The mills of Don Quixote
21DSG03681
Moulin de Don Quichotte à Campo de Criptana
80 years since the Normandy landings
These Calvados beaches, so calm today, were full of life and death on June 6, 1944. 80 years later, return to the beaches of Omaha Beach and Utah Beach with their memorials and sculptures.
Historic Climbing Festival in December 2023
From December 8 to 10, the big climbing festival takes place. The entire population of Geneva goes back four centuries earlier, in 1602, to relive the Savoyard attack which aborted. Mercenaries sent by Charles-Emmanuel I used large ladders to storm the city walls, without success. Period costumes, handling of weapons, use of ladders, making torchieres that look like large donuts... immerse visitors in this period of history.
The Villa Arnaga will return
After several months of closure due to the repair of its facade, Villa Arnaga will reopen on April 3. This Basque residence was the residence of Edmond Rostand, the author of Cyrano, the interior is like a theater set and the exterior has 15 hectares of gardens. Arnaga is classified as a "Historic Monument", labeled "Remarkable Garden", "Remarkable Trees" and "Houses of the Illustrious".
Jump in time with the Mounaques
Campan, village in the Hautes-Pyrénées, 1300 inhabitants, but much more in summer, from July to September, when the mounaques, dolls on a human scale make their appearance! It's an old tradition, linked to marriage. We placed on the house of the bride and groom a couple of mounaques representing them, with their faults! Fortunately, they were removed on the wedding day!
History faces
Granite faces look at us in Filitosa in Corsica. They are so numerous that their fame has crossed borders. These menhirs in human form were discovered in 1946, pulled from the scree, they were straightened. Five of them surround a thousand-year-old olive tree, classified as a remarkable tree.
The Great turnaround
In the memory of sailors, we had never seen so many boats go up the Loire together to go to the Loire festival in Orleans which was held at the end of September. Usually, the all, these boats of the Loire are transported by truck. The "Grand Retournement" was born thanks to the association Voiles de Loire. This is how we find our sailor Jean-Marc Benoit, who had gone down the Loire for "Gabarre toute" this summer with ceramists.
Gabarre all!
There are seven of them to follow in the footsteps of the ancient potters of the Loire. From June 26 to July 10, they descend 500km of this mythical river to Nantes aboard a barge, built by Jean-Marc Benoit, the sailor who also built the boat. Loaded with their pots, they will sell them in the ports, a practice that disappeared 150 years ago. The team will also offer workshops from the land at each stopover, the on-board musician will animate each market. They want to raise awareness of this very low impact mode of transport to keep the Loire alive.
The mills of Don Quixote
Revisit the Don Quixote mills that dot the arid ridges of the Castile hills: a gentle atmosphere for these winged giants.
Easter procession in Zamora
Declared an International Tourism Festival, Zamora's Easter feast is full of solemnity that has been handed down from generation to generation. The photos show two processions, that of the Brotherhood of the Holy Christ of Wounds, known as the Silent, which was founded in 1925 and the Procession of the Holy Burial, in which the faithful dressed in their own shrouds retrace the passion of Christ.
Replica of Jean Bart
The challenge of the shipyard ... to build a first-rank ship in Louis XIV's fleet with the only bases being the archaeological data of a series of six warships sunk during the Battle of Barfleur crossed with the Colbert Album . A crazy idea that is taking shape a little more every day in Tourville, since 2002! The shooting dates from 2019.
Issoire's masterpiece
The Saint-Austremoine abbey is one of the five so-called “major” Romanesque churches in Auvergne. The exterior looks like a giant checkerboard due to the use of the local rock, basalt. The curious can look for their zodiac sign there, they are all represented. Inside, the black and white gives way to an explosion of colors, a polychromy of the 13th century, but which owes its splendor to the restoration of the 19th century. The life of Christ, the Last Supper, the Resurrection ... take place there as in a comic strip, but in relief!
Jumièges Abbey
Located on the loops of the Seine, Jumièges Abbey, 50 m high, is one of the oldest Benedictine monasteries in Normandy. Its white stones like the chalk of the neighboring cliffs, its high romantic towers, its wooded park, and the multiple viewpoints make this historic site a place to visit absolutely.
Alain Fournier enters La Pléiade
These troubled times give us time to read and leave with our thoughts in the country. Alain Fournier, who died at 28 years old as a soldier on the front lines of the First World War, wrote only one book, but which book "Le Grand Meaulne", a novel which is a panorama of imaginary places refers to the Cher, the countryside where he lived. On March 12, he entered the Pleiade with his novel and a choice of letters and documents. Here are some of these places.
Saint-André de l'Eure german cemetery
Between Evreux and Dreux, discover the military cemetery of 19,794 German soldiers who fell in Normandy during the Second World War. The cemetery was mainly formed during the advance of Allied troops to Paris and the Seine. The American Burial Service buried its own soldiers and German soldiers there. A contemporary chapel was built in 1964, and a reception room provides historical commentary.
Le Chemin des Dames
The 25 km of Chemin des Dames is punctuated with many memories of the Great War. The French and German necropolises of course, but also more surprising statues. The Sentinels: "Constellation of the pain" of Christian Lapie, inaugurated in 2007 are in tribute to the African soldiers, the Senegalese tirailleurs fallen to this place. This of Napoleon commemorates the victory of Craonne by the French troops March 7, 1814 against the troops Russian and Prussian. The Ladies' Way seems like an eternal fighting place ...
Abbaye de Fontevraud
The Abbey of Fontevraud in Anjou is one of the largest monastic center, indeed, it is not a monastery but up to four who have been present in its enclosure! There are only two left, but the whole remains well preserved, Prosper Mérimée did not hesitate to put the abbey of Fontevraud on the first list of the historic monuments in 1840 and the UNESCO inserted it in his world Heritage. The fame of the place owes much to the Plantagenets who made it their necropolis, Aliénor of Aquitaine and Richard Coeur de Lion were buried there.
Ancient Sicily
There is today's Sicily with its beaches and typical villages and Sicily of old still visible with its ancient cities like Tyndaris or Segesta. The temples, the theaters, the baths are proudly standing giving the impression that time has stopped setting a majestic period.
Un bateau-hôtel qui vogue sur les rails.
A graveyard at dawn
Duke Jean de Berry
ce sont les 600 ans de la mort de ce grand homme, fils, frère et oncle de roi. Dans toute la France, des manifestations sont revenues sur son œuvre, de nombreux palais: Bourges, Poitiers.. mais il était aussi amateur d'art, initiateur des très riches heures du Duc de Berry.