Holidays in France

At the beginning of July I spent 10 days in France. We first went south to Montpellier. We had to cross the beautiful Viaduc de Millau, the tallest bridge in the world!

Then, we came back to Clermont-Ferrand through the beautiful Tarn valley and canyon.

The weather was very hot at the time, it was 38 C in Clermont-Ferrand so we escaped the city to go to the surrounding mountains, "la chaine des puys". These mountains are extinct volcanoes, the highest one being the "puy de dome".

We walked up to the top where you have a beautiful view on the rest of the "chaine des puys".

Nanner Socks

As promised, this is my latest pair of socks:

This is a pattern from Wendy Johnson called Nanner socks (free pattern, and more, here). I didn't follow the pattern for the heel. I've knitted a wee bit too much for the feet and I was too lazy to rip it off so I didn't do a gusset and did a simple short row heel instead.

Books

I do not count the number of days, or weeks I should say, since my last post. My excuses: lack of time and laziness! I should add holidays as well. I am just back from 10 days in France...
Anyway, this is not today's topic. I wanted to show you two wonderful books I bought in the US:


Some of the patterns:

And:

Some of the patterns:

I have not tried any pattern yet and I am not sure which one to go for!
I have a pair I want to finish first! I should be able to show it to you next week...

San Francisco

We spent 3 days in San Francisco. It was far too short! I wish we had stayed at least a week.
Anyway, it is a good excuse to go back :o)

Bodie

Bodie is an authentic wild west ghost town situated in California, in the middle of nowhere.
The town was built after gold was discovered on the site in 1859.
Nowadays, only a small part of the town survive. It has been a State Historic Park since 1962.

Mono Lake

Mono Lake is an alkaline (pH 10) and hypersaline lake in California (2.5 times saltier than the ocean). The lake is famous for its tufa tower rock formations. No fish can live in the lake but it is home of the Mono Lake brine shrimp that are found nowhere else on earth. They are staple food for the birds in the area. Mono Lake is a vital habitat for millions of migratory and nesting birds.

Yosemite

Yosemite National Park is one of the first national park in the US and is well known for its waterfalls. I must admit that we were very disappointed. To us it looks more like a giant picnic area. We were stuck in traffic jam, thousands of cars, everywhere. Going on a Saturday doesn't help I guess.
At that time of the year, waterfalls were amazing. Here are a few pictures, not very good I'm afraid...

Bryce Canyon

Bryce canyon National Park is situated in Utah in the Colorado plateau. It is only a couple of hours drive from Zion National Park. This is a unique and stunning site well known for its colorful hoodoos.
I must say that the wild life has been extremely cooperative :o)
I let you enjoy the pictures (don't forget to click on them to see them full screen):