Posts tagged “France”

Via Ferrata Jacques Revaclier — May 8, 2019
The Via Ferrata Jacques Revaclier is located on the Salève a short drive from Vitam Parc and within easy driving distance of Geneva and Nyon. The Via Ferrata requires scrambling over a few metres of rock to get to the start....
To the Rhone and Back — May 12, 2023
Today I cycled for three hours. I cycled to the Rhone and back along cycling lanes. Initially I had planned on a little 20km loop but because of dog walkers walking with their dogs, off of leash, I decided to ride along the road for a bit, before joining the voie verde again at the lac De Divonne....
The St Hilaire du Touvet Water fall ice climb — Feb 25, 2013
The first time I went to St Hilaire du Touvet was for the Coupe D’Icare event which is held every September. It is a mountain film festival and parapente competition. The second time I went was with Glocals friends to climb up the via ferrata. There are two routes up. One is an easier one. The second is a hard one. What makes the second one so hard is that it’s vertical, up a chimney of sorts. What made me uncomfortable was the friable nature of the rock. I thought that if I fell the spikes would not hold. A few weeks later I found out that this is one of the hardest via ferrata, supposedly the hardest via ferrata in France. The video above is nothing like that. They’re climbing up the beautiful waterfall that the via ferrata goes along. I was attracted by the width of the water fall....
The Pont Flavien near Toulouse — Mar 11, 2022
Not too far from Aix en Provence you can find a Roman bridge with two arches under which to pass as you cross. I expect that the stones from others were quarried and so this is the last surviving example. If we check the sources we might find mentions of more....
The Energetic Bike Ride — May 22, 2023
Yesterday my intention was to cycle along the Voie Verte from Crassier to Grilly and then back down towards, the lake, along the lake and end up back in Nyon. I didn’t follow this plan through. I was thinking “I don’t want to do the steep Mies climb so I’ll go to Nyon, but on the way to Nyon I thought of going to Prangins. In Prangins I then decided to head to Aubonne. In the end I did ride to Aubonne....
Steep - A Snowboarding, skiing, Parapente and Base Jumping game — Dec 6, 2016
Winter is coming and snow has fallen on the local peaks and then melted again. The temptation to go snowboarding in real life is back. While waiting to go and do sports in the real world Ubisoft give us the opportunity to simulate the experiences of snowboarding, skiing, base jumping and paragldiding. I know three of these sports. I ski, I snowboard and I recently tasted my first paragliding flight.As I watched the trailer above and Jack Septiceye’s video of the game it reminded me of so many of the extreme sports videos I have watched. It also reminded me of the FIFAD event as well as the Montagne En Scène events. It pays a nice tribute to the culture of snowboarding and extreme sports that many of us have grown up with. It also harkens back to the days when I would edit the events that are mentioned in the trailer to this game. This would be a good game to have in the chalet while waiting for the snow to fall or the conditions to improve. I understand why the game filled me with passion. I liked seeing places that we know. It’s because the game developers are in Annecy so they’re playing in the same landscape as us. They’re snowboarders and skiers so they understand the sensations and they’re trying to emulate them in the game. When watching the paragliding sequences I like that we hear the flight computer’s beep as you ascend at different rates. It’s one aspect that you really notice the first time you try paragliding. That’s a nice touch for the game. From the videos I have watched so far it looks as though they have managed to capture all of these sensations in the game. This looks like a really enjoyable game to play. The game should provide people with a nice amount of escapism. As they get used to the controls and as the community for this game grows so the ties that bind this community will grow. It looks excellent....
Les Grottes de La Balme, le coup de cÅ“ur de Samy — Feb 17, 2013
This is one episode of a series of short videos showing people what there is to enjoy locally....
Get Vertical — Apr 29, 2015
PLAY & WIN...
Duingt Dive with friends — Feb 17, 2013
Today for the second time we went to the Dive site in Duingt. It is located on the Lac D’Annecy a short drive from Annecy. The dive site is near a castle and the dive is down the flanc towards the cliff. The dive takes you by some submerged trees that would have fallen in to the lake at some point. The visibility is good and you can see the occasional fish and crayfish at this time of year. During this dive I was experimenting with the Gopro. When I gather more footage I will share it. [flickr-gallery mode=“photoset” photoset=“72157632626270608”]...
D-Day Film archives on Facebook — Jun 7, 2017
Yesterday D-Day Film Archives were shared on Facebook. These film archives were of landing crafts landing troops on the beaches, of battleships firing rocket salvos at the coast, of gliders being pulled by planes, of paratroopers getting and more. Over the years films have been preserved by transferring the footage from one film stock to another and then transferred from film to tapes. The problem with film and tape is that they are stored in a physical location that only archivists have access to. This means that if we’re curious about seeing the footage, like the footage included in this post we would have to go to the film archive and ask for permission to see this footage. Within a few hours, days or weeks we might get an answer. We would have transport costs, access costs and more. The advantage of digital video archives accessible online is that everything is accessible within a few seconds with the right keywords. This means that a child hearing about the Second World War for the first time can do a quick search and see this footage. History, rather than being words on a page, is brought to life. It stops being an abstract subject for the mind. In this footage, we see our grandparents and our nephews and nieces see their great-grandparents. An effort, by the international community, should be made to preserve, digitise and then make available as much of this film material as possible. The technology exists today so that, at the very least, we can have digital backups of all of this material and in the best case scenario for this material to be available for future generations to watch and study. I have already spent 15 months as a video archivist and media asset manager and I would like to continue this line of work. I find it to be a fascinating and interesting way to learn about history. It inspires to find books that contextualise the material that I am seeing on screen. This material makes us more informed citizens of the society in which we live....
An 80-kilometre ride — Jun 3, 2019
Yesterday I set off for a bike ride planning to go from Nyon to Gland, and then up and around before heading back to Geneva and then from around Versoix riding back to Nyon....