Trip to France and Ireland

I spent this July on holiday in Nantes, in northwest France. It was my second time staying there, and it was really nice to dig in and see more of the city. I also took advantage of being in that part of the world by taking a short flight to Ireland and spending a weekend on the west coast in a really pretty rural part of the country.

France

This is a photo of the corner of the hotel I stayed at in Paris. By the left edge of that shelf, it's flush with the wall. The wall curves slightly behind the shelf and makes the room feel non-Euclidean; very unsettling.

This is the view from the apartment I stayed in:

And here's some storefronts (with some far-right graffiti!) on a nearby street:

I stayed in a really pretty area:

Here are some phone pictures at night from near where I stayed:

Bastille Day

On Bastille Day, I took a walk out to the bank of the Loire river, and found a nice spot in the grass. Here's a picture from my walk there:

And here's one of the fireworks:

To the Cinema

While I was there, I went to a theatre about a dozen times and saw many movies. The best that I hadn't seen before was Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. It benefits a lot from being on a large screen; the landscapes are just beautiful. See it if you haven't.

When I bought my first ticket there, they verified with me that I understood the movie was in French. Guess my accent is still that bad!

This is a tunnel under the main train tracks that bisect Nantes (tracks to left in photo). I usually went through here coming to or from the theatre. There's so much art to take in, and it all looks different with different lighting at different times of day. Such a great thing to experience as part of a routine.

Somewhat near the cinema, or maybe I just got lost that day, I remember finding this charming little spot where the buildings don't line up how you'd expect. The picture really doesn't convey how this route just gets narrower and narrower from a wide street until a single person can just squeeze through by the end.

Here's a random street at dusk. I was on my way home from a film. I love those blues and the building fronts.

Ireland

When I landed in Ireland, I spent a few hours riding trains across the country to Louisburgh near the west coast. This first photo is from my phone, on a bridge on my hour-ish walk out of town to the bed and breakfast where I stayed:

And here's another shot on the way:

And here's a morning shot:

I went out and took this picture the second day I was there, but it's right on the route to my B&B:

I remember walking on those roads clearly. They were narrow and only let one car go through. You had to pay attention and push off into the bushes sometimes to let a car go buy; other cars would negotiate traffic similarly. Sometimes you could go up people's driveways a bit and it seemed better than nestling into some bushes, but other times a dog would come down the driveway barking. Once, I jumped back from a dog and almost leapt in front of the truck I had moved to avoid.

Here's another shot of the area near my B&B:

Here are some shots from when I walked down to a local beach. I was listening to a podcast about the Christian science movement when I did. I remember climbing up and walking through the tall grass to get that angle out over the water.

At this spot, I sat down for a while and ate a sandwich I brought with me. I love those waters with that deep reddy sand.

This is near the train station in Westport, where I spent a few hours doing nothing because I just missed the train to Dublin (it wasn't really a makeable connection, and I knew that when I bought the ticket, but frustrating). I'm glad I got to see this spot, though:

Back in Nantes

I really like this one; I took it after a long walk toward Rezé on a hot day (I was listening to a podcast about John Wayne Gacy), after crossing the bridges in a long pedestrian-unfriendly stretch of the way. This shot was at the start of a roll, and I guess I didn't load it properly (it's a new camera), so I had a slight malfunction and ended up with this double exposure. I think it ended up looking kind of cool, though.

This was taken on one of my last days in Nantes, when I took a break from cleaning the apartment and practising on the piano there to run to the store. I went back for my film camera when I saw it, but they were already repairing it; tragic.

This was taken when I was sitting on a bollard for a while on the way to the train station. I remember spending more time around the castle (le Château des ducs de Bretagne) the first time I went to Nantes; it's such a beautiful building. Look at those blues at the top! They really capture how they look when you're there.

Here's a sunny street on the way to the train station. It's a bit overexposed, but it was hard to find the right balance. I think it captures the overwhelming sun of that day well, and I love the blues in the shade on the street and on the buildings. This film has such gorgeous colours.