La Bambouseraie, Anduze, The Gard District, France (The Bamboo Garden)

One wonderful stop for tourists is the Bambouseraie, about 3 kms from Anduze, and not far from Alès, in the Gard district west of Avignon and north of Montpellier. This is much more than a mere bamboo garden, for there are long paths which take you through a forest of well-established gigantic bamboo plants which tower above people like ancient oak trees. There are informative signs throughout the grounds (in French and English) explaining the growth, types and importance of bamboo throughout the world.

Growths of other types of plants are also preserved, as well as a hothouse displaying mosses and tropical plants. A tea house looks out over a garden and its stream. One path takes you through a forest of palm trees. Inventive artists have created interesting exhibits, including 1,000 dandilions which have gone to seed and are displayed on thin bamboo spikes in an airtight glass-stone structure which prevents the seeds from being disturbed. For better information and additional photographs, you can access the garden's website by clicking on "Bambouseraie" above.

Market Day in Uzès, Gard, France

There is nothing quite like market days throughout France, but they can be particularly fascinating in the smaller rural villages in the south. On the final Saturday of April, I visited Uzès in the Gard district, somewhat east of Avignon and getting into the Languedoc region. The grand market stretches for blocks in several directions, even filling covered vaulted archways as they go under or cut through medieval buildings. The foods reminded everybody that we were not far from the Mediterranean world, and the emphasis on greens and yellows recall the tastes of Provence. The market is packed with locals for miles around, and I detected conversations by a few tourists. There is plenty of free parking about a 15 minute walk from the village center. Like all such markets, it opens early and its vendors begin to pack up by 1:00. By then, restaurants and cafés appeared to be filled to capacity, so we went elsewhere for lunch.

Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie

Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie is a small village in the Gard district in southern France. Once known for its kilns for baking bricks from the local clay soil, it has been forced to reinvent itself. Today the village boasts some 20 ceramic shops and every Friday serves as a thriving market for local farmers, particularly those growing organic food. Thousands of tourists descend each mid July to see nearly 100 potters display their wares. As I walked the nearly deserted streets on a very quiet afternoon on the final Saturday of April, I enjoyed seeing how ceramic tile was used to decorate shops, pottery workshops, exterior store walls, the local boucherie renown for its meats, and even the center of the stone streets.

Graffiti in downtown Vancouver

Vancouver is increasingly covered with graffiti. Even our garage door has not been exempt. Jesse Read recently introduced me to thinking about spontaneous graffiti, and particularly layers of graffiti, as quarries for lines and shapes which can be viewed as abstract art. His website gives some exciting examples of his thinking in this genre of art.

Jesse and I have now gone on several graffiti shoots in one of Vancouver's downtown alleys. The high walls on the alley's north side have been made legally available to spray painters, most of whom undoubtedly began years ago as taggers (signing their signatures everywhere imaginable) and then slowly worked their way up the ladder. Since this art is in the international style of spray painting, using gestures and idioms found throughout Europe and North America, I am not including it as graffiti. The alley's southern wall, on the other hand, exhibits a mixture of rival claims for turf, the contributions of many taggers, the remnants of posters, rusting staples, old telephone poles, and an emerging First Nations mural.

These photographs were taken jointly by Jesse and me with my equipment as we talked about what we were discovering, what might be worth recording, what constitutes art, and the techniques of photographing this type of work. [I have since added some more photographs of Graffiti in downtown Vancouver, part 2.]