This is a lion in the north central French town of Châlons-en-Champagne,
France
A deep conspiracy hidden in plain sight – 2
Continuing the series, a snap from a different point-of-view
Belfort building – 4
Continuing the series, this is the church,
Belfort building – 3
Continuing the series, I think this may be the justice department building but I’m not sure and wasn’t bothered to walk over and find out:
Belfort building – 2
This is the main city hall in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté village of Belfort,
Belfort building
As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of a building in the French village of Belfort, in the region known as Bourgogne-Franche-Comté,
Yes, if Bourgogne sounds familiar then it probably is: it’s the original French word that is translated as Burgundy, and it’s where the French wine of the same name comes. Belfort itself is an interesting place with many historical sights and an often-flipped past; at times it belonged to Germany.
Pond at Huningue
Continuing the series, I thought this snap of a pond near the juncture of the Huninque Canal and the Rhein River in Alsace was quite pretty in the winter sunlight:
Michelin test facility in the sunlight – 2
Continuing the series, here is another snap of what I thought looked magnificent in the winter sunlight:
Alsacian sprinkler
OK, more formally known as a lateral move irrigation machine, these things are just amazing. They have an astonishing amount of electronics, including servo motors that move the wheels.
I took this snap in the winter, in Alsace. This seems to be a so-called two wheel model, since there are two wheels per assembly.
I tried to look up how much one of these babies cost (capital costs, not operating costs), and I was surprised to find a few things. First, the costs are usually reported per hectare or acre. Second, there is a huge range in the costs, from USD 300 per acre to USD 6’000 per acre, depending on the features and functionality.
Tree at the lock in the sun
This is an unretouched snap of a tree in the winter sunlight at the first lock that opens from the Huningue Canal in France to the Rhine River in Germany. I thought the colors and light was wonderful!
Sunrise over the Alsacian refinery
As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of the sun rising above Germany’s Schwarzwald, shining down onto a refinery next to the Rhein River in Alsace,
Most times my photos are opportunistic – I see a sight I like and I take a snap. In this case I had the idea the sunrise might lead to a nice snap, so I arrived early with a thermos of hot tea, and waited for what I thought was the right moment.
It’s also at times like these when I think about what it must be like to own a multi-thousand-CHF digital camera with fancy lenses. If I had one, I am sure this shot could be 147 times better!
I don’t own one. I’ve got a little Canon point-and-shoot I bought for CHF 400 several years ago and is still top in its class today. I like the idea of having my camera with me – at all times – everywhere. I sacrifice quite a lot on photographic quality, but it is more than compensated by getting snaps of sights that I spontaneously see and appeal to me.
An optical illusion in Béziers
If you think there is something a bit amiss with this facade, you’d be right:
In fact, I naively walked by until I saw a couple of tourists taking a picture, so I backed up and realized: there are no balconies on that face at all! In fact, it is a flat building, and what you see is just a very clever painting with perspective.
It’s a tribute to an artist who was born here, Jean-Antoine Injalbert. Funny thing, though, lest you jump to any conclusions: the artist was a famous French sculptor:
Béziers bridge for boats
As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of the Canal du Midi, which at this point crosses the River Orb in an aquaduct. Yes – that’s right! – that is not a bridge for cars or people but a bridge for boats!
This snap was taken in Béziers, with the famous Cathédral Saint-Naive high on a hill in the background:
Roman seats – 2
Continuing the series, I find it is great that these old Roman ruins are still in use today. But I find it more than interesting that they are numbered with Arabic numerals instead of Roman numerals,
Recovering the language of Alsace
Continuing the series, just as I showed the efforts by the French to re-ignite the southern French language of Langue d’Oc, here’s a snap of what’s happening in Alsace, on the border with Germany, where the language of Alsacienne has been falling into obscurity:
I don’t know the statistics, but speaking from experience I have interacted with a large number of people who speak Alsacienne. It’s a bit tricky for me to understand, it seems to be a mixture of French and German – but I can generally follow along and get the gist of what people are saying. Interestingly, in most cases when I’ve interacted with someone speaking Alsacienne and they realize I am struggling, they jump back to French rather than German – so my guess is that French rather than German is the stronger element.
The Rhine Rider at Béziers – 3
Continuing the series, here is a snap of the Rhine Rider in front of a statue of the famous French engineer Pierre-Paul Riquet, who built the famous Canal du Midi that connects the southwestern French city of Toulouse with the Mediterrean Sea.
Béziers Centre Ville
Some Christmas decorations and – far on the right – a huge Nativity scene in the southern French village of Béziers.
Béziers Centre Historique
The last post showed a snap of the Centre Ville of the southern French city of Béziers, and here is a snap of a typical street in the Centre Historique,
This is a relatively broad street in the Centre Historique. I was amazed to find a very large number of streets that are perhaps no more than 2 meters wide. Perhaps this was done for defensive reasons, since the city is in the south and would have seen many battles and even the Crusades.
The Rhine Rider at Béziers – 2
Continuing the series, here is the Rhine Rider in the Centre Ville of the southern French city of Béziers:
Interestingly the Centre Ville in Béziers is not the same thing as the Centre Historique, sometimes called the Vieux Ville.
Clermont-Ferrand – 2
Continuing the series, here is a slightly different snap:
Rainbow over the castle
Honestly – how cool is this?
I think a real secret to getting a good shot was that the weather was very stable. This rainbow persisted for the better part of an hour.
Béziers building
Nothing special or historic or anything of that nature. I just liked how the building looked in the sunlight:
There are a number of southern French cities layed out similar to this one, with a large rectangle in the center, often used for a market, then tiny one lane roads on each side where traffic is unidirectional.
The Rhine Rider at Béziers
Here is the Rhine Rider, taking a break at the top of a hill in the southern French city of Béziers, just in front of the Cathédral Saint-Nazaire,
Old bridge over the River Orb
Hold on to your hat: the name of this bridge in French (and I am not making this up) is Pont Vieux. This is translated as Old Bridge. It’s either the world’s most dumbest name (implying the locals could not think of anything better) or the world’s most artistic name (using a humble self-explanatory moniker for a magnificent thing).
Anyway, dumb or artistic, it spans the River Orb in the South French city of Béziers,
This is a view of the bridge from high above, at the Cathédral Saint-Nazaire:
Michelin test facility in the sunlight
It’s been on my bucket list for a few years to take a photograph of this ancient tire test facility of the Michelin tire company, in Clermont-Ferrand. So you can imagine my happiness when I headed out to it with my camera in hand and was rewarded with wonderful sunlight at a perfect angle.
This snap has not been retouched in any way.
Now . . . this is the part when I then have a little think. I’ve seen some YouTube videos that show the insides of this place, essentially little buggies running back and forth up the hill 24×7. As a physicist myself I can’t really fathom why a test facility like this would be needed, because even with vacuum tubes it should be possible to build control circuitry that would mimic the loads on real tires. But . . . there you have it!