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...

We stopped one night in Reims on our way to Groningen to visit our son. I think it was the hottest day of the year in Reims. It was in the 90's. (36C) Much too hot to do much walking around, which is too bad, because it is an interesting city, full of history. Reims is the place where 34 French kings were crowned. I'm not sure if that's all of them, but it is a lot. The main problem with the city is that its name is hard for non-French to pronounce. I don't think there is anything in English that rhymes with it, but if you say "Rants" without pronouncing the n or t, you are pretty close. We walked from our hotel to the cathedral and then enjoyed the cooler temperatures inside. The cathedral has a variety of stained glass windows from different periods in history, including one set by Marc Chagal. I find my phone isn't the best at taking pictures of stained glass windows, so mostly I don't try. I just have this one of a more modern window that I too...

Le Chateau de Monte Cristo (and two historic royal chateaux in Saint-Germain-en-Laye) We spent our first night in France in the suburb of Paris called Saint-Germain-en-Laye. It's west of Paris about 45 minutes from the airport and on our way to Normandy. It's also near the Chateau de Monte-Cristo, which is why I chose it. I am listening to the Count of Monte Cristo with Craftlit .  Saint-Germain had two royal chateaux. Here are some photos and notes about them. I didn't get a photo of the chapel, but I thought this was interesting, so have included it. The chapel is on the back side of the chateau. We walked past it on our first trip into town, but then we discovered walking on this side through the gardens was a shorter way from town to our hotel. As a part of the old royal chateau in Saint-Germain-en-Laye , the Gothic Sainte-Chapelle, built in the 1230’s, housed the relic of the crown of thorns purchased by King Louis IX (Saint Louis) in 1239, unti...

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...

Technorati Tags: Fez , medina , Morocco , Tannery , metal-work The Medina is the old walled city within the larger city of Fez.  Many North African cities have a medina. The Medina in Fez is a very large network of small alleys, surrounded by a wall.  No cars are allowed inside, making it one of the largest car-free urban areas of the world. If you want to know more check out this UNESCO World Heritage web page. We spent a few hours in the Medina, being guided by our  ex-pat friends.  We were glad they knew their way around as it could have been confusing. This first photo was taken from an overlook. Most of what you see in the photo is the medina.  It's very large. We drove down to a gate at the lower end, parked and walked from there. Our first stop was the tannery.  They gave us fresh mint to hold under our noses to block the strong odor, but by the time we reached the overlook the odor was gone.  It was a very comfortable day, probably a...