Paris1972-Versailles2003

The Aquarelles or Watercolor is a water color on paper., so they tell me,,, In French, we distinguish watercolor, transparent, from gouache, of identical composition, but opaque. The binder that attaches the pigments to the support fibers is almost always gum arabic. Watercolor or gouache colors consist of pigments, a water-soluble binder and additives to aid in application and storage. Watercolors can only be exhibited in suitable conditions, low light and protected by glass. Which is how I keep them for many years already,

I have many so will add some more and see my previous series on them in my blog. Hope you enjoy this wonderful aquarelles or watercolors shots of wonderful monuments of my belle France as I.

The town of Ambleteuse is located in the department of Pas-de-Calais 62 in the Hauts-de-France region. The Fort d’Ambleteuse was built under Louis XIV in 1680 at the mouth of the Slack river. It is a Vauban construction. The fort is sometimes surrounded by the sea at high tide and accessible on foot at low tide. It is the only fort on the coast that has been preserved , Fort d’Ambleteuse is made up of an artillery tower protected, on the sea side, by a terrace bordered by a horseshoe rampart. Access to the interior is through the guardhouse (reception and ticket office).

The town of Argenton-sur-Creuse is located in the department of Indre 36, in the Centre-Val de Loire region. There are still some remains of the Tour du Midi and the Tour d’Héracle today. The castle was taken by Philippe Auguste in 1188, by Henri IV in 1589 and finally dismantled under Louis XIII in 1632, by order of Richelieu. From the 12C until the 15C, the upper town was established at the foot of the fortress, on the left bank of the Creuse river. In the 15C, the lower town extended to the right bank, connected to the upper town by the vieux pont or old bridge.

The town of Balazuc is located in the department of Ardèche 07 in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, labeled Village of Character and member of the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France . From the Middle Ages the village has a church from the 11C and 13C and a castle from the 11C and 13C, in an enclosure dating from the 12C and greatly enlarged in the 13C with a square keep. Ramparts, dungeon, noble and strong houses are well preserved. The village then underwent the evolutions of the houses for centuries but kept its originality and its character of a medieval village with its alleys,and its harmonious, decorative and useful arrangement of medium-sized pebbles, fixed to the ground.

The City of Biarritz is located in the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques 64 in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, the city has a 4 km long coastline, in the hollow of the Bay of Biscay, less than 25 km from the border with Spain. First a whaling port, the locality experienced an economic upheaval in the 19C with the advent of sea bathing. Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie made it their vacation spot and created a residence and its park with a new city in extension. Thanks to them, the high society and all the beautiful European society frequented the seaside resort. This activity did not weaken until the beginning of the 20C, until the crisis of 1929. The Rocher de la Vierge is inseparable from the image of Biarritz. This rock owes its name to the statue of the Virgin which was installed at its summit in 1865. Napoleon III decided to pierce this rock and connect it to the coast by a footbridge. The first wooden one could not stand the whims of the ocean. In 1887, Gustave Eiffel was entrusted with the realization of the metal work. The mild climate of the resort, the spectacle of the ocean and its powerful waves, as well as the eclecticism of the architecture have inspired many writers or chroniclers.

The town of Bort-les-Orgues is located in the Corrèze department 19 in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The Christian order replaced the Roman order and left a string of Romanesque churches along the Dordogne. The Benedictines create a priory in the 10C. The best known of them, Pierre de Balzac (late 15C), increased the church of Bort, built a bridge over the Dordogne and set up a clock. Also, the church of Bort, built between the 12C and 15C, combines the Romanesque and Gothic styles. It is placed under the double patronage of Saint Germain, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Saint Remède, Bishop of Gap. The relics of these two prelates are said to have been brought from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade (1204). The Château de Val is a 13C fortified castle, rebuilt and restored several times The castle takes the form of a high building flanked by four corner turrets. Some favorite movies filmed here were the Le Capitan by André Hunebelle with Jean Marais and Bourvil . For the film the castle is named Château de Clairefont and serves as a prison where Gisèle d’Angoulême is imprisoned. This is the famous scene of the climbing and the dagger breaking. In 1970, the Château de Val was the castle of the fairy Morgane in the film Morgane et ses nymphs by Bruno Gantillon. The Château de Val belongs to the City of Bort and it has been in direct management since January 1, 2017.

The Grande Chartreuse is the first monastery and the mother house of the hermit monks of the Carthusian order. It is located on the town of Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse, in Isère dept 38, and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region at the foot of Grand Som, the fourth highest peak of the Chartreuse massif. Leave the car in the hikers parking lot above the Museum car park. You then enter the quiet zone of the Chartreuse Desert. Go up the road closed to traffic to the North to the Monastery (still occupied by Carthusian monks, it cannot be visited). The Grande Chartreuse Museum, located in La Correrie, at 2 km walk, provides a better understanding of the mystery of the Carthusian Order, their 900 years of history and their way of life.

The town of Puimoisson is located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department 04 in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. The town gradually came under the control of the Hospitallers of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. For a long time, the main crops were wheat and lavandin. In recent years, other perfumed plants have come to embalm the plateau each summer. There are two kinds of lavender: fine lavender which generally grows at altitudes ranging from 500 to 1400 meters; and aspic lavender which grows lower, between 200 and 600 meters above sea level. At an intermediate altitude, where Puimoisson is located, the two species rub shoulders with the lavandin. The difference between lavender and lavandin: lavandin is a natural hybrid, it comes from the cross between fine lavender and aspic lavender, thanks in particular to the foraging of bees which transport pollen from one plant to another. Like any hybrid, lavandin does not produce seeds and you have to make cuttings.

The town of Saint-André-d’Allas is located in the Dordogne department 24, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The name Cabanes du Breuil is that of former agricultural annexes to a farm located at a village called Calpalmas, Dating from the 19C, or even from the very beginning of the 20C, these buildings have the particularity of be covered with a corbelled dry stone vault covered with a roof of slates and clump together. The “Cabanes du Breuil” are located 9 km from Sarlat and 12 km from Les Eyzies. In the Middle Ages, the Breuil huts were inhabited by the Benedictines of Sarlat. Proof of this would be a deed of sale of 1449, date of the oldest written record affirming their existence. A first group of five huts forms an arc of a circle bounding the upstream side of the farm. A group of two other huts, also side by side and connected by the roof, stand parallel to the first group a few meters higher on the slope. Finally, further upstream, stand, isolated, a small and a large hut, plus a small one at the entrance to the site, Nice

The town of Sisteron is located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department 04 in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. Nicknamed “the Gate of Provence”, it borders on Dauphiné. It has many monuments including its citadel, facing the rock of La Baume whose strata are almost vertical, a 12C cathedral, five towers, several chapels and the remains of former convents. It was in Sisteron, at the Convent of the Cordeliers, that Raimond-Bérenger V, Count of Provence, signed in the 13C, the will by which he attributed the County of Provence to one of his four daughters, Béatrice, future wife of Charles d’Anjou, brother of Saint Louis. From there date the rights of the kings of France over Provence, The citadel of Sisteron, is the work of a precursor of Vauban, Jean Érrard, engineer of Henri IV. From its elevated position, there is a superb panorama over the town and the Durance valley. The Clock Tower served as a prison. Five towers remain from the enclosure built in 1372-1373, rounded outwards and open to the inner side of the city. The Rocher de la Baume is a limestone blade straightened by tectonics. This stratified ridge is made of deposits from the Upper Jurassic age (Tithonian age, so-called Tithonic facies); it is crossed by the Durance river at Sisteron, In detail, the tithonic structure of this limestone bar is not simple, because a reverse fault affects it. It illustrates well the effects of tectonics. Awesome !

The town of Solutré-Pouilly is located in the Saône-et-Loire department 71 in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. The Rock of Solutré is a limestone escarpment overlooking the town of Solutré-Pouilly, 8 km west of Mâcon, it shelters on its summit which culminates at 493 meters a specific environment with particular fauna and flora. Occupied by the Man for at least 55,000 years, it is also the cradle of Pouilly-Fuissé, a renowned white wine. It was publicized from the 1980s by the ritual ascension of President François Mitterrand accompanied by many friends. At the foot of the Rock is located the Museum of Prehistory placed under a dome planted with plants, barely visible from afar . The museum presents on the places of their discoveries the collections of this foreground site as well as models reconstituting hunting scenes and temporary exhibitions on subjects related to archaeology, prehistory, or ethnography, and which more recently incorporate contemporary art. Interesting !

There you go folks, now I have another nice personal touch to my blog, again. These have been kept for many years do not even remember exactly but goes back to early 2004-06, and they are still in good condition. Hope you enjoy the aquarelles as I, and thanks for stopping by as always.

And remember, happy travels, good health,and many cheers to all !!!