My way and and my highway

Masters of the elements

emeraude6 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:53:48 +0000

There is a reason why every year in the same time thousends of people head out to the seashore wherever they can find one. There is a sort of magic to be found out in the open, on the horizon, on the thin borderline which divides the sea from the skies. If there is a place where the ancient human dream about flying, da Vinchis designs, and the old greek legend of Icarus came close to becomming reality this would be it. Some call it extreme sports, but I dont see anything extreme about it. Au contraire, what I see is an elegance and movement which goes far beyond the one which you can find in any balet or dance of any kind. That and the ultimate freedom in which one can interract and virtually merge with the elements, with the wind and the vawes.

La Tranche sur mer on the atlantic coast of France is one of the famous spots and terget for surfers of all sorts. Some of them are really mastering the elements to the grate extent, to the highest humanly possible extent. Here is how they’re doing their thing!

See other 2 parts of this material by choosing from among my videos on the left (list/widget under emeraude6 videos on the left sidebar).

Links:

webcam surveiling the beach

webforum of the riders at La Tranche

kitesurf – nautic circle at La Tranche Sur Mer

http://www.kitesurf.fr/

weather

Francofolies de la Rochelle, 13th july 2008

emeraude6 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:36:35 +0000

he festival Francofolies is hosting many big names this year like Vanessa Paradis, Mika …
I went there on the 13^th of July, the day before the national day in France. La Rochelle, home of the festival is a wonderful town. I’ve be

en there many times before and every time I come back it feels even better than the last time.

Les Wriggles , a band consisting of three “clowns”, opened the evening with some sort of comi-satiri

cal halfway serious and halfway infantile unplugged rocky tunes. They played parts of their new album: «Tant pis! Tant mieux!» which was very amusing and witty to watch and listen. Their theatrical approach to music made it quite interesting. In their songs, they comment current political issues and events in a quite unsettled, unpleasant and ironic manner. It kind of makes you remember that that is what rock is originally supposed to do.

The second part of the evening featured the breton band Matamatah wich is quite popular in this part of France. They were saying adieux to their fans after 13 years of rock. People sang along most of their tunes. The band played most of their last album «La cerise» before they took a bow for the last time together on the stage.

The third part of the evening was a tribute to the French cult disco singer of the seventies Claude «CloClo» François, famous for his pink outfits, glam-stile and ensemble of sexy dancers «Les Claudettes». One of the original dancers from 1978 was on the stage along with 3 other young ones. François is famous among else for being the author of Frank Sinatra’s «My Way» reference to which you’re going to find in the title of this blogg. The idea was to recreate the last concert of the artist in Lyon right before his tragic death in 1978. The list of the contemporary artists who participated was quite long. However, the concert in it self was not a success, and the male part of the audience booed the artists. But at the intro of CloClo’s last hit from 1978 «Alexandrie, Alexandra» they were as one united in motion and sound. It seems like this particular tune does not fail to mobilise sentiments in French audiences regardless of time, age or setting.

The last part of the evening was literally owned by Cristophe Maé, his guitar and harmonica. Most of the people were waiting for him. He plays some sort of accustic, unplugged soul inflated by reggaeish pop which really works like an emotional bomb, supported by a Jamaican percutionist and African background vocals. Mae is quite charismatic and energetic and has a lot of success and appeals most to the female fraction of audiences. He played several very amusing parodies on contemporary hiphop, rap and reggae, dance as well as the tunes from his «Mon Paradis» album. He came back twice, and stayed on stage having fun with his most faithful fans until very late enjoying every bit of it as much as they did. One of the great moments Maé created was when he invited the audience to show their lighted cell phones. He proved that he was definitely worth of waiting for. I bet that we will hear many good things from him in the future.

Unfortunately my takes from the concert weren’t good enough to be published here. That’s why I’ll link inn the videos from he official site (take a look at the sidebar on the left).

Relevant links:

My pictures from the concerts

Ah that Tour de France again!

emeraude6 — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:34:16 +0000

I could not just pass by and not see it this year either. I came by late in the afternoon, just to see the end of the etape wich was comming near the place where I was staying. Here is the result:

Here is the result:

Official Site of Tour de France

There are 2 ways of following the tour online this year:

streetview supported by Google and YouTube and the Live.

Welcome to my humble blogg!

emeraude6 — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:29:27 +0000

The idea behind this blogg is to share all the beautiful things, places, interesting events and much more with the people who are interested in what this blogg has to offer. I’ve visited some stunning places troughout the recent years and it would be a definite waste if I wouldn’t brag about it and share my experiences.
Some may find this blog useful as some sort of alternative tourist guide. I hope that you will find this blog interesting, comment on it, and share your experiences with me, as I share mine with you, especially if you have visited the same places, or decide to do so.

Now, France is most known for clichés like the Eiffel Tower, Le Louvre, Versailles, the Festival of Cannes, The Tour de France, wine and cheese, baguettes and many other stereotypes, but there is more to France than just this. So it is with all the other places. There is always more than meets the eyes at first. Personally I like to visit areas which are not so popular. There are other qualities to thess areas than for example to the Côte d’Azur wich is overcrowded by tourists every year.
I wil also post some other trips to other countries, not only France, and I truly hope that you will find them just as interesting.
So much for the intro. Now starts the blogging.

emeraude@