Travels around the world.

Our son James has been living and working in Groningen for the past 3 1/2 years. He is moving to St. Louis, Missouri this month. We wanted to visit him in Groningen once more before he left. So we drove up there from our house in Normandy. It was a somewhat difficult drive with lots of traffic in Belgium and the Netherlands, but we finally got there. With a population of over 200,000, Groningen is the largest city in the northern Netherlands. It's also an old Hanseatic League city, but predates that period with its first major settlement being traced to the 3rd century CE.  The Saturday we were there was a holiday celebrating a victory over the bishop of Munster in the siege of Groningen in 1672 and also one of the warmest days of the year. As far as we could tell everyone in Groningen was out that day. We spotted two brass bands on the streets. Here's the second one. We happened on this dragon boat race that was just getting started.  The bridge ahead...

Les Flories d'Antan - Old Time Festival in Saint Fraimbault, Normandy Our little village puts on a festival every August 15th. We have only been here to experience it once before, but wanted to be here again this year on this day.  There is a parade of vintage and antique cars. One of these two is from 1910. some of the others were from the 30's, 40's and 50's.  The village also enters an annual flower competition and has won the top category for flower display every year since 1988. The color schemes vary every year. This year they used a lot of black--black foliage and black petunias. Up close these petunias are not dark purple. They are black. This bed is black, red and white. The restaurant in the background is reopening after being closed for about 3 years. They were serving drinks for the festival. There were some American jeeps in the parade from the liberation forces in 1944. You see one here behind the flower bed and a horse and carria...