Black and White

I've been working a bit on my creative skills while I've been here in France, some sketching and some photography. I had picked up a cheap $80 SLR camera (which used to cost $600 before the digital revolution) and I've been taking some black and white (or noir et blanc) shots. Poorly digitized, here are six of my favourites so far:

Even more shots can be found on my france2010 website.

Top and Bottom

From the top:

From the bottom:

Mont Ventoux is referred to as the bald giant of Provence and is quite the place. At 1909m it's not the tallest mountain, but it's history in the Tour makes it one of the magical cycling places on this planet. I had a funny conversation the other day with this old French guy in the village we're staying in about bikes...I was wearing my pink jersey and we were about to head off when he comes up and starts asking us about our bikes... Aluminum? Carbon?...He picks mine up to judge the weight (I think he was disappointed by my 20lb aluminum beast)...I can sort of understand him, but his French seems pretty flavoured with the local Provencal twang...then he asks me how many km's I've put in this year, but I haven't had a computer for a while so I just point to where my computer would be and he understands...then he says you don't need a computer you just need your heart (while pounding his chest)...he wishes us good luck and we head out...that was pretty cool.

I took some pictures with my 35mm film camera at the top of the mountain in black and white...they're at the photomat now, but I think there'll be a couple great shots in there.

Welcome to France

France is a great country, something I learned while driving halfway across it due to the Volcano eruption that made me rebook my flight through Barcelona. I'm staying near a medieval village, Vaison la Romaine, a suitably named Roman era town with a nice market and some great history. I'm hoping to do some sketching and work a bit on my proportions, something the Romans were experts at....I'm not real big on Classical design in general, but you have to appreciate the way they lay out their geometry! I've been reading George Walker's blogand he's real big on that kind of stuff...

We got a real nice haul from the market today, some fresh cheese, an old cave aged mountain cheese, heirloom tomatoes (which are gorgeous from a pure aesthetics standpoint) and some delicious Provencal olives.

My French is coming back to me little by little, we'll see how I am after a month!