Monday, May 4, 2009

A solitary man

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong. Winston Churchill

Over the years Fougeres has had several well known visitors and on looking through my latest batch of library books I discovered that Lawrence D' Arabie came to visitin 1906.

T. E. Lawrence aged 18 came to Fougeres and took sketches and returned the following year 1907 with his father and a camera. However he wrote to his mother that after he had left his father he was having an excellent time and he made a visit to the Mont Saint Michel. He wrote in his letter that the castle at Fougeres by moonlight was an exquisite spectacle. He loved the castle and travelled to see other French castles too, on a bicycle. As far as I understand he returned the following year with his brother.

Interesting link here about T E Lawrence who had in fact run away at the age of 17 to join the army. Findagrave.


Link here showing some photographs that Lawrence took of the Castles.

I think that Lawrence was a solitary tree, here is a picture of a tree in the forest of Fougeres.

Spotlight

The French word for following or next is suivant.

The French word for a rough sketch is croquis.


PS..I have a lovely brass camel who needs a polish.

11 comments:

French Fancy... said...

I thought this was going to be a Neil Diamond post originally. Silly me!

(polishing a brass camel sounds like a line from a Carry On film :)

Blu said...

Crikey I havent heard Ndiamond for yonks.

John said...

Another great photo and post. I learn something with each post.

LadyFi said...

Wonderful photo!

claire p said...

I had a brass camel, thought I still had but can't find it, got a wooden one in the kitchen.

DAB said...

Go forth and polish that said camel before he gets the hump! ;-) TFx

bindu said...

I find old photographs utterly fascinating. So interesting to think he looked at these same places that you wander around in and enjoyed them the same way.

Blu said...

Thanks John & Lady Fi.
Claire I have a few camels but not a wooden one!.
TF...will do that today.
Bindu thats just what I thought although the town was bombed a lot during the war the castle must have escaped damage.

♥ Braja said...

What a gorgeous header on your blog... that's all I can think of :))

Blu said...

Braja ..Thanks its one of my puddle pictures.

Unknown said...

I didn't know Lawrence of Arabia was an actual person. He does seem like a solitary tree, one that didn't just bend in the direction the wind was blowing just because the rest of the forest was. Just the short bit I read has given me cause to admire him. Thank you for the introduction.