Northern France

We went to Kathy and David's house on Monday 18 April and had a lovely time with them repairing something else that had gone wrong with the van. In fact, Kathy drove me to an ironmongers and a plumbers' merchant in Rochester on Tuesday morning. The water storage tank was leaking through the drain plug because the O ring had perished. I fitted the new washer and it was marginally better in the sense the leak was reduced to a one drop a second drip! Main issue is I can't get a regular spanner onto the plug nut (don't ask; restricted access to tank). I'll need a box spanner.
Oh yeah and the other thing was some ridiculous Knaus fairing is coming off of the rear of the van. It's just applied and there coz some design git thought it would look nice. It doesn't. Some white gaffer tape worked wonders. All rather perilous doing that on K&D's main road where the Drivers Of Kent have no respect for either the speed limit or my hiviz jacket.

Anyway we arrived, dripping water, at the Channel terminal in Calais, then driving 99 kilometres straight to the campsite Rompval in Mers-les-Bains, opposite Le Tréport. Very nice.

These are the sanitaire, like WW2 shelters with 'green roofs'. Very nice. Weather sharp, sunny and very windy. Because of previous heavy rain the gardien got a geezer to lay steel sheets for the drive wheels to rest on. They looked like something ex-military to me, being, like, an expert in ex-military materiel.

Next morning we tootled off to Le Tréport for to obtain a new replacement shade for the lamp I bought in Villedieu-les-Poêles. This glassblower now has his atelier in Le Tréport next the funicular railway up the cliff face. Dig the view. A replacement shade was found, I was very impressed. So we took it  and we walked down the steps to the old sea-side town.
On the way we happened upon a sign indicating there was a huge Atlantic Wall defence system built into the cliff by Ukrainian women as part of their contribution to Nazi European domination. It was open for visitation that afternoon. However we lacked suitable clothing, footwear, nor our powerful LED Lenser torch (German manufacture throughout).
We shall return another afternoon suitably equipped and view this wonder of female endeavour. The things the Nazis got people to do quite astounds me sometimes. I wonder how they did that? My dad used to bang on about how the Nazis could repair a bombed factory even before the RAF had stopped bombing and gone home ...  and increase production to boot. I would say 'Slave labour really helps in such contingencies.' And there's nowhere better for slave labour than Ukraine as Stalin would point out.

There's the cliff. Isn't it impressive.

I thought it a very attractive prom of shops and restaurants, though you had to have fish with everything. Diane had told me there was a fish market, which we found was in a municipal building. There was a lot of fish in this building. And if we had been staying and were not on an aire with no electricity and such we would have bought fish for tea. Instead we bought crab as it was already prepared. I have to say, it was rather good.

The municipal fishery was near this really old wooden thing. I've no idea what it's for.
I obviously liked the wooden thing as I took masses of photos of it. Nice shapes I suppose.

We went back to our aire on the funicular railway. This is another municipal marvel which is free at the point of use and actually works and is quick. It was built in 1907 I think and has never needed repairing or up-dating.

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As observant readers will note we have obviously moved into a very different mode of photography. Here I am using the Petzval 58mm bokeh control brass lens. Except that the bokeh control is broken. It doesn't work any more. It'll have to go back to Russia to the menders. Still, I rather like what you can do with it anyway. The Waterhouse plate being used here is the equivalent of f16 and the detail is stunning even if I haven't got the exposure quite right. The colour-cast looks very different from the Nikkor lens which also costs three arms and a leg, and I'm on my third one because the first two were faulty.

Chris took this in the sense that she pressed the shutter release. Obviously it's on a tripod and the wind is so strong I think I'm moving! Even without the control ring working at all the blur is typical Petzval bokeh. Interesting to be experimenting with concrete posts, what? Do I suite the 'Bugatti' cap by Whiteley's?

We will have more Petzval fun laters. Especially after it's fixed. I have a receipt and a 'guarantee'!

I'm writing this from the campsite La Grande Sologne in Nouan-le-Fuzelier about 40 or so kilometres south of Orléans. It's a campsite in a lovely but very wet under foot park-setting next to the extensive municipal park done on a Diana theme - lots of statues of very naked Dianas with hunting dogs and dead stags (also all naked). But tastefully done, you know, in the Greek style.