Balm for the soul

I am feeling under the weather today, to put it mildly, so I decided to look through my photos.  Looking through pictures will always soothe me when I don't feel well.  Listening to some familiar music will have the same effect, or a few kind words from a friend.  

A sign - borne Michelin

Like it or not, you're getting the sign I thought I was giving you for the PhotoHunt on Saturday.  It's a polite sign after all.

The photo of this unusual road sign was taken in March when I was out and about.  I had no idea what it was apart from the fact that it looked old and I had never seen one like it before.  I arrived home and headed for the computer to do a little research.

Michelin is of course the French company possibly best know as a tyre manufacturer, but also as a producer of maps and restaurant/hotel guides.  The complete motoring experience.  Included in the early years of the motoring experience were road signs. 

As early as 1908, the company produced signs at the entrance (Please slow down) and exits (Thank you) of towns.  These bore the name Michelin and were installed free of charge.  After the first world war, the company started to produce direction signs consisting of enamalled plaques on concrete.  They experimented with a number of different shapes, and in 1928 came up with the design illustrated.

It wasn't until 1931 that the format was officially approved but by 1948 everything had changed, and they were no longer allowed to add the company name to the sign.  Michelin continued to make them, but the four-sided signs with plaques gave way to plaques shaped like arrows.

The date of the sign I found must then be between 1931 and 1948.  Fewer and fewer can be seen around - Michelin ceased all production in 1971 and the few that remain are gradually being replaced.  Some have ended their lives as flower containers.  Whether this is a fitting end to a once-proud road-sign, I'm really not sure.

Those of you who are as interested in odd trivia as I am, can see more of these on a French site dedicated to Michelin signposts.

PhotoHunt: pink

A confession:  I got the theme completely wrong for this week.  For some reason I thought it was "sign".  I have absolutely no idea why, but fortunately I checked at the last moment.  So, a very hastily put together post for pink, but I managed to resist reposting the same pictures from the last time.

I am not particularly fond of the colour pink but I do love roses.  There is a very small and rather neglected house near us which needs a great deal of care and attention, but in the garden there are the most magnificent roses.  I'd be happy to buy the house for the roses alone.  And fortunately for me this week, some of the roses are pink.

If you look at the enlarged pictures (if you click on them) you will see there is non-rose foliage.  A climber, it looks like a clematis, has almost strangled the bushes.  I do hope someone will take care of them soon.

It just leaves me to say, a very happy 4th July to all my American friends.  One of the great rewards of the internet is making friends around the world.

If you want to see how much more imaginatively other people have treated the subject, visit  TNchick's site, where you can join in and find other players.

The dangers of water

We probably all know that many people in Africa, usually women and children, have to collect water from rivers, several times a day. Not only is it incredibly time consuming, the danger is that the river water is often contaminated and can spread diseases.

But there is another danger - wild animals.   Agnes, who lives in Malawi, has a terrible story to tell of the day she was attacked by a crocodile.

Photo from flickr/Ramy Alaa

"When the crocodile caught me, I started screaming as it was trying to pull me into the water, and then my two sons rushed into the river – they had a spear in their hands and they put this into the crocodile's mouth so it eventually released me.

"Then they rushed me to the hospital as my hand was broken. I had a deep wound here, so I had to go back to the hospital three times to try and get them to repair it."

It has left her with a terrible injury, unable to work, and terrified of fetching water.  Fortunately her village is one where WaterAid has installed a safe water point.  Not only are the risks of disease reduced enormously, people no longer  have to risk meeting a rogue elephant along the way, or a crocodile by the water.  Children now have time to go to school, and women can work.

Agnes' story from WaterAid

A photo tour of the Palace of Versailles, and gardens

All the photos in this post can be seen at a larger size by clicking on them.

The very first time I saw the Palace of Versailles was in 1991, on a Saturday morning as I drove one of my sons to a swimming competition. I forget where the competition was held but I'll never forget that first glimpse of the sunlight sparkling on the golden railings. I had no idea where I was but it took my breath away. "Where on earth is that?" I asked, more or less talking to myself. And the reply from the teenager beside me was the statutory "Huh?"

On my visit last weekend, I tried to recreate that first glimpse but I would have had to take my life in my hands by braving the traffic of the Place d'Armes, and even then there were far too many people around. So the shot above is from inside the gates while everyone else was otherwise engaged.....

....standing in a queue waiting to buy tickets, which could take as long as two hours. You can bypass this wait by buying tickets in advance. We bought online.

In an effort to avoid the hottest part of the day sun we toured the palace interior first, along with an amazing number of people. There was no need for a sign showing the direction of the visit - just follow the crowd. To be fair, for the most part, the size of the place allows people to be absorbed quite easily, but I did find many of my photos had to be taken of out of the way corners, at odd angles, or hastily through a suddenly appearing gap.

I don't know how to describe these. To call them "lamps" seems a little inadequate.

This is a corner of the Hall of Mirrors, which is so much hyped, so often featured in various illustrations, that I was fully expecting to be disappointed. I wasn't. It is stunning.

In spite of the crowds.

I am an impatient photographer and rapidly tired of waiting my turn to catch a shot of a room, only to find someone stepping into the frame at the last moment, so I took myself off into the gardens.

The west side of the palace seen from across the water parterre.

The vista from the palace.

The ballroom is in one of the many groves and gardens hidden in the trees and shrubbery. This was taken before the fountains were turned on, before any people arrived.

I wonder did anyone really dance there. Look at the state of the "dance floor".

What the pictures can't show you is that baroque music was playing in the background all the time, making it very easy to conjure up images of Marie Antoinette and friends. However although the music plays all the time and they call it "Les Grandes Eaux Musicales", the fountains don't play continuously and are switched on at particular times, and not always all of them. If you don't know this, you don't know to look for the schedule in advance, and even then it's not easy to find specific variations in the schedule.

If I were to go another time, and I will, I would visit the interior in the winter time when there are fewer people about. The fountains can be seen only in the summer but I imagine during early or late season there would be fewer people about and easier to absorb the atmosphere.

So often these key tourist destinations are a let down and in the past I've wondered what people see, for instance, in Notre Dame. Versailles, though, is not one of them.

I'll leave you with a picture of a newly restored bronze of the Sun King on horseback which is outside the front gates looking down the Avenue de Paris. According to some who know more about these things than I do, it has little artistic merit, but I like the way the king is apparently overlooking his city of Versailles.

If you want to see more of my photos from this visit, there are more on my Flickr account. These are mostly a different selection, and I plan to add to them over the next few days.

PhotoHunt: flags

Two views of the flags in Winchester Cathedral.  Can't you see them?  On the ground - flagstones.  The retroquire, the area behind the altar, contains the largest surviving expanse of 13th century tiles in the UK.  I thought you would probably have seen enough flags waving in the wind.  Besides, I've never been able to photograph one successfully.

As you read this, I will be making my way back to that part of the world, so I will have to pay my visits to you a little late this weekend.

If you want to see how other people have treated the subject, visit  TNchick's site, where you can join in and find other players.