Tag Archives: EU

Bye-bye Pyrenees — But Only For Awhile!

Two little balls of energy sat at the kitchen table, dressed in matching red and white striped shirts, gulping mouthfuls of food so that they could go back into the lounge and watch a cartoon on television. Everyday life in France was just like family life in Australia, England, the USA or any other place that we have lived.

We ended our two week stay in the village of Argein on Wednesday and began driving north to Normandy. But we were going to miss this lovely family and I thought I’d share some photos from our time with them.

Matt and Becky are transplanted Brits raising the previously mentioned boys, Ed and Henri. Matt is a builder and Becky is a real estate agent who also manages the business side of the building company, Ariege Artisan. My husband Mark did stone work around their house and then did construction work with Matt for two days as well. So now Mark has dipped his toes into French construction methods.

This charming couple are currently expanding their company a bit, so I have spent the last few weeks doing public relations work for them — taking photos and editing/improving old ones, helping to fine tune the gallery on the new website, setting up a Facebook business page for them, and creating business cards and new brochures for them.

Business card for Ariege Artisan ©Deborah Harmes

And did you know that if you do business in France and you advertise, all of the advertising that might be in the English language is required to be translated into French as well! That made for some interesting layout challenges.

Ariege Artisan brochure -- outside cover ©Deborah Harmes

Their village setting in the Ariege region of the Pyrenees is absolutely stunning and their lovingly restored house is wonderful. Below are shots of the house, the deck, what you see if you are lying in the pool, and the view from the deck.

The front of our friends Matt and Becky's house in the Midi-Pyrenees

Side view of house, deck, and countryside

View from pool over countryside

View from deck over Pyrenees countryside

The photos below are of Matt reading bedtime stories to Henri, Becky relaxing with Dusty at her feet, and Henri and Ed playing in the living room.

Matt reading bedtime stories to Henri

Becky relaxing with Dusty at her feet

Ed and Henri playing on the floor ©Mark Harmes

Give us a couple of months to explore a few other places in France — but we’re pretty darned sure that we’ll be going back for a return visit!

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Vroom-vroom!!! Berlin’s Luftwaffe Museum – Part 3

In an oft-told story about my childhood, I heard from my parents that I began flying as a passenger in our small single-engine airplane when I was a mere 6 weeks old. And yes, I threw up whilst in flight. Ah well — a lifetime of motion sickness began just then!

My fascination with aircraft has lingered throughout the years and I prefer the old-fashioned propeller planes over the jets any day. So our visit to the Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin filled my heart and my eyes with joy.

There were aircraft that I had only seen in history books — and frankly, it was thrilling to be close enough to touch them. I had seen a biplane with a metal propeller when I was a little girl, but not a plane with a wooden propeller such as the one below.

Biplane with wooden propeller

And can you even imagine returning to earth in a glider and landing on the snow or the grass in a fragile vehicle equipped with rather primitive-looking wooden ski?

Lightweight glider with wooden skis

This is a huge museum and it takes hours to go through — but it is well worth the time if you have an interest in contemporary history. We barely made a dent in viewing the rows and rows of planes which were on display outside and concentrated instead on the historic examples within the vast hangers. But a friend told us that a thorough visit might be best accomplished on a bicycle so that we could weave in and out amongst the decades of planes that lined the old runways. You can see a few of them if you look to the left of the yellow-tipped propeller below.

Yellow-tipped propellers on old German warplane

I certainly hope you have enjoyed this 3-part series and that it might inspire you to visit this fascinating museum.

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©Deborah Harmes and ©A Wanderful Life
Please respect the words and images on this page.
All rights are reserved.

Photo Of The Day: Is This A Naughty Gnome?

“Is it an elf or a midget or a dwarf or a gnome? What is that bizarre statue downtown? And is it something permanent, or a temporary installation?”

I asked my friend Amalin these questions when we were in Rotterdam and she said that the huge dwarf statue below had been quite controversial when it was installed at the edge of the shopping district and in direct sight of most of the tram lines as they passed on their way into the city.

Apparently almost €300,000 was spent on this work of art by American artist Paul McCarthy and it has been moved several times due to protests by the angry citizens of Rotterdam. The locals have a very rude name for it which you will discover if you click on the highlighted links above!

Controversial gnome sculpture in Rotterdam, Netherdlands

Photo Of The Day: Hot Dogs, Get Your Hot Dogs!

Anyone who has ever been to a baseball game in the USA will have heard the familiar chant, “Hot dogs! Get your hot dogs!” Yes, I went to a few Cincinnati Reds games when I was young and I remember that sing-song urging to buy a snack.

The unexpected sight of this American-flag-draped hot dog sculpture on the streets of Berlin made me laugh because it seemed so wrong-place, wrong-time. It’s on Lindenstrasse, right down the street from the Jewish Museum.

American-style hot dogs for sale in Berlin, Germany

Photo of the Day – Intensely Green Lake Bethmale in the South of France

High in the mountains at over 1,000 metres in altitude, we discovered a gem-like lake of emerald green water that reflected the sky, trees, and overhanging mountains like a mirror. The waters of Le Lac De Bethmale in the Ariege region of the Midi-Pyrenees were some of the cleanest and clearest I had ever seen. And today’s afternoon walk around this stunning lake was very peaceful.

Legend says that the blue-green waters get their hue from the long dark skirts of the wicked witch who was chased into the lake after vexing the villagers in times long past.

The emerald green waters of Le Lac De Bethmale in the Ariege, Midi-Pyrenees, France

This green-on-green photo is a perfect example of just one view from one tiny corner of the lake.

Enjoy!

Vroom-vroom!!! Berlin’s Luftwaffe Museum – Part 2

Rumbling, roaring, noisy beasts. The age of the airplane saw a surprisingly rapid transformation from flimsy airborne creations into larger and heavier vehicles requiring more power to lift them into the air. And when World War II arrived, the German Luftwaffe was ready.

Wilhelm ‘Willy’ Messerschmitt was responsible for the jewels in the crown of German aircraft designed in the 1930s and 1940s — the fighter planes named after him — the Messerschmitt Bf108, the Messerschmitt Bf109, and the ones that followed. The links that are highlighted in this paragraph will take you to more detailed information.

Messerschmitt -- side view

Examples of this plane can be seen at the Luftwaffe Museum in the Berlin suburb of Gatow.

Messerschmitt -- front right view

If you are a history or aviation buff (and as I have mentioned previously, I happen to fall into both categories!), this is an excellent day out that is away from the main hustle and bustle of beautiful Berlin.

Messerschmitt -- close-up

One rather different example of a Messerschmitt was on display and it is a quite recent acquisition. In November of 2009, a fighter plane was discovered at the bottom of a lake in Germany. Please note — the website is in German, but the photographs alone are fascinating. What an eerie find that must have been for those divers in the lake.

If you wish to open this page-link to the daedalus-Berlin.de website in a translation-friendly site like GOOGLE CHROME, you can click on a button and translate the page from German to English. It’s a fascinating story!

The picture below is the actual plane that was recovered from the lake and reconstructed. When I saw this plane at the Luftwaffe Museum, I had no idea how complicated a process it must have been to remove it from the mud, bring it out of the water, and then transport it safely before it could be reconstructed. The article also answers the question about any remains found inside the plane. No, there was no sign of the missing pilots of the fighter plane and no remains at all were found inside or nearby.

Wreck of a downed WW II Messerschmitt recovered from a lake in Germany

Come back again soon for another World War II tale that I stumbled upon whilst in Germany!

Photo Of The Day: Let’s Do The Time Warp

Heads down, deep in conversation or deep in concentration, the three men walked through the historic passageway and probably never gave a thought to the juxtaposition of time periods that they represented.

This shot was taken in Dresden, Germany and it is quite likely that the two men in costume were employed by one of the historic tourist sites.

Enjoy!

A clothing 'time warp' in Dresden, Germany