La Violette

This one is for the Corn Tiger. We were video chatting the other day and I talked about the great olives here in France (he loves all pickles and has been known to drink the "juice" out of the caper bottle). Then I went on to talk about other things he will like when he comes to visit me here and he said "More olives, Nana."  I mean, who wouldn't be transfixed by the idea of purple olives?

Électrique Jaune (Electric Yellow)

Les champs de colza électrifier le paysage.

Fields of rape electrify the countryside.

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) was bred by scientists in Canada to produce a variation, canola, from which we now get canola oil (or huile de colza in French).  The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid".  (adapted from Wikipedia entry on Canola).

Interesting fact, non?  A close cousin to the field mustard (Brassica campestris L. or Brassica Rapa var.) which grows all over the vineyards in northern California, only here it is a cultivated crop. Mais bien sûr, il est «cultivé» c'est la France, n'est-ce pas? (But of course it is "cultivated" this is France, is it not?)

Vide Grenier

A slice of the vide grenier life on Sunday, April 22 -- also voting day for France.  

It was a good vide grenier day.  The gentlemen of a certain age were likin' me.

One dropped his price 3€ without me having to get tough, another gave me three booklets on historical sites as a gift, another threw in a free poster picture that I've been lusting after for the Corn Tiger.

Bisous all around!

N2

La Lumière Encore

It is Sunday and we have a blessing of soft Fall light and warmth.

It was even a little too warm at the vide grenier in Roumens.

The house on rue Ferlus was nice and cool when Gwen & I came back for lunch.

Un Autre Jour Ensoleillé

The village of Soreze as seen from behind the blackberry vines on the road to the new ronde point (say roh-nde py-ant), roundabout, in town. We don't take the sun for granted here, at least not yet. In fact it makes it harder to stay inside and write. I just have to reward myself at the end of a productive day with a walk or a game of Scrabble with Monique. (In French last night, vraiment! truly!)

à la Tombée de la Nuit (At the Fall of Night)

I took a walk around the center of the old town in Castres at twilight the other evening.

(Hey! This could be another entry in the "moving water" series =o)

This fountain is in the Place de Jean Jaurès. Jaurès (born in Castres in 1859 – assasinated 1914) was a French Socialist leader who's "eloquent speeches made him a force in politics as an intellectual champion of Socialism." Wikipedia

Bisous, N2

Tournesol

Though most of the sunflowers have been chopped or are brown and bowed down, you sometimes drive past fields that have a random sprinkling of late bloomers. Gabi had Klaus stop by one of those fields where she cut these three to bring home for me from their day trip to Castelnaudary.

l'Automne au Château

Kickin' around the castle in Carcassonne, Languedoc region.

La Poésie Illustrée

Illustrated poetry seen in Montolieu, village du livre.