Rue De La Monnaie

This was a little side street in the town of Sommieres. When I walk around these little towns I am always intrigued by the little side streets that steer off in different directions and angles. This photo seemed (to me) to catch the atmosphere of one such street.

Post Note: I am told that in very old towns "rue de la monnaie" is where the ancient roman road entered the village.

(Thanks Peter)

Gorges De L'Herault

My cousin and his wife came to visit me from the states. We took a ride down this beautiful gorge . I have been here 7 months and still marvel at the ancient structures. Enjoy the next 3 pictures.

Pic St Loup

This is Pic St Loup. A mountain that has it all. Great trails, great castles, great views and it's surrounded by vineyards that produces excellent local wine.

This is the town of Sommieres . A great place to go shopping on Saturdays.

Hello Donkey

This is a donkey that lives near us. His fenced in area is right along side the road and we pass him every time we go to work or shopping. In the realm of donkeys he strikes me as a handsome example. I noticed him from the beginning and had taken to saying "hello donkey" every time we went by. My wife just ignored me at first but after awhile she started saying it as well. Now we both look for him and worry when he's not out.
We went shopping in the little town of Sommieres last weekend. My Wife and her friend went into a little gift store while I waited outside. When they came out, she said she had bought me a gift. When I got home and unwrapped it it was . .a little statue of a donkey. It now sits on my desk. These are things that memory's are made of.

Glider

While we were picnicking on Pic Saint Loup we saw a squadron of gliders take flight. Ok, it was one gas engine plane hauling these gliders up and releasing them. There was four of them in flight by the time we left. Think about it. Silently soaring above ancient castles. It doesn't get more obscure than that.

Tale of two castles

We went on a picnic to Pic Saint Loup which is a mountain not to far from us. The view was stunning. If you look at the top photo you'll see an ancient castle on the very right (hard to see) and another on the very left. So you have two old castles with this valley between them.

This is the castle on the right (I know it's a lousy photo but the sun wasn't cooperating with me.)

And this is the castle on the left. Were they friendly with each other? Did they have some Carl Lewis type guy who would run messages back and forth? Maybe they were enemies. That would be awkward. Maybe there was some romance that suffered the distance of that valley. You could write a hundred different stories about these two castles. I would love to know the history.
Anyway it was a beautiful day and a great picnic.

Trip home (you had to be there.)

This is a shot from the plane window. Photographs taken from the windows of jumbo jets are kind of like funny stories you tell and nobody laughs. After an awkward silence you say "well, I guess you had to be there." This shot is probably no exception, but I was on my way home on a flight from Montpellier to Paris and the beautiful Alps loomed in the distance. I was euphoric as I snapped photo after photo. This picture does little justice of what I saw out that window but try to imagine. . . . .ok, I guess you had to be there.

Going home

We are heading back to the States tomorrow for our first trip back in six months. I wanted to leave you with another art shot before I left. I doubt I will be able to post for the next two weeks so I will get back to work when I return.

Sunk Boat

This boats story is almost told. We found it walking along the shore on New Years day. Like the photograph, I had to stare at it that day to discern its outline. Once it presented itself to me I had to ponder it's history. Was it just a fishing boat used by a local man to pull in fish for his supper and perhaps the market. Was it forgotten after his death. Why was it never moved or disposed of. Perhaps it had a more colorful past. Maybe it shuttled some refugees up from Spain during Franco's repressive regime. I don't have the answers. I guess the beginning of a new year and the ending of the last one has made me reflective. Reflection was about all that was left of this old boat.

A cheval! A cheval! My kingdom for a cheval!

Why the long face? There are these whites horses along the road in our town. I stopped with my camera and they came right over to me. We had a pleasant chat.

Christmas Eve

Joyeux Noel everyone. Last night was Christmas eve and we took a walk into town after our traditional fish dinner which my wife did an excellent job on. I brought my camera and tried to do some night shots. This morning (Christmas day) we walked down to church and on the way back we found a market that was open we bought some peppers and clementines and then we found a bakery that was open and we bought a couple of croissants, a baguette and a little buche de noel. It's a traditional Christmas cake shaped like a yule log. It's a beautiful morning here. Merry Christmas everyone.

Palavas Les Flots

The tower at Palavas. this is the next town (about 8 minutes) from us. We were walking during the day and went for a ride to the top. It revolves one turn per hour (I think.) The lower level is a bar and the upper level is a restaurant . I want to go there for the novelty of it. The locals curl their nose at the cuisine but say the view is worth it. I want to go for dinner some time.

Roofing in France

There are a lot of carpenters in my family. This one is for them. I have been intrigued with the tile roofs since I got here so when they were roofing on the lot next to my house I had to take advantage. They don't seem to leak and they're very sturdy.

Annoying Habits

I collect things. I have to bring something back from all my vacations. When I was first married it was little statues. I brought back tiki statues from Hawaii , Inca statues from Mexico etc. etc. I had them on my shelf in my den. My wife is not a big fan of bric-a-brac but she tolerated this character flaw. One day I realized I had too many statues when I was trying get the dust off them ("they're your statues, you dust them.") So I shifted to baseball caps. This too became cumbersome by the sheer volume of it. ("you have so many damn hats there's no place to hang my coat.") When I came to France I realized that before I started down any path I had better think it through. What I came up with is town stickers. Every town we went to has these coat of arms town stickers. They're actually post cards but the coat of arms peals off. This is great. I can scan them and post them before my pictures in my blog and even if we visit 500 towns in two years I can bring them home in a Kleenex box. Problem solved!

The beach

On the drive home from Mauguio we swung by the beach. The wind was whipping and the skies whispered rain. This was an angry Mediterranean sea, but beautiful none the less.

Mauguio

We went on a road trip to a little town called Mauguio. All the towns in the South of France are quaint and this town is no exception. This town carries a bull theme because of the big bullfighting arena which is there (go figure). There is a different type of bull fighting in south France that is more conducive to the bull because he gets to stay alive in the end. The matadors who are dressed in white, go running by the bulls and try to grab (hook) rings that are on the bulls horns. Of course this causes the bull some anxiety and he gives chase. The object is to get the rings off the horns and make it to the perimeter of the arena and scale over a wall before you feel the business end of the bull. I spoke to a guy at work that used to do this and he drew out schematics of the arena and the exact angle the bull should be at in order for a successful ring hook-age and horn avoidance.
It was pretty interesting.

Neighbor's House

It was around 6pm and I was grilling on my back patio. The west sky was beautiful. The steaks were sizzling and the red wine was delicious. I felt like playing with my camera.