Tag: travel

That was 2021 on this blog

barryhLeave a comment

My favourite photos from posts of 2021

Towards Tywyn
Sun going down at West Kirby
Sunset at Barmouth
Chinon
Black pine canopy
Common gallinule
Click to enlarge

These were the individual posts, if you’re interested: Towards Tywyn, Sun going down at West Kirby, Sunset at Barmouth, Chinon, Black pine canopy, Common gallinule

My favourite wordy posts of 2021

Most viewed (2021)

As ever, the most viewed probably depends on the vagaries of search engines and my choice of keywords. The top two were the same as in 2020!

Most liked (5 years)

At least the top entry suggests that this exercise is worthwhile.

A happy new year to you all!

Way down yonder in New Orleans

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There’s just something special about New Orleans and that jazzy/bluesy French Quarter with its Spanish colonial architecture. So unlike most of the US!

Eyes in the back of my Head

New Orleans – NOLA – has its own very special vibrant energy and appeal. I went there recently for a short break, took my camera and tried to capture some of the many aspects of this incredible city.

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 The jazz band in the square outside the cathedral clearly paid no attention to the sign on the lamp post.

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The Natchez steams away from the dockside, hooting and churning up the Mississippi mud on a damp Sunday morning.

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For Mardi Gras, the previous week, even the carriage horse’s hooves were decorated.

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A hot dog vendor trundles to work through a quiet road in the French Quarter.

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Cool saxophone jazz on a street corner.

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The sign says “I wonder what happens if you put $$ in the box”. The statue moved and gave the donor a card with a short, positive sentence written on it.

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Lively street parades happen often.

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Outside a…

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Driving in France

barryh1 Comment

Somehow it got to be over 40 years since we first drove to France, and being francophiles we’ve done that most years since then. The driving experience has changed somewhat!

It’s the early 1970s. We arrive at Dover for the cross channel ferry. The time waiting on the dockside is busy – cleaning the headlamps, putting on beam deflector stickies, then applying yellow paint to the glass. All headlamps had to be yellow in France, a law designed in wartime to distinguish French civilian vehicles, but retained until reversed by EU conformity standards in 1993.

There was a magic in sailing away from the White Cliffs and seeing the French coast gradually coming into view, followed by the unfamiliarity of driving on the right.

The most scary part was knowing that French drivers treated priorité a droite as a sacred right and, particularly within towns, would zoom out from any old side road without even looking. It was easy to forget, and the odd fright ensued.Read More »