France

I took this snap somewhere just near the Vosges mountains in France,

Continuing the series, ice crystals, on a bush, in front of a tree, in Cernay

Continuing the series, if you ask me, no easy job to keep these shrubs pruned so identically

Continuing the series, I’m definitely coming back here because this snap was taken just outside of a HUGE industrial park that was deserted – sort of a ghost factory. It was all open to the public, so it’s on my bucket list to head back and just poke around.  According to a small plaque here, this chimney was part of a textile factory – and I assume that the streams running down from the Vosges Mountains in the background were the reason for its location (water power):

Continuing the series, I could not resist capturing this snap of some tall grass (or a bush?) with the leaves all covered in ice,

Continuing the series, this street art seems to be an homage to hungry people, but to be honest I never stopped to see if there was a sign that described it.

Cernay in the eastern French part of Alsace known as Haut-Rhine is an interesting village for two reasons. First, apparently the German SS used this village as an “indoctrination” center during the second world war; and second, because the Thur river flows through it, and there was a river of the exact same name flowing through Winterthur when I lived there. (Note: it flowed through Winterthur before I moved there, and it probably still flows there today.)

Anyway, here’s the church:

Just like just about everything else in Europe, the Chateaux de Joux dates back to the 1200’s.

Sadly it is a bit difficult to find information about these things on the Internet. I took this snap from the parking lot of IKEA in Mulhouse, in Alsace.

I took this snap after getting off the tram that transports you up to the mountain to Crans-Montana – but then I stopped to think, this must be a very difficult garden to maintain in good condition:

I love Switzerland. I have a é key right on my keyboard!  Voilà – yup, I’ve got one of those keys, too!

Bit sad, would have been wonderful to get this snap in exactly the right light, but I didn’t feel like coming back mid-day.

While walking around the northeastern Lorraine city of Metz I stumbled across a street called Rue de la Manufacture, with a small sign that tobacco was produced here many years ago. Although there were no signs, I wondered if this building was used as a shed for storing the leaves? It was very similar to sheds that I’ve seen in the southern US, where the leaves are hung and allowed to ferment or dry out of whatever it is they want to happen to the leaves:

It sounded like an interesting historical topic (producing tobacco in France!), so I did a little research on Wikipedia and found out this might be the case. You can see the Rue de la Manufacture below, and just to the right and up you’ll see Imp. Belle-Isle, where the northeastern most building (with the grey roof) is the arial view of the snap I took:

I think it’s just wonderful how you can dovetail a photography hobby with an easy bit of historical research, to find out things like this!

[Note added on 06.09.2021] After discussing tobacco barns in Cleveland with my father it became apparent that most of the barns were painted black, since the extra heat would help in the curing process. Interestingly, the building above has a black/gray roof, whereas all the other buildings have red tile roofs – more circumstantial evidence that this may very well have been a barn for storing tobacco!

You have to look and think about this one a little bit: