Puy De Dome, yes more pics!

These next few photos are from the road that leads up to the top of the Puy De Dome, they show many angles of the surrounding area that cannot be seen from anywhere else but from the road, I believe that the road keeps some sort of perspective in with the subject and also acts as a contrast to the mountains.

Puy de Dome, roof top of Clermont Fd (18th Aug 06)

After seeing the spectacular view shown in the last entry, we continued to travel up the road towards Puy de Dome, but it turned out that you could not drive up to the top before 1800 Heure (6pm), but there was plenty more to see along the road, in the Auvergne. (This picture shows the road heading directly for Puy de Dome which is the hill in the centre.)
Later on after 6, we went right up to the top of the volcano, (€4 toll road), the road is very windy and steep, although you get an excellent view from every side, the road can be seen in this picture, as it winds up the hill.

Heres Clermont from the Visitors Centre, it looks tiny, you can probably see for around 80miles into the hills behind, I wanted to include the hillside in the picture as it gives a scale to the edge of the Puy De Dome, against the city down below, giving the contrast a little bit more of an edge to it.


This is the arrangement for the visitors centre, the flooring is made from volcanic rock from the Dome, here u can still get an idea of how high up the buildings are above the city behind.


Max zoom brought me Clermont Ferrand airport, shame the sun didnt shine in some way on it, to bring a spotlight effect to it.


This shows Clermont Ferrand without any interruption, with the huge expanse of sky above to contrast the differnet colours of the city.

Clermont Fd from above (18/8/2006)

After checking into the Best Western Hotel at Clermont Fd. We headed for Puy De Dome which is the highest extinct volcano of the volcoanoes that surround Clermont in the Volcans d'Auvergne region, at 1464M, we took the N89 towards Puy de Dome, but on the way up behind Clermont, a spectacular view opened out on the hairpin turns, so I took these pictures, which overlook the whole city. ( In this first picture I tried to get as much of the city in as possible to show the sheer expanse of Clermont Fd while also showing the bright effect that the sky was giving to the city.)

(Here, in the second picture, the Notre Dame du Port church, located centrally in the city, completely contrasts the other buildings, because it is made from volcanic rock, dug from the soil below it. Anyway I used my super zoom camera to get in close so more detail could be seen.)

Versailles to Clermont Ferrand 18th August

We set off early this morning, Heading for Clermont Ferrand about 440km away from where we were, which meant a whole lot of driving, on our way to the autoroute, I saw this sprinkler spraying the crops, I got the camera to try to get a shot of the spray rolling across the landscape, heres what I got,

Directions: When we got to autoroute A10, we headed south to Orleans then continued south on the A71to Vierzon, from here, we headed south east on the A71 heading directly for Clermont Fd.

Around 20 miles from Clermont Fd. you can begin to see the beginning of the Massif Central and the huge expanse of extinct volcanoes that surround the tallest Volcanoe, Puy de Dome which is 1464M in height, this is the view from the A71 as you head towards Clermont.

Arriving at Versailles (17th August 2006)

After the quick drive down the autoroute from Calais, we made our way in towards Paris and Versailles so we came off the autoroute and headed over the Foret de St Germain on the N184 towards Versailles, the forest was very strange as it is right inside the Paris industrial area on the outskirts, but is totally untouched, like driving through Haldon forest but with different trees and better roads. We then took the N13 and joined the N186 straight for Versailles. ( Pictures showing the attractive streets of Versailles.)
When we arrived at the Etap Hotel, we dumped the gear and went to see the huge Versailles Palace which must be seen if you visit. Just before the two thunderstorms met overhead I tried to get some pictures of the palace, its a shame they were restoring it when we visited. (This is the view from the front of the Palace, in the picture I tried to capture the grandness of the Palace, by increasing the colour/saturation and by including more of the sky to contrast the colours.)

(The next picture shows the view down over the courtyard from the Palace,I really wanted to capture the anger of the sky and the two storms that were about to join over the Palace, but unfortunately it started to rain too soon, from behind! So this was the best i could do.)

Travelling to France 2006 (Part 1)

So, it was Thursday 17th August, when we set out for France, we left the house after any last minute packing, at 4.30Am set for Dover, on the day my AS results were to be published, so I missed those, but anyway, I drove up to Dover in the 406, while everyone else managed to get some sleep!. We arrived at Dover after a quick drive up to Dover, at about 8.45, so pretty much just in time! for the sailing at 9.00 AM (for those who havent seen the dock, it looks like this)

Now, we arrived in France at about 11AM (after losing an hour due to time differences) so we had to nail it down to Versailles along the Bologne autoroute A16 (An empty Aire on the Autoroute).
While I was here I tried a bit of photography with a tree and open landscape in the Aire, so I climbed up the massive bank at the back and took these! ( I tried to include as much sky as I could in these pictures, to show the vast expanse of land there is in France, especially how open it is in the Northern part of France.)
I also saw this at the Aire (Wild Mushroom) I used the super macro magnifiying glass mode on my camera to get a super close pic, I am very pleased with the way it looked so big, when it is in fact very small, it gives a false idea of the size. Part 2 coming very soon

Driving the 406!!

Been insured on the Peugeot 406 over the last month, which has been great, sessioning the 110bhp HDI engine, up and down the motorway/dual carriageway, and getting some 48mpg going on the on board computer. Anyway here are some pics I took of the beast.


Check out the wheels, up in the arches due to mass purchase of Kronenburg 1664 in the boot, after our drive in France!