Wednesday 20 September 2017

Life Is A Carousel

Ain't that the truth? Round and round we go, up and down and some of us learn from our mistakes but others take a little longer ;)
Growing up in an English seaside town in the 50s and 60s I had an early introduction to the Merry-Go-Round or carousel~ours were all of hand-made horses though. Mostly white with flowing manes of wool there was  always one or two black stallions with an evil gleam in their eyes.

The French love carousels too and every town seems to have one. The one in Arles next to the tourist bureau dates back to 1900 and has a delightful selection of animals and carriages...


a very large teacup with traditional dancers painted on the side...


two horses and a pig enjoying their ride together...


this donkey looks so tired...his head nods but he's not happy...


mono-plane of Louis Bleriot who was the first to fly over the English Channel...that would have been really big news back in 1900...


and le taureau...the bull; being so close to Spain and the Camargue the bull has an important role in Arles...bull-fighting these days involves removing a ribbon or trinket from his horns and they are not killed(merely terrified instead). The meat is very common in restaurants and butchers' shops and the symbol of the bull is found all around the town...


The carousel in St Remy de Provence was covered the day we visited...can you see the blue and whites stripes under the tree?


Then a stunning discovery in Avignon...a two storey carousel...who knew such things existed?



Fancy that?

Thank you for all the lovely comments yesterday, I plan to show more of the Van Gogh sites as well as where we stayed and the town itself in coming days. Plus some foodie pics...stay tuned!

Love from Sue
xxx

Our photo of the carousel at the foot of Montmartre in Paris 2008


PS Head over to Kylie's lovely blog for this fantastic pull-apart bread recipe

5 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for going over the carousels again Sue. You know how much I love them. The two storey version is truly something else. Absolutely beautiful. The donkey in the first ones does look very sad. Hugs Heather

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did you take ride, Sue? I love carousels and if I had been there, I would have chosen a ride in that tea cup. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am and always have been fascinated by carousels Sue, especially the old ones. I could stare at them all day, Our daughter loves them too and she would be in the teacup with Nil - her favourite. I'd be on a horse.
    Kylie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fascinating carousels, Sue. I remember them from when I was young.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Absolutely gorgeous, Sue. Loved seeing these photos. I used to get so excited when I would pick a horse that would go up and down. It was thrilling. This brings back happy memories of my brother and I. Thank you...

    ReplyDelete