Je me souviens

For more than one month I will be in the North East part of America. The first visit is Quebec region of Canada. The officially motto of this part of Canada is "Je me souviens" (I remember). This motto has been the subject of so much debate over the years. Nobody knows what the architect Eugene-Etienne Tache meant when he inscribed "Je me souviens" above the main door of the Parliament Building in Quebec City in 1883.
Quebec district is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level. For a french guy I have some problems with the quebecoise accent.
The name "Quebec", which comes from the Algonquin word kepék meaning "(it) narrows", originally referred to the area around Quebec City where the Saint Lawrence River narrows to a cliff-lined gap. I think that Quebec without St. Lawrence River is like Paris without Tour Eifel.
Personally I will remember Canada.
I will visit next days Quebec, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

Cordes sur Ciel

Last week-end I visited Cordes-sur-Ciel, a fortified town, build in 1222 by the Count of Toulouse.

The name "Cordes" comes from the Indo-European "corte" meaning "rocky heights."In 1993 Cordes was renamed Cordes-sur-Ciel to reflect the town's site on a hill above the clouds that cover the valley below.

Inside the fortress we find the Museum of the Art of Sugar and Chocolate, a collection of magnificient Gothic style houses unique in France, a beautiful large outdoor market and the church.

On this period of the year there is a famous classic music festival : Festival Musique sur Ciel ( http://www.festivalmusiquesurciel.fr/)

Bourgogne or Burgundy

French region situated in modern-day France and Switzerland. The region produces wines. Burgundy wines can be described as varied, complex, human, and earthy. They are highly regarded because of historical tradition, and arguably because they transmit well the flavour of the land, what the French call terroir. The reputation, quality, and small numbers of production of the top wines mean high demand and high prices: Burgundy wines are among the most expensive wines in the world.

With my friend Patrice I had visited a part of the region : Buxy, Montagny-les-Buxy. I tasted with him some white wines in Caves des Vignerons de Buxy. Vive la France!!!!

Gages (near Rodez)

I visited Gages village, in the east of Rodez town. I was surprised by the beautiful landscape. So colorful, so quiet... The sunshine light of the sunset was perfect for some photos shooting. At the begininng I was fascinated by the colors, the light and the sounds, so I decided to take pictures, to show you that there still are beautiful places on the Earth! I had had in my mind when I taked the pictures some fragments of Chopin music ("Farewell" Waltz).
The pictures are below:

Les Gorges du Tarn

Absolutely spectacular, the Gorges du Tarn cuts through the limestone plateaux of the Causse de Sauveterre and the Causse Méjean in a precipitous trench 400–500m deep and 1000–1500m wide. Its sides, cloaked with woods of feathery pine and spiked with pinnacles of eroded rock, are often sheer and always very steep, creating within them a microclimate in sharp distinction to the inhospitable plateaux above.

The most attractive section of the gorge runs northeast for 53km from the pretty village of Le Rozier, 21km northeast of Millau, to Ispagnac.

Le Cirque de Navacelles

Le Cirque de Navacelles is the Grand Canyon of Europe. It is a huge hollow made by a long-defunct bend in a river.


The road to the river at the bottom of it follows the inside of the crater in a very big spiral. In fact the canyon was built by the river Vis.


Nice place!

Conques

Last week I visited two medieval villages in Aveyron district : Conques and Belcastel. Conques is a "ville fleurie" located at the confluence of the Dourdon and Ouche rivers. Stretched on the hillside, the urban area of Conques shuts its church northwards and westwards in a circular arc.

Saint Foy abbey-church was shut in southwards and eastwards by the monastery which accomodated the important benedictine community of Conques. Among its buildings, vanished or rebuilt at the end of the Middle Ages, it only remains a very stylish abbey chapel of flamboyant style which vaults are decorated with frescos ; it just has been restored and returned to cult.

A particularly interesting aspect of the church is the set of carvings. The Last Judgement tympanum at the church Saint Foy reminds me the Last Judgement, mural fresco from Voroneţ Monastery in Romania.