MooN

You never saw the rocky horror picture show?

nobody around whilst I was there and the 1 or 2 people I know in Chablis have never heard of it. Pedro's sunday morning idea is plausible but a biker gathering I would know about, or somebody I konow would. I still think it's a hippy / new age/ anarchist/ knit your own wholemeal yoghurt whilst hig on drugs type thing.

I went for a spin last week as the weather was reasonable just following my nose... and was intrigued to see this sign in the middle of nowhere, down a very minor back road in the vinyards about 15km east of Chablis so I just had to go and have a look. bearing in mind that this is in the Chabls vinyards, which are mostly good to high quality wines owned by wealthy domaines in what is frankly a pretty chic area, I cannot imagine how this can exist in that environement There was no one about and it was all locked up but there being no running water or mains electricity I cannot believe it's very legal, though it's obviously been here some time as the steps to the rear of the trailor are concrete built and the ground is clearly well beaten all around it. There's a primitive sound system, or one big ampli & speaker anyway, left outside, cigarette butts in the ashtray which is still dry so not more than 12h old The yellow tape says on it " enter if you dare"... but it was locked, so I couldn't. It looks to me like a well established pot head dealership and can only imagine the hippy, psychadelic shirt wearing, dreadlocked wasters that congregate here from time to time. I am determined to return on a saturday night if I can and see what goes on. Though I suspect it may just be a summer affair.

thanks for sharing the pics Earache, so me great shots in there.

Paris Special "Point Zéro" the point from which all road distances in France are measured. On the forecourt of Notre Dame. Evening shot of Notre Dame ( before the fire) taken from the Ile Saint Loius Aaaaaand, the tourist shot and because it "is no more" a closer shot of the Notre Dame spire

London Special. London skyline from the river, approaching the barrier from downstream. The Thames Barrier from the water. Tower bridge from the St Catherines Dock entrance pontoon. Waiting for the tide. The tourist shot, Westminster palace.

Joigny, from La cote Saint Jaques Ile de Bréhat Rocamadour La Rance at Dinan. Brittany. Mont Saint Michel at dusk. before they removed the causeway. La Fourberie, channel coast, west of Dinard Somewhere uo the Col de la Forclaz between France and Szitzerland Bienzee, Interlaken, Switzerland. The Jungfrau, from Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

that's why I didn't go to one of the big stores Bob, they just try to sell you stuff, the independant bloke here, though he does sell some computors, makes his money from repairing and restoring.

The French are not as anarchic and revolutionary as most people believe. The French have a right to demonstrate written into their laws and constitution, so there's nothing illegal about it. The big demonstrations are perfectly legal and organised in conjunction with the law, having had a declaration made to the local authorities a couple of weeks prior, the route taken by the cortege is planned and agreed with the organisers and the authorities, including details of assembly points, routes taken, timings and dispersal points.The authorities provide a certain amount of security on top of the organisers security ( all of which has to be declared and notified in advance to the requisite authorities) The last two times I have participated in biker demonstrations in Paris, it has been organised by the FFMC ( french equivalent of MAG in the UK and affiliated to the FEM) the local branch assembling at the entry to the autoroute. The group was met by a 4 man police outrider team in a layby south of paris and we were escorted to the main assembly point at the Chateau de Vincennes. The main demonstration rode at a snails pace around the peripherique with police outriders front and rear and descreet ( but I suspsuct heavy) police prescence hiding in the wings at strategic points along the way ( as they had been informed in advance of the route and the timings) I had to stop for fuel at one point but was never able to rejoin the main group as the rear police escort was a double cordon blocking all attempts by other motorists to approach the cconvoy from the rear.

Formation flouncing. we should form a team for the olympics

I'm on fibreoptic here now and getting 75 download and 105 upload. @boboneleg the laptop I use at home ( an old lenovo X201) which I got free from a friend about 5 or 6 years ago had got reeeeaaaallllllyyyyy slow over the last year. I took it into our local independant computor place and he took it apart, cleaned it, replaced the physical harddrive with a "whatsit thingy" ( SSD?) replaced the 32bit OS for a 64 and reinstalled my stuff on it. 180€ and it 's faster then it's ever been, faster than either of the other 2 we have at home which are far more recent.

now how did I KNOW you were going to say that?

Great shots Yen, I love medieval carpentry, the tools and materials of the time ( no power tools and no nails) dictating the design ( " function is form") rather then the inverse.

I am thinking of self identifying as a cyclist. My motorcycle can self identify as bi... cycle and I can enter the tour de France next year.

You wouldn't like my dark side... .

What a disaster, I hope wife and dog are on the mend now.

not a way point as such Bob but his address is : 8 route de Vezelay, 58350 NANNAY.

Crap weather today, 16 c only and huge cold front moving north and west across the country. It cleared a little in the afternoon so I went for a ride, thermal liner in my jacket and winter gloves on. By the time I got home (around 18:30) i could have done with the liner inmy trousers too and had had the heated grips on for half an hour. Soon as the sun goes, th temps drop fastnow and autumn is apon us. Whilst driving to a job yesterday I passed this place and decided to come back and have a look, today was perfect timing. About an hour south east from home, on the N151 between varzy and La Charité sur Loire there is a cllection of metal sculptures on the roadside and a small workshop called " L'atelier des Afranchies" ( the workshop of free men, or Free man's forge) Julian who's place it is is young, not 30 I'd guess and full of zeal and slightly naive ideas and ideals about anticapitalism ( he probably hugs trees and knits his own wholemeal yoghurt in his spare time...) but is open and freindly and clearly gifted. He collects scrap metal, drift wood from the Loire, bits of knackered bikes from the areas scrap yards and turns them into : He even has similar ideas as me about what Suzukis are good for Predator made from a motocross bike and 2 scooters I came home on the back roads, skirting round behind the trailing edge of a strom cell that must have gone through about 15 minutes before me. 190 odd km and an interesting interlude discussing stuff with Julian from the Free man's Forge.

Oi! I resemble that remark! I can actually remember failing the Eleven Plus... just like my sister before me. ( we both went on to A -Levels or more though) and I definately read Lord of the flies, though possibly not in school. What the UK need to help them out of this "crisis" is to join a club or group of other likeminded countries where they could share manpower or costs and benefits as well as losses and problems, this would smooth out the short term ups and downs of the economy by allowing free movement of labour within the group or Union giving a huge and mobile, Labour Pool. We could call it a Union of European or maybe the European Unio... Oh, wait a minute...

I voted Sofia cos Ilike the pic...and its a trumpet...

Hello, make youself at home, put your feet up. Don't feed the inmates after midnight...

and who cares?

4! i'm onviously far too young to know about any of the others

what do you get if you throw a hand grenade into a 1970's french kitchen? Linoleum blownapart