This is the petit train (literally "little train") touristique that we took from St.-Trojan on Oléron to the beach I've been...

In French, un(e) peintre is someone who paints. Like buildings, walls, fences, rooms, stuff like that. Someone who paints art is called un(...

With our global economy, many of us around the world have become accustomed to product packaging and instructions provided in several, if no...

The photo of this scale model, un plan-relief , of a section of Paris is difficult to make out. I apologize for that, but I still think it...

Here's a typical breakfast served in French cafés and hotels. A croissant , a pain aux raisins or other pastry, a piece of baguette , ...

Here's our daisy patch, now in full flower. I suppose it qualifies as un massif , building on yesterday's post. In English, we might...

Like the British, the French use the word jardin (garden) for what Americans call the "yard." A vegetable garden is un potager , ...

While not exactly shining, this is a suit of armure (armor) that was likely worn by a soldier in the late middle ages in France. I can'...

Here's another of the photos I took in the Dordogne region of southwestern France back in 2006. It's a restaurant sign. Metal signs ...

I found this in our mailbox on Friday. A note from the Mayor. Here's my translation. INFORMATION Given the approaching deconf...

Hens' nests. That's what potholes are called in French. The dirt road through the vineyards out back is rife with them. Every year t...

Road closed. It's that sign we dread when we're in a hurry to get somewhere which, thankfully, isn't all that often these days. ...

The small town of Aiguilhe, just north of the center of Le Puy-en-Velay, is built around an ancient volcanic cone that has been exposed by m...

This is a spring up on the hill behind the house we rented in Le Puy-en-Velay a couple of weeks ago. It's quite a fancy setup, with two ...

This is nature's way of making raisins. These wine grapes simply shriveled in this year's hot summer sun. And they're not alone....

A few weeks ago, a town crew came through the vineyard on the dirt road behind our hamlet to fill potholes. They do this every year. But thi...

These apples are called Reine des reinettes in French and "King of the Pippins" in English. Curious. Why is it a queen in France,...

When we hired the plumbing/heating contractor to work on the new shower stall, we included a few other items in the job. One was replacing a...

I took a few photos of that stalled tractor out in the vineyard, so now you're stuck with them. I find it curious that the model is, app...

Well, woods is more like it. There are forests around, but we live among the vines, so we have patches of woods here and there. The bigger f...