Languedoc, France April 29-30, 2013

The little town we stayed in with its fountain dedicated to the French revolution

Lovely medieval church in the town, nave dates back to 14th century

Flowers everywhere were gorgeous, saw these on our post rain walk on Monday

I was very proud of my wildflower picking and arrangement

View from house window

Our day trip on Tuesday. we passed by the E'tang du Montady. This area was drained by making radial ditches from a single center point out to the extremities.   The center point has canals radiating from it in a star shaped pattern. The water flows to this center point and is then drained through an underground collection point and through the  hills and under the Malpas Tunnel of the Canal du Midi. It is still in use.

Our destination was the Oppidum of Enserune. A celtic, greek, roman site.

 Another photo of the lake (or pond) of Montady, famous for its star shaped drainage system dating back to 13th century, originally built by monks. Was a very cool view.

The 4 hearty sightseers. Site was inhabited continuously from middle of 6th century B.C. until the 1st century A.D.

fields of flowering thyme at the site

 Monet like scenes. They had a nice pathway to walk on around the site.

A spurt of purple

roman storage wells, used for storing grain.

Back wall was very ancient, pre Roman.

Such gorgeous perfume coming from these lilacs which were next to the museum.

Celtique art found on site. Their little museum has some very nice treasures, all from the site., displayed in chronological order. Site was first excavated in 1915 and there is more to excavate.

A  Roman well with a flowering Judas tree growing out of it

Map of the site which they called
"The Gaul Village of Enserune"

The canal du Midi ran very close to the site

View of the hill top where the site was located. Building you can see is the museum.  Site is 100 meters above the plain offering the protection of a fortified village. Was completely abandoned in the 1st century a.d. in favor of lowland settlements.

The Malpas tunnel  under the hill d'Ensérune excavated in 1679,  allowing the passage of the Canal du Midi. It was Europe's first navigable canal tunnel. 

A more typical canal du midi sight, very tranquil

It couldn't have gotten more pictureque!

The boys and I

risotto, at the Michelin starred restaurant "Octopus" in Bezier. Everything was delicious. We did the 4 or was it 5? course surprise menu.

Octopus

perfect lamb

a fuzzy cheese cart

The birthday boy and friend  looking sad confronted with only water!

can't remember what this dessert was but everything we ate was exquisite

loved the dessert wine glasses

some sorbet, chocolate etc. was delicious. Wonderful birthday meal!

A fun and busy two days.   Monday, Peter and Joe kindly fetched us from the train in Montpelier and we stayed close to home as the weather was bad. We ate, drank and were merry and did get a nice walk in after the rainfall on the pretty local trails. Tues. we had fun at the local "huilerie d'olive" store buying all kinds of wonderful dishes, soaps, edible treasures etc.  and in the local French Hyper U supermarket. Went back "home" for a lunch of cheeses and breads and once it appeared that the raindrops were letting up we piled in the car and drove to the Oppidum at Nissan-lez-Enserune between Beziers and Narbonne. Great day exploring and then out for a fabulous dinner to celebrate Peter's (and my) birthdays in Beziers.

A London Saturday and a Paris Sunday, April 27-28th, 2013

Scott and Bill at the portobello market

pretty spring scene in portobello area

ruins of an old church at St. Mary's Abbots (kensington high street)

the lovely, very old church of saint bartholomew the great. the oldest church in London, dating back to 12th century

smithfield meat market on sat afternoon when it is closed. hangings took place here in medieval times, as well as "wife selling" in early 19th century. divorce was difficult so the menfolk brought their wives and other goods to the meat market for sale. 

the lovely guildhall art gallery (free). the mosaic pavement with black lines denotes the area of the amphitheatre.  Lots of paintings showing the history of London are exhibited, as well as a nice, small Pre-Raphaelite collection (one of my favorite art genres). By now we had lost the crowds!

recently discovered Roman amphitheatre in basement of guildhall gallery

a lovely d.g. rossetti pre-raphaelite painting "La Ghirlandata"

I

I always love the pre raphaelite angels/women

the gallery was a lovely, calm, very quiet space 

Alam Tadema's 3 ladies

view toward the front of building with natural light coming in

henry VIII and cardinal Wolsey who we spent a lot of time with the day before at  Hampton Court Palace

We were lucky to get into  Guildhall which is used for many high ranking British ceremonial  events. Lovely, lovely building. The current building was begun in c. 1411, and it is the only stone building not belonging to the Church to have survived the Great Fire of London in 1666. Roof has been destroyed twice and rebuilt.

another view of market

view toward inside of market

a very British scene

we moved on to the Victoria and Alberto museum, beautiful altarpiece

a mosaic from San Marco in Venice, 8th century (V and A musuem)

a new wing of the museum with medieval church columns, sculptures, paintings - nicely done

 tapestry ankhs from upper egypt 400-600 a.d.

 A great way to end the London portion of  trip with an elegant and fun Saturday night dinner with wonderful friends at their gorgeous London home.

On to Paris and viola' the Eiffel Tower is never far

was a quiet Sunday afternoon with not much open. we went to the Guimet Museum of Asian Arts to see the show on Chinese bronze antiquities. bowl dating back to 15th century b.c. The ages on the pieces displayed were amazing.

another lovely bronze, water basin, 15-14th century b.c 

series of  cooking bowls, 7th century b.c.

interesting ablution bowl,  7th -6th century b.c.

later bronze, 4th -3th century b.c.

when heading toward notre dame we stumbled onto this lovely, gothic  church

stained glass from 14 or 15th centuries

 I liked this angel

our caffe stop, St Regis,  on the left bank

Notre Dame, beautiful as always 

View of Seine and Notre Dame

Saturday in London was action packed yet again and very cool and so windy. Started off at Portobello market which was ridiculously crowded as it was Saturday. We strolled around till we were all too cold and then found a nice, biological product restaurant for lunch. all their ingredients were imported from their farm. We defrosted a bit and then headed over for a walk to the Saint Bartholomew church,  Guildhall and Guildhall art gallery, being Saturday that area was almost deserted. Guess everyone was at  the Portobello market! We then arrived, in very late afternoon, to take in an hour or so of the always pleasing Victoria and Albert Museum, always learning more and more. Back to hotel for a quick change and then to a friend's house for a wonderfully entertaining and fun last evening in London.

Paris- took chunnel train from St Pancras (such a great train station). In 2.5 hours you arrive at the Gare du Nord.  We had a nice walk, adding in the Chinese exhibit, and then to a one star restaurant for dinner. Sunday evening one does not have much to choose from in Paris. Dinner was good but I always cringe when the check arrives.