Day 3406 (Tuesday) 6th October 2026.

This is Roquebrune Cap Martin

and this is Villefranche-sur-Mer.

It was lovely and sunny today, after two days of high clouds so we went into Nice to enjoy our weekly kebab. There have been some protests around France and most of our park was cordoned off, I’m not sure what they are expecting from the protests but they are well prepared. (More on this later.)

While we were eating Huw spotted a giant pineapple-type fruit growing on a tree palm tree and I looked it up when I got home and found this…

Macrozamia moorei

A true living fossil, the Macrozamia moorei is a robust cycad which has already been in existence for 300 million years. Neither a fern nor a palm, the Marozomia presents itself in two distinct and complementary states: in the male state, with a cone filled with pollen, or in the female state, with ovules.

Etymology

Macrozamia is a Neolatin term composed of the words “macro” (“largest”) and “Zamia”, derived from “Zamia nuces”, itself a misreading of “azaniae nuces” which means pine cones. The species was named Moorei in honour of Charles Moor, Head of Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens in the 19th century.

Description and flowering period

Macrozamia moorei is a plant reaching over 7 metres in height – the tallest species of the genus. The stipe (fake-trunk) reaches from 50 to 80cm in diameter. The compound leaves are 2.5 metre long and are composed of 120 to 220, 30cm long leaflets. Like cycads, Macrozamia moorei belongs to the Cycadales order, which appeared 300 million years ago in the Palaeozoic era. Those plants produce “naked seeds”, which is to say they are not protected inside a fruit. Such plants are called Gymnosperms. Despite its overall similar appearance, it is therefore neither a palm (which belongs to the group of Angiosperms: whose seeds are protected by a fruit), nor a tree-fern (which bears spores and not seeds). Similarly to all other Cycadales, Macrozamia is dioecious: individual plants are either male or female and their respective cones carry either pollinic-sacs or ovules.

Habitat

It has to be reserved for tropical or sub-tropical climates and requires a free-draining soil. 

Uses

Ornamental

Huw looked up the protests in France when we got home and found this article…

Mass protests by high school and university students demanding greater investment in French schools are under way, with a coalition of some of the largest unions joining them. Adults, including parents and union activists, are gathered wearing white armbands to support the teenagers with the "aim of creating a buffer zone", local media reports.

Students have been blockading hundreds of schools with 215 young people and 715 police officer hurt over the last week and more than 6,000 people arrested. Outrage escalated after a student had his hand blown off during a confrontation on Monday. Earlier on during the wave of protest another student was struck in the head by a tear gas canister.

The incident happened in the northern city of Lens after mixed reports he either picked up a stun grenade fired by riot police or had it fired near him. Minister of National Education Édouard Geffray told France Info on Tuesday: "I want to express my thoughts for this young man. Our absolute priority is to protect our students. This is obviously a tragedy”. However, Geffray added there was "extreme violence within these movements".

"From the beginning, I have called for dialogue, not for encouraging blockades. From the very first days, ultraviolent elements infiltrated the high school student movements... and behaving inexcusably.” Vice President of the student union organisation Les Lycéens Louis Letoublon responded on France Info, saying Geffray "has listened, he must now take action".

A coalition of national unions, including France's largest the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), have called for students to take to the streets in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and about 30 other cities. France's prime minister said on Monday the government had announced measures to address student demands, but the Union Syndicale Lycéenne (USL), a major organiser of the protests, said the government had offered "nothing concrete”. Some other organisations have also shown their support for the students, with the teachers' union SNES-FSU urging its members to join Tuesday's protest. The radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon described the protests as the "most powerful high school and university student youth movement" since 1968 - a year of major unrest, which saw millions of workers go on strike.

The wave of demonstrations began in September in Paris and has spread across the country, with students protesting over a range of issues, including overcrowded classrooms, run-down buildings, and a lack of teachers. The protests were started by high school students, who were later joined by university students.

I agree with most of this as a few years ago I worked in a school in Nice in August and there was no air-conditioning or cold water - it was really difficult to work there.