anyone recognize this town?

  

windows fascinate me

  

weird sights

 I love my digital camera. The thing about digital cameras is that you can take a lot of pictures that you don't ultimately have to print or have developed, so I tend to take more pictures. I have started a collection of weird and wacky things that I see while on this great adventure abroad.

I don't exactly know in what town this photo was taken. We were driving around somewhere in the south of france after a very long day of sightseeing and we spotted a church steeple in a typical small town. This particular steeple looked interesting, not the kind you see in southern france .. the kind that is made of wrought iron. So I suggested we stop and take a walk around and see the steeple up-close. We parked the car then set out on foot to find the church. We never could find it, but maybe that was because we got distracted along the way. The first distraction was a shopping street with really weird things... like the manikins in this shop. And the hanging pants over a store... and many more... 

hanging pants, i guess

  

weary travellers have returned!

  

been so busy!

 My sister arrived last Wednesday with her friend. We have not wasted one minute of time.... it was off to the summer music festival around town on the first night, then they were off to Paris the next day. I got them to the train station and then they were on their own getting to Paris, finding their way around the city and then back again after one night there. I had promised to meet them at the train station when they arrived and was VERY releived to see their smiling faces at the appointed time!

Then on Saturday, we were off on a trip to Avingnon and a drive through the beautiful area of Provence where everything is in full bloom... lavendar, sunflowers, and all the food crops. It was stunning. We had a private tour of the Palace of the Popes that was incredible! We stopped in some small town for the evening because we liked their church steeple. The food and service was excellent. After dinner we watched the ongoing Petanque games played by the little french men in the park. We arrived home exhausted just around midnight.

On Sunday we got up bright and early to make it to the flea market. Lisa bought a coffee grinder and we found a really cool sign that said Chemical Analysis in French. Then back in the car and over to the art market, the craft market, the veggies market and then back home exhausted again.

All afternoon they planned their trip to Italy. They are off again on Monday morning to catch the train to Nice then on to the northern coast of Italy along the Mediterranean. I walked them to the Metro and left them there so that they could get to the train station. I'm holding my breath...... 

a gift for me

 Is saki any good? Anyone have a good recipe for saki margaritas? I don’t think I’ve ever had saki before. If I did, it was quite unmemorable. The bottle I now have is a gift from my Japanese friends. I would like to enjoy it.

They came over again this week for tea. We can only speak French so it is always a challenge. Pretty sad, however, that I practice my French with my Japanese friends. (So much for obtaining a good accent.) 

my buddies

  

huh?

 
When we were at the beach a few weeks ago, we went to a real commercial area for dinner. There were rides, a marina, lots of restaurants, and lots of lights. I saw this and had to take the picture. I think the name for Tweety bird is Titi. 

french countryside

  

a french painter

 


We were at a dinner party some time ago and met some new french people. Somehow the conversation came around to my own french heritage and I mentioned my mother's family name, Hebert. One of the guests asked if I knew of the french painter Ernest Hebert? Proudly showing my American ignorance, I said no. I then learned that there are two Hebert museums in France - one in Grenoble, just south of here, and one in Paris. When my cousin visited a few months ago, we thought about going to the one nearby but never quite made the trip so when I was in Paris last weekend and walking around, I stumbled upon a sign pointing to the Hebert museum. I was really excited about going there and so we planned our afternoon to spend some time browsing through it. When we got to the boarded up building, we read the sign that said that they are currently renovating the museum... and the sign was dated 2004. Dissapointing, but two years to renovate? Maybe next time. 

voting with a sign instead of a ballot

  

If its Tuesday it must be a Greve

grève Noun, feminine (a) strike; se mettre en ~ to (go on) strike; en ~ person on strike, striking factory; ~ de la faim hunger strike; ~ de solidarité sympathy strike; ~ sur le tas sit-down strike
http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/dictionary/

Here we go again ....

As I was checking email this afternoon, I heard chanting coming from the street below my window. "I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter." Oh ... right ... today is Tuesday ... the 'official' day of protests in France. And why is it always in the street in front of my place? Is it the 'official' protest route?

I don’t really know what the French people are upset about now. I saw a sign that had OCT on it, or CCT or maybe it was GCT. My eyes are pretty bad, and I wouldn’t know what it meant anyway. It’s bad enough that I don’t speak their language and am therefore in the dark most of the time, but then they use alphabet soup to name things and that makes me even more clueless. At least I can look up real words in the dictionary.

Well, maybe you will see it on the nightly news and you can fill me in.

a tough job someone had to do

  

sights in Paris

  

a hero at work

 At work on Thursday, an email went out to all employees begging for someone to ‘give up their weekend’ and go to Paris to man a trade booth at some kind of grown-up “science fair”. Seems the company had committed for someone from the research center to be there, but then they couldn’t find anyone who would go. I got a call late in the afternoon wondering if we should bite on the offer. After learning that all expenses would be paid for the sucker who took on the task and his spouse, I said, “Hell yeah, we’ll go!”

So we took the train on Friday evening and arrived in Paris about two hours later. On Saturday morning Paul did exactly as he was told… go to this exhibition place … talk to people who come by the booth … and after putting in an appearance (which means about 3 hours) then leave. He followed the instructions exactly as I walked around the streets of Paris and did some shopping.

He returned around mid-afternoon and the we struck out for seeing the sights of the city. I had brought my ipod loaded with the Historic Paris walking tour that I downloaded before we left for the trip. So … we followed the walking tour and did lots of additional walking around to see the city before going out to dinner.

Sunday was a repeat of the day before. Late in the afternoon we returned home on the train … and Paul was a hero. 

sitting in the cammomile

  

restaurant at the resort

  

The resort where we stayed

 
The place where we stayed was very nice. It was right on the beach and our campsite was about 30 yards from the sand dunes. We were 'roughing it' but there were cabins that could be rented as well. The place had a couple of restaurants, a bakery, a grocery store, a spa, swimming pools, stuff for kids, you name it. Kinda reminded me of Fort Wilderness at Disneyworld, only not so commercial. It wasn't too crowded and the beach must be used only by people visiting the resort. Everything was so pretty and colorful. It was WARM, but the water was ice cold, even in the pools! 

the Mediterranean at dawn

  

the Mediterranean at dusk

  

window in southern france

  

that is salt

  

interesting sights

The three-day weekend begged for a short trip somewhere. We decided to go down to the beach on the Mediterranean near the border with Spain. The trip was very relaxing and interesting, but a highlight of the trip was a short detour that we took on the way home. Our friend suggested that we take a different route home and drive through the salt flats near the Canal du Midi. I said, “yeah, sure” thinking that the anything would be better than taking the same autoroute that goes from Lyon down to the south of France. I wasn’t sure I knew what we would be seeing.

I never really gave much thought to sea salt either. I never thought to ask ... “what sea?” Well, near a little town called Aignes Morte (dead water) is where they capture water from the sea and let the water evaporate until only the salt is left. You see miles and miles of this stuff ... and the colors are just as fascinating as the colors of the Mediterranean itself, only they are shades of red. The white salt collects along the edges and glistens in the sun. And to add to the scenery, there are flamingos all around, just hanging out in the salt flats.

We stopped the car and walked down to the waters edge (or no-waters edge) to touch the salt. I found an old cup in the car and Paul filled it with some of the salt so we could bring it home and taste it.

Only after we got home did I learn more about the salt-making process and the salt from that area.

Sea Salt made here

  

i gotta go where it's warm

 We are going south to the beach this weekend with our American friends. We plan to camp at a place right on the beach. See here. It should be interesting! 

Global warming ?

 
It is June the first. What the #$@&? It was 45 degrees outside this morning and it's warmed up to a whopping 48. The wind chill is 42 degrees. We leave for Florida in exactly 28 days and I hope its 100 degrees in the shade. I need to thaw out.