Maurice and I went to a movie in La Rochelle, just a short ten minutes away from our place, at 6 PM-we love our location. When we came out the light was just wonderful poking through some dark clouds.

I love the light house and the tree right there in the middle of La Rochelle by the harbor.

Love the light and the reflection in the harbor.

The second light house near the harbor to guide boats inbetween the two towers guarding the harbor.

Maurice and I had a drink before heading home.

Where we had our drink. Great exterior.

Home to an incredible sunset.

There is a very good TV show here in France called Les Racines et Les Ailes about various areas in France. It gives as in depth look at either a monument such as, Notre Dame, a city such as, Paris, or an area which just happened to be about Poitou Charente this week where we have our new place so I was excited to see this to learn more about this part of France. One of the things I saw was the last remaining transporting bridge in France which was only about 25 minutes away. It was built by a Frenchman in the early 1900′s and, instead of having a bridge which spanned high above a river so boats could pass, it moved the bridge from one side of the river to the other. I wish I had a better lens to show how this works, but here is the video I took showing it:

The beach where our place is has a view of the ocean and there is constant activity, either on sunny days with people playing on the sand and sail boat lessons going on or very windy days when the kite surfers arrive so they can speed along on the water. There are surf boarders too.

Here are some kite surfers arriving, carrying their kites behind them looking like a group of butterflies.

Another view. See how far away they are? The tide here goes way out a really long distance which is good for growing oysters but, if you don’t arrive when the tide is high, a long walk is required to get to the water. I’ve noticed that when there is a sailing lesson going on, the boats always arrive back at shore exactly as the tide is going to turn so they are on the beach to be picked up, not out where they can’t be reached until the tide comes in again. Places without such high and low tides must have a must easier time of it. Learning about life here.

On the day before we left Northern Ireland, we made a trip into Londonderry. It was the scene of some violence with IRA bombings and there continue to be marches all of the time. We were even told by a waiter that we shouldn’t go as it was the day of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and there were some negative feelings towards her in Northern Ireland. I don’t understand all of the politics of it other than some people want independence from England. There also seems to be some unpleasant things going on between the Catholics and Protestants. We weren’t up for a long walk in the city so we decided to take a tour by taxi. Our driver turned out to be a member of the IRA and told us all sorts of things about all that had gone on during the violent time including he and his brother getting shot at with rubber bullets by the English soldiers. He even pulled one out and showed us-it was much larger than I thought it would be. He seemed to think that the peace brokered by President Clinton some years back would probably hold but was fairly negative about the climate in Northern Ireland. I wondered if we had gotten another driver, if we would have heard the English side of the story. Looking back on it, Londonderry had a rather sad air and a feeling of not thriving although there was a mall that we saw, full of people.

One of the graves of 14 killed during “Bloody Sunday”. I thought the shot through a raining taxi window sort of fitting.

A U.S. flag from 1945 in the church there, St. Columb’s. Note there are only 48 stars. The volunteer there, when hearing I was from Texas, said, “You’ll like that flag in there then. Alaska isn’t represented, thus Texas is still the biggest state.”

I love the Irish accent. I did a video of our waiter just to record his voice. We had been in Londonderry the day before-a city once full of conflict and bombings and which still seems to be recovering-and I asked him his opinion mainly to get him talking.

On the way to the Giant’s Causeway, a popular place on the shore in Northern Ireland we stopped at Carrick-a-Rede, which was a bridge once used by salmon fishermen to reach a spawning ground-the salmon are now sadly gone. It started pouring and the wind was blowing but I trudged up a hill over a kilometer each way and crossed it just to say I did.

A look at the bridge from up above.

Another view-you can see people crossing it.

The Giant’s Causeway is a fascinating place on the sea where volcanic lava did interesting things to the existing rocks leaving behind these stones and columns looking like tile. Or, you can go with the story that a giant with the great name of Finn Mc’Cool did it.

Another view.

A column of the rocks. I read that there are similar stone formations in Scotland.

There are many glens in the area of Northern Ireland where we stayed. We didn’t really explore the glens, home of the “Little People” as it required a lot of hiking and it was usually wet and windy, but we did see the villages nearby. We especially liked Glenarm. There was a castle there too.

A door knocker that I liked in the tiny village of Glenarm.

Somebody had put a bouquet of daffodils in a door handle. I wondered if it was a nice surprise from a boyfriend. This being Spring, one of the pleasant surprises here were the daffodils blooming in villages and wild in the countryside.

We went to the tearoom at the castle in Glenarm and I ordered the tea which was enough for two people. I ate the sandwiches but had trouble finishing the rest, except I had to eat the scones. My friend said they were the best scones she ever had.

My tea pot and tea cup there. So sweet.

There were also Spring lambs in just about every field. This group happened to be on the road. I’d have hugged a lamb if they would have let me get near.

Later that day we found an old abandoned church with a fascinating graveyard. Daffodils were blooming there too.

A great celtic cross.

We only had a few days in Northern Ireland and set off exploring right away.

Our first stop was Carrickfergus which has an amazing history in Ireland.

The entrance into the castle.

They found the bones of a dog buried there at the castle that probably looked like this. There was a very interesting and enthusiastic girl there giving information who, although she was German, had an Irish accent in English. She told us all sorts of things about the castle and showed us various weapons. She was a wealth of information.

In the town itself, along with a stock, was this painting on the side of a building.

Each night we returned to this hotel in Ballygally-love that name-and enjoyed resting.

We could sit in front of the fire in the bar if we wanted.

If you went through this door and up the stairs there was a ghost room.

The ghost was a lady who stayed in this room and either jumped or was pushed to her death. Never saw or heard her though.

The view out front one morning.