Continuing from my previous post on Ireland, this post is about the 17 days I spent in Donegal, finding beauty, history and plenty of good craic (pronounced crack, meaning fun). I was based in Rathmullan on the dramatic and beautiful Fanad Peninsula.
Contents
• Fanad Peninsula, including a good story
• A day trip to the north
• A day trip to the south
• A day trip to see some beaches
• Places to eat, drink and be merry
I’ve recently returned from a trip to Ireland. It was my first time there; I went to escape the heat of southern France. What I found—with the help of some wonderful people—is a place that is bigger than words can convey. Magic and energy and connection. Inescapable history, remembered pain. Ireland is a place of striking contrasts. There is wild surf crashing against rough rocks and impossible cliffs, while woolly sheep quietly graze nearby on velvety green grass. There is the historical pain of attempted colonization, while the people are also the friendliest I’ve ever encountered. There is divine music and Guinness on tap. It’s a little slice of heaven right here on earth.
Continue reading “A bit o’ fine Irish magic”
It’s all about the flowers
In May, my friend Claude and I completed the second half of one section of the Chemin de Compostelle, or Camino de Santiago. The full section starts in Le-Puy-en-Velay and finishes in Conques. You can read about it here. For last year’s two posts about the first half of this section, click here and here.
I always make photographs of flowers, and in May, the flowers were abundant. Because I had so many photos, I decided to do a second post that’s all botanical. I’m also going to try doing this one in both English and French.
Continue reading “The Chemin in bloom”
From Le-Puy-en-Velay to Conques
In May we returned to the Lozère-Aveyron area to walk the second half of the section of the Chemin de Saint-Jacques that we had begun in June of 2022. You can read about the beginning of the adventure here and here.
A refresher: my friend Claude had long wanted to walk from Le-Puy-en-Velay to Conques. Many French people consider this to be the prettiest section of the Chemin in all of France, which is saying a lot. Take a look at the black and grey map below to see how France is covered with variations of Chemin routes, nearly all of them converging in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
Continue reading “Chemin de Compostelle, Redux”
A spring trip to Paris
I recently returned from a few days in Paris, one of my favorite cities. There was a great deal of walking, a lot of delicious things to eat, and delightful companionship. I got drenched in a sudden cloudburst the day I arrived, but otherwise the weather was nicely cooperative. All around, a dandy trip.
One of the things I wanted to do was to see the new exhibit at the Musée Picasso. He’s not my favorite artist, but the man certainly had a large impact on 20th-century art, and this year marks the 50th anniversary since his death. Exhibits abound, but this one promised to be unique for two reasons. One, this museum holds a huge collection of Picasso works, covering the full range of his life, as well as the remarkably broad range of art forms he worked in. Two, this exhibit is the work of British designer Paul Smith, and I thought it would be interesting to see how he chose to display the art.
Continue reading “April in Paris”
What’s a shutter dog?
A shutter dog is a piece of hardware mounted to the outside wall of a building, and it’s designed to hold a shutter open so the shutter doesn’t flap around in the wind. If you do an online search for “shutter dog,” you’ll get results for hardware companies and blacksmiths who make hardware that goes by several names: tieback, holdback, hold-opens, shutter stays, and my favorite, shutter dogs.
Here in France, the term for a shutter dog is arrêt de volet (shutter stop) or the more colorful bergère de volet (shutter shepherdess). We also see tête de bergère (shepherdess head), or when the head is obviously male, it’s a tête de berger. The word is pronounced bair-jhair.
I think they’re wonderful, and I stop to photograph them often enough that I have a pretty good collection of photos. Now I only make a photo when I see a form that I don’t already have, or when the color or setting is interesting.
Continue reading “Shutter dogs of March”
Lo Vedo Life 