It is said that some dog owners resemble their dogs.This egg seller in Freiburg street market has a variation on the same theme-- he has ended up resembling his eggs.Extraordinary.Leica X1
30 Jun 2013
The Egg Man
It is said that some dog owners resemble their dogs.This egg seller in Freiburg street market has a variation on the same theme-- he has ended up resembling his eggs.Extraordinary.Leica X1
29 Jun 2013
Cancelled
A quick post that the Classic Porsche 911 Register Run to Bilpin was cancelled due to the weather/road conditions.
No relevant picture to put on this bad news-who wants to see more rain- so here is an oldie -still one of my favourites.I have given it another rework.It's now had more cosmetic work done on it than a Florida orthodentist's wife's face.
No relevant picture to put on this bad news-who wants to see more rain- so here is an oldie -still one of my favourites.I have given it another rework.It's now had more cosmetic work done on it than a Florida orthodentist's wife's face.
27 Jun 2013
Mark Webber to drive for Porsche
Well the rumours have turned out to be true.Australian Mark Webber has just announced that he is leaving the Red Bull F1 team at the end of this season and that he has signed a multi year contract to drive the new Porsche LMP1 sports car at Le Mans and in the world endurance championship series.
He will be glad to be clear of the poisonous atmosphere of the Red Bull team where the totally obnoxious,untrustworthy Vettel rules the roost.Webber has had quite a succesful F1 career and even if he had not found himself alongside Vettel I am sure that he would have been looking to retire/move on anyway at the age of 36.
Webber has driven at Le Mans previously although he never made the race as he was in the infamous flying Mercedes team which were involved in a series of terrifying accidents in the lead up to and during the 1999 race.
I personally met Webber when he was invited to a launch event for the MGF sports car at Wakefield Park racetrack near Goulburn,NSW in 1996.At that time Webber was a very cocky 19 year old local Formula Ford driver from Quenbeyan not too far from Wakefield Park.Part of the launch consisted of a timed hillclimb where the local motoring journalists competed against each other driving MGFs up the Wakefield hillclimb course which was made up of part of the back section of the track and then a go kart track like ascent of a small hill .Many of the local motoring journos at that time were quite handy drivers and before Webber stepped into the car the best time of the day was 45.6 secs I seem to remember.And the journos had had about 5 runs each.Well Webber had never even sat in the car before as he only really turned up late in the day for the free dinner but he got in and drove upto the start line -- which meant that his experience with the car was driving about 5 metres very slowly- and then he went and blasted up the hill in 44.5secs.The MGF was a pretty mediocre little tin can of a car and I remember thinking at the time that he was in a totally different class to all the rest of us there.I was right.
So it will be great to see him in sports cars particularly as it will be a Porsche.The Le Mans cars really race.It is not the artificial contrived "show" that F1 has become.In sports cars Michelin make most of the tyres and they are designed to last not fall apart after 5 laps.The cars are able to overtake wherever they can -- not in some artificially designated DRS zone and best of all Sebastian Vettel has nothing to do with Le Mans as it runs way past his bedtime.
Best of luck Mark -- hopefully I'll be there in 2014 to watch you.
He will be glad to be clear of the poisonous atmosphere of the Red Bull team where the totally obnoxious,untrustworthy Vettel rules the roost.Webber has had quite a succesful F1 career and even if he had not found himself alongside Vettel I am sure that he would have been looking to retire/move on anyway at the age of 36.
Webber has driven at Le Mans previously although he never made the race as he was in the infamous flying Mercedes team which were involved in a series of terrifying accidents in the lead up to and during the 1999 race.
I personally met Webber when he was invited to a launch event for the MGF sports car at Wakefield Park racetrack near Goulburn,NSW in 1996.At that time Webber was a very cocky 19 year old local Formula Ford driver from Quenbeyan not too far from Wakefield Park.Part of the launch consisted of a timed hillclimb where the local motoring journalists competed against each other driving MGFs up the Wakefield hillclimb course which was made up of part of the back section of the track and then a go kart track like ascent of a small hill .Many of the local motoring journos at that time were quite handy drivers and before Webber stepped into the car the best time of the day was 45.6 secs I seem to remember.And the journos had had about 5 runs each.Well Webber had never even sat in the car before as he only really turned up late in the day for the free dinner but he got in and drove upto the start line -- which meant that his experience with the car was driving about 5 metres very slowly- and then he went and blasted up the hill in 44.5secs.The MGF was a pretty mediocre little tin can of a car and I remember thinking at the time that he was in a totally different class to all the rest of us there.I was right.
So it will be great to see him in sports cars particularly as it will be a Porsche.The Le Mans cars really race.It is not the artificial contrived "show" that F1 has become.In sports cars Michelin make most of the tyres and they are designed to last not fall apart after 5 laps.The cars are able to overtake wherever they can -- not in some artificially designated DRS zone and best of all Sebastian Vettel has nothing to do with Le Mans as it runs way past his bedtime.
Best of luck Mark -- hopefully I'll be there in 2014 to watch you.
26 Jun 2013
French street collection
25 Jun 2013
Black in black and white
The Fujitsu sponsored Porsche Carrera Cup cars are black.Not my favourite car colour but each to their own.Anyway the black cars with their big black doughnut Michelins make a good study in black (and white).
Leica X1 photo from the recent Australian Porsche Rennsport.
Leica X1 photo from the recent Australian Porsche Rennsport.
24 Jun 2013
Le Mans 2013
Despite being in France upto a few days before the race I did not go to the Le Mans 24 hour race this year.This was for a variety of reasons including travel logistics but mainly because I was not keen to make all that effort to see another Audi procession.And I was right.Audi won again although a Toyota finished second with another Audi third.
Porsche made a bettter showing than their dismal performances of recent years with 911s winning both the GT categories.
The weather was dismal- it was cold and wet although it had been over 30ºC earlier in the week and I was not the only one who made the decision to stay at home going by the small numbers of spectators in the stands on the TV video.
The race was marred by the death of Danish driver,Allan Simonsen,whose works Aston Martin crashed at Tetra Rouge on the third lap of the race.It was the first fatality at Le Mans for 27 years.
Hopefully the return of Porsche into the top category in 2014 will provide a much needed boost to the race although apparently the Porsche hybrid is a very complex machine and it may take a few outings to sort out.Anyway let's hope that 2014 is a real race with better weather.
Porsche made a bettter showing than their dismal performances of recent years with 911s winning both the GT categories.
The weather was dismal- it was cold and wet although it had been over 30ºC earlier in the week and I was not the only one who made the decision to stay at home going by the small numbers of spectators in the stands on the TV video.
The race was marred by the death of Danish driver,Allan Simonsen,whose works Aston Martin crashed at Tetra Rouge on the third lap of the race.It was the first fatality at Le Mans for 27 years.
Hopefully the return of Porsche into the top category in 2014 will provide a much needed boost to the race although apparently the Porsche hybrid is a very complex machine and it may take a few outings to sort out.Anyway let's hope that 2014 is a real race with better weather.
23 Jun 2013
The curse of digital photography
Back in Aus after a wonderful three weeks in La Belle France.I am not so sure that I will post on the blog whilst travelling in future.Uploading photos using an iPad and hotel wi-fi networks is often slow.I cannot edit the photos and the size of the photos is restricted in the iPad blogger app.
More critically I am very anxious not to appear like all the posters who put their every movement up on Facebook.I want my photos to be considered not just taken to post on a blog.I am convinced that digital photography is ruining the travel experience for many travellers.They are blindly snapping away and not taking in what they are looking at.Whilst on a bus tour in Lyon a man in the seat in front of me was taking photos in every direction in a frenzy.It was as if he had a neurological disorder-his whole body twitching as he snapped left, right and centre.He saw nothing.
I first really noticed this frenzied snapping in Strasbourg Cathedral last year but now I see it everywhere.Hooray to the museums who have banned photography.It makes it so much more comfortable for those of us who want to look at the pictures and take them in.
It is not a laughing matter-people really are missing out on a critical part of the travel experience.They are not observing and taking in what they came to see.Of course when photography used film this situation did not arise but now with smartphones it is even worse as they are photographing everything and then posting it onto their Facebook page or sending the photos to their friends immediately.But it is not just smartphones- the big black Canon or Nikon DSLR is still the camera of choice for many European tourists -particularly the older ones.What do
they all do with the photos?
I am making a very conscious effort to use my camera very sparingly .On the trip I saw wonderful panoramas and scenes and committed them to memory.I am just using my camera to take just a few,hopefully,interesting photos not as a recording device for my every move.
Anyway a few low key but Pur(e) French photos from the last three weeks
More critically I am very anxious not to appear like all the posters who put their every movement up on Facebook.I want my photos to be considered not just taken to post on a blog.I am convinced that digital photography is ruining the travel experience for many travellers.They are blindly snapping away and not taking in what they are looking at.Whilst on a bus tour in Lyon a man in the seat in front of me was taking photos in every direction in a frenzy.It was as if he had a neurological disorder-his whole body twitching as he snapped left, right and centre.He saw nothing.
I first really noticed this frenzied snapping in Strasbourg Cathedral last year but now I see it everywhere.Hooray to the museums who have banned photography.It makes it so much more comfortable for those of us who want to look at the pictures and take them in.
It is not a laughing matter-people really are missing out on a critical part of the travel experience.They are not observing and taking in what they came to see.Of course when photography used film this situation did not arise but now with smartphones it is even worse as they are photographing everything and then posting it onto their Facebook page or sending the photos to their friends immediately.But it is not just smartphones- the big black Canon or Nikon DSLR is still the camera of choice for many European tourists -particularly the older ones.What do
they all do with the photos?
I am making a very conscious effort to use my camera very sparingly .On the trip I saw wonderful panoramas and scenes and committed them to memory.I am just using my camera to take just a few,hopefully,interesting photos not as a recording device for my every move.
Anyway a few low key but Pur(e) French photos from the last three weeks
21 Jun 2013
19 Jun 2013
Local colour 2
Some more local colour including shots of very colourful canvas still being made in a mill in an isolated village in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
16 Jun 2013
A barn find
All car enthusiasts dream of a barn find.An old long forgotten Porsche 356 or a Bugatti under a layer of dust and straw.Well there are plenty of rotting Renaults and Citroens in barns here in France waiting to be discovered but I found a Lamborghini under a layer of dust in a barn behind our hotel this morning.A shame that it is a tractor!
Canal Du Midi
Came to the Canal Du Midi on way to Carcassonne yesterday.Found an idyllic restaurant on bank in small village to have lunch -see photo.It does not get much better than this.Canal packed with big plastic boats full of English banker types and their friends/families sipping wine and getting sunburnt.The Home Counties golf clubs must be very quiet this week.
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