From a drive in the French countryside...

[trusty elf]

Outside of Altkirch in the Alsace





View downstream in Essoye



Somewhere in the Champagne



Old battle-scarred village cat perched above a gate

[hippywife]

1. You people who get to travel

are making me so incredibly jealous! I love them all but the third one is my favorite. :hi:

[HarveyDarkey]

2. I'm envious, not jealous (there is a difference)

The third is my favorite also. The fourth a close second.

[trusty elf]

7. I think the third one is my favorite as well.

Essoye is where Renoir had an atelier, apparently.

Thanks! :hi:

[Mira]

3. FIVE favorites.

I could make a rhapsodic case for each one, the shortest case for the last one.
Though I really groove with the tile on the wall on the left.
I went into a house I once lived in a number of years ago, into the attic where I remembered from my childhood that they stored spare tiles, and I stole one and brought it home to the States.
I now set it up against the wall like a sconce, and burn a candle behind it.

Very beautiful vistas, Trusty Elf. It makes me think Jean Gabin, the old actor, would be showing up in them.

[trusty elf]

8. Thanks Mira!

Your comments are always appreciated!

The cat pic is the least rhapsodizable one of the lot, I agree. The light is nothing special, and the cat's expression isn't clear enough. What I actually like most about it is the pointy thing carved in the stone above the gate. :D

I couldn't find that street in Vienna that you mentioned. Are you sure the name is correct? I'm leaving on Sunday. I'll find the address (with your help) one way or another and take some good pics for you. ;-)

[Mira]

10. You make me feel valued. Thanks.

Trautsohngasse 8
Nothing about that has changed, and if it's not on a map, I can't help. It's in the city central. Not too far from the Opera, not too terribly far from Kaerntner Strasse.

If by chance you find it, about 3 houses down is a plaque on the wall saying Beethoven lived there for a while, I would walk by that plaque and be so awed, I was then 10-11 years old.
I would be way more awed now.

If by chance you find it, and if by chance you can get into the front door and walk through to the back "yard", (I forget how far the concierge will let you go) the concrete enclosure where the houses converge and create a square, that's where I learned to roller skate. And also ice skate, because in the winter they filled the area with water to freeze. My Hungarian grandmother would stand in that area with a washboard on Mondays, and she would scrub her skin and the fabric raw.

If you can't find it, realize that I find your caring wonderful, and I thank you for it, and I will pass it on appropriately somewhere, sometime.

I have not been back to Vienna since that time.
Every time I go to Europe it is connected to immediate needs in the German family, and the Austrians fall by the wayside.

Yet,
I have a younger cousin in Vienna who has a large rent controlled apartment in the heart of the city, and I plan to visit there before this particular life time is over. I really want to re-visit a city where I had such trauma, and such awakening.

[Tindalos]

4. Beautiful, beautiful countryside.

I love the round building, and the one with the cat perched on the gate like a gargoyle.

[trusty elf]

9. N'est-ce pas!

I enjoyed traveling the back roads to go visit some friends. On the way home I took the autoroute in order to get home more quickly. I had a funny little mishap though. Being out of cash for the toll roads, I stopped to get some at a machine. I was tired and typed in the wrong pin code without realizing it. Then the damn machine swallowed my card and wouldn't give it back. :-( Luckily I was in between toll roads at that point, so I was able to get off the autoroute without paying! Lucky too it was that I had enough gas to get home! :hi:

[Celebration]

5. every picture here is gorgeous

I love looking at travel photos, and these are among the best I have seen.................

[trusty elf]

6. Thanks for your kind comments.

It's nice to be able to travel vicariously, isn't it?

I'm going to Vienna on Sunday for three weeks-will post some stuff from there.