Some Pictures I Took Last Summer

You may have thought that we here at North of Andorra had decided to devote all further posts to young Fergus. Well, you would be wrong.

Here are some photos that I couldn't find any reason to use earlier but I still like 'em a lot.

Early in the summer we drove over to Foix, and coming back to Leran, we took the scenic route. I shot this of cows grazing the foothills of the Pyrenees with threatening clouds in the background.

The gentleman in the beret is Jeano. He is resident of Leran and speaks excellent English. He was the one who "quite agreed" with the "Worst President Ever" bumper sticker. I took this one of him during the exhibition of the majorettes from Lavalenet marching around Leran with accompanying marching band. All very American and very incongruous in the old French village of Leran.

The photo of the Scot Highland Piper is in London, where we had a layover on our way to and from France. The interesting thing about this photo is that 20 years ago, in the summer of 1987, I took an almost identical shot of this very same piper. If you've known Nancy and I that long, you might remember it was an image in our slide show of that great summer. It stands outside a boutique smokeshop and is the British equivalent to the cigar store Indian. In the old days it advertised a tobacco shop and was used because advertising signs were forbidden. If you enlarge the photo you might be able to read the explanation.

The proprietor standing outside the Cafe Llobet is in Mirepoix, and on one summer morning he graciously agreed to pose for me. We have never been inside this particular cafe, and I don't know why not, other than we found another one we like and have stuck with it. But it sure looks great on the outside and I think next summer we will have to patronize this place.

The rabbits are always for sale on Market Day in Mirepoix, and I don't know whether people buy these bunnies for breeding stock, or for the stock pot. Again, Nancy and I are going to have to go back to France and be prepared to make some dishes with rabbit. I wouldn't buy one of these soft, cuddly, live critters. I'd get one that was dead, cold, skinned and gutted, butchered by a professional from the Super U. (We used have dinner with our friends, Ron and Judy Hess in Bozeman, and they made a great "Hassenpeffer". I'm sure the spelling is incorrect, and Judy, please help me out. Which as I remember was a hearty German dish with rabbit and mustard.)