Castelnou

These shots are of a beautiful village & chateau called Castelnou, which is about an hour’s drive from Sigean. I highly recommend going there. There’s a cafe and winery, of course, but the highlights are the views and the buildings dating back to 989AD. The town is now inhabited mostly by artisans who sell to the many visitors. We spent a couple of hours there just taking everything in.

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Just when we started thinking that we were the only non-French tourists there, we ran into this Dutch couple with their dog. Lotte introduced herself and started talking to them before she realised they were Dutch. We all introduced ourselves as “Geoff from Canada, Matt from Australia”, etc. until Lotte said “and me and my sister and her boyfriend are from Holland”. The Dutch guy smiled and said “We are also from Holland but we are from the REAL Holland!” Then Lotte started to speak to him in Dutch and he realised that she was actually from the real Holland too, so we all laughed.

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And here are some more from Castelnou. The sign was outside a small art/craft marketplace that was deserted. Looks like it belongs in an episode of ‘Allo ‘Allo.

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The House & Bill at Port La Nouvelle

Here are a couple of shots taken of Doris at the house at Hameau du Lac. The town’s name means “hamlet on the lake” and that’s exactly what it is. The house was actually quite a bit bigger than I had imagined from the photos, with three floors and an outside balcony and a living area at the back with a very high ceiling. Dory slept in a loft in the living area. The first photo shows Dory and Lotte in the kitchen getting ready for dinner on Thursday night. The second is Dory posing with a beautiful portrait that Justin painted of her using Nutella on a crepe on Friday morning. Crepes are sold in packages everywhere there.

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This last one is very special because it comes with a story. Later on Thursday night we went to Port la Nouvelle, which is the local resort village on the beach. We were standing on the square watching a musical comedy duo play fishing songs and polkas when Bilby grabbed Lotte for a dance and impressed the locals. Immediately after completing one dance a man in his 60s looked over at Bill and suggested gleefully that he take his wife for a spin. Bill manfully accepted the task and the lady looked like her face was about to explode with excitement as they danced around in circles. The moment captured below is when she was completely overcome and decided she should jump onto Bill and wrap her legs around him. The look on Bilby’s face says it all.

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Narbonne

Later on Thursday we went to check out Narbonne, a much larger city than Sigean with a beautiful square, a market, canals, and a small loch. In the middle of the city is a cathedral. Of course, I have photos of all those things but there’s too much to upload so you’ll have to make do with this cheesy selection of us walking around the city. Narbonne was definitely my favourite of the bigger cities close to where we were staying. The couple with us in the pics are Justin and Sara (Lotte’s sister). We just found out that Sara will be coming to visit us in Australia soon after we get back!

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Photos

We have the luxury of a reliable broadband connection while we’re in Utrecht for the next couple of weeks, so it’s time to start putting a few photos online. We have about 2,500 to choose from because we pooled all the photos from 7 digital cameras amongst our friends on the France leg of the trip! Needless to say, I’ve been through and picked only a few from the library.

Starting from the beginning, here are a few shots from Sigean, which is the closest town to Hameau Du Lac where we were staying in France. These were taken on Thursday the 23rd of July — the day after we arrived in the south of France from Toulouse. Sigean is tiny, with one doglegged main street with tiny alleys leading off it to explore.

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Back in Holland

It was about a 16 hour drive from Sigean, France to Zeeland, The Netherlands. We’re so tired! But it’s good to be back in Holland. We dropped in to Ko’s place for a cuppa before heading to Ans’ to drop off our stuff. Next is a short bike ride down to the beach box where we’ll spend the next two nights. I’m looking forward to doing absolutely nothing for a while. Justin gave me a DVD with all the photos everyone took in the South of France leg, so I’ll get to uploading some of those while I’m in Holland. Not all of them, though — there are something like 2000.

Bonjour from Narbonne

For those who don’t know, I’m currently on holiday in Europe. Today is our last day in France before we head up to Holland by car. So far things have been really great (apart from my health, which remains poor). We spent the first two nights in Paris before meeting Bill, Dory and Geoff and taking the train down to Toulouse. One great night in Toulouse (with lots of dancing and not much sleep) left us tired for the car trip down to Hameau du Lac (near Sigean) but it was worth it. We’ve spent the last week just relaxing and seeing sights in the Sigean, Narbonne and Perpignan region. Lots of castles and beaches and small villages to explore. We have stacks of photos but I don’t have time to upload anything right now apart from this one of Lotte being the Eiffel tower.

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Intel inside

So it’s true. Apple is putting Intel chips into Macs from next year. The five stages of Intel Macs has an amusing take on the way it panned out. For the full story, you need to see the Steve Jobs’ WWDC Keynote.

I’ve been mulling it over for a week now and I guess I’m starting to see the sense in it. They’re not talking about ditching Apple hardware, just about making it faster and cheaper. They’re also not talking about another painful OS9 -> OSX type jump. Anything that runs on PPC will still run courtesy of Rosetta, with a 30-40% speed hit that will be at least partly compensated for by the horsepower of the new boxes. And developers are for the most part very positive, meaning that we shouldn’t see a return to the days of Copland when developers started leaving in droves. The proof of the pudding will be how smooth the transition is, of course, and how well Apple is able to ride out the inevitable blip in its sales as people wait for the new boxes to arrive in a year’s time.

Digital TV ahoy

Last week I’d pretty much decided that it was time to get a digital set top box to improve our reception at home. Our antenna was blown off the roof soon after I moved in and for various reasons (long story) we’ve never replaced it. Of course, those little rabbit ears only go so far. Then I learnt that JB Hi Fi was selling set top boxes for $99, so yesterday I went out and got one (a Soniq DVB12). Took 5 minutes to plug in, and it works a treat. Crystal clear TV, with program guides and all. And at that price, you can’t go too far wrong.

Thousands hit by train delays

On the front page of the web edition of The Age today was this Odd Spot article:

A 39-year-old Chinese man, Zhang Xinquan, has put his right ear in an iron clamp device, locked with a long bolt, then pulled a 21.8-tonne train 40 metres with it within four minutes.

Directly underneath was the headline: Thousands hit by train delays. These things amuse me.

Natalie & Yuval make the blog time

This entry on Screenhead, the online review of “funny shit” accords New York swing dancers Natalie and Yuval new geekly fame by linking directly to a clip of their “Swing Me Brother Swing” routine at the World Swing Dance Invitational. I wonder if they are wondering exactly what hit their server a day or so ago. Dig those aerials.