Blog Archives
Saturday 16 February 2013: Saturday sunset
We’ve had a lovely day in the company of Caroline, Fabrice and their 3 young children who had lots of fun with our two. We had met Caroline and her children in the alps last July whilst we were on holiday there for 2 weeks. They live not too far away from us, so we’ve tried to arrange a meal together for a little while. When you have little ones, that is not always easy.
As we’ve been busy eating and chatting all day, I took this photo of our street as they were leaving. Taken with the little (temperamental) Nikon, this is a similar view to the blizzard shot taken on the 15th of January and in the opposite direction to yesterdays photo.
COOLPIX S2500:f/3.9:1/13″:6.9mm:ISO 400
Monday 11 February 2013: Une ruelle… a bit grey…
ruelle nf (rue tres etroite)
little street n
back alley n
way, lane n
Elle habite une ruelle en centre ville.
ruelle nf
vieux (espace entre le mur et le lit)
narrow space passage n
space n
In our village we actually have a road called “La Ruelle”, which as the definition implies, is a narrow street. Thing is, there are a few narrow streets in the centre of the village but those are called the more common “rue”. So I’m not sure how they saw the difference between them all to call one a “ruelle”.
Anyhow… This photo also shows a ruelle, a different one, which could also be called a cul de sac (or closed arse – the literal translation).
We’ve had a lot of rain over the weekend, which was predicted to be snow. So this small space is very muddy and used mainly as a parking area for the local residents. Out of shot to the right, there used to be a General Store, which later became a Coucous restaurant. Both have now long gone and aside from a bio shop in one of the farm courtyards in the centre of the village, we are now devoid of shops, a bar or any sort of restaurant.
Sort of adds to the empty feeling that this photo projects…
COOLPIX S2500:f/3.5:1/500″:5.8mm:ISO 80:
Friday 8 February 2013: Emma and the haunted house
As its Friday, this afternoon we were not in too much of a hurry to do the school run. Just matter of getting there bringing Remy home and cooking the evening meal.
So no push chair and a chance for Emma to go for a walk… well, run (when I get worried she will trip over).
To get to the school we have to literally go around it on a public footpath to get to the gate… one corner is a bit erie as there is a very dilapidated house there owned by an old odd couple. Occasionally, at this time of year, we see the owner wearing long-johns pushing a wheel barrow up the path full of wood he has recuperated here and there for their fire. A sight to behold, I assure you… :-O
So… here is Emma and their haunted looking house…
COOLPIX S2500:f/3.2:1/40″:4.9mm:ISO 80
Saturday 2 February 2013: Sun… hail… snow… sleet… rain…
Weather can’t make up its mind today.
Saturday and it is Chandeleur in France when people eat pancakes and make merry and all that… My petite famille have gone to a school organised fancy dress ball. That would have been a lot more colourful a Blip than this photo – but I’ve decided to blog about that instead, because I didn’t go.
No sepia tone was added to this image, this was how the lighting actually was as the short snow shower started to arrive… Weird eh?
DSLR-A200:f/9:1/200″:50.0mm:ISO 100
Monday 28 January 2013: House across the street
At last the sun is out and finally we’re out of the minus figures. Spring is in the air, even at the end of January.
As I was seeing my son off to school after lunch, I happened to notice through the trees the house across the street.
So here it is… House across the street.
DSLR-A200:f/5:1/500″:210.0mm:ISO 100
Sunday 20 January 2013: …and the main roads are on go slow…
Been out for a little wander this morning. So wanted to put up a photo of somewhere in the village, where roads haven’t been cleared of last nights (and continuing) snow fall.
Instead, I walked up to the old “Route Nationale 191″… now demoted to the D191, which is the bypass (deviation in French) around our village. As you can see, it is still affected by the latest snowfall as this Renault Twingo and a white van pass by…
Returned home to clear the steps in front of our place, as we’ve got my family in-law coming round for a meal to celebrate my birthday for the second time… Since living in France, seems getting older has to be celebrated at least twice!?
Not that I’m complaining…
DSLR-A200:f/5.6:1/640″:70.0mm:ISO 100
Friday 18 January 2013: In open fields you get the true meaning of COLD!
After going on a 45 minute walk, freezing my fingers off (and other things), losing the cap to my new lens, I finally chose this photo of our village taken as I returned. Even had a parent of a kid in my sons class stop her car to ask if I wanted a lift. That was nice.
Lighting is a bit on the dark and dull side today and any photos of the horizon using my zoom lense were out, it was far too hazy.
This is what I do when I have no kids to look after for 2 hours… Could I be doing something better? No…
DSLR-A200:f/5.6:1/250″:70.0mm:ISO 100
From USB key to FTP
My work on the Blongios Nain is drawing to a close, after starting it almost 3 weeks ago. This must be the longest time scale I’ve spent on producing this magazine in the 4 or 5 years since I started working for the local mairie.
Since the last issue, the regular printers have moved from the north of Paris to Toulouse. I suppose in a way that helps us, in that Mr le Maire Adjoint no longer needs to cross the snarl up that is Paris with USB key in mitt. The printer now has an FTP server, so today I’ve started FTPing the Publisher and PDF files over to them.
There is a fly in the ointment… page 20, the last page has to be totally changed – so therefore they’ll receive 19 pages and I have 12 hours to redo the last page.
Bang goes the Christmas market this year and in comes a page about the Telethon…
Revamp of a magazine for the local Mairie
Its going to be Blongios time again. Not that I’ve not been busy work-wise since the last magazine back in April. My kids have seen to that. A few weeks ago I was asked to give the village magazine a bit of a revamp by Monsieur le Maire. They wanted a new layout based on the one issue they have produced outside each year (I typeset the other 3 issues a year). As I’m not someone who copies other peoples work, I have just taken the basic idea and added my take to it.
The July issue is due to be typeset very soon, so I’ve been spending a bit of time beforehand on the new layout. They apparently like what I’ve done with the cover so far, thats a good sign. Of course I’m expecting changes, but it is already good that I’m heading in the right direction and doing something they want and that I won’t have to start again from scratch (famous last words).
You can check out my idea on my work in progress page at Behance.
Orly or Roissy?
The skies above Fontenay le Vicomte, Essonne, France
If you live just outside Paris, in particular in the Essonne, this sort of sky is probably familiar to you. The vapour trails are caused by airliners serving Paris’ two main airports, Orly & Roissy Charles de Gaulle.
In fact all the stacking, thats to say, aircraft waiting to head to either airport is all now right over the Essonne, where this photo was taken. Understandable that this should happen for Orly as it isn’t that far away, but Roissy is right across the other side of Paris.
Still… it makes for a spectacular skyscape.
This photo was taken late afternoon today between Mennecy and Fontenay-le-Vicomte. A nice distraction from going to get my son from school.
