Sunday Drive: Carousel Animals, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer - 2011

Of course Bonnie and I had to go to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer during our week-long visit to the Camargue and its environs in 2011. We strolled around the town, ate some paella, and witnessed the local Course Camarguaise (a bullfight, French-style, in which the bulls are the stars and the men run around trying to attract their attention).*  So it wasn't that surprising to find a black bull on the carousel.

[From my personal collection]

 *To get a sense of what happens in the arena, here's a video of one. (Warning--turn your sound way down as it's very loud.)

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Carousel Horses, Avignon - 2015

This was taken on a balmy day (yes, really) last November 16th in Avignon.

[From my personal collection]

This was the day when the citizens of France were joined by people all over the world in a minute of silence to honor the victims of the Paris terrorist attack. At that moment the bus taking us to the city played La Marseillaise over the intercom before going quiet.



© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Carousel Animals

During my 2009 visit to France we spent a week in the Loire Valley--seven days, eight châteaux and one royal abbey--the one at Fontevraud, where they were displaying a huge collection of 20th century French carousel animals in several of the rooms. The figures were all suspended from a mechanical device near the ceiling that caused them to move up and down when the guide rotated a handle.

[All photos from my personal collection]

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.