As much as I love the Pyrenees, this part of France does have a nasty tendency to get very, very hot all of a sudden - just for a day.
Today was one of those days, so I thought it wise to drive in the car with the windows down - that aside, I can't say I did much else.
I'm trying not to bore you with generic mountain pictures, and I liked today's a lot - hope you like it too.
A quick trip up into the mountain roads did nothing for a good picture today, the sun wasn't shining and the photos were just all really dull. So, I settled for this one instead.
It's muggy tonight as I type, I can feel a storm coming. Hopefully I'll be wrong and tomorrow stays clear...
One of the positive aspects of the Pyrenees, at least in my eyes, is its nearness to Spain.
Spain is a country which fascinates me, laid back yet hard working, the quality of life there not only seems better to the casual tourist, but it probably is better than in France. Anyway, cheap, high quality food leads us to do our weekly food-shop there and today was that day.
This afternoon, I was unsuccessful in trying to track down a working internet connection, although I think it may be a problem with my computer, possibly windows Vista - oh well.
The internet can often be fun, for sure, but when you don't have it, you realise what a powerful research tool it is. We want to go and see the world fair in Zaragoza some time in the next week, but can't as no one seems to know anything about it - no internet means no easily accessible information.
I climbed a mountain today. Well, it was more of a big hill really, but the walk was practically vertical all the way, so it felt like I'd gone up Snowden at the end of it. In fact, it was the one in yesterday's picture, so take a look for yourself.
I thought this lizard I found on my windowsill was pretty cool too, so that was today's picture.
Good news, the tour de France is over, at long last. My brother, and father to some extent, have become obsessed with bloody cycling. This is really boring. Not just boring, horrifically so.
Ah, the Pyrenees. How lovely it is to be here once more, finally away from the sweltering polluted wasteland they call Provence.
I'm being a bit harsh on my own birthplace here, I know, but I like it so much more in the mountains that on the French med. One of the reasons for this is that the way of life here intrigues me somewhat.
For example, when we pulled into the village, the hill on which my house in perched on had been engraved with a certain 'motif', pictured. The guy on the right there is meant to be a 'man sitting down'. What the bloody hell were they thinking? It looks like he's laying some serious cable up there...
Then, the writing on the right hand side of the hill is to celebrate the victory of the local rugby team in some national tournament. This is meant to appeal to tourists, but their organisation's acronym is 'USA' (union sportif aspoise). Something tells me that one might already be taken.
France isn't a big fan of America, or the USA as some like to call it, so carving this into a mountainside for the whole valley to see probably wasn't the best idea. Hey, at least it's next to a picture of a man relieving himself, so passers by will know it's a village full of nutters to be avoided at all costs - smooth move.
Today's picture is of what the French call a 'boulodrome'. That's where they play boules, if you hadn't guessed. These things are absolutely everywhere, they are basically sand pits with only a small residue of sand in the bottom.
There's one next to the house, in fact, and it's been getting quite bust these past few nights - loud too, what with a bar just opposite.
This noise at night, the oppressive heat and an obscene amount of mosquitoes are just a few of the things I'll be happily saying goodbye to when I go to the Pyrenees early tomorrow morning.
I would talk about it now, but I think I'll save it all until tomorrow when I'm actually there. Goodbye for now, Provence.
As I think I mentioned yesterday, I spent most of the day shifting furniture about which wasn't the nicest of things to be doing.
Still, never one to shy away from manual labour, on I went, and I managed to get about four beds moved up and down a spiral staircase. Pretty good going, not so good for the back though.
Anyway, that's over, sadly I got a call this morning bringing this particular job forward, therefore scuppering any chances of a trip out. That hasn't stopped me flexing my photoshop muscles though, I'm really getting into it again in a sad kind of way.
I've spent the day once more clearing up a few odds and ends, learning a few photo editing tricks - I'm quite pleased with today's picture, even though it is just a shed.
Tomorrow, well, who know what tomorrow could bring. I think I may, for the morning, go to our twin town Pezenas - just for something to do. Otherwise, I've been asked to move furniture about in the afternoon, so that's what'll be going on in my roller-coaster life; bedshifting.
A tree. All those sarcastic ones out there reading this will be screaming out right now, but I didn't have much else to go on.
Still slightly annoyed from yesterday's unfortunate diesel incident, I didn't feel like doing much at all today. That's no excuse I know, but the heat was particularly oppressive and it was one of those days where moving brings out a film of sweat on your forehead; yuck.
I'm not sure if I've taken a picture of this lighthouse before or not but it took me ages to get there and frankly, it was a disappointing day.
I was going to go on a big trip to some nice city somewhere, probably Montpellier, so I girded my loins and off I went this morning. I noticed however that there was little fuel left in the car, so I stopped at a petrol station to fill her up.
At the station, a man was standing next to me, using the pump on the other side as I was using mine and when he finished, he pulled the nozzle out of his car just as a massive wind swept through the forecourt thereby blowing diesel all over my trousers. Shit. What a crap day, so, old diesel drawers here went back home, put them in the wash, made sure his testicles hadn't been burnt by the fuel, and had a good sit down - trouserless.
Honestly, I just couldn't be arsed after that, so I sat here and watched some more films. I then went out to get a picture of the day, just for you.
There was a distinct table tennis feel about today, having brought out the old table from the garage, it was time to play. I am terrible, and this seems not to be the case with anyone else here, so I smack the ball in the vain hope it hits the table somewhere...
Off tables, onto tracks, where Lewis Hamilton furthered his hopes for the Formula One title today with a magnificent victory in Germany. He qualified pole and stormed off at the start, then, due to some questionable strategic decisions on McLaren's behalf, he ended up fifth after the round of pit stops, not far from the end of the race.
Suddenly, as if he had a gun to his head, he flew like a cannonball to thrust himself back into first place, going on the win the race. What a bag of surprises he is turning out out to be, I do hope he wins the title this year - Britain needs a hero.
Today, I tied up a few loose ends, finished projects I had started and I also went and bought some wood.
Well, I wasn't in any particular need of a plank, but my uncle needed three so I helped him get them in the car etc... A simple enough job, I thought, but no, now he wants me to sand it, varnish it and all the rest. He can sod off with that, I hate planks.
Unexpected roadwork caused me to miss the sunset tonight, and subsequently a picture I've been wanting to take for a while now. So, I used one I took earlier today and played about with it for a while to make it look like you're looking through it with cataracts - lovely.
Otherwise, what can I say really, it's been hot again, I'm drinking loads of water again, I sweating even more, again. However, I think I'm getting used to the climate once more, as the heat seems not to be on mind so much these days...
It was a windy day today, something which is not unusual to this part of the world, and yet the locals fear it somewhat - there is always a reluctance to do anything when it's windy. It's the same with the rain, except there's not much rain so it's understandable, with the wind I fail to see why people dislike it so much considering it blows a gale every other day.
Personally, I like the wind. It clears everything up, blows away pollution etc... I suppose it does spread forest fires, which are also a prominent feature here so there's always a downside.
Don't know why I'm talking about wind, you can't even see it.
Move along now, nothing to see here. Once again, the car was not at my disposal, so doing anything of any interest was out of the question.
My brother is getting restless, and he's not even been here a week yet - I think he's going through a whiny bitch phase at the moment; life really isn't that bad!
A nice meal out tonight to a friend's house was a pleasant highlight of the day. Otherwise however, there is as usual very little to discuss here.
I went out to get a picture of the day, and I nearly deleted the one I ended up picking - so often the case.
For the Americans, it's the 4th July and for the French it's the 14th; today.
Yes, it's the fall of the Bastille day today, which means a day off for everyone. No difference for me then, what with being in holiday here and everything...
Anyhow, I'm not going anywhere with this, it's just that once again I find myself in that position where I've got nothing to talk about. Oh well, one day things will change.
So what, why should you be bothered that I somewhat 'enhanced' today's picture? It made a boring picture more interesting that's all. It's not cheating. No, not at all.
Anyway, aside from making the sky look like it was painted on, I haven't been up to much else - so I think I'll stop talking now. Right now.
Today, I decided to start watching films I really should have seen, but never have. The internet is my best friend in this case, where you can find almost anything instantly accessible and, depending on how sly you want to be, usually free.
I started with Casablanca, which turned out to be rather good, don't what I'll watch next, I'll have to wait until I get bored again I suppose.
Here's looking at you, kid.
There's not much to talk about today, in the same way there's not much to talk about today's picture either.
My brother is back, so apart from lunch with an old friend, I've been playing guitar hero with him for along time. Sad but true.
No car again meant that I was stuck at home once more today, which I don't mind, but it doesn't make for very interesting pictures.
A strange reddish haze has descended upon the place, it is quite obvious to me here, but it seems to leave barely a trace of itself on camera. There is, to the close observer, a vague hint of scarlet lingering in the frame there though...
My brother is on his way here, he's getting in late tonight so I'm staying up longer than usual - not that that's actually very late at all really...
Ah the sea, the boats, the gulls. Once again, it's been a hot sunny day and I went to take a dip in the sea. There were lots of jellyfish, so I talked with them for a while.
Didn't go quite as far out as Cannes today, petrol prices have prevented those kind of trip out from becoming a daily occurrence I'm afraid.
Tomorrow, my brother arrives - that'll be sure to bring about a change of tone. As ever, things settle down here and everything becomes rather dull, quotidian, uninteresting. Nothing much anyone can do about it either - it seems that no matter what I do here, no matter how far I go, what I see, I can never quite be satisfied with France. Still, a holiday's a holiday and I won't complain.
Today, I took a trip to Cannes. Sadly, I picked the wrong day, there seemed to be a summit with a load of cabinet ministers on, so the place was locked down and traffic didn't really move much at all.
It was, however, a nice day and made for a change to the usual lack of events.
I think I have mentioned this before, but despite having travelled all over Europe, and having toured Italy a few years ago, I still think the best pizza you can find on the continent is from here, in Provence. In fact, it might just be this part of Provence, whatever - it's always worth the trip.
This may seem somewhat trivial, and it is, but I had some today and the sad fact is that it was a highlight. It was far too hot to go anywhere on foot today and I didn't have the car so I was pretty much stuck just munching away watching films on TV.
Still, not every day on a holiday is filled with excitement, and there's always bound to be some dirge when you're staying somewhere for ten weeks.
Wimbledon closed with a bang today, as Rafael Nadal managed to beat Roger Federer three sets to two, Federer having lost the first and second, clinched the third and fourth on a tie break, with Nadal finally winning the fifth set 7-9.
That four and a half hour tennis bonanza was about all worth talking about today. I went out to get a picture, but couldn't quite get was I was looking for due to some low hanging cloud just before sunset - so I settled for this flaming chimney in the distance shot through some power cables.
Well, there are no developments on my front, I spent most of the day shifting beds up and down stairs (it's a long story) and now my back aches.
Like I said, that's not very interesting, but I have nothing else to talk about. It's at times like these I just shut up then.
Oh, I know I got the framing wrong on the picture, but short of hacking the tree down it was the best I could do. I think I might take some more from this place, it's just outside the village - just about the only place that looks half decent in a picture around here without having to walk for three miles...
Yesterday's rain was the reason for today being sunny, yet cool. Well, it's sunny all the time here, but it's never cool. So, for once, it's been a fairly pleasant day from a climate point of view.
I can't say I've done that much though, except sit around not sweating, I did go for a walk this evening and got this picture - looks like a nice place until you realise the stuff in the last third of the photo on the right hand side there is an oil refinery. Nice.
Anyway, I suppose I should mention Wimbledon, the final for the men is to be Federer vs Nadal, and for the ladies it's Venus vs Serena Williams - no surprises anywhere there then. That's not to say I won't be watching, like every year, I seem to have got into it, only to completely forget about it all after the tournament until next time round.
Rain reigns! Thank god it came today, the dryness was starting to get to me, and a bit of water from the heavens never goes a miss in an area such as this one.
A slightly dull picture of the day mind, note the clouds in the sky, pictures don't ever look that good when there's not much going on.
Anyway, the weather has cleared and I am boiling hot again, even at ten O'clock at night - tomorrow looks like it's all going to go back to normal heat-wise, better whip out the water again then...
With no car at my disposal today, I was left rather stranded at home today, with only the sky left to take a picture of. Luckily, it somehow came off quite nicely, and I've ended up with a picture I can be proud of.
I suppose I could have walked somewhere, but the heat renders that very hard indeed, and I'm really in the middle of nowhere here, quite far from anything on foot.
Anyway, it doesn't matter, I watched some films on TV, then saw some of Wimbledon so it's been a pretty cool day overall.
A trip to the sea revealed to me a whole pile of boats stocked up about ten miles offshore. I don't know if it's that clear in this picture, we can see three clear boats, two huge ones in the distance there, but there were oil tankers anchored as far as the eye could see. Strikes - how very French.
I can't say much else has gone on today, I've been driving around with the windows down to stay cool - seems to be the only way, although I do hear reports of rain on the way...
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