Vacation Galleries

France 2009 : Trip to Normandy

France 2009

Trip to Normandy

Updated: Oct 27, 2009 7:27am PST

York, England 2009 :

York, England 2009

Updated: Oct 27, 2009 6:56am PST

London 2009 : In conjunction with TAMLondon, I took a short trip to London with my friends Eric, Janet, and Jed

London 2009

In conjunction with TAMLondon, I took a short trip to London with my f ...

Updated: Oct 12, 2009 9:47am PST

Texas Death March and Adventure Safari :

Texas Death March and Adventure Safari

Updated: May 14, 2009 2:16pm PST

Amazing Adventure 4 - cruising :

Amazing Adventure 4 - cruising

Updated: Mar 17, 2009 6:29am PST

New Hampshire in the Fall : Trip to visit Kittynh, Boo, and Jeff Wagg

New Hampshire in the Fall

Trip to visit Kittynh, Boo, and Jeff Wagg

Updated: Nov 04, 2008 6:52pm PST

Paris in May : We spent a few days in Paris at the beginning of our trip, taking rooms in Montmartre, and then stayed one night in the Latin Quarter at the back end of the trip. Unfortunately, we set off on foot without our cameras, and ended up seeing the Pantheon (with Marie Curie's tomb), and walked through the Impressionist paintings area of the Musee d'Orsay (the modern art museum in Paris) and have no pictures. I have included captions on various pictures. The second half of this group were taken by Laura with a pocket camera.

Paris in May

We spent a few days in Paris at the beginning of our trip, taking room ...

Updated: Nov 01, 2008 6:51am PST

St Quentin de Poterie : St Quentin is a small village just outside of Uzes. "Poterie" means potter, and the place gets its name from the history of clay pottery that has been made here for over 1000 years. The house we stayed in is part of a large complex of buildings and streets that were originally built in the 14th century. The small church, whose spire is visible in some of the photos, was built in the 12th century and still has services. You can see nubs on the spire - they are there to break up the wind currents from the powerful "Mistral" that blows in the spring and summer, frequently at 55 mph. All of the photos were taken within a few steps of our place, "La Maison de la Poterie". The owner, Pierre Le Fur, was quite a character. He is an artist and collector, and talked to Eric about his 1964 Ferrari. The narrow streets you see are just that...streets. I can confirm that a minivan will drive in those streets with about 3" to spare.

St Quentin de Poterie

St Quentin is a small village just outside of Uzes. "Poterie" means p ...

Updated: Nov 01, 2008 6:21am PST

AmazingAdventure2- Ketchikan, Alaska :

AmazingAdventure2- Ketchikan, Alaska

Updated: Oct 31, 2008 7:53am PST

Market Day in Uzes : Uzes is a medieval town at the boundary of the regions of Provence and Languedoc. It's home to an 11th century church (we didn't get to tour, as they were having a funeral. That happened to us a lot). The area around Uzes is known for honey, rose wines, and hosts the market for the surrounding farm towns. The old city walls still stand, and the food and flower vendors clustered inside the narrow streets. The surrounding streets were filled with vendors hawking clothes, furnishings, pottery, blue jeans, and flea market finds. We bought cheeses, some nougats made with figs and oranges, a selection of dry sausages, and four kinds of olives, dried herbs, and truffle oil, all from different stalls. We bought baby artichokes and a wonderful cantelope from a lady, who carefully felt and smelled each one for me, picking out the perfect one for that night's dinner.

Market Day in Uzes

Uzes is a medieval town at the boundary of the regions of Provence and ...

Updated: Oct 31, 2008 7:50am PST

Les Baux-de-Provence : Les Baux-de-Provence gets its name "baux" from a French word meaning cliff, and gives its name to bauxite, the aluminum ore than was discovered here in 1841. The lords of Les Baux ruled the Provence during the Middle Ages, building fortresses here beginning in the 9th century. (Traces of human habitation date from 6000 BC, and the Celts built here as early as 2nd century BCE.) Claiming dissent from Balthazar (one of the mythical Three Kings), they didn't acknowledge the Pope or the French king, because no one could make them do so. It was integrated into Provence, and subequently into France, in 1491. It became a center for Protestantism, and its revolts led Cardinal Richilieu to order the fortress pulled down in 1632. The lower 'living city' has been preserved and restored, and holds shops, museums, chapels, and restaurants. The upper 'dead city' contains the remains of the fortress and chateau. Even though "Le Mistral" was not in full force, we experienced terrific winds at the top of the fortress. It is France's second most popular tourist site. Europe's largest trebuchet is on site, and demonstrations are given daily in summer months (which we did not get to see). I didn't realize it at the time, but one of Provence's most well-known makers of Santons has a shop in the lower village; however, we arrived rather late in the day and would not have had time to see the studio. We also did not see the entire fortress top, but what we did see was breathtaking. After leaving, we stopped in St.-Remy-de-Provence only long enough to grab eggs and wine for dinner.

Les Baux-de-Provence

Les Baux-de-Provence gets its name "baux" from a French word meaning c ...

Updated: Oct 31, 2008 7:38am PST

Chateauneuf du Pape - May 2008 : We didn't have time to take in Avignon and see the Palace du Pape (Pope's Palace) where the Pope and his court escaped Rome for a few centuries in the early Middle Ages. When the Pope wanted to get away from it all (say, summer in a large Provincal city that lacked any sanitary plumbing and air conditioning), he would retreat to his summer cottage. This village developed to serve the needs of the court. The early Avignon popes introduced the vine to the area. As you can see in some of the photos, large smooth rocks cover the topsoil, which absorb the sun's warmth in the daytime and allow the heat to radiate to the roots throughout the night. The streets about 6" narrower than two large trucks side-by-side, which doesn't deter French truck drivers.

Chateauneuf du Pape - May 2008

We didn't have time to take in Avignon and see the Palace du Pape (Po ...

Updated: Oct 31, 2008 7:33am PST

Pont Du Gard : Bridge of the Rocks The Romans built a 31-mile system of canals to bring water from springs near Uzes to the new town of Nimes, where they built the Arena and the Maison Caree, which is the remnants of a temple built for Apollo between 3 and 5 AD. The Pont du Gard is a 900-foot long, 158-foot long aqueduct built across the River Gard during the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD). At one time, it carried 9 million gallons per day into Nimes. The Romans themselves considered it the best testimony of their empire. We saw a short interpretive film (short on engineering, long on romance) which showed close-ups of dates, numbers, names, and pictures that the slaves and soldiers had carved into the massive stone blocks. The bottom level of the bridge was used for a thoroughfare for over a thousand years. One of the photos shows a marker explaining the preservation work that will be conducted shortly, to shore up the bedrock and foundations where centuries of river action are undermining the structure. One side note: The French haven't been to disposed to put languages other than their own into their museums and monuments. The museum at the Pont du Gard was destroyed in a massive flood in 2002, and the new center has been rebuilt to cater to visitors from all over the world. This site is one of France's most popular attractions.

Pont Du Gard

Bridge of the Rocks The Romans built a 31-mile system of canals to ...

Updated: Jun 16, 2008 3:30pm PST

French Food :

French Food

Updated: Jun 11, 2008 2:21pm PST

An Afternoon in Arles : We took a short walk around central Arles one afternoon. The Roman arena was hosting a student affair, so rather than entering we walked around the circumfernce. Both it and the Theater were closed for cleaning - with dry ice, I found out later. The white stone in the photograph is the side that has been finished, while the uncleaned side still looks black (like in my photos of the arena in Nimes). We also went into St.-Trophime, which is the local "Relics R Us", the most notable being the actual bones of the actual first Christian martyr St. Stephen! There was also an Illuminati symbol on one wall. We were ushered out by a priest for a funeral (something that happened to us more than once). Arles actually predates the Roman era, although many of its Roman baths and monuments were dismantled during the Dark and early Middle Ages to build churches. As was the case in most towns, the exchange rate meant restaurants were very expensive, but we refreshed ourselves outside a corner Tabac.

An Afternoon in Arles

We took a short walk around central Arles one afternoon. The Roman ar ...

Updated: Jun 11, 2008 6:00am PST

Camargue and Les Saintes-de-la-Mer : The Camargue is in the far south central part of France, and is the home of the largest nature reserve in the country. Home to herds of wild horses and flocks of Great Flamingos (you can see a 'flock' of two in one picture), it is the home of cowboys and fishermen. We drove through the area and ended up in the city "Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer", that is, Saint Marys of the Sea. the legend is that two Marys - the sister of the Virgin Mary (inexlicably named Mary), and the mother of St. James and St. John, along with Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and other biblical peoples, were shoved into boats shortly after the crucifixtion and put to sea without sails or oars. They ended up here. A church was built in this city in the 5th century. The present church dates from around 1100 AD. In 1448, the spaces beneath the church were excavated and the bones of the two Marys, along with their Egytian servant Sara, were 'discovered' and are preserved here. (A Miracle!!). Sara is the patron saint of the gypsies, and pilgrams flock here every May 24 and 25 (we missed it by days!!!) to worship the saints and venerate the bones. During our visit, there were quite a few men and women at the altar, lighting candles and praying to (with? for?) the relics. It was very strange to my cultural Protestant sensibilities. The church was also used as a fortress against attacks by Saracens, Arabs, and pirates. We didn't get to climb the parapet, as the French lunchtime from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. was in progress. This was my first view of the Meditteranean Sea.

Camargue and Les Saintes-de-la-Mer

The Camargue is in the far south central part of France, and is the h ...

Updated: Jun 10, 2008 1:19pm PST

Nimes : Nimes was founded by the Romans in 30 BC, who named it after the river god Nemausus. Casaer Augustus (27 BC - 14 AB) built the city into a flourishing trade center, and establised the old wall, the gate of which is shown in one of the photos. My guidebook said "Nimes (pronounced "Neem") can be difficult to navigate by car". HAHAHAHHA!!! Of course, I didn't read this until well after the trip. We spent an hour driving in circles around the city and through the arches of the old walls, before we figured out where the Centre Ville was!! We found the Arena, which was built in the first century AD, but was closed to the public to accomodate what sounded like a church revival. This arena was one of the centers of the gladiator/animal fights. It was built without mortar, and it could hold 25,000 spectators and emptied in minutes. The highest level was reserved for the city low-lifes, like prostitutes; during times of exress heat, a canopy could be stretched across the arena for shade. The 'not advised for driving' part was well born out...at one traffic circle, a car lost control and nearly careened into our minivan, and at an intersection leaving the city, a bus decided to ignore the traffic lights. Eric drove most of the time, and was pretty stressed by the end of the day, so the wine and cheese was welcome. For the remainder of our trip, we had a running joke about returning to Nimes to enjoy the drive! I am sorry we missed the old Roman forum and hope to see it some day, along with the "Fabric de Nimes....'denim'...the original location of a fabric originally developed by the Protestant middle class, who were banned from holding government jobs. Levis Strauss made it famous.

Nimes

Nimes was founded by the Romans in 30 BC, who named it after the river ...

Updated: Jun 10, 2008 12:44pm PST

Provence 2008 :

Provence 2008

Updated: Jun 06, 2008 8:58am PST

London 2004 :

London 2004

Updated: Mar 29, 2008 3:51pm PST

France! 2004 : A short trip to Paris with my sons, in 2004.

France! 2004

A short trip to Paris with my sons, in 2004.

Updated: Mar 29, 2008 3:45pm PST

France 2002 : Trip to Paris and Provence with Pat in May 2002.

France 2002

Trip to Paris and Provence with Pat in May 2002.

Updated: Feb 12, 2008 1:29pm PST

AmazingAdventure2-Cruising to Alaska : James Randi Educational Foundation - Adventure to Alaska

AmazingAdventure2-Cruising to Alaska

James Randi Educational Foundation - Adventure to Alaska

Updated: Nov 09, 2007 7:35am PST

AmazingAdventure2- Vancouver :

AmazingAdventure2- Vancouver

Updated: Sep 14, 2007 10:04am PST

AmazingAdventure2-Hubbard Glacier Alaska :

AmazingAdventure2-Hubbard Glacier Alaska

Updated: Sep 14, 2007 8:49am PST

AmazingAdventure2-Juneau Alaska : Trip to Juneau, Mt. Roberts, Mendelhall Glacier

AmazingAdventure2-Juneau Alaska

Trip to Juneau, Mt. Roberts, Mendelhall Glacier

Updated: Sep 13, 2007 11:39am PST