Provence

This is TRANSMISSION – and I took this snap just north of Nimes in the dense Garrigue region

Continuing the series, 

It always makes me wonder when I see a tall building like this – just north of Nimes – fall into disuse. The question is: if there are no other buildings anywhere in this region for miles and miles, then why did they build it?

The Judas trees bloom in April – they look like cherry trees, but according to legend Judas Iskariot hanged himself on one – which caused the red color!

Just outside of Uzés

The Calcia cement plant in Beaucaire is among the 50 most polluting industrial sites in France, responsible collectively for 10% of the country’s CO2 emissions. President Macron has pledged five billion euros to help these sites decarbonize, with Heidelberg Materials, Calcia’s parent company, committing an additional 45 million euros to carbon capture infrastructure at the Beaucaire site. Who would have thought that a cement factory was worth so much!

I spotted this at a L’Eclerc supermarket near Annecy, France. Open for use to the public – just pick your favorite shopping cart, wheel it in their, press the button – and presto!  Sanitized!  At least I assume so . . . I never actually tried it.  Wanted something for my bucket list and the next time I visit.

I took this snap just east of Marseille

I was really confused about why the rows are spaced so far apart – and I don’t know for sure – but if I believe ChatGPT, wide spacing is essential to deter fungal infections and ensure the highest volumetric yield of lavender oil.  So . . . now it’s on my bucket list to return here and ask a farmer!

I took this snap just east of Marseille

Compare the French vs. the Germans. The Germans build their city walls with little holes so they could shoot arrows to kill the invaders. The French did exactly the same – but look at the little chairs they built for themselves next to the hole! In fact, the even added some space at the bottom for a lunch bag and a bottle of wine!

As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of some snails on a stick in a salt marsh, just outside the medieval city walls of Aigues-Mortes, in South France.  Just think, when the medieval Crusaders set out from here centuries ago to conquer Jerusalem, the great-great-great snail parents of these snails were probably here, doing the same thing!

I actually learned about this in the geology class I took at Ohlone College back in 1983 – a river meanders and then the meander cuts itself off. In this case there is a medieval village down below. It’s so far off the beaten track in south France that I think it would take anyone 3 hours to get here. And it is a damn scary drive: I spent over an hour driving on narrow switchback roads high in the French mountains – so narrow, if you’d run into another car, someone would have to back up nearly a kilometer!

Continuing the series,

Continuing the series,

Continuing the series,

Continuing the series,

And here is the map of the historic village,

Continuing the series,

Continuing the series, here is a snap of La Couvertoirade, a village in Southern France that dates back to the 1200’s.  The templars were a group of fighters first started in 1119 in Jerusalem, during the Crusades. After around 1300 the templars fell (well, they did not really fall, like falling on the ground – they “fell” in the sense of all getting slaughtered by King Philipp IV of France, for corruption and having too much power) – and a somewhat older group (a religious order called the Knights Hospitaller) took over the city. Believe it or not, it was not until the 1980’s that people got smart – and in this case “smart” means “let’s make the village pretty so we can sell souvenirs to hoards of tourists!”