Eloquent IT Solutions
I occasionally do IT consulting from time to time under the business Eloquent IT Solutions.
Direct sales through a branded web site is not a part of my strategy.
Paris hotel & restaurant
Danielle and I stayed a low cost but pleasant hotel in Paris in the Opera district – Hotel Baudin. We had one of the better meals in paris nearby at Memere au Piano, 18 rue Jean Mace. The restaurant was warm, friendly and seemed like a place where regulars were greeted by name. Food was great, prices reasonable. Save your money on the bed and spend it on the excellent food!
Balloons & Spires
A pre-dawn start today (11:45 Australian time… we’ll have some adjusting to do on our return next week) for a balloon flight in Goreme.
I counted I think 102 balloons, around 24 passengers to a balloon so this is a serious business here. For comparison, the township of Urgup has signs claiming 19,700 (permanent) residents. It is quite remarkable how successfully Cappadocia markets itself in the global tourism industry. The aerial vantage point is a great way to appreciate the natural rock spires and canyons.
Our travel agent organised a tour with a Turkish travel agent who ultimately organised with Kaya Balloons. They ran a professional, safe and friendly operation and we seemed to be ahead of the pack on take off, giving the pilot more opportunities to get lower & closer I think.
Balloons!
Hot Air Ballooning is a very inefficient, unpredictable way to travel. The pilot can gain and lose altitude, and that’s about it. So it was a credit to the man driving ours this morning that we could drift along the valley, at times so close we could touch the tree tops. Dawn came after very …
Cats in Istanbul
I have a theory on national civic development. As countries move from some Hobbsian “State of Nature” through to highly developed, there are several key regimes of treatment of stray dogs. At the worst, stray dogs are food. At the best, stray dogs are lovingly captured by local authorities assigned that responsibility by one or two other tiers of government, and transferred to custody pending adoption or execution. It is only in the middle of the spectrum that stray dogs exist in any quantities roaming free in populated areas.
So Turkey is perhaps a corollary of this theory. With scarcely a stray dog to be seen, it seems that the stray cat’s life is easy, perhaps even pampered. There are a variety of theories as to why. What I do know is that on the whole they are very cute.
Lillebonne
The drive from Breuzeville-Grenier to Bayeux would essentially take us through Lillebonne, so we took the time to stop and see the “Theatre Romain”. Somewhat hysterically, the gardening crew were mowing the 45-55 degree slope of what was formerly tiered seating… with ropes. A top rope to control the fall of the mower and a bottom rope to steer. Despite being told by the tourist office the theatre was closed, the gardening crew and everyone else at the site seemed keen to have us walk around.
The theatre escaped being quarried for its stone in the 1800s, and is currently having access ramping built around the periphery. Across the road a museum houses excavated artefacts from the theatre and the region, including coins and amphoras. Coins included those minted under the reign of Constantine, by which time the Roman empire was moving eastwards – as Danielle and I would be soon.
We walked through the remainder of the quite busy village centre, marvelled at the terrines, and wrapped up what was meant to be a ten minute stop with a visit to the Boulangerie-Patisserie… for a most excellent Tarte Citron – lemon tart. Beautiful shortcrust pastry.
Midi Pyrenees
We arrived at Toulouse (Gare Matabiou) courtesy of an overnight train where we only had bunk bed (couchettes), not seats. After freshening up and petite dejeuner at the station, we went to rent a Citroen, but discovered, that opening was only at 9am on a Sunday. So instead we went to drop bags at the …
The heel turn
The train journey from Toulouse to Paris saw the heel-flap emerge, and the heel turn was done by time we arrived in Le Havre. the next few days we spent with Roger Driving and Danielle Knitting around the Normandie region (a most agreeable arrangement for a knitter!). I thought I had finished all the gusset stitch decreases, until we got on the train to Berlin last night, and realised that I had incorrectly started decreasing in the wrong place some time back – ripit, ripit!
This morning, we awoke alternately racing through the German countryside at 200km/hr and crawlinging for no apparent reason. The gusset decreases are all now re-done, (in fact I overshot by one decrease, not paying attention), and now I look foward to some mindless instep knitting.
Farming in Normandy
Just a quick post for Bradley and Todd. There is a huge amount of corn still standing in Normandy fields (and to the south, less so in Germany). Autumn sown winter crops seem to be starting. A lot of root vegetables still in, some potatoes, also beetroot and carrots. It seems maybe 75% permanent cropping, 25% pasture for mix of dairy and beef. Evidently they do a fair bit of linseed for oil and also flax.
Paris!
Having had two rather full tourist days whilst dragging round the jet-lag crankiness, I still find Paris marvellously interesting. Public buildings are decorated tastefully. The Metro is efficient. Historical events shaped the culture they have today – we have agreed we need to read a lot more to sort out all the Louis and the …