My 2015 French Trip

[Greenbare Woods]

Thanks for the trip report.

I'm seeing photos the size of "thumbnail" size with links to a full page photo if I click on it.  Since I'm lazy I would prefer to see larger photos on the main report page. 

I'm wondering how these thumbnail size photos are being posted?    Is there some slight change that can be done, or is there some limit to the method? 

Bob

[JOhnGw]

Thanks for the trip report.

I'm seeing photos the size of "thumbnail" size with links to a full page photo if I click on it.  Since I'm lazy I would prefer to see larger photos on the main report page. 

I'm wondering how these thumbnail size photos are being posted?    Is there some slight change that can be done, or is there some limit to the method? 

Bob

The clickable thumbnail is a technique which I use a lot on other sites so I carried on using it here but there is no reason why the clickable picture could not be bigger.
What is the consensus on this?

[JOhnGw]

Thursday

The aperitif and wine was included in last night's moules-frites but I always feel that the correct accompaniment to this meal is Flemish beer so I was on the Leffe.
M wanted me to wear my "Old Guys Rule" t-shirt and shorts the disco so I took them to wear. As I was putting on the t-shirt the Belgian lads sitting next to us built a tower of the ice cream dessert flutes so i ended up taking a couple of pictures of it using my phone wearing a "willy dangler."
I was actually dressed for all of 5 minutes, but it kept M happy.

   

I cut my finger with the bread knife at breakfast so I didn't go for a lake swim and look for the crayfish but instead walked down to the frog grotto again. This time I got some quite good frog footage and also a grasshopper and a cicada as a bonus.
I think this is the first time I have actually managed to spot a cicada so having my camera with me was a bonus. After taking about 9 minutes of footage using telephoto and tripod I took a chance and tried some hand held close-up footage to get better sound and much to my surprise I was able to have the camera within inches of the insect.

               

M has reverted to her usual habit of wrapping a pareo round herself for aperitifs at the bar and our evening meal. I, of course, remained totally naked.

[milfmog]

The clickable thumbnail is a technique which I use a lot on other sites so I carried on using it here but there is no reason why the clickable picture could not be bigger.
What is the consensus on this?

I also use the clickable thumbnail approach. Typically I choose an image about 500 pixels wide as the thumbnail, it's big enough to see in the flow of the posting but not so big that it takes an age to download or forces the viewer to scroll around to see it. And, of course, being hosted off site it will not eat into the sites memory allowance.

Have fun,


Ian.

PS I ran a poll at TSNS some years ago and 500 seemed to be about right for most people then. That may have changed now with higher resolution screens being more common.

[Greenbare Woods]

Those are great photos, John.   That's perfect.   Looks like a fun trip too.

Carpe Diem!

[eyesup]

Does Europe have the 13 & 17 year brood cycles or just the regular annual cicadas?

We have regional broods scattered around different parts of the country. Every now and then more than one brood will emerge at the same time.

Cicadas everywhere and the sound is deafening. Fat birds and lizards though.

Duane

[JOhnGw]

Does Europe have the 13 & 17 year brood cycles or just the regular annual cicadas?

We have regional broods scattered around different parts of the country. Every now and then more than one brood will emerge at the same time.

Cicadas everywhere and the sound is deafening. Fat birds and lizards though.

Duane

In southern France they are a continuous phenomenon, starting up with dawn and continuing until dusk.
When we arrived at Bosc we had been travelling on aircon with the windows closed and on opening the car doors the noise of the cicadas hit us like a brick wall.

I'll post Friday and Saturday as soon as I've written them up.

[JOhnGw]

Friday
I videoed a bit of cyclonue footage before breakfast and spent the rest of the day lazing around.



   

I did start out on another naked nature walk but my cut finger started bleeding immoderate so I came back on the basis that discretion was the better part of valour. After that I had a bit of a swim to cool off in the afternoon before re-packing all the clothes I hadn't worn ready for tomorrow's drive to Euronat.
This time I did remember to put a shirt and shorts in the car before doing the packing. On a previous occasion I have had to unpack the boot to find some clothing for the journey.
We then went down to the bar for our evening meal – me naked (of course) and M in just a loose flowing pareo.

Saturday

I finished loading the car for the drive to Euronat and didn't dress until I was about to get in the car. On this occasion I had no intention of driving nude as we were going to stop for breakfast at a town centre café where it would be very difficult to dress discreetly.
On the journey we had breakfast at a workmen's bar in Bedarieux, a light lunch in Sauveterre-en-Guyenne and bought wine from les Vignerons de Rauzan. The diversion for lunch and wine buying put almost two hours on the journey time but was well worth it.
On arrival we stripped off and I unpacked all the clothing I will need for the next week - three pairs of trainer socks and my wraps to use as sitting cloths.

Sunday Morning

First thing this morning I had a cycle ride to check the baker's opening time and visit the internet café to sort the connection and check for messages. Having fed M her morning tea I fetched breakfast from the baker. It was a bit cool for M so she slipped a cotton blouse on for breakfast on the veranda.
After breakfast we visited the “centre commercial”  for our immediate food needs and a good look round. While there we saw that one of the restaurants was doing “Couscous Royale” as dish of the day so we booked a table for this evening in case they for a run on it at lunchtime.
I also bought a puncture repair kit from the “everything shop” enabling me to put the original large section inner tube back in place of the high pressure one meant for narrow racing tyres.

[jbeegoode]

I'm spending entirely too much time indoors. I notice in the pictures that your color now matches the color of the local geological features.
I've got two weeks to "work" on mine, before a planned trip. Thanks for inspiration, if not shame and jealousy.

I love that you forget to leave clothing out. It is the hallmark of a vacation well spent. I suppose that it could be indicative of what behavior would be like in a perfect world, people not even stopping to think about clothing, until the weather changed enough to be uncomfortable, like an umbrella in Tucson is a memorable event. The wardrobe becomes incidental, like something from that drawer of never used odds and ends, or the rarely used utensil in the back of some drawer in the kitchen, or a set of work-gloves forgotten overnight in the garden. I have chosen a special spot to leave my pants because I was constantly forgetting where I left them.
Jbee

[JOhnGw]

Sunday Afternoon and Evening
After lunch I cycled down to the beach to check out the beach cafés, etc.
They are now both doing an evening menu and the one we have been to before with the better view of the sunset seems to have changed hands and has gone decidedly up-market. They were having a jazz group playing that evening which unfortunately clashed with our couscous booking but it appears that they have music every Sunday and Thursday so I'll go down and find out what will be playing.
It was just as well that we had booked a table for the couscous because, although there was no way that it was going to run out, there was a distinct lack of tables and we might not have got one if we hadn't reserved. As it was rather cooler than it had been in l'Herault M decided to dress as did most of the other diners and by the time we left I was the only nude to be seen.

Given the nature of Euronat I'm finding it more difficult to get any pictures to post so I'm including one of my clothes shelf for the week.

   

Monday
A fairly uneventful day mostly spent sitting in the sun writing the treasurer's report for Wednesday's meeting of Swansea Canal Society.
However I did find time to drive across to the wine merchant in the morning and buy 25 litres of Bordeaux Cotes de Blaye - 10 red, 10 white and 5 rosé.
While on the subject of wine buying I'll list the wine we bought in Rauzan for Nudewalker's benefit – 10 litres of Bordeaux red, 5 litres of Bordeaux Rosé, 10 litres of Entre-deux-Mers, 12 bottles of Bordeaux Clairet, and 12 bottles of  Cremant de Bordeaux Brut (6 white and 6 rosé).
On the way back from the wine merchant I found that driving naked without a seat belt makes it much easier to stick to the Euronat speed limit of 20 kph (about 15 mph).
In the afternoon I cycled down to the south beach bar and reserved our places for Thursday's diner and concert – a rock guitar duo. Afterwards I cycled up to the north beach for a quick swim followed by a cycle ride round the site. I had taken no towel with me but I was dry by the time I got back to the apartment.
In the evening M dressed again as she feels the cold but on the way to the restaurant she remarked that it felt strange putting clothes on.

   
Drying the dishes after breakfast

[milfmog]

Given the nature of Euronat I'm finding it more difficult to get any pictures to post

Maybe I missed it but why is it difficult to get pictures?

Have fun,


Ian.

[eyesup]

You beat me to it Ian!

. . . I'm finding it more difficult to get any pictures to post so I'm including one of my clothes shelf for the week.   

A fairly uneventful day mostly spent sitting in the sun writing the treasurer's report for Wednesday's meeting of Swansea Canal Society.

. . . I found that driving naked without a seat belt makes it much easier to stick to the Euronat speed limit of 20 kph (about 15 mph).

In the evening M dressed again as she feels the cold but on the way to the restaurant she remarked that it felt strange putting clothes on.

See Ian's question, previous.

I suppose you could be forgiven writing reports while on vacation as long as it's an enjoyable task.

Another odd statement. How does a seat belt affect speed?

And it's good to hear Mrs. M finds it strange to be dressed. I can still hope for an improvement on the home front. BTW how cold does it get at night?

Euronat is a resort, not a town, correct? I was perusing the website and it looks like a wonderful spot.

Duane

[JOhnGw]

A few answers to your questions

It is more difficult to get pictures because it is a busy place and the convention is that you must have permission of everybody identifiable in view.
As all the interesting pictures would involve several dozen people - such as when I have been the only nude in the bread queue with everybody else wrapped up warm or when I was the only remaining nude at the restaurant I have been a little frustrated by the rule.

Writing up my blog is a pleasant way of sitting around in the sunshine when I don't feel like reading or being active.


Having worn a seat belt for all my car owning life I feel very vulnerable when not wearing one and this makes it much easier to keep the speed down.

The overnight and early morning temperature drops to about 13C (55F) and inthe evening the wind-chil factor can drop it to an effective 10C or 50F.

Euronat is a closed resort occupying an area about 2 by 1.5 miles with everything you are likely to need in the way of shops, restaurants, activites and entertainment.
There are two such places close to the French seaside town of Montalivet - the other one is CHM Montalivet http://www.chm-montalivet.com/

[JOhnGw]

Tuesday
I woke up early and went on-line at the internet café first thing to email the treasurer's report.
M dressed for breakfast as it is a rather cool morning, in fact I even considered getting my track suit out of the car boot, but luckily the sun started to show through the cloud cover before I got round to it.

   
Writing up this blog while waiting for the sunshine

I spent the afternoon lazing around in the sunshine reading and went across to the butcher's communal barbecue for an early evening meal by which time I was too tired to stay up for the 14th July fireworks at 11 pm.

Two pictures of reading in the sunshine

   

   

[JOhnGw]

Wednesday

The day started with my usual trip to the baker's to fetch breakfast. Over our after breakfast coffee I again spent time observing the different styles of dress and undress of the passers-by.

   
A car on road past the apartment with us sitting over coffee.

This was followed by one of the cheeky little chaffinches scouring the verandah for fallen crumbs.

       

After sorting out some more Swansea Canal Society stuff I went for a cycle ride round the centre for about an hour.
For some reason I then started noticing the different sitting positions of naked cyclists. All the ladies seem to sit back on the saddle with an inch or so poking forward between their legs but the men's positions are various, somewell back with penis and scrotum resting on the saddle, some forwaed with everything dangling in front and among the intermediate styles some who let the penis dangle down one sode of the saddle!
I mentioned this to M over our gallette and crepe lunch with “cidre artisanal” and she now complains that I've got her looking.
In the afternoon I cycled down to the sea for another swim - I now have ideas for some pictures at last.