03 April 2015

Church doors at Céré-la-Ronde

It's Good Friday so here are some church pictures. I took them in the village of Céré-la-Ronde (pop. 450), which is just south of Montrichard and west of Saint-Aignan. It's one of the prettiest villages around here. The church is the main monument in the village center, but the Céré's major claim to fame is probably the Château de Montpoupon just to the south.


The main thing I photographed was the old wooden door on the side of the church. It caught my eye — the church itself was locked up tight. I've been inside the building before but it was 8 or 9 years ago. That day, I was there with a friend who doesn't speak French. An elderly woman was giving some French people a tour of the church.


When those people left, the woman came and talked to us. She spoke in French, and I started translating for my American friend. Suddenly, the woman started speaking in English. I asked her how it came to be that she spoke English so perfectly. She looked at me and said:  "Well, I spoke English long before I learned to speak French. I'm English, but I've been living in France for 50 years now." The woman lived in the presbytère attached to the church. I wonder if she still does.


The photos above and below are Photoshopped versions of some close-ups that I took of the carved wooden church door.


Finally, here's a picture that shows more of the church itself. As you can see, I was out driving around in my new Citroën C4, acquired in February. I'm trying to get out and drive it a little bit several times a week to make sure it's in good working order before the short warranty period expires.



I'm also trying to take as many photos as I can with the Panasonic digital camera that I have had for less than two weeks now. I'm not impressed with it and I think I am going to return it and try a different model. The quality of the photos I've taken with it is fine, but it has some very annoying features that I could do without, including a touch screen that it is impossible to turn off. Every time anything touches it, it fires off an unwanted photo.

8 comments:

  1. I do like your PottyShop watercolour technique...
    the hoss looks almost impressionistic.

    I don't like the idea of a touchscreen at the back...
    I honestly don't think it would be very long before I slung a camera like that as far as I could....
    probably over a cliff... that sort of thing really annoys me...
    I am now using manual focus on my SLRs... I'm fed up with them "hunting" in certain conditions.
    Samsung have something similar... a touchpad for the rear screen...
    camera doesn't really know whether or not it is a camera or a pad!!

    Pauline's Fuji has a sensor near the eyepiece that senses if you are using the screen or the viewfinder...
    but it doesn't turn of when you look at pictures on the screen...
    so if you get too close, the screen vanishes!
    Annoying... but not as bad as your problem!

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  2. Just a thought...
    and it would give your C4 a good long trip....
    why not load yourself up with a stack of SD cards...
    and come and play with some of the cameras down here...
    S&S's.... ours... J&N's... C&E's...
    you can't really do that in camera shops anymore....
    there aren't any!!

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  3. When I go out with my camera, I attach it to me with a wrist strap to make sure I don't drop it. That means that most of the time it is hanging down and swinging around as I walk, brushing against my coat or leg. With this model, even the slightest brush against anything activates the shutter. A few days ago, toward the end of a walk, my SD card wad suddenly full. I didn't understand why until I got back home and scanned through the photos. Half or more of them were just garbage...

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    Replies
    1. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
      You have my sympathy.... that really is automation too far!!

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    2. By the way, I use the Pinceau à Sec filter in Photoshop to produce photos like the close-ups above. The Photoshop version that I use has a French interface. I think the filter is called "dry brush" in English.

      The idea about testing other cameras is an interesting one, but I have a very specific kind of camera in mind -- a pocket camera with a long zoom. I'm not interested in carrying around a larger and heavier camera.

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  4. Love the carved wooden horsey panel and the others- each one was different. People are printing stuff like that on cloth panels and hanging them. They look beautiful that way. I'll send you some examples that I saw at Alys Beach this week.

    Funny how the guide was bilingual like you...Good luck with your camera quest.

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  5. I seem to be a "brusher" too--my touch-screen gadgets are always doing things I don't want because of inadvertent touches.
    Good luck, and Happy Easter.

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  6. the church seems so old...

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