This post originally appeared on an old blog on 21st July 2013. It’s part of a series of posts which I’m “recovering” from the archives.
This post chats about the holidays I had just taken in France. It has a lot of embedded media, some of which doesn’t work any more, and footnotes. I quite enjoyed the mountain hike described here, I must go again sometime. Also, I share some questionable tales from a local farmer.
If you can’t see the images, make sure your browser can access archive.org.
[edited lede 2019]
When in France…
When in France for holidays, what do you do? Well, the answer, when you’re in the middle of nowhere visiting family, is that there is not much to do. However, I will endeavour to bring out some of the high points with some photographs embedded to help me explain.
With not much to do, the logical thing to do in hot weather is to frequent the nearby swimming lesuirium[1]. No pictures of this. just putting it out there as something I did.Also, I saw a cat with a coat that looked that of a fox. Couldn’t catch a photo of it, I’m afraid.
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Some more cultured that there is to do in summer is found in the Old Town of Annecy. Each year there is a festival 【info at this link】 called “Les Noctibules”. This allows artists of various types to practice their tourist-attracting crafts and acts. I once again had the pleasure of visiting a Nottingham-Made luminarium [2], see side image. I also saw several other acts of varying interest. Most of which would have been higher were it not for the near-incessant chaos surrounding me. Giant floating fish 3], Large African women [4], and various musicians. Most of which were good, but some mostly percussive bands[5] did not interest me much. |
Image not found. Someone must have deleted it.
Looks like you won’t get to see me, oh well… |
Also, for those who care I was made to partake in a large 100-strong party. You may be able to tell from the tone of my typing that I enjoyed it very little. Something entertaining did happen, however in that the people who were too drunk to care left all of their wine in the freezer section of the fridge. The bottles promptly exploded and the wine became undrinkable. heh.
The party had to have ben worth it though, I had helped the set-up the preceding afternoon by aiding in the shovelling of cow leavings off the floor. (see image) Yes, the party took place in an active barn farm site. What you gonna do? At least the cows got some company for an evening.
One of the better things I managed to do during this holiday was play around taking pictures of Flowers and various insects. Because of course when you having nothing but a camera, this is probably a good use of your time. I got some good shots of insects[6], too. But of course, the highlight has to be the… Kittens!
Click above images for more, or have a video!
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A few days before leaving, it was decided that we would all go on a hike up a mountain. Clever idea, given that a large thunderstorm was scheduled [7] a few hours after our expected leaving time. That aside, it was actually an enjoyable trip. The Scenery climbing the mountain was much the same as any other French hill, but the lake at the top was incredible [8]. A bit murky, but awesome. It wouldn’t have looked out of place in a north-American national Park.
It was also a magnificent place for the mountain itself. Beyond the lake itself was an incredible over-vertical cliff-face. Some very good facial apophenia [9] going on there, with some eroded parts. There were also some neat glacial flows near to some caves, of which we chose not to enter, but reverberated with crazy sounds. The entire place just sent out sounds of “this place is going to collapse”, with rocks pinging off the ground and being massively amplified. – Click flowers for more
The journey down got me a bit wet, admittedly. The Rain had started to pour. I did see a nice little blue butterfly, though! Catching it on-camera was a bit difficult. My mum then insisted on going to the nearby village [10] to look at a church, which allowed me to capture a picture of a mountain called Le Môle. Not quite as sheer as the one we hiked up, but still pretty huge. If you like mountain hiking, this is the place for your next holiday! [11]
One of the stranger things I saw during this holiday was the Dow. The part-deer, part-cow hybrid. A local farmer found that a cow had somehow become pregnant. When the mutant offspring was born [12], it became clear that a deer must have mated with the cow. A very strange thing, but it didn’t look horrible or ugly. See image for more pictures.
That’s all I have to say, I think. If you have any queries about something related to this, feel free to leave a comment or contact me otherwise. I’ll try to answer, but I may not be able to. If so, my apologies in advance. Happy holidays to anyone reading this about to go on a holiday of their own!
Notes:
- This is a portmanteau of lesiure and vivarium, of my own design.
- This is a portmanteau of illuminate and vivarium, not of my own design.
- You heard me. 5 of them, i think.
- Ok, so they were just puppets.
- Loud drums and fireworks do not a great show make.
- And believe me, there are lots of insects in France.
- OK, so we’re not pegasi. it was predicted.
- Lac Benit (blessed lake), on a map.
- Seeing faces where there are none.
- The village of mont-saxonnex.
- Can you tell from my changed tone that i was impressed by this place?
- Born in full health!
