La Cavalerie

There are a number of Templar and Hospitalier sites on the Larzac plateau. Presumably, this is because the Moors made their way all the way into France via Spain went they went on their little run, and the Larzac plateau is the direction one might take on a march to …

Travel writing

I just submitted my first ever travel article to a the English News, a newspaper in english here in France. I've been kind of using the blog for practice, as well as to collect my thoughts on what I wanted to write about, before submitting to them.

I've never done …

Wikipedia

I was going to do a post today on our visits to the several Templar sites we visited in Aveyron. But before I got into it, I wanted to take a look at Catharism, since there was some relationship to the Templars. So I hit up good ol Wiki.

As a result, I ended up …

Will you be surprised?

So, I went into conspiracy mode a little bit this morning, and as always, interesting stuff abounds.

I saw this first item a while back, and yet it still stuns me today. Unfortunately, this doesn't get much play in the mainstream media at all- apparently when this …

I don't hate Apple

Just the iTards who use their products-

Via Fake Steve Jobs

Actually, a lot of my friends use Macs and they are all more of the level-headed types than the people so accurately described in that article.

And they are all highly intelligent people except in one …

Zeitgeist

I checked this out today and although its an 'internet' film, it definitely is something you should see.

I decided to do some investigating on my own after viewing it, and came across this quote by Sen. Charles Lindbergh in 1913

"The worst legislative crime of the …

Almost killed my old ass 2

Ok, so now that you know the plan of le old VTT trek, here is how it actually went down.

The first part of the trek is mostly downhill on some village roads, and the VTT trail markers were really easy to spot. Once I hit dirt, again for my first true mountain biking …

Almost killed my old ass

So, on one of our last days in Aveyron, I decided to do a little VTT trek (velo tout terrain, or mountain bike). My one friend in LA that reads this blog knows that I did a lot of biking when I lived there, although it was because it was my primary mode of …

Rain

Fall is definitely coming. Got a pretty nasty little rain storm yesterday. Tried to get some shots of the multiple lightning strikes, but that stuff is fast.

Around here, when there is lightning, you need to unplug everything in your place otherwise something …

Montbazillac

Montbazillac (mon baz-e-yac) is the big vineyard in these parts, particularly known for its sweet white wine that goes very well with foie gras. Its actually a bit too sweet, unless you are having some foie gras or some other somewhat bitter tasting food. It really is …

Chateau de la Merde

A quick post before the weekend on probably the worst chateau we visited on our little trip.

As we kept driving down the into the valley where Nant was, especially in the afternoon sun, we could see what appeared to either be a rock formation or a little chateau …

Aiguillette de canard

Hélène decided the other night to make a very 'Perigourdin' meal the other night. Perigord is an 'area' in France, but not a Region nor a Department. Aquitaine is the Region around here, covering four departments of which the Dordogne is one. Think of Perigord sort …

New toy

New toy-

They sent the wrong adapter, had it wrong on their site, so I am hoping to get a replacement for it in the not too distant future.

They also somehow screwed up the shipping. I paid them $60 to get it shipped here, and then UPS wanted another 93 Euros …

Milking sheep

On our last day in Nant we scheduled a little visit to the sheep farm at our campsite, which was just at the other end of the field right behind our tent. We were told to arrive at 6 am (ugh) so its little wonder that we kept putting it off until the last …

Diversion

So I've been sorting through some old photos recently, after receiving a box from LA with some much needed CDs and DVD's (Thanks, THM!). Came across this one and thought I would share.

I went to South America a few years back and spent a week in Peru. I hit Machu …

Coeur de Boeuf

Timely, based on my last post with the tomato thing and because I haven't seen these at the weekly market lately. But Hélène has a friend at work with a garden so we were the recipients of a load of tomatos the other day. One was a Coeur de Boeuf, or beef …

Market at St. Jean de Bruel

St. Jean de Bruel is the next little village over from Nant, and they had their little market on Thursday so we headed over to check it out. Nothing overly spectacular about St. Jean de Bruel itself although there were a couple of interesting things and a couple of …

Campsite

Again, credit goes to Hélène for finding this place. I haven't been much of a camper in my life, and thats really weird because when I was a kid we did a VW bus through Europe thing, camping all along the way, and my stepdad once took me and my brother to Glenrose in …

Excellent little piece about that Million Little Pieces guy

Honestly, this kind of thing is exactly why I feel like I am completely withdrawing from society. 'The way the world works' has gotten me so down that sometimes I feel like the only thing I can do is flatly refuse to participate.

That doesn't make me any less of a …

Too soon?

Gotta love the French. Here is a still from an ad that ran earlier this year for some French treehuggers-

To read the accompanying article, click here