Our Home in Inverness

Our home in Inverness, with our car, too.

The key to enjoying house sitting, is to treat the house as your home.  It takes some getting use to, as the pictures are not of your family, or even people you know.  The kitchen is not arranged by you, so looking into drawers and cabinets is the norm, until you (somewhat) remember where everything goes. (Sorry if things are not in the same place you left them, Karen!)  Learning the quirks of the house takes some time, but just like our place in Tucson, we get used to them.  Except the front outside door which is split in half; that gets me every time!

Will I make it out?

The sign on the house says it belonged to a Piper.  The little man on the door lets you know, just in case you can't read Scottish.  I love houses which have names.

The Piper himself.

Loch Ness Marathon

You have been warned!

 We discovered there was a to be a marathon while returning from Falls of Foyers.  The road had signs notifying drivers of road closures around Loch Ness on Sunday morning while the runners were out. What we didn't realize the finish line was in Inverness until we saw the runners coming down one side of the River Ness in town. There were only a couple of miles to go.  We, of course, had to cheer on the runners.

Not everyone ran in a kilt or "traditional" dress, but they were the ones which caught our camera's attention.  The lass in the purple shoes and big smile reminded us of our daughter, who is an avid runner.

We've never seen a marathon that ran by a castle, or a Loch for that matter!

I stopped this runner as he was leaving, to ask if I could take a picture of him with his medal.  You can tell by his smiling face, the answer was a resounding, YES!  If you enlarge his picture, you can see Nessie on the medal.

All that clapping and yelling encouragement makes one thirsty.   Off to a pub for a couple of brews.  Ahh, Scotland!

I had the John Smith brown, while Bill drank the Tennent IPA.

Rogie Falls

Waterfalls are everywhere, from tiny trickles, to roaring wonders.  We have decided to see as many of them as possible.  This usually involves a hike up and down, over damp to soggy ground, but it is worth it.  Rogie Falls, however, was set up for people to easily visit.  The path is wide and hard packed, with only a couple of muddy spots.  There are a few big rocks sticking up, which one can navigate around with no problems.

The trail was through a forest of mixed trees and lower growing bushes.  The leaves on several were changing into their fall colors.  Rowan trees were hanging down with red berries.  

We could hear the falls before seeing them.  The Black River comes tumbling over the granite cliffs, squeezing together as the canyon narrows.  This is an area which is famous for salmon. There is a fish ladder carved into one side, to make it easier for the breeding pairs to make it up river.

While we were enjoying the falls, a couple on holiday from England, arrived.  She wanted to know if we had seen any salmon; we had not. He exclaimed over the sun shining. She wanted to see wildlife; deer, salmon, even highland cows.  We had a laughed at highland cows included with wildlife.  

Back at the parking lot, we did encounter a Robin, our wildlife spotting for the morning.

Falls of Foyers

We wanted to go somewhere close as the weather was looking good, so a google search came up with the Falls of Foyers.  Lexie came with us to show the way.

Lexie was our backseat driver.

Lexie guided us to the right place.

Although Inverness is the capital of the Highlands, it is quite easy to get around.  The road to Foyers was narrow, sometimes going to to one lane, with pull overs for passing.  We've run into these sort of roads before, all over the UK.

Blooming Heather on the side of the trail.

The hike to the falls was steps down with switchbacks.  Everything was wet; of course it had rained most of the night.

I think Bill is happy to be here!

There were two view points; one from the top and the other from the bottom.  Both had mist spraying and water drops soaking everything as well as every one.  Coming from the Arizona desert, this was glorious!

Fall of Foyers from the top viewpoint.

Fall of Foyers, top to bottom.

For your information, Foyers is pronounce, fo yays, who knows, maybe it's French.

Arriving in Inverness

Flying into Inverness, we were met by Karen and Barry.  Their smiling faces told us everything we really need to know; they are lovely folks.  Their daughter, Sarah, is going to be here off and on, even though she was originally scheduled to go with them, but, work got in the way.

Lexie!

Gringo quickly getting over his shyness.

Baxter the one eyed cat.

After an evening figuring out how everything worked, where the food for the pets was kept (the most important thing!) and us getting to sleep on a comfortable bed, it was time for our hosts to leave on their month long holiday.

Karen and Barry waiting for the train to Edinburgh.  Bye-bye!

A Evening Visit to the Eiffel Tower

 Our Airbnb apartment was very close to the Eiffel Tower, so after dinner, we walked over to say Hello!

A Visit to the Fondation Louis V

The Shchukin Collection was at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.  This was the first time the entire collection had been allowed to leave Russia since the revolution.  Sergei ivanovich Shchukin was a Russian businessman who loved to collect art.  Most of his pieces he purchased directly from the artist, while on his many trips to France.

When the revolution came, the government claimed his collection to be property of the state, where it was parceled out to several different Russian museums.  I don't know how the Fondation sorted out the details to be allowed to show the entire collection, but when we heard about it, we knew we would be there.

The building, a piece of art all by itself, first opened in 2014.  It not only has exhibits, but musical evenings and classes.

The collection was overwhelming, so I'll let some of the pictures speak for themselves.

Matisse

Picasso

Pissaro

Monet

Van Gogh

Fougeres

The chateau at Fougeres taken from the bell tower of the church.

The bell tower of the church was what caught our eye.

We came to Fougeres, which is in Brittany, to see the chateau, but arrived just as they were closing for lunch. We walked to a park to take in the view, and realized there was a church we could visit. Following quite a hike up cobbled streets, we found the St Leonard's church.  Once inside, we were told by a couple who were leaving, not to miss going up to the bell tower, as they pointed to a small area at the back of the chapel.

Only 19 people are allowed in the bell tower at a time.

There were two sections of spiral staircases after the wooden one.

 Once through the door, we encountered several staircases; first rather easy climbing wooden ones, followed by twisting spiral ones, going up, up, up.  The sides of the tower held figures of saints watching us going up, up, up.  How many hundreds of people have used these stairs?

A saint watching us climb a wooden staircase.

Ding, dong bell.

 The top of the bell tower had a walkway around it, with magnificent views over the country side. We took several pictures of the chateau, which even though at a distance, still looked huge.

The chateau from the ramparts.

The local mowing service working on the chateau grounds.

Seeing this place from the top of the church, put into our minds how huge it really is.  We could see the ramparts that continued on into the town, with parts missing, and sections now incorporated into buildings.  For starting out in the eleventh century as a wooden fort, it is now one of Europe's largest medieval fortresses.

The central courtyard from one of the towers.

Bill looking through the base of a watch tower.

Happy New Year 2017!

 When in France, one eats a large quantity of cheese and bread.  We did our best to keep up this tradition!  Bill found the feve in the King's cake, so he got to wear the crown!

There may or may not have been several bottles of wine and Champagne involved......   All the best for 2017!