Not so remote. The towers were spaced so the next one was in sight up and down the coast, I think.

Looking out the window from here wouldn't be the hardest duty you could pull, would it?

A soldier posted here might be forgiven for thinking he'd been sent into exile in the farthest corner of the world.

They’re a grid of beach chairs and umbrellas, hold the chairs, hold the umbrellas.

An oncoming truck or tour bus such as that shown here would certainly be an adventure and require careful navigation and road management.

Any recollection as to what the gridded items on the beach are? Chairs? Umbrellas? Parking spots for a drive-in movie theater?

That's surely a "get away from it all" hut if ever there was one.

Having misread the name initially as "Col de Vertigo" I was thinking how apt that would be.

You’re right. I just finished rereading the journal before updating it. I’d love to repeat this ride - the whole tour really.

My brother told me of a Canadian Brass performance he attended. Among other numbers, they did Flight of the Bumblebee with the tuba player as the featured soloist. At one point the lead trumpeter strolled across the stage and took over the fingerwork on the instrument's valves, to the great amusement of the audience.

I bet the old guy nearest the camera can still give the young whippersnappers "what for" when the spirit moves him.

It needs WINDOWS on this side!

An early, beginner's-level edition of "Where's Rachael now?"... :)

Sharing a beach with cows must be something of a curious and novel experience, to outsiders at least. Presumably to the locals it's nothing out of the ordinary. Just be careful to look where you're about to flop down in the sand.

I remember that heat wave very well. We were cycling in the Loire valley - our first tandem tour in France (second in Europe, the first having been south central England the previous summer).

The heat, even for those of us who had been riding in and were accustomed to the steaming, sweltering mid-summer heat and humidity of the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. East coast, was brutal and made worse by the general lack of air conditioning in French buildings. Something like 15,000 people were killed in that heat wave if I remember correctly.