Swallows, Skycamps and Sport

It's not clear to me why the electricity wires outside Monique's house should be a magnet for swallows but, since the end of June, every time we have walked past her house in the morning the number sitting on the lines has increased. First ten, then twenty and thirty, forty by mid July and then more and more until by the end of August we counted over two hundred excitedly chattering together and flying around in small groups.

And then, a day before a storm arrived in early September, they were gone. The wires were empty and the air silent. A week later we spotted a dozen stragglers on the wires looking a bit confused - not sure if they had missed the departure day or if they were on the migration route from somewhere further north. If they were migrating it makes we wonder even more why the wires outside Monique's house are a magnet for swallows - do they have some internal navigation system, maybe it's word of mouth (or rather beak) or perhaps a coincidence. We really understand so little about how migrating birds travel it could be any of these. As the first swallows to swoop over our field in March provide an indicator that Spring is on its way so their disappearance means Autumn is gathering pace.

Although we weather hasn't been great through August, the last week did provide some good clear skies and whilst we had some friends over from the UK held a "Skycamp" with the telescope down the field. Great views of the moon, Saturn and a good selection of clusters and other interesting objects - for people who have never looked through a telescope the moon is always a stunning sight.

On another subject I missed recording in the blog the remarkable achievement by the England women's hockey team in winning the European championship played at Lee Valley in the Olympic centre. The game at international level now bears little resemblance to the sport I started playing competitively forty years ago. In the early eighties I played several times for Camberly against clubs with international players in their team, they were good players, quicker and more skilfull than we were but they didn't seem a race apart. Watching the England ladies team beat old rivals Germany and Holland on the way to the championship Barbara and I were in agreement that, even at the height of our games, we couldn't have competed with these super fit, amazingly skilfull players. Recent rule changes have made the game an attractive TV sport and a great positive message for girls playing sports - it just needs more exposure and coverage.

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I've been a bit lax about recording our activities recently, for my records maybe rather than your interest here's what we've been doing:

Week of 17/8

Monday Walking: 3.8km

Tuesday walking: 3.9km

Tuesday Swimming: 1.15km

Wednesday walking: 3.8km

Thursday walking: 3.9km

Friday walking: 3.8km

Week of 24/8

Monday Walking: 3.8km

Tuesday walking: 3.9km

Tuesday Swimming: 1.25km

Wednesday walking: 3.8km

Thursday walking: 3.9km

Friday walking: 3.8km

Week of 31/8

Monday swimming: 0.12km (in the pool at La Roche, Gennes)

Wednesday walking: 3.6km (Aubrac plateau, Lozère)

Saturday walking: 4.6km (Le Puy en Velay)

Week of 7/9

Tuesday walking: 3.9km

Tuesday Swimming: 1.10km

Wednesday walking: 3.8km

Thursday walking: 3.9km

Friday walking: 3.8km

Friday swimming: 1.25km

Week of 14/9

Monday Walking: 3.8km

Tuesday walking: 3.9km

Tuesday Swimming: 1.4k 

Wednesday walking: 3.8km

Thursday walking: 3.9km

Au départ du Chemin de St. Jacques

We came down the 750km from La Basse Cour in two easy steps. And we had the caravan with all our needs attached. Unhook, connect up and in ten minutes it's a passable approximation to civilisation. 

In our trips this week we've crossed and recrossed the Chemin de St. Jacques, or the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compestella. The pilgrims in the Middle Ages faced a tough time, no decent roads, bad weather, thieves and two huge natural obstacles; the Pyrenees and the Mountains of the Auvergne and, where we are staying, the Aubrac plateau.

There isn't a single Chemin, rather a network of routes that come together in places. Along the way towns, monestries and cathedrals competed to attract pilgrims. We visited Conques, a film-set perfect medieval village around the Benedictine Abbey Church where the remains of Sainte Foy, martyred in the seventh century, were venerated and attracted many pilgrims. Actually the remains were stolen in the tenth century from the cathedral at Agen by a monk and brought to Conques - literal Medieval Skullduggery.

One of the major recognised starting points of the Chemin is at Le Puy en Velay. Le Puy has two main claims to fame; the venerated statue of the black Virgin that brought tens of thousands of pilgrims to Le Puy to begin their pilgrimage and Puy lentils - the slightly upmarket green lentils. Of course, this being France, lentils have an AOC label just like wine certifying their place of production and hence their ability to be sold as Puy lentils. 

According to the Michelin guide Le Puy occupies a remarkable site whilst the Rough Guide says it sits on the upper River Loire in a natural bowl. The geology is interesting and has left three prominent tall volcanic plugs in the bowl, these are now the sites of the famous Chapelle de St. Michel d'Aiguilhe

And the statue of Notre Dame de France overlooking the cathedral:

I'm with the Michelin Guide, Le Puy en Velay is a remarkable site.

Actually things are not quite as they might seem in Le Puy. During the revolution the statue of the Black Virgin was desecrated by revolutionaries and was actually found to be a remodelled statue of Isis from the Roman occupation of the area. And the statue of Notre Dame was cast from 213 cannons captured at the battle of Sebastopol.

British Architecture and French Engineering

We've travelled about 500 miles in all to the Lozère region, south of the Massif Centrale and the Auvergne, and one of our objectives was to see the Viaduc de Millau. This remarkable construction takes the A75 motorway soaring across the Tarn river 600 feet below.

The bridge was designed by Sir Norman Foster architects and is wonderfully precise and seemingly light structure to carry a four-lane autoroute 1.5 km across the valley. I'd read about this and seen a programme about how it was made but seeing it in real-life was a remarkable experience. The engineering task was lead by a French team and realising such a simple form in such a difficult terrain was a work of some genius.

We even broke a lifetime convention and took a "selfie" ... 8o0