Near Queenstown New Zealand is Lake Hayes which has homes and cottages around its perimeter. Most had kayaks or rowboats laying along the shore. As you can see I was here in the autumn when the leaves were changing and carpeting the ground. Off in the distance to the South is the Remarkables, a mountain range that had already started collecting snow. We were here midday and it was fairly warm without much of a breeze, thus providing a glassy surface to the lake. These still waters are more common first thing in the morning, but in this case we had a rare occurrence in the afternoon.
Yesterday we attended a form bloodless bull fighting indigenous to southern France known as Course camarguaise. Long story short, it's an elaborate form of tag played between trained athletes. The athletes are both human and bovine and if you are human you don't want to be tagged by the bull, that would be bad. I had no idea this even existed but the bulls are very well cared for and seem to enjoy chasing the raseteurs (human athletes) around the arena. All in all it was an absolute amazing spectacle, from the agility and speed of the bulls to the outstanding athletic ability of the raseteurs as they flew out of the arena to avoid the bull. Each bull spent about fifteen minutes in the arena after which he trotted back to his pen, in some cases quite proud of himself. Here is a Wikipedia if you are interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfighting#French
Maguelone's Cathedral was built one thousand years ago yet today it is still in use. I felt as though I was walking around an ancient castle and at one point it might have resembled that but that the fortress walls have long since crumbled or been demolished. The acoustics of the interior must be quite amazing. I visited a few days ago (in Autumn) and the summer concert season had already ended. Still, it must make an incredible venue. After visiting this I was left with a sense of real contrast between the old and new worlds.
