Arcos de la Frontera

Many towns in Andalusia have the adage ‘de la frontéra’  to their names. The front between the Christian north and the Muslim south ran through the area for many years.

Here are a few pictures of the one of the white villages of Andalusia, Arcos de la Frontéra, where it sits on the hill.

This was my route op to the town from where I parked.

On the way up I found this  lovely front door in the mozarabic style.

And here we have a view of the fields from the stairs.

In town.

Finally grandpa Manuel’s cheese shop. They have lovely produce in the area. The Andalusians certainly know how to enjoy the bounty of the land.

Noirmoutier

A few pictures of the island Noirmoutier on the atantic coast of France in the Vendée.

They have the passage du Gois which is a road that gets submerged with high tide.

In summer it is buzzing with holiday makers.

I don’t have a lot to tell about the island, only a few pictures.

Tourism brings a lot to the island but there is a local fishing community and they harvest salt in man-made pans.

The salt is harvested by hand and the French, being picky about what they eat, value this salt highly.

Monsieur Perdoux’s garden in bergerac

Monsier Perdoux’s public garden in Bergerac in die French region of the Dordogne. In a previous summer.

He developed new plant varieties and the public garden was a joy for the people of Bergerac but also an excellent advertisement for his products.

Amongs others he developed a variety of the pride of India that is better able to grow in cold climates.

By chance I have a photo of one of them in his garden.

Dahlia’s have made a strong come back. My gran used to have them.

The iconic tree of the French streets, the plane tree.

Because they keep shedding their bark they are able to cope with quite an amount of pollution. This was the reason they  were initially planted in the cities. The other trees died because of the dirty air.

The air quality has fortunately improved, but the plane trees have stayed.

The original wild flowers in their simplicity are still difficult to improve on.

Apparently the honey bee is fast outdistancing the thousands of other bees on earth. To the point were many of the other bees are threatened with extinction.

With our active help of course. Will we ever learn? Apparently the honey bee is one of the very worst pollinators and tens of thousands of plant species depend on other bees for pollination.

A blushing, beautiful, soft pink rose.

A last one with a banana tree, benefiting from the soft climate of southern France.

Botanical garden in leuven

I visited the beautiful botanical garden in the university town of Leuven in Belgium again.

These porpoises live there in the glass houses together with tropical plants. Cosy in their warm environment.

The outside pond.

They planted for spring and the flowers are out.

Perhaps you remember the lady on the lawn from a previous post?

The wisteria growing against the glass house is already in full bloom.

They seem to have grown freestanding wisteria’s as well in the open and those are still in the early stages of blooming.

They put a statue up of Rembert Dodoens, know as the father of botany. He was a medical doctor who had a keen interest in plants as adjunct to his practice.

In those days medical practice in  northern europe was based on Greco Roman and Arab teachings and the medicinal plants prescribed were  from the mediteranian. Part of his job as city doctor was to supervise the pharmacists. Because the plants and substances were unknown to the pharmacists and not readily available they tended to use substitutes.

Dodoens made great advances in botany by seeking new plants out himself and describing them. Of the around 1040 plants he described over 600 had never been described before.

He wrote in the local spoken language so that the pharmacists could readily understand and also translated other existing works.

He was the first person to classify plants according to their characteristics, in the way we still do today.

Born under the name Rembert van Joenckema he later took the name he would have had had his family stayed in Friesland. The tradition being to take as surname the name of your father in the genetive. His father was called Dodo in Frisian, which translates to Denys.

Plants carrying his names are called Dodoens.

Some final pictures of the lovely spring garden.

They leave the grass long for spring in a section of the garden so that the flowers may grow.

Takamatsu – ritsurin

Takamatsu is a big city on the southern Japanese island of Shikoku.

The Seto-Chuo highway was built in the eighties to connect Shikoku to the biggest island, Honsho, where Tokyo and Osaka lie.

The railway also crosses there, so that is how I got there.

You see a number of small islands on the way, with industry, including oil refineries.

My mission was to see the famous garden in Takamatsu – Ritsurin

It is a stroll garden, if that is the correct term, with paths wandering around the water and winding up to the hills.

An oasis of peace and quiet.

with bridges every where

It was the cherry season and the trees where magnificent, as always.

One with the support we now all need after a year of pandemic disasters.

Chichen Itza

Perhaps the most iconic picture of a  Mexican step pyramid. This is the main temple at the Chichen Itza temple complex.

The map of the complex.

Quite dusty in March when I was there.

Not a lot of what they said about the place made sense to me, but the architecture is impressive.

They claim all the open ground was used to play a game.

If you feel you want to read something about the temple.

The iguanas are still resident.

Think I should have told you more about Chichen Itza? Here’s somthing to read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza 🙂

Frankfurt

A view on Frankfurt from the pedestrian bridge over the river Main.

I only spent the one day there, so there is not a lot to show.

On the opposite side of this bridge they do have a very good art museum in the old opera building. The civic museum if I translate it correctly, –Staedel

Very good collection of impressionists and old Dutch masters. At present also a lovely exhibition of impressionist sculpture.

All those dancers Degas made. He also did sculptures of horses ‘in flight’. The essence of impressionism I guess, to capture the moment like that.

Lalinde – Dordogne

The beautiful town Lalinde on the Dordogne.

They are sister towns with other towns named after the lime tree.

A picturesque cross next to the church and on the bridge entrance.

Apparently the bridge was widened in 2011.

The road crosses the river several times going east from Bergerac.

They are in the Pays des Bastides, far too many wars in this area. Towns were built as so called bastides, fortresses really.

Bananas growing there under the bridge, who would have thought.

I really just stopped here because the river was so beautiful in the late afternoon light.

Paris summer

The lady near the Place de la Concorde, looks like her hair is forming the cotton candy clouds.

Just down to the river at that entrance to the Tuilerie gardens you find these two beauties

It was my first sight of the Notre Dame de Paris after the fire. It wasn’t as heartbreaking as I thought it would be, she’s still alive.

They have made some interesting discoveries as well. Apparently the hundred year old oaks that the roof beams were cut from were not from natural forest.

They cathedral builders had a forestry department, these trees were planted, perhaps precisely for this cathedral.

Les deux Maggots is still standing

Also Sheakspear and company

Is this the Grande Palais or the Petit Palais, not sure

They are still polishing the glass there in the Sainte Chapelle

The beautiful gardens of the Luxembourg Palace.

A look through the clock in the Musée d’rsay with the Sacre Coeur at five o’clock

And a final view of the Louvre Palace

Sarlat

In the Perigord region of South West France you find the black Perigord and there the town Sarlat.

The area is named after the deep black slate used there for roofing.

Make sure your roof beams are sturdy though, it weighs between 500kg and and tonne per square meter.

A few photos of the town.

Michel de Montaigne, the first western essay writer lived in the purple Perigord, further west. A wine producing area.

Here is his friend Etienne de la Boétie’s house.

How’s that for a solid lintel.

Good for a thousand years or more.

And a final view before we leave town