Soup to nuts (not quite)
Friday, 12 October 2012
We’ve been seeing the chestnuts in the road, and twice we’ve been struck by them as we drove along. Yes, the sound is…enough to make you duck.
This one is very special. I found it on the road right at Lascaux—the real one, behind the tall fence, right up the hill from the replica they let you visit as part of a carefully timed tour. Still, it’s pretty impressive. And you can see how the artists used the shapes of the walls/ceiling as integral to the designs they delineated with the oxide tints (manganese and iron, if I have it right).
We haven’t discussed one of our repeat “companions” on this trip—the toll roads and their attendant machines. Here’s one where we’re collecting a ticket. Only once, maybe twice, have there been humans to take our money, but the machines are fast—although they don’t take US-style credit cards (chip and PIN only).
Sometimes we’ve been enthralled by the fantastic daylight. We expected this in “the south,” but this was maybe 60 miles from Paris. This water tour is one of the typical shapes, with a flare at the top, and antennae hanging off it. There’s another dominant style that evokes the crenelations of defensive walls. We’ve found that rather strange in a super-tall, stand-alone structure.
One of the crops I did not expect…sugar beets. These people are sugar fanatics—with their espresso. Servers may present up to four packets with your cup. I hate to think how many go straight to the trash—or not. Still, in the interests of national self-sufficiency, it makes sense that they’d be growing/processing sugar beets.