Rocket goes to France
A photo journal of my summer adventure exploring France, 27 years in the making--it was an epic adventure. Be sure to click on the archive button at the bottom for more photos.
About Me
- Name: Rocket Davis
- Location: Olympia, Washington
This blog is about my quirky world view, obsession with travel and photography and experiencing the world. click to enlarge photos then use the back button to go back. I hope you enjoy seeing as much as I enjoy doing. Tons more in the archives, so feel free to check them out--
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Bonnie indoors. She had a bed in the gallery, one on the landing, one in the kitchen and probably in the rooms we couldn't see too. She was old and the house was older. Dating to the 14th century or so. It was beautiful. Two rooms deep and two rooms wide, four stories tall with a roof garden. A narrow winding staircase wound up the center of the house top to bottom. Our room looked over the street and we spent a lot of time just staring at the world below going by.
copyright Fred
In Giverny at Monet's home and gardens there was a lovely little cat sunbathing on the path from the house down through the gardens. Since Monet loved cats very much this seemed perfect. I couldn't resist buying the miniature white porcelain cat on a silk pillow in the foundation Monet gift shop. The same cat in porcelain, life sized, was in Monet's kitchen. It was a gift from his Japanese friends. He corresponded regularly with them because he'd loved Japanese woodblock prints and they hang to this day all over his house.
copyright Fred
At Pere La Chaise it is said that the red roses on Colette's grave are put there daily by the cemetery cats. It surprised me to see in several old crypt/ossuary/family memorials with broken open doors, there were cat beds and food dishes. Some were simply baskets of straw on the floors and altars but this one was a box full of baby blankets wrapped in plastic with a picture of the resident pasted on top. I liked knowing the cats are cared for. There was a plastic food dish, a water bowl and a milk jug of water on the shelf in this crypt so someone is making the rounds on a daily basis. Since you have to pay to get in, I wonder who?
copyright Fred
Small dogs are everywhere, so is small dog poop. My favorite sidewalk sign had a picture of a dachshund stenciled on the sidewalk in white paint with a blue arrow pointing to the sewer opening in the gutter next to the sidewalk. I'm hoping it didn't mean dispose of dachshunds here, I'd rather it mean put your dog poop here. I think more people probably put dachunds in the sewer than picked up their dogs messes if the sidewalks were any indication.
copyright Fred
Monday, August 29, 2005
France tidbits
Sorry this is somewhat out of order, I start editing and it's off to the races---stuff winds up all over the country and I hop from a castle to the cops in one fell swoop. Enjoy the ride--and don't forget to click to make the photos bigger--and use your back button to not blow yourself up.
I love this for some strange reason. Someone took the time to scratch their name into a stone of the chateau. G. Blot, sounds like a name from a bad movie.... notice the flint sticking out of the wall? The soil in France is full of flints and agates. The oddest stuff, you wonder how they make things grow?
copyright Fred
A view of the remnants of Chateau Gaillard. The men stationed there were lonely and missed home according to the stories and they planted flower seeds they had brought home from the crusades. There are meadows of wildflowers all around the castle with both native and non native flowers left from those days. There are also more butterflies in this area than any where else in France, probably because of the plethora of wild flowers.
copyright Fred
The castle of Richard Coeur de Leon, built in Normandy to thwart his arch rival, Philippe Auguste in 1196. He was barring the road from Rouen to Paris and the castle was built in two years. Not very many years later it was torn down and most of it's stones were hauled off to build monasteries in the area.
copyright Fred