Notre Vie en France

 We had our rental car for the morning so we drove early to the nearby coastal resort town of Grand Motte, which while not far, is a little difficult to reach by public transit.  It was  developed from swampland in the 60s and 70s with shepherding by Jacques Chirac during his presidency. The locals decry its relatively modern architecture as gaudy and over-the-top, but most former residents of coastal southern California wouldn't find much to be alarmed about.  The planned nature of the place has actually resulted in very good use of space. The lowest buildings bordered a very wide walking space (named for Chirac) along the shore, with each layer inland being a little higher, so even the most inland building units, which were highrises, had views from their windows and balconies.  It was fun watching the city awaken as we strolled, and we also enjoyed their fairly large Sunday morning market, including lots of farmers and other kinds of vendors. Though I was exp...

 I was intrigued by a poster for the "Festival du Cerf-Volants" near Narbonne, (which is an hour or so away), and thanks to a then-recent Duolingo lesson I knew this meant a kite festival.  It was a three-day event but we did enjoy what we saw which included some synchronized kite performances and seeing a number of Macy' parade-type of balloons get inflated. The Mediterranean shore there is long and straight, and the sand is a little coarse by Maine and CA standards, but perfectly walkable.  It was a cheerful scene and fun to drop in on. Synchronized dancing kites, with cool music.  The kite fliers constantly rotated around each other to prevent the kite strings entangling.  Sometimes it was as much fun to watch them as to watch the kites! The DJ tent with a trampoline "ride" to the left:

 This one of several estates outside the older part of the city that were built in the 19th century by wealthy guys showing off (for each other).  This one is now a city park. The chateau and gardens are surrounded by olive groves and outside of those are several performance spaces, both indoor and outdoor, on the grounds. The day we went for a walk there a group called Les Enfants d'Hélène was having an outdoor event, and we thought it was funny (Gary's mom's name is Hélène) so we snapped some pics to send to his 3 brothers.  (The organization website says it is an "Associative leisure center welcoming children with and without disabilities,  aged 3 to 17". )  It was a nice place for a walk and we hope to go back to enjoy some music soon.

 There is a large modern building outside the center of Montpellier that grabs- no, demands - your attention.  It is relatively low-rise and situated near a major highway interchange, and Gary and I have passed it a couple of times (usually while lost trying to return a rental car at the train station, which is not even close to nearby).  We learned that there is a particular building in Montpellier that one of our housesitters who has a strong interest in architecture has always wanted to visit, and later we learned that the striking building that we had seen is that building!  This further piqued my interest and so I figured out how to get to it without getting lost in a rental car and took the self-guided tour.  The building is called Pierre Vivres (Living Stones) and houses the "county" (Département de l'Hérault) archives, sports department, and mediatheque*.  There is a separate exhibition gallery and a large mezzanine that was being cleared of another...

 The Camargue is a large swampy area which was saved from development as a huge pleasure-ship port by protection as a Preserve, protecting the traditional activities of farming (especially rice, now with a focus on organic methods) and the raising of both horses (the traditional white Camargue horses, especially known historically for their value in war) and the raising of bulls. Molly and I took a half-day tour ("safari") with a knowledgeable local guide. There are lots of étangs (sandbar-enclosed bodies of seawater) with wildlife, including flamingos.  We also saw a number of pairs of bee-eaters, previously unknown to me (but likely familiar to Wingspan fans with the European bird card deck- see below), which our guide told us had just arrived a couple of weeks earlier after their migration north from Africa. the real thing: a rice field: Camargue horses: A traditional Camargue home: I think this was an egret: We watched his bird feed its chick for a few minutes: We were t...