Tag Archives: Midi-Pyrenees

Damaged Drives and A Wintery Pause

It’s been an odd week — I can’t say otherwise. I had a catastrophic hard drive failure on one of my MacBook Pro computers, so I spent an entire week getting things sorted out.

We have no authorized Apple stores anywhere near where we live in rural France and I didn’t fancy trying to ship off a computer when it was 3 weeks until Christmas. As it was, I was rather staggered when I spoke to one authorised Apple repair place outside of Paris and they quoted €99 for the diagnosis, over €500 for the new hard drive installation, and up to €1,000 to recover the information on the hard drive. I had called them on Skype and Mark heard the entire conversation. After I hung up, I turned to him saying, “If I have to spend that much money, I might as well wait until the after-Christmas sales and buy a new one!”

Through sheer stubbornness and bizarre optimism, I managed to clone the hard drive on the working computer, wipe and reformat the damaged hard drive on the dead one, load the cloned information over onto the wiped drive, and get the damaged one up and running again. I have no idea how long that drive will last, but trust me, it will get backed up every single day if new information goes onto it!

My really, REALLY amazing bit of handiwork though was recovering all of Mark’s ‘lost’ photos from Barcelona. I kept downloading test versions of expensive software programs that claimed to be able to ‘find’ images on digital camera drives even if they had been deleted. Day after day I tried program after program with no success until finally, amazingly, one of them showed me ALL of the photos on the SD cards. I was stunned since the computer said that they were empty, yet the software was clearly showing me the photos. And yes — I now have all 761 of Mark’s Barcelona images on both computers and on a back-up drive as well. Whew! It was an exhausting week of highs and lows that ended splendidly.

The rest of my photo essays from Salvadore Dali’s Museum in Figueres, Spain will be up soon. But this past weekend was spent doing things with the darling Mark since it was his birthday.

Gifts were presented on Sunday morning and then after a nice lunch in a nearby cafe, we took a drive in the countryside up into the Midi-Pyrenees mountains where Mark is currently working on a large barn-conversion-into-residence project. I knew that there was snow and ice up there since he had already gotten stuck in a ditch once this past week, had a ride inside the cab of the snowplow, and then he and the snowplow driver pulled him out of the ditch. But little did I know that he had a bit of an ‘adventure’ in mind for me.

Mark at barn-conversion-into-residence job site in the Midi-Pyrenees of France

We drove through Massat and then Mark turned onto a one lane road that had multiple hairpin turns and which wound higher and higher up that mountain range. I was getting white-knuckled by this time since there were no guard rails along the road, no place to pull off if there was any kind of difficulty, and it was a huge plunge if you went off the side of the road anywhere!

Snow covered mountains of the Midi-Pyrenees in December 2012

Up and up we went and then the worst-case-scenario arrived in the form of an old blue van which was going down the one lane road as we were trying to go up. We each backed up a bit to see if there was any room to pass one another, and just as the blue van got stuck in the ice at the edge of the road, Mark continued to back up DOWN that road and he began to move toward one of those sharp curves. It wasn’t my finest hour — I admit that freely — but I suddenly shouted, “Stop! I am getting out!” I was shaking all over from fright and the mental image of us plunging off the side of the road at that curve.

Mark walked up the road, helped the people in the van get out of the ice and back on their way down the one lane road, and somehow without shearing off our side mirror and with the woman driving whilst the two men shoved at the side and back to keep the van on the road and not plunging off the right side, they managed to pass with a whisker’s distance between the two vehicles.

Back in our own vehicle and with a bit of ice and mud being flung into the air, we spun our way out of the very narrow ditch we were parked in. I was close to tears and Mark realised that, given the road conditions, perhaps it hadn’t been such a good idea after all. But I was calm again by the time that we got to the top — another 5 minutes of white-knuckle driving time — and the photos above show the view from the top. This is where Mark has been working every day for the last several months and I had to admit that it was quite a special place to go to work each day.

You may or may not be able to see the small black shapes in the deep shadows. Apparently a small herd of Pyrenees horses arrived this past week and they are being wintered in that paddock next to the construction site.

I’ll be returning to more posts from Barcelona and Figueres in the coming days — so come back soon!

What Flavourful Goodness in France!

I have only ever seen peaches growing on a tree. But when we arrived at this tiny cafe in a tiny village off the main road in the Bethmal Valley, a man and a woman were sitting at a table nearby under the veranda overhang cutting apart the tiniest of peaches as an ingredient for one of the sorbets they made in their organic shop.

The smiling man handed each of us a piece and said, “They are wild peaches. They grow on a vine.” And our mouths were filled with the most delicate of flavours. The menu board across from us was equally tantalising since everything was made on the premises from organic ingredients.

The parfums — the flavours? Menthe, origan, framboise, mure, prunelle, coing — mint, oregano, raspberry, blackberry, wild plum, quince. Yum! We had one each of the framboise (soooo soft and sweet!) and the prunelle (and Mark said it was quite mouth-puckery but lovely).

Another slice of life in France!

A board inside a cafe in the South of France listing their organic sorbet selection for the day.

Photo Of The Day: St. Girons at Dusk in Black and White

Thought I’d share the background image of the new business cards that I ordered this week. We were crossing the bridge last Saturday evening after walking through a few streets looking at houses that were for sale.

The light was wrong for colour — but it was perfect for this black and white interpretation. This looks exactly like photos of St. Girons that we have seen from the mid-to-late 1800s into the early 1900s. This, like many other towns in France, really is a timeless place — and we love that.

Enjoy!

The beautiful Midi-Pyrenees town of St. Girons in the South of France at dusk from the footbridge over the river.

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.

Photo Of The Day: Bright In Blue

Today’s photo of the day is a charming little building in the Midi-Pyrenees town of Seix in the South of France. The blue shuttered and blue painted building houses a hairdresser below and apartments above. This building certainly stood out amongst the other plain stone structures in the small town.

Look at the shop window and you will see a woman sitting and talking on the phone. And to the left of her? A Betty Boop sculpture. Looks like a fun place to get your hair cut. And by the way, ‘Coiffure Mixte’ means Unisex Hair, so they do both women and men’s hair!

Two vivid shades of blue make this hairdresser’s shop stand out in Seix, Midi-Pyrenees, France.

A Frolic Through Foix — Part 2

Resuming the visit to Foix that we began yesterday…

Taking a break from the brilliant sun and heat, we ducked inside the abbey church of St. Volusien. In contrast to the elaborately decorated stone churches with gilded interiors that we have visited in other parts of France, this particular structure was quietly and simply elegant. For this reason, I have chosen to present the photo essay in black and white.

St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France

Interior of St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France

Side chapel in St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France

Massive organ perched above the entry to St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France

Row of deep windows in the stone walls of St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France

War memorial plaque just inside the abbey church of St. Volusien in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France

Clock on the belltower of St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France

The bell tower of the St. Volusien Abbey Church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France

One tiny note for people who are ‘sensitive’ to spirit movement, there were a few places inside the church that were quite active. I laughingly thought of calling this post “Spot The Ghost” — so that’s a wee hint for you. Whenever my camera is aimed at a stationary target and nothing visible is moving but it struggles to focus in ample light, I have learned to expect surprises when I see the pictures afterward. These things have happened to me all of my life, so no, outside of the sudden plunge in temperature whilst the spirit moves by, it never rattles me.

After a tasty plat-du-jour lunch in an outdoor cafe, we headed back to St. Girons, vowing to return one afternoon for a visit to the Chateau de Foix itself and museum inside.

A Frolic Through Foix

A medieval hilltop chateau with ‘fairytale’ towers? Check. Picturesque and twisty cobbled streets? Check. Ancient abbey church? Check.

Chateau overlooking the town of Foix in the Midi-Pyrenees in the South of France

Welcome to Foix — a beautiful and historic town in the Midi-Pyrenees of France. It’s a small and truly lovely place for a day out and it is easily traversed on foot.

Medieval chateau overlooking the town of Foix in the Midi-Pyrenees in the South of France

Beseiged repeatedly during the 13th Century, the medieval town of Foix was built in part on the earlier foundations of the hilltop Roman fortifications.

Top floor ornamentation flanking windows in a historic building in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France

Foix building ornamentation close-up

Burgundy Citroen parked in the medieval town of Foix in the South of France

Views of the Chateau de Foix, looming over the town of Foix in the South of France, can be seen through many of the streets and passageways of the town.

In tomorrow’s post, part 2 of A Frolic Through Foix, we pay a visit to the medieval abbey church of St. Volusien.

Hope you have enjoyed this taste of Foix!

A Wanderful Life

The Neverending Journey