD5I
They don't look like your standard 1968 revolutionary. The boys wore collars and ties and had short back and sides haircuts. Most of them were good Catholic kids from the suburbs of Paris. It's hard to believe where this ended up. One expectation to this was Daniel Cohn-Bendit, 'red Danny' to his friends and enemies. Google his name, he's a fascinating dude who ended up as a Green in the European parliament.

This morning we managed to squeeze in a couple of short walks around Sandavagur and made time for two sensational cinnamon rolls from Fiskastykkið. I mentioned we had lunch here the other day and the food was right up there with the best we have had in 4 weeks of travel. There's a couple of pics below that illustrate how the weather gods smiled for our last day in the Faroes. You can see from these pics that you don't have to go off the beaten track in the Faroes to encounter things of beauty

We then jumped on the Atlantic Airways flight to Paris, although not before my power pack was pulled over at security for extra inspection. Two hours and 30 minutes later we were touching down at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Paris was the first foreign city I visited, way back when, and I never tire of the city or its inhabitants; more on that last observation later.
Charles de Gaulle has always been a tired airport, but they've done plenty to get it ready for the upcoming Olympics. The signage to the RER into the city is still a little iffy and the 'helper' at the ticket machines was exquisitely dressed, like any good Parisian, but I'd give him about 4/10 in the service ratings. By chance we caught an express train into the city and it seemed remarkably uncrowded for peak hour in Paris on a Wednesday. Although we did have a pigeon for company in our carriage. See pic below for evidence. As it turned out the 1st May is Fête du Travail (Festival of Work) and given that the French love some good old fashioned labour activism, it's a public holiday, hence the empty carriages.

We found our way from the RER station to our hotel pretty quickly. I've stayed at the Hotel Marignan in the Latin Quarter for the best part of 30 years. It's a one star hotel in a quiet street and it's probably not to everyone's like, but in my opinion it is quintessentially Parisian and great value for your Euro! It's been owned by the one family since the 1950s and has great heritage as well as wonderful atmosphere.

After doing some urgent washing (if you go the Faroe Islands be aware that they have no laundromats on any island) we headed out to dinner to a great little Lebanese joint barely 10 minutes walk from the hotel. The Savannah Cafe has been in rue Descartes since the 1980s and much to my regret, tonight is the first time I have eaten there. The food is super fresh and Richard the owner is one cool dude. A charismatic Lebanese Frenchman with great taste in music, although we could have done without the Van Morrison.
We then eloped for a post dinner drink to an old favourite, Le Melocoton, which is just down the road from the Savannah Cafe. ON their Facebook page, Le Melocoton calls itself a 'cool, shabby-chic bar with low lighting & posters on the walls, serving classic cocktails & beer.' That description is pretty accurate. It's also very reasonably priced and if you haven't had too much to drink, walk down and enjoy your booze in the 'petit caveau'. It's an old cellar that wouldn't past muster if put under serious scrutiny by OH and S experts, but they only care about safety, rather than atmosphere and sometimes poor risk management and great atmosphere go hand in hand.

Parisians are a complex group of people; aren't we all. They have a reputation for being off handed and abrupt at times. My ticket assistant mate at Charles de Gaulle today was a case in point. He looked the goods but offered little in the way of help to someone dealing with a ticket machine that probably should have been decommissioned 20 years ago. When we alighted at St Michel RER station, much to my frustration, the ticket machine wouldn't let me through the gate. I might add the paper tickets they use here haven't changed in 30 years. Anyway, here I am stuck behind the barrier, separated from my better half, thinking I'm stuck in SNCF limbo land for the rest of my days. Just as I'm losing faith in humanity, a lovely Parisian commuter rescues me by tapping a very 21st century card on the gate and bingo I'm unleashed. When we went for our drink at Le Melocoton, the barman told me that they didn't accept cards for purchases under 10 Euros. We then handed him a 50 Euro note which he couldn't change. I was a bit embarrassed at this stage, but he politely pulls out the credit card machine and wouldn't accept a tip. Just when you think you have these guys worked out!

We swung though Torshavn this morning, the capital of the Faroes. With a population of just a tick over 13 000 it's a sizeable town with a nice old centre. The Tinganes area is definitely worth a visit. The Viking parliament first met here in about 825 which makes it one of the oldest parliamentary meeting places in the world. The government still operates out of Tinganes, which gives it even more credibility, or maybe less, depending upon what you think of government! Some of the buildings in the area date back to the 16th century and are occupied by residents, so it's much more than a museum and a seat of parliament. Right next to Tinganes you'll come across the Reyn and Undir Ryggi, neighbourhoods which contain dwellings that date back to the 14th century. There's a handful of black tarred houses in this area with white-framed windows and grass roofs. You can't and shouldn't miss them!

Now it's at this point that I get to say something perhaps a little contentious. If the Faroe Islands tourist committee, which talks up Toshavn as a go to destination, read this they'll probably run me out of town, not that it will matter as I'm flying to Paris tomorrow. Anyway, here goes, there's really not too much more to do in Torshavn. In fact it reminded me a lot of Lerwick on the Shetland Islands. Lerwick has some lovely old buildings down near the waterfront, including one that has found fame through the TV series Shetland, a program which holds no interest to me. 30 minutes max in Lerwick and I found myself looking for something more exciting. Maybe if you're a fan of Shetland it might command 45 minutes. Lots of people seem to gather outside Jimmy's home on the waterfront to get the ubiquitous. 'I've been here photo.' I always get the feeling in places like Lerwick and Torshavn that aesthetics arrived really early, but left not long after. Anyway I've put in a few more pics to give you some idea of the vibe in the old town centre.

After Torshavn it was time to get back on the road and make the most of the natural beauty of the Faroe Islands. I've already told you more than you need to know about Gasadalur in a previous blog. If you go back a couple of days you'll find out all about its history and the stunning waterfall. This evening our mission was finding puffins. When we visited earlier in the week it was a bit early in the day, so we made a point of making a later arrival today. The island of Mykines, which you can easily see from Gasadalur, is famous for attracting early season puffins on the Faroes. However we had done some research that told us that the nesting grounds on Mykines can be a little bit like peak hour on the London Tube, so the smart puffins head for the cliffs at Gasadalur. We arrived a bit after 630 and sure enough they were starting to come back from a busy day at sea. The cliffs are bathed in full sun, so the puffins were landing on the cliffs and immediately drying their wings. Watching puffins land is not for the faint hearted. Puffins seem to have trouble coordinating their landing gear with the loss of velocity and they often stumble on the runway. Given that they are predominantly sea birds and land is not their natural environment this shortcoming is probably not all that surprising.
There's lots of good information on the internet about their origins and breeding habits. Here's a couple of good pieces from the Guardian to get you started
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2022/sep/26/puffins-around-the-british-isles-in-pictures
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/20/a-world-without-puffins-the-uncertain-fate-of-the-much-loved-seabirds
Puffins face lots of natural hazards in their environment, but needless to say, their biggest enemy is humans. There's not only issues from degradation of their environment, but also the fact that humans still eat their flesh. Their meat is considered a delicacy in both Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Believe it or not, in Iceland, eating raw puffin heart is a special treat. Anyway here's some pics to show them in their natural environment. I've also thrown in a pic of a couple of really nice sheep who were enjoying life as amicable next door neighbours with the puffins