I kept running my camera battery flat in Paris. So many pics. Here’s a bunch more of them. (There are so many beautiful artifacts from the ancient world in the Louvre. Some of them remind you what a prudish age we live in now.) (Pan) (A pallid mediaeval lady.) (Up close and personal with Michelangelo’s…
This place has got to be run by a Brit’.
…The pavement is bustling with people, bicycles, scooters and cafe tables. Young couples are actually standing in the street, or sitting on the saddles of their scooters tongue kissing, just like in the movies… Marc picks us up at St Malo, and luckily for us he is going to Paris, so it looks…
Thanks to Pierre’s massive generosity, we are spending 3 amazing days in his beautiful house on the river at Saint-Antoine. Pierre is a sailor, hitchhiker and vagabond himself, and fortunately a very good English speaker, so we have some great chats! (Top: the view from the front yard of Pierre’s house) Saint-Antoine is the…
I feel like a pilgrim to a palace from Lord of the Rings. The island is completely covered in medieval stone structures, walled around with soaring battlements, and topped with a sky piercing spire adorned with a gilt statue like an angel. Sea birds circle the island, and here and there men are walking across the sand flats barefoot, with baskets, collecting shellfish…
Hitching on the highway in Normandy, France. The Gendarmes arrive, lights flashing, and inform us seriously that hitchhiking on highways is illegal in France, but we may hitch at round-abouts or on-ramps. Naturally we apologise politely and shoulder our bags to walk back to the on-ramp. The officer winds down his window and beckons me…
We’re walking down the street in Caen, past the statue of Louis XIV proclaiming himself to be an “emporer of Rome”, when suddenly there is a wild blaring of car horns, and thumping dance music! It’s another wedding party off to the chapel! All the girls hang out the windows and sunroofs of the vehicles and…
Across the square from Chateaux Ducal in Caen, is the city’s equally venerable 13th century cathedral. It has been painstakingly restored over the past 6 years, and was also substantially reconstructed in the 1940s after Caen was reduced to rubble in WW2. The complexity and artistry of the masonry is awe inspiring. Hundreds of…
I’m nerding out. I may go LARP at any moment and start running around with a toy sword screaming battle cries in Tolkien-ese. The bell in the cathedral sounds 11pm as we settle down in our sleeping bags in the moat of Chateaux Ducal de Caen. The moat is dry nowadays, and is dark…
ok… is this hotdog disturbing or what? Looks like he is playing russian roulette or something… (its a beachside hotdog stand in Mers-Les-Baines, France)
On the road north of Abbeville, Arnould picks us up, and decides to show us Mers-Les-Baines.The beach front is a short stretch of sand, in front of a massively steep shore of smooth, glassy stones. They are uncomfortable to walk on, but heated by the sun, excellent to lie on. No sand in your…
Before dropping us off near the highway to Abbeville, Francois, our gracious host in Colin-Camps gives us some sage advice: 1. “Go to Mont St Michel, Normandy – it is a spectacular 13th century walled city on an island.” 2. “If you go to Marseilles, watch out for pickpockets!” 3. “When you enter a town,…