MOODS: adventyre

Showing posts with label adventyre. Show all posts

2012-01-23

The Fallen...

In the Lords year 1875, on the 15th of April, Joseph Croce-Spinelli and Théodore Sivel went up in the balloon Zénith ready to beat the record of 7300 metres they'd set the year before. They made it, but didn't; both of the men died of asphyxiation, and the Zénith went down in the mountains near Bérgerac. Only Hervé Tissander survived the ascent up to 8000 metres...
I found the tomb of the two friends and adventurers at the Pére-Lachaise quite by chance, and was enchanted by the dramatic sculpture by Dumilatre.

2012-01-04

La Seine

Going through the pictures from my "Batobus"-trip fits just fine right now. I've got a cold, one that I just couldn't shake this time. Still, if that's the price to pay for seeing Paris from the Seine, standing "on deck" in the (mostly) sun with the camera poised...Well...

So, leaving the Eiffel Tower behind me I decided to walk along the right bank of the river. I did try to get on to a "vedette" or "batobus" by the tower, but the crowd was daunting, and I didn't feel I had time to spare waiting in line.

As I passed the very pretty and quite kitsch Pont d'Alexandre III, I found a stop for the "batobus", got a pass and hopped onboard. The pass lasts for a day, and you can hop on and off as you please. There are eight stops going around the two small islands (the St. Louis, and the "La Cité) touching both the Left, and the Right bank.

Yes, there's some ordinary traffic on the Seine as well, not only tourists!

Le Grand Palais

The "Musée des Arts Décoratifs", which is really the end of the "Louvre".

Bridges, and bridges, and bridges...

Passing between the Left Bank and l'Ile de la Cité, and there she is! My favourite amongst the cathedrals (so far);
Notre Dame de Paris!

Yeah I know! Too many pictures of the cathedral, but this is, after all, MY blog!

Leaving Notre Dame behind the boat goes a little further along the Left Bank, to the "Jardin des Plantes", and then turns back along the Right Bank with the "Ile St. Louis" to the left.

I had a weird back-light passing the small island of St. Louis, so I won't show those pictures here. Not now at least.
Here we're back at the tip of the "L'Ile de La Cité". The tip is a small green triangle of a park. This is where the last "templier", Jacques de Molnay was garroted burnt at the stake...

It was a lovely windy trip! Quite cold, but who cares?

2011-10-20

Magic Journey

Autumn is slowly coming our way. It's still sunny and nice, but the days are getting shorter, with chill in the air in the mornings and evenings. We managed to get a way for a last fling with summer. We headed west, into the Cathar-country of Languedoc-Rousillion passing through the marshy, salty Camargue on our way...

We passed my favourite mountain; Mont Saint Victoire.

Into the flatlands of Camargue we found a surprise...

The Chateau d'Avignon

It seems this was once a factory powered by water, producing what I don't know.

On the saltflats we arrived at Aigues-Mortes. The cité where the first crusade was launched in the 11th century.

Apart from being pretty and old, the town is also known for the black bulls, white horses (none on picture alas!) and its salt. Around the salines one can go by these boats to watch the wildlife.