It was a very pleasant ride.
The long sandy beach of La Baule quickly changes into rocky shores.
See the stairs on the side of the cliff?
The scenery is made more dramatic by the crappy weather.
23.4.10
I'm a magpie too!
Yesterday I put on my tight pants and hopped on the bike for my first leisure ride here. I decided to head south and rode about 13mi round trip to a small town named Saint Marc and back. It was a little chilly compared to the previous days which was fine with me since the road is a quite hilly. They have made nice bike path on a lot of roads but unfortunately not all of them and I'm sorry to say that most drivers are not that bike-friendly. Oh well. I bought a helmet, I should be fine.
It was a very pleasant ride.
The long sandy beach of La Baule quickly changes into rocky shores.
See the stairs on the side of the cliff?
The scenery is made more dramatic by the crappy weather.
It was a very pleasant ride.
The long sandy beach of La Baule quickly changes into rocky shores.
See the stairs on the side of the cliff?The scenery is made more dramatic by the crappy weather.
22.4.10
Welcome to La Baule
This is where my road trip in my tiny car ended (a Nissan Micra) on thursday night last week.La Baule is an ocean town, a resort mostly inhabited by upper class/ upper-middle class parisians in the summer.
The sand beach is one of the longest in Europe. 7km long.
The ocean front is filled with concrete buildings
During the off-season, the streets are quite empty...
This part of the town is called La Baule-les-pins, which means "La Baule-the pine-trees". Guess why.
Notice the local style of the roof here:
This is l'Allée Cavalière (The horse rider alley)The center part of the street is for horses only.
My mum's place is in La Baule-les-pins. But it's an appartment. Not too shabby, though, with a pleasantly big terrasse
Perfect to enjoy nice drinks
and dine looking at the sunset.
(still no ash cloud up there).
19.4.10
Going north
After a few days eating too well and too much, I left my chocolate provider and his wife to take the road again. After leaving Quercy, I drove on the highway for a little while. Boring and expensive...
So I got off and took smaller roads enjoying the scenery.
Saint Benoît-du-Sault:
Winding roads and no one around
And, as I am heading to the next department, the Vienne, trees become scarce.
My goal: Vicq-sur-Gartempe, a small town in Vienne, where my friends are spending their last weeks of vacation.
And their house, the Villa des Iles, built in 1906.
With gardens "à la française", and if you look closer, you will see a bridge in the back: their house is right on the river. Very nice place.
My stop was just for refueling. They welcomed me with paté, stuffed quail, and an awesome dessert:
Truffle brownies from the book of... Martha Stewart!!! These friends just came back from 3 years in New York.
Because the air can be dry, we made sure to have some liquid with all these dishes:
not too shabby. I HAD to have an espresso before climbing back in my tiny ride...
So I got off and took smaller roads enjoying the scenery.
Saint Benoît-du-Sault:
Winding roads and no one around
And, as I am heading to the next department, the Vienne, trees become scarce.
My goal: Vicq-sur-Gartempe, a small town in Vienne, where my friends are spending their last weeks of vacation.
And their house, the Villa des Iles, built in 1906.
With gardens "à la française", and if you look closer, you will see a bridge in the back: their house is right on the river. Very nice place.
My stop was just for refueling. They welcomed me with paté, stuffed quail, and an awesome dessert:
Truffle brownies from the book of... Martha Stewart!!! These friends just came back from 3 years in New York.Because the air can be dry, we made sure to have some liquid with all these dishes:
not too shabby. I HAD to have an espresso before climbing back in my tiny ride...
17.4.10
More Quercy
a gargoil in Puylagarde
Check the length of the neck of some of these hens...
Cherry tree flowers
One of the many water mills along the river Bonnette
The petrifying cascade
A sign anouncing a 13th century templar's stronghold
and here is the stronghold:
Chicken invading the backyard
16.4.10
the Quercy
The roads of Quercy are really pretty. Quercy is an historical region in the south west of France surrounding the city of Cahors, where the Malbec originates from.
At this time of the year, flowers are barely blooming in the bright green fields. You can see completely white cherry trees at almost every corner.
You can't drive for very long without entering a village where all the buildings are made of stone.
This one is called Parisot:
In addition to the stone walls, some features are almost always founds in towns of Quercy. A statue of a local Saint or of the Virgin Mary,
A market "hall": here are 2 examples, the first in Puylargarde, the second in Parisot. You can see on the first picture holes in the wall. They were used to measure grain.
And a castle or fortified building, here in Puylagarde
and St Projet (called the castle of Queen Margot because she spent a night there).
In villages, houses are tightly clustered together. It is also true out of villages. "Hameaux" are small clusters of homes in the countryside, usually a few farms grouped together. These are often not farms anymore, but have become secondary homes for city people in need of fresh air,or even primary homes for folks from England or the Netherlands.
My chocolate provider's house is one of them.
Tipically, the living room is actually the kitchen, with a large fire place.
Here is his British neighbor:
A perfect place to rest and recover...
At this time of the year, flowers are barely blooming in the bright green fields. You can see completely white cherry trees at almost every corner.
You can't drive for very long without entering a village where all the buildings are made of stone.
This one is called Parisot:
In addition to the stone walls, some features are almost always founds in towns of Quercy. A statue of a local Saint or of the Virgin Mary,
A market "hall": here are 2 examples, the first in Puylargarde, the second in Parisot. You can see on the first picture holes in the wall. They were used to measure grain.
And a castle or fortified building, here in Puylagarde
and St Projet (called the castle of Queen Margot because she spent a night there).
In villages, houses are tightly clustered together. It is also true out of villages. "Hameaux" are small clusters of homes in the countryside, usually a few farms grouped together. These are often not farms anymore, but have become secondary homes for city people in need of fresh air,or even primary homes for folks from England or the Netherlands.
My chocolate provider's house is one of them.
Tipically, the living room is actually the kitchen, with a large fire place.
Here is his British neighbor:
A perfect place to rest and recover...
Ashes to ashes
In 1986, a nuclear plant in what is now Ukraine blew up. Tchernobyl - probably sounds familiar... The explosion released a big radioactive cloud that spread south and west across Europe. Luckily, it stopped right at the borders of France. Non, non!! It did not enter the country!
Believe it or not, this was the official message sent to us by our government. Needless to say, the cloud did not really "understand" where these borders exactly were, and traveled above at least half the country. Consequences were much milder than the ones the victims living in the vicinity of the plant had to endure. However, an increase in some pathologies such as thyroid cancer was quite significant afterwards.
Today another cloud has come to our skies, dismissing the borders (clouds do that), this one full of ashes from, please, repeat after me: Eyjafjallajokull.
Planes stuck on the grounds, passengers stranded all across northern Europe... Ironically, this happens during Easter school break, and train strikes.
Anyway, these ashes are a huge threat to plane engines - if I got it right - as they get in them and with the moisture in the air at these elevations, plus perhaps the heat in the engine, can form some sort of cement that can jam them.
Luckily, these ashes are absolutely not dangerous for our health. As the cloud is coming over our heads, we can hear repeated reassuring messages from our leaders and we all feel better.
However, in the back of my head, the name of Tchernobyl creeps back as I try to understand how small particles (invisible?) that can be sulfate, nitrate, ammonia, sodium chloride won't get in our lungs, and if they do, won't do any harm.
Looking up to the north - north west tonight, the skies look still pretty clear here. Unless what I think is the dusk creeping on us is actually something else...
Believe it or not, this was the official message sent to us by our government. Needless to say, the cloud did not really "understand" where these borders exactly were, and traveled above at least half the country. Consequences were much milder than the ones the victims living in the vicinity of the plant had to endure. However, an increase in some pathologies such as thyroid cancer was quite significant afterwards.
Today another cloud has come to our skies, dismissing the borders (clouds do that), this one full of ashes from, please, repeat after me: Eyjafjallajokull.
Planes stuck on the grounds, passengers stranded all across northern Europe... Ironically, this happens during Easter school break, and train strikes.
Anyway, these ashes are a huge threat to plane engines - if I got it right - as they get in them and with the moisture in the air at these elevations, plus perhaps the heat in the engine, can form some sort of cement that can jam them.
Luckily, these ashes are absolutely not dangerous for our health. As the cloud is coming over our heads, we can hear repeated reassuring messages from our leaders and we all feel better.
However, in the back of my head, the name of Tchernobyl creeps back as I try to understand how small particles (invisible?) that can be sulfate, nitrate, ammonia, sodium chloride won't get in our lungs, and if they do, won't do any harm.
Looking up to the north - north west tonight, the skies look still pretty clear here. Unless what I think is the dusk creeping on us is actually something else...
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