Provence

Continuing the series, here are some underground garbage receptacles, just in front of the ramparts of a medieval fort, in the southern French village of Beaucaire, France

How can you not love a country where people get out an enjoy a very relaxing sport?

As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of a narrow alley in the southern French villag of Agde, the dark stone used for construction having caught my eye, since you don’t see that in other French villages,

Is it a bus? Is it a tram?  It runs on tires – but are rails a requirement for a tram? What exactly defines a tram?

Well, the inhabitants of the southern French city of Nimes refer to it as a tram. I am not sure if it is of the same make and construction, but there is a similar bus/tram/thing that plies the streets of the northeastern French city of Metz.

One of the wonderful things about this tram is that by and large it runs on dedicated streets that are forbidden to vehicular traffic, but are open to bicycle traffic. So I spent quite some time on the Rhine Rider exploring Nimes by using the tram lines as bicycling shortcuts.

Some big rocks to stop the waves of the Mediterranean Sea from eroding the beaches of Fariente Plage, near the southern France village of Saint-Marie-de-la-Mer,

Continuing the series, the southern French are attempting something of a revival of the nearly extinct language of Langue d’Oc. This amazing for two reasons: first, the language is hardly spoken by anyone anymore; and second, we are talking about France, where pride in the French language is so strong even international language like English and Spanish find no acceptance here.

Nevertheless, as you wander around the downtown area of the southern French village of Arles you’ll spot street signs like this:

And like this:

France is intensely interesting, especially when it comes to the language. European countries like Spain and Germany and (especially) Italy are filled with villages, each with their own unique dialect – in some cases, so intense that it is mutually unintelligible to people from outside the village.

France is an exception. Here, standard French is spoken everywhere, there accent differences are only minimal at best – and the dozens if not hundreds of historical dialects that probably existed up until the early part of the 20th century are now – if not totally lost – only spoken by a handful of the older generation.

Regions of France have started initiatives to revive these old languages, such as Alsacienne in Alsace, and Langue d’Oc in Southern France. Given that less than 100K French people speak this language, I find it almost mind-blowing that there is a radio station (Radio Lengadoc) as well as a movement to show signs in both languages.

Here is an artistic a set of snaps I could take for the village of Béziers in Southern France.

Here is the snap for the standard French version:

And here is the Langue d’Oc version:

Interestingly, while listening to Radio Lengadoc I could understand a tiny amount. Langue d’Oc seems to be a combination of Spanish, French, and Catalan.

Interestingly, many of the songs they played had a similar tonal quality to those on a CD that I own of Sephardi Jews in Spain – coincidence?

As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of a number of birds seeking the best refuge they could find from the howling Mistral winds on the Hérault River in the southern French village of Agde,

When you think of Roman coliseums, you tend to think of Rome.

But there are many, many coliseums still in existence, many of them scattered throughout France, Spain, Italy, and even in Switzerland.

Here is the best pan I thought I could rama of the Amphitheatre in Arles, in southern France. Interestingly, except for a temporary shutdown due to Covid, the amphitheater like many of them is still in use today, not just as museums but for real events like markets and bullfights.

As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of a colorful building (which a fountain built onto it, no less!) on the north side of the southern French village of Arles, immediately opposing an ancient portal through the medieval city walls:

Although I didn’t stop to ask her, the lady sitting in front does not appear to look homeless. The lady (femme in French) is just sitting (s’asseoir in French) with a face mask (masque in French), drinking a coffee (prendre un café in French), smoking a cigarette (fumer une igarette in French), while reading her mobile phone (mobil in French).

At the time I was there it was required to wear a face mask when anywhere in the downtown area (masque obligatoire in French).

 

Continuing the series, here are some underground garbage receptacles in the southern French village of Agde,

At first I just casually stepped over this manhole cover in the southern French village of Arles.  But then I thought to myself – do they still call it a “manhole” in this day and age, and if they do, what’s is it called in French?

But then I noticed it was worn on one side, as you can see below:

This was a true mystery to me. Probably, it was worn by the tires of cars that pass over it – a logical explanation because the cover sits just to right side of the street.

But if you stop and really think about modelling this behavior, it makes less and less sense. If the metal could really be worn away by the rubber of car tires, why wouldn’t more of the cover be worn?

No, what is more likely the case is indicated by the bits and pieces of asphalt that are stuck to other places on the cover. Probably, the cover was laid, the street was covered in asphalt, and the cover was then exposed, possibly using a sandblaster.

Sit down, get ready, and prepare to enjoy an exciting treat!

First, have a look at this. It is an object you will see in many French cities. What is it, you may ask yourself? What could it be?

Well, it is something of a sentry or sentinelle as the French may say, standing stoically in rain or shine, and carefully guarding which cars and vehicles have access to the downtown area.

For, when you step back a bit and see this French intersection, you’ll see a post in the middle of the street, preventing traffic from entering the downtown area:

But, for the vehicles that are on the access list, the sentinelle causes the post in the street to lower, so that you can drive into the downtown area.

Personally I think technology like this is quite behind-the-times. You need to travel to a truly modern country like China to see how they use vehicle recognition technology in all sorts of applications.

As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of the arguably the world’s or at least France’s bridge with the dumbest name (Pont Vieux, which translates to Old Bridge), but, in this case, with the world famous French Canal du Midi about 5 meters above my head in the southern French village of Béziers,

Yes, that is a canal over my head (or in engineering terms, an aquaduct for boats) that traverses the River Orb.

France underwent an explosion of canal building in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and there are many spectacular examples of canals that traverse rivers or other obstructions.

As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of the quaint little village of Montady, just on the northern edge of the mind-blowing Étang de Montady in the southern French countryside near Béziers,

The Canal du Midi was an incredible public works project engineered by Paul-Pierre Riquet in the eighteenth century. Here you can see it running across the Béziers countryside in southern France,

As this blow-up shows, today it’s mainly used for recreational boat traffic including houseboats,

As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of an archway through a medieval building in the southern French village of Agde,