# Five Autumn Weeks in France.



## Smilo

Well, folks, how long have you got?

At http://picasaweb.google.com/SumDoood you can find two albums,

_*Autumn 2008 - France*_ and

_*Autumn 2008 - France 2*_

which I hope will keep you entertained for a while. It's an oddly summery trip through much of France complete with falling snow in the Jura and sunny swimming in the Med.

To enlarge a photograph click the magnifying glass symbol,

• Or better, click Download, then 
• Open, and the image will appear in (something like) Windows Photo Gallery where there is an Actual Size button.

The Slideshow option is quite good too in that you can

• Vary the speed, 
• View images generally at a slightly larger size on a black background, 
• View with or without captions.

Have fun! And let me know if you find any nonsense or mix-ups in the narrative.


----------



## Smilo

144 viewers so far, but not a single comment posted. 

I'm glad I'm not new to MHF because I'd find it rather strange and quite discouraging that what other viewers on other forums have told me is a very good tale, should at MHF be considered unworthy of any comment at all.


----------



## Tailendcharley

Hi Smilo,


Great photos and no doubt some marvellous memories for you...nice to see you using a VW T4 for the trip....regards



  Smithy :wink: :wink:


----------



## tubbytuba

I'll break the ice then smilo, nice pics looks like a great trip!

Just one observation though......... not many smiles  

Did you really have a good time? (I'm sure you did) :wink:


----------



## Smilo

tubbytuba said:


> I'll break the ice then smilo, nice pics looks like a great trip! Just one observation though......... not many smiles  Did you really have a good time? (I'm sure you did) :wink:


Thanks, folks. Yes, we did have a good time, of course, but you're not the first to notice we tend to get a little frozen-faced when the camera points at us.

(The T4 behaved impeccably, of course, apart from shedding a plastic wheel trim and causing me to make occasional alterations when eyeing up photographs so as not to display a nude steel rim).


----------



## ianhibs

Well, I'd like to make three comments.

1. Some of the photos were quite outstanding but I particularly enjoyed the comments that went with them. A good example of creative writing. Some of the places that you visited we were at about 4 weeks ahead of you and I think you caught the atmosphere very well.

2. This illustrates the advantages of having a smaller vehicle. Although we're only 6 metres ,and yes we have all the comforts, there are times that it would be nice to drive into the centre of town without a care in the world re. parking. There's no doubt that you get to more places with a vehicle like yours.

3. If you're looking for massive feedback I'm sorry to say that you're on the wrong subject. Surprisingly perhaps, there's not as much interest on Continental Touring as others. Try posting re. bad service at a dealership and then you'll really get the keyboards clattering.

In summary, a very enjoyable watch. Keep up the good work.

Ian


----------



## Smilo

Thank you, Ian, for your kind, thoughtful and (to me!), interesting comments. You'll have noticed that if one shot happens to be all that we have to record a certain part of a day but it seems relevant to the whole tale, then I'll include some images of truly flippin' awful quality.

Perhaps some folks might think I'm showing off with these accounts, but the way I see it, if we have a good time, it seems rather mean-spirited not to share a little of (the evidence of) it, and in the process to encourage folks to get out and do it.


----------



## sheringham

Well I enjoyed it immensely. Done the same route but probably took few photos other than Aires....how sad is that?
Will save France 2 for tomorrow to liven up the day and hopefully recognise places visited

Thanks


----------



## DABurleigh

Yes, thanks for this Smilo. Seem to have missed it before. And haven't fully done it justice yet but I enjoyed the pics, geotags and witty comments. It did look like you were all suffering from a permanent hangover, though! 

And thanks, not least, for another trip reporting format. I must confess I still don't know the best way to do it. Many like blogs, but because I find MHF search so powerful, I prefer to have the narrative in the forum posts so that if anyone searches for a region or town name, they find people's accounts of it. I tried to get a discussion going on the best trip report style IIRC, but it didn't get anywhere.

Dave


----------



## SpeedyDux

Hi Smilo,

I haven't had time to look at this latest set of pics yet. Just wanted to say I found your earlier travel blogs an inspriration - they persuaded me to take the plunge and get a Westy. 8) 

Keep up the good work!


SD


----------



## colonel

Well Smilo my boy, I just spent a good hour and a half on a very enjoyable and informative journey though areas of France some of which I first travelled as a teenager with my girlfriends parents on the way to Spain in 1966. We travelled over the Pyrenees from Pau into Northern Spain, headed east to Lloret De Mar and back through Perpignan. So a different route, but nonetheless it brought back the feel of that journey.

I thought the photos were really atmospheric and best of all it made me want to do the journey and beyond.

Thanks for the effort, it was worth it for me. :thumbright:


----------



## Smilo

sheringham said:


> Well I enjoyed it immensely. Done the same route but probably took few photos other than Aires....how sad is that? Will save France 2 for tomorrow to liven up the day and hopefully recognise places visited. Thanks


I like to take at least one shot of each overnighting location even if it was horrid. :lol:



DABurleigh said:


> ......It did look like you were all suffering from a permanent hangover, though!  ………… And thanks, not least, for another trip reporting format. I must confess I still don't know the best way to do it......


I've practiced that hungover look for years now, David, and I can easily do it without alcohol! The ideal format for me (at present), would be something which I could prepare offline daily (if I felt like it) and could upload pretty well automatically next time I managed to get a _free_ wifi connection.



SpeedyDux said:


> Hi Smilo, I haven't had time to look at this latest set of pics yet. Just wanted to say I found your earlier travel blogs an inspriration - they persuaded me to take the plunge and get a Westy. 8)
> Keep up the good work! SD


That's amazing, SD. I guess you feel it was a good decision too! 2.5TDI? Is it your first camper?

Oddly enough on Sunday we were around Painswick and got a pretty good lunch at The Edgemoor.



colonel said:


> I thought the photos were really atmospheric and best of all it made me want to do the journey and beyond. Thanks for the effort, it was worth it for me. :thumbright:


Good on ya. I'm sure atmosphere is hardly less important than technical stuff. Shots through the windscreen with bits of sat nav and interior mirror and reflections of heater vents are often full of atmosphere! Now, if poss, get out there and do it. It's only late November!


----------



## sheringham

Just finished France 2. Thank you for an uplifting hour.

How do you do you do such a presentation? point me, and possibly others, in the right direction. 
One thing is obvious to me and that is that it must have taken you hours to prepare both sessions?

Thanks

Ron


----------



## Smilo

sheringham said:


> Just finished France 2. Thank you for an uplifting hour. How do you do you do such a presentation? point me, and possibly others, in the right direction. One thing is obvious to me and that is that it must have taken you hours to prepare both sessions? Thanks, Ron


Hi, Ron. Yes, it takes me flippin' ages an' ages. Just occasionally all I need to do is to reduce an image to a width of 1200 pixels - I use Photoshop - and publish it without a caption, but it's not often that quick and easy. And I'm fairly fussy about captions and often spend longer on a caption than I do on an image. Quite frequently I find that I know next to nothing about something interesting we've seen, take for example the second Roman aqueduct, and I can spend quite a while searching the www for an explanation. And in that particular case it was well worth it! To me, at least.

I was pretty well astonished to find that when I input the GPS co-ordinates (which I'd noted at the "scene" in the format "N43.70485 E04.72183"), into the Google map it coped with it wonderfully and because I have a Picasa account, using the Satellite option of course enabled me to look down on the aqueduct from space!

If you go back to http://picasaweb.google.com/SumDoood you'll see to the right at the top of the page "New Features! | Help | Sign In | Sign up for Picasa Web Albums".

Click on the last, give it a try, let us know what you think?


----------

