France - One photo a day (thread open to all)

[brisavoine]

Quercy here we are! The beaufitul village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, perched on a cliff over the Lot River, displays typical Quercy architecture: houses with white limestone walls made of rough-hewn stones, and pointed roofs and turrets covered with reddish brown tiles.

Breaking rules for once: two pics for this very beautiful village, one in summer, one in winter.

[Giri]

Quercy and Périgord are over-rated IMO. Those are very pleasant areas with much to see for people interested in History : for instance the architecture is splendid (even if Rocamadour is a medieval Lourdes). Yet, the landscape can be oppressing : too deep forests, dryness. It's already Central France and consequently it's more austere.

[brisavoine]

On ne critique pas le Quercy où vivaient mes grands-parents. Merci.

[brisavoine]

To the northwest of Quercy lies the province of Périgord (also known as Dordogne, the name of the modern administrative department covering exactly the ancient province of Périgord). Both Quercy and Périgord/Dordogne are famous for their black truffles, but the Dordogne is somehow less dry and barren than the limestone plateaus (causses) of Quercy. Here is for instance an idyllic piece of countryside in Dordogne.

Dordogne also happens to be the department with the highest density of medieval castles in France, and probably also in Europe. This, combined with idyllic countryside, sunny weather and exquisite cuisine has attracted lots of English people who buy all the old houses on sale in the scenic villages of the area. Dordogne has thus become (in)famous for being an English colony in South-West France. This is of course exagerated, but in some villages of Dordogne it is true that the English are now the majority of the population. Looking at the pic below, it is no wonder they love Périgord/Dordogne (English people usually refer to it as "the Dordogne", they rarely use the old name of the province, Périgord, I don't know why).

[Mercury]

beautiful! keep them coming!

[brisavoine]

Dordogne/Périgord is not just known for its idyllic countryside, numerous medieval castles, excellent cuisine and English "invaders".
Perhaps above else, Dordogne is known as the Prehistoric land of France and Europe. During the last Ice Age, the area of modern-day
Dordogne was one of the most densely populated in Europe. Cro-Magnon men (Homo Sapiens, the oldest modern people in Europe, as
oposed to the Neanderthalis whom they supplanted) lived sheltered in the deep valleys of Dordogne, setting their campments at the
edge of the cliffs formed by the rivers as they dug their beds in the limestone plateaus of the region. In fact Cro-Magnon is the name
of a rock shelter located at the bottom of a cliff near the village of Les Eyzies in northern Dordogne where the first squeletons of Cro-Magnon
men were discovered in 1868. During the last Ice Age the area was south enough of the large ice sheet covering northern Europe
to enable human life, and Dordogne looked like modern-day northern Scandinavia (reindeer/moose was the main game hunted
by the Cro-Magnons).

As a result, many remains of the Cro-Magnon have been found in the area, and prime among them are painted caves. The most famous
painted cave in Dordogne and also probably in the world is Lascaux, often dubbed the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory. Lascaux is in fact
a complex of interconnected caves (or halls) which contains about 2,000 painted figures spread across 7 halls and chambers. The
figures were painted essentially 17,000 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic. Lascaux was already 12,500 year-old when
Stonhenge and the great pyramids of Egypt were built! It's hard to grasp such long time-scale in one's mind.

Here below is a view of the Great Hall of the Bulls (Salle des Taureaux) at Lascaux, one of the seven painted halls in Lascaux.
When Picasso visited in 1940 just after the discovery of Lascaux, he emerged from the cave saying of modern art: "We have discovered
nothing". As beautiful as the picture below may look, it catches very little of the magic one can feel in a Prehistoric painted cave.
Lascaux is now closed to tourists, but a few lesser-known Prehistoric painted caves in Dordogne and Quercy are still opened to small
groups of tourists. I was lucky to visit two such caves in my life, and it's an unforgettable experience, facing paintings 15,000 to 30,000
year-old, almost alone, with only the faint light of torches, as happens in smaller caves.

What you can't see in this picture is that the walls of the cave are not even. The Cro-Magnons purposedly painted on crags, bumps and
nooks instead of polishing the walls. As a result, when you light the walls with your torch, it creates shades which move as you move
your torch, and it looks as though the animals are actually moving. This 3D effect played a great role in the shamanic rituals performed
in the caves. Watching bulls and other animals move as you move your torch, deep under the surface of earth, it's really a unique
experience that pictures can't bring to you unfortunately.



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For an idea of size and location:

[brisavoine]

Welcome to France's Wild West! Entrance of a corral in the rural interior of New Caledonia. People around here are in their majority Caldoches (descendants of European settlers) and have a distinct way of life and culture, living in ranches and raising cattle. Many rural Caldoches, also known as "Broussards" (i.e. "those of the bush"), descend from convicts brought to New Caledonia in the 19th century. They are supposed to be stout characters, less sophisticated than European people living in urban areas, but generous, and close to nature. Rodeos on Sundays are very popular, just like in the real Wild West. Overall, the Broussard lifestyle and culture of these rural Caldoches is very similar to the lifestyle and culture of White stockmen (cowboys) in the Australian bush, only en français.

[Mishevy]

wow, now this is really something I never imagined existed!

[brisavoine]

Central Paris at dusk.

[Ramazzotti]

Vive la France et Paris la ville lumière !!

[Ramazzotti]

.....

[brisavoine]

Celtic Brittany: fog over the lighthouse of Men Ruz on the Côte de Granit Rose ("Pink Granite Coast") near Perros-Guirec. The Côte de Granit Rose, with its pinkish rocks and stormy ocean smell, is one of the wildest and most beautiful stretch of coast in France.

[Mercury]

très jolie!!! merci!

[brisavoine]

In contrast with the rocky coastline of Brittany, here are sandy beaches in the southern suburbs of Cayenne, French Guiana. The Amazon rainforest reaches all the way to the beaches, yet these beaches are inside the urbanized area of Cayenne. Few buildings are visible on the picture, but the entire area is surrounded by urbanization (downtown Cayenne is to the upper-left corner of the picture).

Most French people think of French Guiana as a hellish place, swampy flatlands and horrible insects, the penitentiary of Cayenne and its convicts rotting in the tropical humidity. They'd probably be surprised to see such heavenly scenery as on this pic. In fact French Guiana has a great tourist potential, being covered by the only rainforest in the European Union, with the richest biodiversity in the EU (thousands of species of plants and animals are present in French Guiana). Green tourism is still small, but it should grow significantly in the coming years, with the endless opportunities of exploration offered by one of the least damaged chunks of the Amazon rainforest as large as Portugal.

[brisavoine]

When men compete with God: the nuclear power plant of Saint-Laurent-Nouan in the Loire Valley on a foggy morning, rejecting almost as much water vapour as the natural atmospheric vapour surrounding the plant.

Of the 441 nuclear power plants around the world, 59 are located in France, generating 78% of the country's electricity. This makes France the world's second largest producer of nuclear power after the United States.

[Mishevy]

Not a pretty sight at all.

[Dinivan]

on the contrary, I think it's a gorgeous picture!

[Mishevy]

It's an excellent photo, but a horrible sight IMO.

[Federicoft]

It's just steam, totally harmless.

[Jonesy55]

That nuclear plant photo is cool, very unusual!

I wish that we would incorporate our overseas possessions into the UK proper, it would give me more locations for the 'UK, one a day' thread

I think that new Caledonia is cheating a little though, it is a TOM not a DOM, n'est pas?

Never mind, who cares when it looks good?