An afternoon at the Opera

After walking for miles, we lobbed at the Opera Garnier. Guided tour ready to start. Only another 5 miles walking. Great to see, but Oh! my feet.
I put this photo in as an example of the opera at its dullest. See below.

Hate to pay the light bill.

Apparently the heat and smoke when all these lights were gaslights, was tremendous

 .
The circle and boxes. The middle seats were the 'amphitheatre' and the front ones the 'orchestra'.

The chandelier that occasioned Phantom of the Opera. When we saw it, it had been lowered to about 1 metre above the seats, to change the light bulbs.

The dome that the chandelier is drawn  up in to. (you can see the support wires) Painted by Chagall.

I think this was some kind of foyer. Reminiscent of Versaille's Hall of Mirrors.

A 'fireplace' in the foyer.

The Grand staircase. Marble and gold everywhere.

From the inside, looking out.

The marble stair-rail

Cathy is in this photo of the front balcony. Somewhere. 

Place de la Opera

No, it's not the Phantom and whats-her-name. 

A sudden glimpse of Sacre Coeur from Blvde Hausmann.

Memories of a lovely lunch, and Paul Keating. (Ask Anne) 

July 19th to 21st

We loved the deep shade for a lunch in Roax. Not so good for the camera, though.

The restaurant was called, as you can see, The Ace of Hearts. 

Paul filling in his tax return (or something). 

Making essence de lavende

The guy in red trows the lavender down and the other guy catches it with his pitchfork and puts it into the still.

Lunch at Mirabel aux Baronnies. Cathy, as usual, photographed every dish. I have promised her a food blog when we return to London.
Now to Val's Provencal garden .....

....with the cemetery wall in the background.

 

 and the boule court ......

.... and Ventoux in the distance.

Cathy beginning a rose

Cathy apres rose

Paul in a sad moment, before the pastis

At last, to Paris Place de Clichy.. 

Apparently the sculptor thought the world owed him something.

Cathy on Blvde Porte de Clichy

Bloody aussies everywhere

Eglise Trinite

Cathy shopping.

Resting, waiting for the tour of the Opera Garnier. This will surely follow.

July 17th

Old Roman bridge in Nyons

Claire and John, half-way through a ride.

Lunch at Grignon, a village near Vinsobres. 

More of the lunch.

Cathy said "I'm only going to have a light salad" .......

.... which she got!

We then watched a bloke harvesting lavender.

Those two silver spiked things at the front rotate, and cut the lavender ....

.... and then roll it into bunches. These are then distilled in Nyons to get lavender oil. 

Claire and John working, cleaning the pool

These little signs show your speed, then show a happy (you're not speeding) or sad (you're speeding) face.

The poorly displayed netting around the bole of the olive trees is unwound come harvest time and all the olives are shaken into them. 

Cathy having a "Fat boy" (non-alcoholic cocktail) before dinner at Victors.

Team Bookgrocer about to hit the road.

Yeh!!!!

The bikies groupies.

Decisions on the boule court

Cathy goes 'petanque!'

Winetasting and paella night at local vineyard.

Val, Dave and Kath

 
The paella