Eiffel Tower.

View from the top.  There are several levels to stop on, including a fancy restaurant level.

First place we visited after we got checked into hotel in Paris.  There on a breezy cool night right at dusk.  They light the thing up.  Took an hour to get tickets and get up.  When we came off we walked down the staircase.  20 minutes.  It's quite an assembly.

Each leg has an elevator.  I think they are run by water power, judging by the machinery we saw.

Rosie, le riveter had been busy.

First lowest big section is a restaurant.  The next segment up is an observation deck.  You can ride the elevator to the very top.

Photographing around the rock.

North shore, Mont St Michele.

Beachcombing between shots.

In the cloister up on top of Mont St Michele.

On the plaza in front of the abbye.  9 euro tour.  Opens at 9:30.  Need to be there at about 7:00.

I am in the shade of the mont.

Photographing tourists.

Spent a lot of time trying to set up a fairly extreme photo, then called it off.

I got it sorted out but it just wasn't...beyond a skillful photo.

In the cathedral shooting the bell rope.  Very nice.

Hanging out in construction zone to watch the afternoon shadow cross the mud flat.

On this afternoon I got to watch the shadow run all the way to the horizon.

This view lasted about six seconds on a cloudy afternoon with a cloud bank behind me.  It came and went four times over about a hour or so and then went dark.

Black hole down in the abby.

Street walking in the evening.

In front of our little hotel, the Mouton Blanc.

North Shore on the Chapelle St Aubert.

View from a very tough scramble.

Got impressionistic early in the morning over the high tide.  I saw seals out near the point.

Chatting up the locals with a little Tarzan-level French in the cloister.

Le Blizzard.

  Katie has gotten very handy with her iphone.  She must have read my book:  The Blackfork Guide, on blurb.com.

Flying with Sheet Film.

I had the TSA regs, but only Tarzan-level French.  I never got the film scanned by the US/TSA, (they were willing to swab it for explosives and be done), but three times by the French.  We will see how it held up.  Should be fine.  Almost everyone was curious about my 5X7 Deardorff folded up in the Zone VI case.  They have boring jobs and never see a terrorist so they have to make do with whatever comes along.

 Never loaded up my F64 pack.  Just used the little Zone VI.  Tight, but it held everything. Weather was a little sporty for a couple of days. Glad to have the gore-tex coat over my jacket.  Army heavy long underwear under those jeans.  30 year old pair of cheap rubber boots.  I was not the snappy dresser.

Mont Saint Michele, North shore.  Somehow lost the front cap for the 120 Angulon this morning.

 Chasing the shadow of the spire.

Construction scaffold perch.  I just waited for a moment when nobody was around and went over.  Great place to shoot from.  Very windy right around the corner.  You get that a lot at MStM.

Was up on this spot two afternoons in a row.  One afternoon just gave me 10 second glimpses.  The other afternoon I got to watch the shadow go all the way to the horizon.

 Morning shadow on the rising tide.  Tough trail...an no trail, to get to this perch, but pretty good once I made it.

 Up on the church plaza.  Japanese girls and the Deardorff.

  No problems with the camera.  It ran great and carried OK.  Mont Saint Michele is a tiny place, fairly vertical but flat around the bottom.  You can walk around it in about 20 minutes in a pair of rubber boots.  Gets a little muddy in a couple of spots.  

Gave away many Texas Commemorative Quarters to kids like this.  Folks don't see these cameras very often.  I didn't have any special access, just the normal tourist spots.  I'm on the 9 Euro abbye tour here.

Just missed this one by about 30 minutes.  Needed a little more shadow.  The place is like a sundial and the shadow rolls around it in the winter.  This is about 11:00.  That's the river going out to sea on the left.

  These are just iphone records of some shots I made, converted into black and white on the computer.  My camera lens, (120 Super Angulon on a 5X7), is a little wider.  Plus my 5X7 images are absolutely level.

  

The place is a rockwork miracle.

Watching the shadow go all the way to the horizon on this afternoon.

Just brief glimpses this afternoon.

Pilgrim, Shrine of St Aubrey.

Quite a brisk morning out.

Morning shadow was always a little impressionistic.  Tide was in every morning I was there, so it was shadow on water.  Plus some fog.  

Man-in-the-rock, MStM.

Packing for a few days out.

  5X7 in an old Zone VI bag.  Was going to just use this for carry-on on the airplane but thinking about working out of it now.  

  Flying to France for a few days next week.  Ought to be a fun trip.  Packing the 5X7 and tripod.  Other cameras, facebooking, blogging, probably going to be minimal, though I ought to return with plenty of video and stills for future blogging.  Except for having to funnel everything through the restrictions of airline travel over the Atlantic I'm just treating this as a trip to the rosefields near town.

  Got the TSAs own regulations printed out.  We'll see if that helps.  They see sheet film less than they see guns.  Sheet film comes in boxes and is actually mentioned in their regulations as acceptable for hand checking, but the reports are that they don't know their own regulations until you produce them.

  Rubber boots.  Tripod.  The big camera backpack.  10 holders.  Spare meter.  Spare ground glass.  Probably go too much stuff as usual.

  Going to miss some of the bloom.  Lucy and I made a run to the rose fields this afternoon.  The weather has been so warmish that the blooms aren't at peak but the leaves beginning to pop open.

My old crippled pear tree.

Off the top of the truck in some chest-high weeds.

Final pack in the morning.