Wine Château

The Château Lastours has been featured on RDP before. It is where we take our visitors to taste and buy some wine. The warm welcome and the wine tasting is always enjoyed by all.

The Gaillac region is the oldest wine producing area in France and one of the reasons for is not being as well known as wines from Bordeaux is that to get the wine to the coast for export it was transported by barge along the Tarn river that joins the river Garonne and arrives at Bordeaux. The council of Bordeaux of course heavily taxed these Gaillac wines and the result was Bordeaux wines were more popular.

Lunch Time Guard

The great tradition in most of provincial France is that shops close between midday and 2.00pm. Wandering the quiet streets taking photographs can be fun, and the guard dog was more interested in staying in the shade than me trying to take a photograph!

This is a fantastic tradition, that is unless you desperately need to buy something!

Number 14

Old town house in Albi, south of France. There is always something new to discover as you wander the lanes and back streets of towns and villages through out France.

Red Car

Living in the south of France has its benefits. Getting out the car, roof down and exploring the country lanes with the wind in your hair.

This is taken not far from where we live in Réal at the beginning of summer. Oh, and by the way the car belongs to a friend who was visiting us, unfortunately he took his car with him when he left. Now the only way to feel the wind in my hair is to get my bicycle out and it does look as if a little exercise would not go amiss.

Hi From Luca

Time also to catch up with Luca our Grandson, and Zannnie asked the other day, 'Any new pictures of Luca.' Here we are playing catch up with a photograph taken in April in the UK. This is a place were we used to take Michael, Luca's father, when he was young.

Luca waving and saying saying hello.

Say hello to Luca.

Taken at a popular spot called the Devils Dyke in Sussex that gives beautiful views north, and to the south over Brighton and Hove towards the sea.

Image by Izabel James

The Song Man

The song man entertaining tourists wandering the streets of Albi, France.

Dinner is Served

To launch my new commitment to posting a daily photo (well I'm going to try) here is another image from the Family Lewis and friends that were such a joy and pleasure to have stay at Le Peuch Haut and I think I can say that they all left after having a great vacation in the south of France.

Two postings in one day! Good start eh?

Lewis Family and the gang

It has been a busy summer and I have neglected to keep up with RDP but Andrew and his lovable gang persuaded me I should keep posting.

We have just had a great couple of weeks with these lovely people and their mischievous kids, and it was sad to say goodbye last night as they left very early this morning.

The now mandatory group photo taken in the garden looking towards Roquemaure on the last evening of their stay.

It is always sad to say goodbye..........

New Hare

We have had fun watching this young Hare having fun in the garden. Hop skipping and dancing - sometimes he is nibbling away a juicy piece of grass and then run a short way and finds something else if interest.

Rose Bee

It is nit raining all the time but it certainly seems like it. There are mornings when I wake up and I think that I might have been transported back to my native Scotland, it's misty and wet.

Oh where has the sun gone?

When it does shine it makes a world of difference and I captured this shot of a wild bee collecting pollen.

A busy bee indeed.

I can Feel the Rain

Summer has arrived but not our usual weather. Perhaps this has dulled my inspiration for picture taking - not really I add hastily, photography is my passion.

We have had what seems like nothing but rain lately, it's not our normal south of France weather. I hope it changes soon.

Luca Brazil

I see that I have been gone for nearly a month, so Réal Daily Photo probably no longer exists as a daily photo blog.

It is a very difficult thing to remain dedicated to posting one photo a day and I congratulate all who manage to keep up the good work.

For now I will keep posting but probably not on a daily basis. This is another photo of my most favorite subject, our grandson Luca who is at this very moment spending time with his grandmother and family on his mums side in Brazil.

Photo by Izabel James

Basilique Saint Sernin

The Basilique Saint Sernin in the City of Toulouse. We had a day out in Toulouse on Sunday which was about the only day the sun shone in a while. The south of France is battling for some of the nice weather that has been in abundance in the northern parts of Europe.

Sunday evening also saw the results of the Election of the new President Elect Sarkozy who will take office on the 16th of May.

The reason I am told that they are able to announce the results of who will be President as soon as the voting booths are closed at 20h 00 is because of the Polls carried out as people leave the voting stations. The are accurate to within a few percentage points!

Presidential Election

Sunday the 6th of May will see the final in the Presidential run off between Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkosy.

As I am not a French citizen I am not eligible to vote, but my French wife will be able to do so. The two candidates abridged manifestos arrived by post today and after last nights televised marathon debate between the two candidates I wonder who will be France's next President?

We should know at 20h.00. Sunday.

Mum & Dad

Cool pair, both in their eightieth year and enjoying the sunshine of the south of France.

This is my Mum and Dad who have enjoyed the last 10 years living in the south of France. This past year has been a hard one for them and they have come through it smiling.

I decided to post this double portrait of them, taken last week, as the defining photo of the one year anniversary of Réal Daily Photo. I have not managed to post evry day and I am 88 images short of 365 so I have missed quite a few days - but I am still here!

Spike the Dog

With lots of our family with us this week It is all we have been photographing. This is my parents dog Spike and in the background my Son Michael and grandson Luca.

Walking in the lovely Tarn with the sun shining!

Image by Izabel James

Izabel and Luca

Mother and son. Our family is all together and this is a photograph of our daughter in law Izabel and our Grandson Luca.

Lots happening in Réal this week as we are on vacation and have family to stay.

Hoopoe

A pleasant sight as seen in our garden just out side the window. There I was hiding behind a chair whilst taking shots through the window - so this is what wildlife photography is all about!!

Election

Today is election day in France in probably what will be the first round to find the next President of France. People are wondering if France will vote in the first women President Ségolène Royal or will it be Nicolas Sarkozy, or perhaps one of the other many candidates?

You never know there might be a clear winner today if not the next vote will be on the 6th of May.

Sunshine

At long last the sunshine is and I can show my favorite view over to Roquemaure with a bit of Lilac in the foreground.

There has been lots of rain this spring with misty mornings and dull days - lets hope the sun is here to stay.

Paloma

If there is anything I hate worse than caged animals it is caged birds. This one, who we have named Paloma, has hurt its wing and cannot fly.

For the moment we have put her/him in a cage until we can see a vet. There are a whole lot of these Collared Doves Streptopelia decaocto that nest in and around the old church at Réal and Paloma is no doubt from there and we will have to see what can be done. She (we think she is a she) was found outside our front door and as we did not have a cage we had to go buy one.

I only hope she will be able to fly one day again.

Big Blow

The big blow at the worlds largest omelette making party in Bessières in the Tarn & Garonne. No we were not in time to see the big omelette in the making but it was a fun day.

Easter family

A personal family group.

My Mum and Dad with our friends who are visiting from the UK. Yesterday we all drove down to see my parents who live in a small village next to the Mediterranean and I promised I would post this photograph today.

Omelette

This is the chief who is in charge of making the biggest omelette in the world in the village of Bessières. It was nearly all eaten by the time we arrived for the celebration, but still we had a good time.

Easter Sunday

Our visitors arrived from England yesterday and we had a lovely sunny Easter Sunday. This is a photograph of Grace all dressed up and posing next to our Easter Tree.

Luca Playground

Happy Easter to all and happy holidays!

Been real busy of late and not able to keep up with a daily photo. This is the last photo of our grandson sent by his Mum. Hope is is having a great Easter.

He is up and walking about now and looking good.

Photograph by Isabel James

Festival Music

The sun is starting to shine again after gale force winds and the loss of electricity on Sunday night for a couple of hours.

Still having to draw on my library of images. This is another from the village festival in Allauch in Provence, France.

Fun times!

Garlic

The weather is still not good down in southern France. I keep complaining the sun is not shinning - and it isn't.

So here is an image from Provence of Garlic being sold at the summer festival market in the village of Allauch

Rabastens

This is another Vue du Ciel of the village of Rabastens.

This is one of our local markets villages and the market which is held here on a Saturday morning is a great place to go.

Image by Christian Hot

Bummer

Housework with a difference.

Taken last year when on vacation in Germany. Great sense of humour this image has and I kept wondering if I would ever post it on the blog but as we seem to be getting the back end of winter I thought I would have a play on words and image.

Where is that sun - maybe I should look under the sink??

l'Aveyron

The river Aveyron at Saint Antonin Noble Val, Tarn et Garonne, France.

Nick and his Vespa

I always said I would make my mate Nick famous!!

Now he has been blogged on his much loved vintage Vespa Scooter.

Photographed in November 2006 in the sunshine we are still waiting on to return in 2007

Merci

Merci!

But I don't think he has a chance.

Where's Spring Gone?

What ever happened to Springtime?

A delicate wild flower photographed about 10 days ago in brilliant spring weather - then winter returned with a vengeance.

Where is the sun and the warm weather?

Cordes-sur Ciel

When I began doing this daily photo blog I would complain about the fact that the area we lived in had no Broadband (ADSL) and I was also complaining to the Mayor, Mr.Christian Hot, of our small community and kept asking what could be done. France Telecom never came through with a solution even although Broadband connection is only 1 Kilometre away.

Finally an enterprising guy who has set up a WiFi system in the village where he lived, because of the same problem, was contacted and he set up a similar system for Roquemaure - Réal so I and many other can now enjoy a much faster connection to the internet.

Not only has Christian done this but when the weather is fine as it was just over a week ago he get out his micro-light aircraft and takes to the sky. He emailed this image of the village of Cordes-sur-Ciel. Quite a talented guy is our Mayor. So this is a photograph of Cordes in the sky from higher up in the sky!!

Photograph by Christian Hot

Luca Webcam

At long last we have Broadband ADSL, or at least the Mayor managed to get a private company to set up a WiFi system which mean that my frustration level has dropped enormously.

Working with images has been difficult and keeping up with posting a daily photograph has been very difficult at times.

This is a photography of our grandson Luca, regulars of Réal DP will know I post a photo of him at least once a month usually taken by his Mum.

The biggest bonus is we can now see Luca on a webcam and see him walking and starting to get up to mischievous. Great technology when you can get it!

Thank you Mr. Mayor.

Image by Izabel James

Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val

A week ago we walking around in glorious sunshine, Spring had arrived in abundance and nature was showing off. We stopped off for lunch in the lovely Bastide village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val just over in the Tarn et Garonne. All in all a beautiful day.

Today we are plunged back into winter which looks to last for the rest of the week. Oh were is that sunshine I crave.

Film Set

The village of Valès in the Forest of Grésigne, Tarn France.

Look to me as if you could use this for a film set for bygone days - not a lot had changed!

Telephone Exhibition

Is this the smallest exhibition centre in the world? If it is it is situated at the side of the church in Réal in the Tarn France.

First featured here on 1st of January this year.

It now has an exhibition of art from the local children which is for the coming of Spring.

Lonely Church

On a bright sunny Spring day the light highlighted this lonely church. It sits beside the road near to one of the Bastide villages in the Tarn called Cordes-sur-Ciel.

I have often wanted to photograph it and this time the light was just right - for me anyway!

Running Water

Sounds like a native American name from an old western movie but it is running water from a stream in the Forest of Grésigne in the northern Tarn. What a beautiful place and this is the third photograph from our visit there on Sunday.

In the northern part of the Tarn the earth turns to red. An amazing change and in this image you can see it the colour of the water.

Tree Moss

In the Forest of Grésigne in the northern part of the Tarn held a few surprises.

Early spring and walking through the forest with the vibrant sounds of nature The forest was coming alive and next to the soothing sound of running water I discovered moss covered trees.

It is a special time of year because I love spring and the quickness of natures awakening.

Wild Orchid

This wild Orchid was photographed on this wonderful spring day in the Forest of Grésige in the northern part of the Tarn. Spring was really showing off with some trees in blossom and a carpet of wild flowers.

This photograph is dedicated to Eric at Paris DP – the guy who got us hooked on this – because it is the second anniversary of PDP. Well done Eric and thanks for the inspiration.

Vineyard Preparation

The preparation begins for cutting back for this year’s new growth and grapes which will then be turned into next years wine.

The cycle continues.

This link will take you to the series I have already posted on wine preparation in France

The Rain in Spain

Well the rain in Spain has been falling mainly in the south of France. This is an image that I took some time ago and it is more romantic than the rain filled days we have been having lately.

Yea I know, the gardens needs it and all that, but I need the sun and lots of it.

Hope the sun comes out soon, or I will have to find another rainbow and go in search of that gold!

Blossom

Lots of the trees over the past few days have just burst into blossom.

Nice, nice and more nice. I love it spring is on the way.

So how is your blossom?

Daisy

Has Spring already arrived? Trees are in blossom the grass is covered in all sorts of little flowers and the temperature today was not far off 20°C.

The only problem is that we are getting a lot of rain. Yes of course the garden needs it, but I like nice sunny warm weather - won't be long I'm thinking.

Billy

Still not getting out to get any photographs taken.

This is our very own Billy the cat who we found at the side of the road near the Luxembourg border about five years ago. We lived in a small apartment in Paris and I would never have a cat couped up in a small apartment. But what do you do when the cat finds you? No contest!

Billy would sit out on what used to be our flower window box looking at the world of buildings that surrounded us and I would feel sad for her as she no freedom............

Billy now has a whole garden and more to enjoy her freedom. Such joy.

This photo has been slightly enhanced with Photoshop.

Smile

Still along way from the Tarn but after a period of time where Réal Daily Photo has been missing days this is an image that began the digital age for me.

Self portrait of me and the wife!

More of the Tarn to come soon.

tv wheels

If you can't get into a real racing car there are always other ways. Renault car showroom on the Champs Elysees, Paris.

I have been out of the loop of posting a Daily Photo, so perhaps I can get up to speed again by posting this image taken when I lived in Paris.