Saturday, July 02, 2011

Saturday, First stage of Le Tour De France 2011

Here, results of the first day of the 2011 Tour De France. Contador did not win the first stage. He's my rider this year, the one I hope for, a real follow-on to Lance and very capable of winning the whole thing. I watched today on France 3 TV, the start and the last 40+ kilometers hoping to see Mr. Contador blow them all way but it was not to be. That is the way of the Tour.

I started to repair the ice damage to my kitchen water supply today. The broken "bit" (a British word for any particular part of anything else) was at the joint coming into the faucet hardware itself. The joint had failed under the icy pressure and that was that. Not a leak...a flood! So be it. So drain down the lines and used a length of foam sponge, very flat, to stick into the various orifices to get the water out so soldering could take place. Nice idea and I actually allowed a whole 24 hours of draining and sponging to do the deed...but my reward was a blow up of the cold water line joint buried behind the tile of the kitchen sink table. Shit! So I had already decide that if this be the case I'd redo the water lines to just behind the sink and thus accessible if they leaked or broke. So I proceeded to redo the COLD water line as there was little point in establishing the hot water one as the damned electrical problem has eliminated that as a possibility in my kitchen, I will have cold water and no hot. So be it. So I did my usual prep work, gathered tools and cut copper pipe and put it all together in hopes of no-leaks and running COLD water by cooking time. After the soldering I turned on the water and shortly thereafter a very fine jet of nearly vaporous water appeared coming out of the joint at the corner of the kitchen sink. Tomorrow I will drain down the lines and reheat and solder the joint hoping that I'm successful this time. What a bitch this is!

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Home in Our Lignieres

Arrived back at Maison Blanche yesterday about 6pm, tired and happy to be back. We had spent the morning at a Grotto, read: cave, and NOT the wine kind) deep in the hills east of Cahors in Central France.
I quote"
The Pech Merle cave is situated close to the village of de Cabrerets, Lot county, France (How to find Cabrerets-Pech Merle).

Why is it called "Pech Merle" ?
In the lower third of France is a southern Latin culture called langue d'oc or occitan.
Pech is the French writing of the occitan word puèg which means : a hill. We pronounce as in "fresh". It appears in the name of many localities, written pech, puech, pioch, pey, and you can read it on the signs of the regionals roads. In old French, the good word is puy. For Merle, we know nothing. It could be an ancient Gaelic word or from an older language, which could mean : hill, high area.

Within ten kilometres around Pech Merle can be found a dozen other caves with wall paintings. They are not open to the public.






The upper network of the cave of Pech Merle has no signs of prehistoric use and has been known since the turn of the century. The prehistoric galleries, in the lower network, were discovered in 1922 by André David and Henri Dutertre, when they were 16 and 15 years old respectively. The examination of the paintings and engravings was immediately begun by Father Amédée Lemozi, the priest of Cabrerets.



The cave has been open to the public since 1926. It is classed as a 'historic monument' and is the property of the commune of Cabrerets which is responsible for its management.

The Pech Merle cave is a very large one. It is more than two kilometres long. The visitors can see about the third part of the galleries, seven large halls open the way to discover the exuberant and fabulous riches of subterranean sceneries.

"An art gallery in a palace of nature."

In order to verify that the organisation of the tours and the number of visitors are adequate as far as the safety of rock art is concerned the CNRS subterranean laboratory at Moulis in the Ariège region associated with the Géologie-Environnement-Conseil private office studies the underground environment of the Pech Merle cave."

link: http://www.quercy.net/pechmerle/english/introduction.html