Friday, September 26, 2008

From Summer to Autumn

We have left summer behind, but I still have some photos from when we were in the Loire valley and enjoyed some fine food and weather.

One day we visited a small town by the Loire river, Montsoreau, where there was some sort of cyclist event. It was not anything like the Tour de France but more a keen-amateur convention on wheels. The town was completely dominated by people of all ages in those reveal-it-all, cycling shorts. Say no more!

The townspeople, shopkeepers and restaurateurs had done quite a lot to welcome the cyclists and make them feel at home. On entering the town it was soon obvious what the theme was. Some had been rather imaginative. Take a look!

IMG_6113 IMG_6116 IMG_6117

IMG_6119 IMG_6122

But autumn is upon us, and it also has its definite charm and beauty. Mushrooms grow, sometimes to considerable sizes, and the sunshine highlights the beautiful colours of the autumn leaves. Cue for a song...?

IMG_6299 cropped Autumn leaves

 

5 comments:

Diane Mandy said...

Wow I just love the last one.

swenglishexpat said...

Diane - Nature is beautiful!

CanadianSwiss said...

OMG! I just miss Canada right now! And the mushroom, I'll just eat for mow, m'kay? :)

swenglishexpat said...

CS - I've never been to Canada, but seen photos of beautiful autumn trees, so I think I know what you mean. Then of course there is The Toronto Maple Leaves (and other clubs), where many Swedish hockey players have played over the years. The mushrooms look magical, but of the nice kind! ;-)

Unknown said...

Talking about bicycles. Could you believe that Barcelona has turned into bicycle heaven? Bicycle paths along the main roads and, not the least, all along the beach front. And a great system for borrowing bicycles (at least for the locals). They use some kind of individual magnetic card to release a bike from the stand, drive around and put it back in another designated stand. All bikes seem to be in mint condition, probably since the system traces the bicycle back to the individual. Not like in Copenhagen where they use the shopping-cart-coin approach and you are happy to find a bicycle with a saddle.