The glacial waters of the Aare River flow through Thun with an icy-blueness that astounded me at first. I joked that the people of Switzerland must be adding dye to the water to impress me, because I couldn’t reconcile the astonishing colour with my Australian idea of a river- dark tannin and mud water lazily flowing through bush valleys. My Swiss hosts shrugged away my demands for an explanation, ‘It’s just that way’.
Read MoreAnna Hartley is an Australian writer based in Paris.
In January 2024, I completed a Master of Science in Sustainability in Energy Provision and Demand Management from the Centre for Alternative Technology Graduate School of the Environment.
For my dissertation, for which I received a distinction grade, I created a prototype software (CELESTE) designed to educate, inspire, and empower users to develop their own Renewable Energy Communities in France.
We’re zigzagging through streets beside the Seine River, and despite the fact that I’ve lived in Paris for the best part of a decade, I feel as if I’m seeing it all anew.
In May 2020, China became the first major country in the world to introduce a central bank digital currency. Initially only available to select users in trial cities, it is now gaining ground across the country.
China is the world's largest producer and consumer of plastic products. But a series of new laws in effect since January 2020 aim to significantly reduce plastic pollution over five years. So are these goals realistic and is China willing to kick its plastic addiction?
Many women and young girls in China, especially in rural areas, cannot afford feminine hygiene products. The lack of basic menstrual knowledge and the common menstruation taboo in China only worsen the situation. FRANCE 24 met with Chinese women who are fighting to change the situation.
Rentrer en famille célébrer l'Année du Buffle malgré un voyage parsemé de restrictions anti-Covid? Ou rester seul à #Pékin comme l'incitent à le faire les autorités? Le dilemme agite les Chinois travaillant dans la capitale. Reportage France 24 de Charles Pellegrin, Anna Hartley et Zhifan Liu.
The Chinese city of Wuhan, epicentre of the disease, continues to show signs of recovery in terms of health and its economy. Local officials report GDP is close to 90 percent of its level before the outbreak. FRANCE 24 correspondent Charles Pellegrin filed this report with Anna Hartley and Charlie Wang.
Plus d'un an après l'apparition du virus SARS-CoV-2 à Wuhan en Chine, la vie reprend son cours normalement ou presque. Car, l'épidémie a laissé des traces à bien des égards. Reportage de notre correspondant, Charles Pellegrin.
“This adventure of mine was oriented around the Chinese heartlands and the core myths that are at the heart of Chinese history and modern society.”
This second pregnancy is nothing like my first. I am calm, cocooning. I do my exercises, occasionally even yoga. I have an ample supply of comfortable maternity clothes and a giant (and I mean giant) horseshoe pillow that encloses and immobilises me in a firm hold at night. Sshhh. It whispers. I got you.
I am on top of my medical appointments. I take my vitamins and monitor my blood pressure. I have been registered at the maternity hospital since around the third month of my pregnancy. My husband and I spent about 15 minutes discussing a baby name, decided, smiling, and haven’t wavered since.
I am, in short, having almost the opposite experience as my first pregnancy.