Designer Château

Last weekend while we were staying in the Lot, we were invited for drinks and a swim at the "Designer Château". It's owned by an architect and an interior designer who have done an amazing restoration job.

This is a photo from the side capturing the château and the infinity pool.


A close up of the infinity pool. On the left side the water flows over the edge creating a small waterfall.


Looking out over the edge, there is a wonderful view of the countryside


Here's the château seen in the pool reflection


And a front view of the château

Albi - St Cécile

These are a couple of photos I took in Albi, the main city of the Tarn. It's about an hour's drive from Castres, where I live.
Le Pont vieux.


This is what you see from Le Pont Vieux (the old bridge)


Here's the Albi Cathedrale: St Cécile


A self portrait of the Painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. There's a whole museum about him and his paintings next to the cathedrale.


The cathedrale seen from a different point of view.


And the entrance to the cathedrale:

Beautiful animation - Konzerthaus Dortmund

Bittbox

bittbox.com - This site has some brilliant Illustrator tutorials, brushes and vector sets. Keep up the good work.
Anyway, here's some pictures I did with Illustrator:

(here's the tutorial)

Here's a poster... selling CD's (it's in french because the concert was in France)



And finally, a background made using brushes in photoshop this time.

Castres + Sidobre

Castres, le Sidobre and a lake in La Montagne Noire.

This is the view from le Saut de la Truite


Same place but further down the mountain


Simon


Mountain Lake
this is Herne
















And a few of Castres

Refraction

Three quick photos:

Tour de France in Castres

Stage 12 of the Tour de France, Montpellier to Castres.
Making his second win so far, Tom Boonen was first to cross the finish line. Anyway, here's some photos I took.

The first helicopters had flown into sight. Soon after, 4 more flew into view. The excitement was starting to build. After 3/4 of an hour waiting, the cyclists were going to arrive.


Yeah...well, the helicopters were early. I don't suppose it really mattered to these guys, who probably arrived long before us. They even brought their own picnic table^^.
They didn't get better places than us anyway.


After all the sponsors had gone past, the police rolled by, warning everyone to stand back.


After what seemed like hours of waiting, they finally shot past. All that waiting for about 20 seconds of action. It was worth it though.




We were on live TV ^^ Smile!




Spare wheels!




Everyone had raced past. We thought we had seen everybody. Then in the distance, we saw this guy approaching, with his own mini police force.


But he wasn't the last. Another group shortly arrived (and their mini police force).


And last of all, this group came waltzing by. They weren't exactly bothered about going fast.
The two at the front were having a nice chat^^


Spare bikes anyone?

Trembling rocks

This house has been in the Du Gres family for 500 years now. Located right in the middle of the Sidobre, their garden is full of huge granite boulders. They even have some trembling rocks. Quite literally. Not far from this house, there's another trembling rock, it's quite a sight when an old granny suddenly comes out of her farm house, then starts moving a huge boulder weighing a couple of hundred tonnes. Afterwards, she walks around holding out her little basket, until everyone has put some money in.

Here's a snapshot of their back garden (about 300 hectares), although I'm not sure if these rocks tremble.



This is a typical French sausage, called a saucisse de Toulouse. It's now on the barbecue, but it took a bit of struggling to get up all wound up.


After it had been cooked:


Nice shoes!


My brother, my sister, my dad and me on yet another granite boulder




I just wondered why they decided to build a door there of all places. Normally doors are on the ground floor, that way there's no drop. ^^


Their house:


This is the same photo as the one a few before, but guess what's missing.


Herne having a siesta after having eaten a big lunch. He even sleeps with his football ^^


A couple of farm houses somewhere in their garden.


2 ferrets: