Category Archives: Festivals and Events

Marche de Noel (Christmas Fair) in Normandy, France

We have the most glorious place to hold the annual Christmas market here in our part of Normandy — the huge medieval market hall where the normal Monday market is held.

This past weekend — the 10th and 11th of December — was the annual Marche de Noel and we were quite lucky to have a relatively mild day with lots of sunshine for the two days of markets. Much nicer than a frigid and wet weekend, eh?

Enjoy!

The heart of the Marche de Noel (Christmas Fair) in Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives in the Calvados region of Normandy, France is the medieval market hall in the centre of town.

Just inside the entry, I hadn’t expected to find a manger set up with LIVE animals (and very well behaved ones at that!).

Manger with live animals set up inside the Marche de Noel in the medieval market hall of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives.

The twinkling lights inside the market hall added to the festive air whilst shopping.

Yummy cheese for sale at the Christmas market.

Each stall in the medieval market hall was doing a brisk business.

A variety of marinated olives on offer.

Personalised wine bottles for various events like birthdays and anniversaries.

More small stalls outside under cover.

The balloon seller waiting for some customers.

A surprising lunch option — sausages and beer from Germany from the town that is ‘twinned’ with Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives.

Inside stalls in the Salle des Fetes across from the Market Hall.

Lovely Christmas ornaments for sale.

Impromptu Livingroom in the South of France

So your wife has left you and your friend to look after the baby, but it’s a festival day in the South of France and you don’t want to be stuck inside the apartment. What do you do?

You pick up the sofa, a table, and some odds and ends and set up an impromptu livingroom at the edge of all the upcoming action. With the baby safely tucked into a pram, you can sit in the shade and watch the festival unfold.

Fabulously Fractured Facades in Metro Melbourne, Australia

We had just moved back to Melbourne, Australia in 2002 and this contentious and expensive cluster of buildings and paved courtyards were completed that same year. I remember the first time I saw Federation Square (now generally known by the shortened title of Fed Square) and it seemed raw, unfinished looking, and very windy at the time. But over the years it has grown on me and I now find it ‘interesting’ if not beautiful.

Housing the NGV Ian Potter art museum, ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), SBS Television and Radio Broadcasting Centre, and a range of cafes, bars, shops, and other cultural offices, Fed Square continues to provoke a love-hate response from both tourists and the citizens of Melbourne. Click on the first link in the article to read about some of the controversial decisions, negative reviews, and blow-out costs that surrounded this project.

$The fractured and fragmented facades of the modern buildings at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia are a sharp contrast to the more traditional structures all around it.$

The fractured and fragmented facades of the modern buildings at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia are a sharp contrast to the more traditional structures all around it.

The buildings of Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia contain a cluster of arts organisations, a television and radio broadcasting centre, and several cafes and restaurants..

Another corner of Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne, Australia

Free-Range Eggs in France This Time!

The weekend markets here in the South of France are always a visual pleasure and the one in St. Girons never fails to please. Last Saturday this charming little woman in her bright red hat and her black beret-wearing husband sold us our free-range eggs for the week.

Free range egg and poultry sellers at a weekly market in the South of France.

Oh My! I’m Publishing Photos of (GASP!) People!

3 PM UPDATE: Always wanting to make certain that I am doing the right thing, I had a talk just now with two charming gendarmes from the local police department. They assured me that if I was a valid professional, had a press pass (and of course I do!), and was not trying to infringe on people’s privacy, I am certainly allowed to take photos at public events. They also suggested that I just slightly blur children’s faces in a crowd, but they assured me that I was acting quite responsibly and they had no issues with the types of photos I was taking. I had felt quite confident that I was acting ethically and it was good to have that confirmed!
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After yesterday’s interesting little foray into EDITORIAL USE in photography, I’m back with more pictures of people taken in the context of a large PUBLIC EVENT. I can still barely believe that it’s even necessary to write that!

This morning I decided to do a little research above and beyond what I already knew.

Look what I found at the local news online — photos of identifiable people, face forward, including (wait while I gasp again) children. Like I said — NEWS coverage, whether print, online, or television, allows for picture taking at PUBLIC EVENTS such as festivals, parades, exhibits, weekend markets, and rather a lot of other circumstances where there are a lot of people present in one place.

Now, enough of that — let’s move on to the fun stuff…

At the Autrefois Le Courserons parade, these wonderful tall puppets came gliding by with no wibble-wobble whatsoever. And just look at how many people are lining the street on both sides to watch.

Giant puppets on parade at the Autrefois Le Couserons celebrations in St. Girons, Midi-Pyrenees, France

And then bzzzzzzzz — there go the beekeepers.

Beekeepers in the Autrefois Le Couserons parade in St. Girons, Midi-Pyrenees, France.

Look how much fun the sausage makers were having on their float!

A jolly time being had by the sausage makers in the Autrefois Le Couserons parade in St. Girons, Midi-Pyrenees, France.

Hope you continue to enjoy these little slices of life in the South of France because it is fun to share even if I do, to quote a fellow writer and world traveller, encounter the occasional ‘Nasty Nellie’ along the way.

A Wanderful Life

The Neverending Journey