Monday, August 3, 2009

Rural France - Languedoc


It was a lovely area around St Andre, I just wish that we'd had bikes.

The final two images are included to remind me of the value of populating a shot with people. I just wish I had retained the zoom of the first shot and just been more patient.

We are considering biking along canals for our 2010 sojourn: either Brest-Nantes or Canal du Midi.

8 comments:

Martina said...

I don't know about Brest-Nantes, but I would deeply heartly dearly (i.e. every adverb I know) recommend the Canal du Midi!

Your third photo is the Gard?

Haha, and your first one .. I posted a similar one some weeks/months before, taken in Languedoc too - but I know, sigh, you did everything I did before ... ;-)

Julie said...

The third shot is through Pont d'Arc which is on the Ardeche River just above Vallon. It was drop dead gorgeous!!

Thanks for the feedback about the Midi. A Dutch friend (who recommended Brest-Nantes) thought that Midi had more hills for bikers because although the canal cuts through the hills the tow path still went up and over. Do you know about biking the Midi ... barging is beyond my budget!

Martina said...

I don't know about biking but there are not any hills, even not the smallest uprising - just flat. And it's shady with wonderful alleys. Hmmmm :-)).
It's like the Netherlands, without the head winds, ;-).


My SO just says that never bike Nantes-Brest - only Brest-Nantes because of the wind (he did it from Nantes to the North and it was horrible ;-) , but it depends on the season ... but usually the winds come from the North).

Joan Elizabeth said...

Biking sounds far to energetic for me. I just want to eat those grapes and the dead flower shot is fantastic.

Julie said...

Oh, never fear: we do our fair share of eating, drinking and generally lying around. We just want the option of being adventurous rather than only looking through museums and churches.

Martina said...

I am sure one can do a fine unenergetic lazy bike ride there :-D.

I just browsed through my blog, here are the grapes - more different than yours as I recalled and two impressions of Canal du Midi
chocolate and boat ;-)

Julie said...

Have followed each of those links: you are converting me. I feel certain that my fellow traveller is already swayed in that direction ... I will order a couple of guides online this evening and do some in-depth research.

Taa ...

Martina said...

:-) - it is really so wonderful there ... did I make that clear?

Yesterday I read some things about biking holidays there (I was a little bit disturbed by the tow paths your Dutch friend mentioned - but hey, he/she is Dutch ... the Netherlands are r.e.a.l.l.y flat .... ;-)) ... I am sure you can google yourself ;-) but have a look at this:

I am feeling Wanderlust.

This is so strange, dictionary gave me the German "Wanderlust" ... (no German would say this *btw*, sounds very antique) ... for the word that literally means "longing to be away".