21 April 2020

Surprises et mystères







I guess one of the good things about going on vacation is getting surprised a lot. Good surprises, I'm talking about — the kind that are pleasing or amusing, and memorable. That's the kind of virtual vacation I'm having as I spend time looking through sets of photos I took more than a decade ago.

In the case of these photos, I've been surprised by them. I took them on the streets — or in one case, in the church — in the town of Sarlat (full name: Sarlat-la-Canéda) in 2006.

I don't know who this statue is supposed to represent, or why it was on display. If anybody knows, I'll be happy to learn about it.












This one seems to have a medieval look, I guess. Again, I'm not sure why it was there, or for how long. The photos I'm re-discovering surprise and mystify me.













This one looks more ephemeral. In other words, maybe it's not "street art" but something that was on sale in the open-air market that day. I don't remember being tempted to buy it.











Some might say that this kind of art represents the greatest mystery of all, but there's not much surprising about it in our day. I must have stepped into the church in central Sarlat to take it.






Finally, just a good street view. That's Walt in the lower right corner, back when his hair was still brown instead of gray. Things change in 14 years' time, don't they? I don't know who the other person in the picture is. The house is beautiful, though — at least I think so.

Speaking of hair, Walt and I are thinking and talking about cutting each other's hair. That's something we've never done before. We last got haircuts in January, I think it was. The woman who cuts our hair, Amélie, told us at that time that she was expecting twins in May. She said we should make appointments to get our hair cut in late March or early April unless we wanted to wait until July. And then the virus took us by surprise and non-essential businesses like hair salons were closed down. So here we are, more hirsute than we like to be. If we work up the nerve to do some shearing, I'll take photos. Our Grand Confinement is set to run at least through May 11, and I predict that for me it will last weeks or months longer than that.

11 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. The bronze statue in the first photo above is called Le Badaud ("the onlooker") and is a 2002 work by local sculptor Gérard Auliac.

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  2. Definitely try the hair cutting. After all, how bad can the results be? It's not as though you're both going into an office each day, subject to close scrutiny.

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    1. I'm sure you're right. And you do feel better about yourself when you're well groomed, which is good for mental health. I don't so much mind having long hair. When I was young, I liked a shoulder-length hair style. As a mature (read "elderly") man, I'm not so sure.

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  3. You tube has hair cutting videos. I cut Lewis' hair, but that's pretty easy since there's not much to cut lol.

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    1. Thanks. I'll take a look at youtube. Isn't the internet fantastic?

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  4. Imagine how the people in the middle ages -- men, at least, who were supposed to cut their hair--looked, with only knives, probably, to cut their hair. Yikes.

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    1. Electricity is like a miracle, isn't it? We have electric clippers that can be adjusted to cut our hair to the desired length. And it always grows back, n'est-ce pas?

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  5. When I was retired at age 72 yo and I moved part time to Southern Califormia, I decided to cut my own hair. I didn't need anythimg fancy. I bought an electric clipper and did the job regularly since then, until recently. I had to stop because of vertebrae problems I could not reach the back of my neck any longer!

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  6. I was told that you should comb out a section of hair and then cut close to the comb. And I may try doing my own haircut, too. Who's going to see it?? It'll all grow out.
    This could be your opportunity to go wild, Ken. How about some green tips, or a nice purple rinse? Maybe a striped effect in bleu et blanche et rouge.

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    1. LOL. And here I was thinking I had gone wild when I abandoned a good career in California and upped sticks to France! As far as the white hair part is concerned, I've got that covered. Just need to find some rouge and some bleu.

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