Regates Royales de Cannes

On another water theme: 

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to photograph the spectacular regatta royale in the Bay of Cannes, Cote d'Azur. Going out on a zodiac in the middle of the regatta between the elegant racing sail boats was great fun - no sea sickness, lots of action, perfect weather. My cameras got sprayed a bit but Nikons are tough. 

Before the start with the old town of Cannes in the background 

Preparations for setting sails

     

The first boats moving out of the harbour

Waiting for the wind

high up in the rigging

Wind is coming up ! 

all hands busy

overtaking manoeuvers around the buoy

One-man-team

Not bad either - eh? 

Irish weekend

The Bay of Courtmacsherry

Carrying on with the water theme, we spent a very wet but cozy weekend visiting friends who live on the south-west coast of Ireland. The sky fulfilled all expectations and shed water more or less continuously. 

Seven Heads, Co. Cork

The Lighthouse at Old Head

The Irish west coast has dangerous waters and many ships have grounded and sunk here. The Lusitania in 1915 was sunk 30 miles from here, and the Spanish Armada had their final defeat in 1588 in these waters and up north along the coast. Many shipwrecks are still undiscovered. History is vibrant in the pubs and storytelling a gift that is still held alive. 

another pretty addition to my "Stilles Örtchen" Series

Luckily these were the days of the "Clonakilty International Guitar Festival" in Clonakilty und surrounding parishes, which are a hotspot for Irish music. We visited the wind swept dramatic atlantic coast interrupted by pub visits and delicious steaming hot fish chowder luncheons to warm up, listening to Irish music and drinking ale or stout or lager  ...

 in a studio

 ...  generally having a good time and supporting the beer industry! 

Sláinte!  

Water horses, the Gods of the Thames and other imaginations ...

My grown-up kids seem to have inherited my Wanderlust. Their choices of places to study and where to live have provided me with many interesting journeys and photo opportunities.

For the past six years there was always one or the other of my three cost centers (to use Ms Moneypenny's allegory from her Financial Times column) studying in London. I have spent a lot of time there, sometimes for fun and nice dinners, and sometimes for support with leaking pipes, mould on ceilings, or water  rising up through the floor or out of the ancient washing machines in rented studio apartments.  London's expensive flats are nowhere technically as sophisticated as their exterior might suggest. ...

Staying with the water theme: on London's Thames river right next to the MI6 building in Vauxhall (the one that explodes in the latest James Bond film Skyfall watched by Judy Dench as M from Vauxhall Bridge ),

the MI6 or SIS building in London

there is a very interesting and unusual installation at the moment : "The Rising Tide"  by Jason deCaires Taylor. These sculptures submerge with the rising tide and rise out of the river again with low tide. 

 low tide

Roughly two hours on either side of the low tide, one can stroll down to the river bank and walk on the riverbed to the sculptures. The ground is soft, but they stand on large slabs of concrete. 

A couple of hours later, the view is totally different. 

 high tide

I never realized (or had forgotten since my last visit to the London flood barrier at Greenwich thirty years ago) that London lies so close to the North sea and the Thames must be rather brackish. The sculptor's message was one about climate change, bad business guys and innocent children. I, however, came to think of Ben Aaronovitch's imaginative London police novels: "The Rivers of London", where the Thames and other tributaries are the hiding places for river gods and goddesses - Aaronovitch has written a series of books  about a London magician police officer with wild and sometimes rather gruesome - not for children! - adventures. 
  
And another story comes to mind, the one of the water horses that swallow girls, who come too close to the river bank,  and make them live and serve underwater...  Isn't it amazing what the best art work does to us? Artists try to make a point, a grand statement, maybe just a cliché, but the best loved pieces are those that everybody can relate to, not in intellectual understanding but in our individual imaginations based on our personal history. 

Another interesting installation this week is Ai Weiwei's exhibition in the Royal Academy of Arts on Piccadilly. The courtyard is full of trees. 

This poster next to the installation  .....   I am quite sure, they did not mean to advertise my blog, but Wanderlust seems to have become an English word. 

So I am sending this postcard from London - to go with James Blunt's song : only a postcard and no dangerous stories of handgrenades, drowning or flooding from my side.