Holiday Mode

Blogging hasn't been the first thing on my mind lately, with school holidays in full swing.
In fact I have been very lazy. We have got into the habit of staying up late at night and sleeping in late in the morning. Breakfast at 10:00am is not unusual. I haven't been out with my camera at all, as it is not really very much fun with four kids bumping your elbow and trying to put their fingers on the lens. Probably the most interesting photo I have taken in the last three weeks (besides the fireworks) was this moth on the bathroom window!

A moth on the bathroom window

Am I boring, or what?

The fact that I have been stuffed up with a cold, along with most of the rest of the household, has not helped me feel like getting out and about much.
I am hoping that these last two weeks have been an incubation period for the rest of the holidays. Maybe we'll spread our wings and fly once we are all well and healthy again.

French Copyright Laws

In France, it is forbidden to publish a photo of a person on the internet without having signed permission from the person - or in the case of a child, signed permission from both parents or legal guardians.
I'm not sure if it is OK to publish someone's picture if their face is blurred out and covered with a black circle, but that's what I did on the last post. Does anyone recognise him??

I have been searching the internet for information on French copyright laws, and in particular a model release in French (for use when photographing a person). And it seems the laws are quite different from in Australia, and perhaps not all that good for photographers. I'm going to need a model release for taking photos of people soon, in the village, but I'll tell you about that next time.

Unicycle

If you ask me its hard enough riding a bike with two wheels. But this young fellow had fun with only one wheel, which brought lots of kids out to watch his antics in Sainte Marie d'Alloix last month.

Annemarie

Annemarie, after being a model for the kids playing hairstylists.

Annemarie was our nanny at the farm when Hugh was born, two and a half years ago. She has come from Germany to visit us in the summer holidays, and the girls are very excited. Hugh of course doesn't remember her, but I have never seen him show off like he did when she arrived on Saturday.

Feu d'Artifice

Fireworks

We had some of the best seats for the fireworks across the valley at Le Cheylas tonight. I don't know what other entertainment they had, or what it was for (14 juillet?) but we were drawn out to the balcony by the loud bangs. The kids downstairs were actually scared when they heard the noise, and thought it was someone banging on the door! Once they realised what it was and came upstairs they enjoyed the spectacle, although it was well after bedtime.
I have done some PhotoShop work to show three frames together, so it looks really spectacular in the photo below.

Three frames in one: spectacular!

GrésiBlues

The Grésiblues festival is a blues festival in the Grésivaudan area (in the valley between Grenoble and Chambéry). There are concerts at various villages during the period of the festival and it was the turn of Sainte Marie d'Alloix on Monday 30 June.
The concert started in the evening, before dark, and went on until quite late. There were two bands, The "Perpetual Blues Machine" and the "Grésiteachers Band" and everyone was keen to tell me that the harmonica player in the second band played with Johnny Halliday.
Listening to the blues sung in English took me back to my homeland but I was brought out of my reveries when the singer said loudly after a song: "Merci beaucoup!" (Thank you very much!)

La Poste

This letter was postmarked ("prioritaire") at Dampierre -sur-Linotte, in the Haut-Savoie region,
at 3:15pm on the 9th of July. We got it out of our letter box before 11:00am on the 10th of July.
How quick is that???
In Australia we would never receive a letter that quickly in the country. To post a letter from Kojonup to Darkan (about 80kms) takes about three days!

Stacks On The Mill

I had to empty out a kitchen drawer when a bag of popping corn got tipped out in there. It was a good excuse to pop some corn, which we all enjoyed eating.
Then I took the drawer out and emptied it and cleaned it before putting it back in again.
Actually I didn't put it back in again because I couldn't work out how to do it...
The drawer is large, with metal sliders that it is meant to clip onto somehow. I couldn't work out the somehow so I got Roger onto the job. That's when the kids took advantage of his prone position to do something that kids love to do. Quick everyone!!! JUMP ON DAD!!!

25kg, 21kg, and 17kg.
No wonder Dad doesn't look like he is enjoying this as much as the girls are!

What I really need is a handyman. Who can fix drawers. It is still not quite right, so we have to remember to be careful and not pull it too far out...

Street View

Do you use Google Earth and Google Maps on the internet?
If you don't you are depriving yourself of a fantastic resource. I often browse Google earth when I want to know more about a place. We used Google maps to create a map for the Marcouxs before they went to Australia, and they made one for us, with important locations such as the doctor's surgery, post office, best supermarket, where to buy the best bread, shop for cheap clothes, the garage for the car service, parents' house, schools, swimming pool, and other points of interest. We are able to use the map facility or the aerial photography view, and zoom right in to see the details of each location. It makes it easier when trying to find a place later. But what if we had an actual view from street level? Then we would really have a feel for the place.

The sign on the car door says "Google"
which was the only indication of what this car was doing

Well thanks to Google's "Street View" facility, I think we will soon be able to see Sainte Marie d'Alloix from street level on the internet. Yesterday afternoon I was surprised to see this car (above) with a complicated camera set-up mounted on its roof, driving up our street. When I realised what it was, the kids and I waved to the camera (like we do to security cameras etc - don't you?). Then we spoke to the guy who was driving (he was English) who was not very happy about us waving. He said it will make more work for him because he will have to remove us from the picture. He also was adamant that I wasn't allowed to take a photo of him or the car. Lucky for him I didn't have my camera! (New rule: Never go out without a camera.) But I went and got my camera in the hope of catching him somewhere else in the village, and as luck would have it I caught the above snap as he was heading down the Route Nationale out of town. It will be interesting to see what ends up in the final street view scene! Hugh's little bike will probably make it onto the map, because we had left it at the top of the hill, just near the mail box, and taken the pusher instead.

The "Street View" cameras would have had a slightly higher view
than this of our driveway off the cul-de-sac.

To find out more about Street View I searched the internet, and found an explanation about it and a guide to using it. Click here if you want to find out more. Then I had a look at the extent of street View in France, and found that the course for the Tour de France 2008 (official site HERE) has been mapped with Google Street View! Apart from cities in the United States of America it seems that this route in France is the only other mapped so far by street view. Have a look at France on Google maps on the links www.maps.google.com.au (in English) or www.maps.google.fr (in French) and make sure you click on the "Street View" tab to activate the street view feature.
And HAVE FUN!!!



P.S. I wonder how long before Telfer Road in Darkan appears on Google street view??!

Frens and Greetje showing Roger the route they travelled on the map

Roger's friends from Holland have come to visit. He met Frens when he went on a young farmer's exchange to work on the Mittags' farm in Minnesota in 1980.
Frens and Greetje arrived after a very hot day, and Frens said the previous night that they spent in a hotel in Grenoble was the hottest he had ever been. When they checked in the receptionist had asked if they would like an air-conditioned room for 3 euros extra. Frens didn't think he would spend the extra money, but it was a decision he regretted.
Yesterday was just the opposite. It rained all day, and we were stuck inside the house.

I have lots of Blog posts to add from the last week, but they will have to wait until after the visitors have left. School has finished and the kids are on holidays so I should have plenty of time to Blog. (!!) Do I really believe that?