A Restful Time Back In The Var

After a very full on time last week we have had a very quiet time back at Le Thoronet.  It has been nice to be back ‘home’.

It was a frosty start in Girona, we had to scrape the car windows before heading in to the city to find some breakfast.  Most of the day was spent getting to Sète in France.  The skies were clear but there was the strongest wind I think I have been in.  Driving along the A9 it was a real struggle to hold the lane, the bonnet was flexing all over the place and I wondered if panels would be ripped from the car!  The speed limit is 130kph but even 110kph was really pushing it.  We stopped at a second service area near Fitou that overlooked a large harbour.  The offshore wind was so violent that the bay looked like there was a sandstorm in progress as the water was being whipped up into the air.  We dared not get out out the car for fear that the doors might be torn off as soon as they cleared the latches.  Needless to say the drive was rather tedious and tiring.  Fortunately the road was bone dry.

Heading north on the A9 towards Perpignan just after leaving Spain we managed to stop at a service area that had a good view of the mountains. If I am not mistaken, Andorra is directly beyond these peaks. You might just make out the misty appearance of wind blown snow at the summit. There is no other indication in the foreground of the wind strength – it was not easy to walk around and it was bitterly cold.

It was too cold and windy to enjoy Sète. It is probably a delightful place in the summer but right now all we wanted was to have lunch and keep warm.

On Tuesday we drove through a small corner of the Camargue and visited Aigues-Mortes.  We wound our way through the minor roads not in a particular hurry but because it was still so cold and windy we didn’t venture out of the car.

On the way to Aigues-Mortes we spotted these flamingoes on a large shallow estuary. Even with a 300mm zoom lens they were still too far away for detail, but it gives the idea.

Aigues-Mortes is a spectacular walled town on the western edge of the Petite Camargue. The Camargue area is an expansive wetland at the mouth of the Rhône and as well as being a fertile asparagus and viticultural area, bulls and Camargue horses are reared in the semi-wild and salt is produced here. [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camargue%5D. The walls of the city are 1650m long and were completed around 1300AD. [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aigues-Mortes%5D.

On the inside of the walls at Aigues-Mortes looking out.

This view shows about 300m of one side of the Aigues-Mortes walls. There are many gates to the town and they line up with the streets that already existed when the walls were built. Hence the walls are not symmetrical.

We arrived back at Sue’s place in Le Thoronet by 16h00 and tried to keep a low profile as she was busy preparing to go into hospital on Thursday morning for a double hip transplant on Friday.  We caught up with Jeremy and Jo on Wednesday and generally took things quietly.  The weather down here has been surprisingly crisp!  We had -5˚C and -4˚C on Wednesday and Thursday mornings respectively.  Dry but cold to start with clear sunny days that get up to 12~15˚C.  You certainly need the fire going.

Sue’s cat Jazz snoozing in the warmest spot in the house.

Being Black Friday in the US and therefore all over the internet, I did manage to score a couple of new photography eBooks very cheaply.  Its always interesting to find out how things are meant to be done!  So I have been doing some reading and some trial and error with the camera.  I was also trying to see if there were any ‘creative’ bones in me rather than just the pedantic technician who is usually to the fore.  These are not especially original shots, but do they work?  You be the judge.

#1 Experimenting with DoF, focus technique and composition followed by a new technique in post-processing.

#2 Same beehive from another angle but similar techniques.

3# More autumn fun! Let me know what you think in the comments.

And that really is about all there is to report without descending into the really mundane like getting the car serviced and grocery shopping!  😉

Now that we are back in the Var we will be staying put most of the time.  That means there will not be much to post so I will try and get a post out every two weeks from now on.  So the next post should be on the 15th December.