Making an entrance!

How the French love to put up a gate!  Whether it's to keep children in, to contain the vicious guard dogs, to keep the public out, or just to make a financial statement, they never miss an opportunity to erect something to define the boundary and let you know that beyond here lies something important!

There is an extensive variety of available models, some OK

Some not so OK, depending on your taste...

Some have obviously invested more money than others...

And occasionally the gates actually open...

Having chosen your gate, there is then the more serious matter of what to put on the gate posts.  Shall we go for posterity and have a lion or two...

Or do we go for the more rustic squirrel...

Perhaps a frog....?

Or the more jaunty and somewhat out-of-place-in-the-street sailor...

And while we're at it, shall we have a bell, a plant, a painted roof tile, and a picture of a man on a motorbike with the words "biker lives here"?  Less is definitely not more when it comes to gates.

There is a thriving industry in remote controlled gate mechanisms, which keep French men gainfully employed driving around the country fixing the sensors, which can't cope with the smallest amount of moisture - as we have discovered, and therefore expanded our French vocabulary accordingly.

There is also a worryingly thriving industry in the production of large stone animals to place at your entrance, particularly native animals like elephants..

And our favourite so far, the Provencal bear...

Anyway, we don't spend all our time taking undercover photos of people's gates.  This week we went to St Maximin la Sainte Baume, a city about an hour drive from here.  We were on our way to Aix en Provence, to pick up my brother Mark and his partner Amber, who are here for a week.  St Maximin is a very significant religious centre, as a huge basilica was built to house the bone fragments of Mary Magdalene, and is considered the third most important place of Christianity after Jerusalem and Rome.  Certainly, to call the basilica a 'church' would be a serious understatement.  Apologies for the poor quality of our photos here...Bill and Brian, you might just want to skip the next few!

For all you budding organists out there, this one has a double case, 4 manuels, 43 organ stops and 2962 pipes!  Whatever, it looked very impressive.

All the woodwork was carved from walnut, including the pulpit, which must have deprived the squirrel population of a fair few nuts.

The adjoining buildings were equally impressive, initially housing a community of Dominican monks, and subsequently used as the local prison!  Looks quite palatial for a prison, but then we didn't see inside.

Some observations can bring quite a bit of amusement.  One that has been providing a lot of entertainment recently is the choice of English words for various car models sold here in France.    Up til now the Asians and Chinese have dominated the scene with some rather creative translations into English but the French seem to be having a good attempt at spreading the laughter into Europe.  The French don't seem to utilise the large expat population to check their translations.  The numerous tourist information pamphlets are one example where a quick review by an English speaking person could be helpful.  And why do they want to put an English model name on the side of their French car anyway?  Does the name mean anything to the French?  Here's a few examples to start with but others have been spotted so more will follow in another posting.

This particular car was dented in almost every panel so clearly the  driver had not been very evasive!!

The sister model in this  Citroen range is "Jumper".  Inspiration was clearly not at its peak on the day they chose these names!!

    

While Jean was in the UK the Renault went to the garage for a bit of maintenance.  The English salt had rusted the rear shock absorbers into a solid mass of rusted fragments (rouillé) that no longer functioned so they got hack-sawed off and replaced.  Not surprisingly the ride is vastly improved and the chaussée déformée (deformed road surface) no longer has to be taken too seriously.  The air-con was also recharged and serviced which has made some improvement to performance but we're not totally convinced it is going to keep us cool enough in the summer.  It's these situations that highlight the importance of having a decent grasp on the language if you're going to live in a foreign country.  My understanding of French is minimal and even less when it comes to jargon and words associated with car repairs so no amount of arm waving is going to improve the situation.  Google Translate and getting things written down is the best option but doesn't replace the usual conversation with the mechanic that explains the finer details of the work undertaken or other things that might need attention.  Clearly more time has to be spent learning French if things are going to get any easier in the future.

Finishing off with a very French scene, just down the road from us.  There are some signs of tiny buds starting to appear on the vines, so it shouldn't be long before we get a bit more colour on the landscape.