Another kind of pride / Une autre fierté
The other day I was running errands in Marin County, and I noticed that it was an unusually beautiful day, even by Marin's standards. Fortunately, I had my camera with me and I remembered to do something I have been meaning to do for a very long time, that is to show you guys one of the most beautiful sights in the San Francisco Bay Area, one that I fell in love with a long time ago and that undoubtedly played a role in my deciding not to return to Paris at the time. But it's very hard to to get there and not find any fog!
L'autre jour je faisais des courses dans le Compté de Marin, et j'ai remarqué qu'il faisait exceptionnellement beau, même pour Marin. Par chance, j'avais mon appareil sur moi, et je me suis alors rappelée que j'avais envie de vous montrer quelque chose depuis longtemps, une des vues les plus magnifiques de la Baie de San Francisco, devant laquelle je suis tombée à genoux il y a bien longtemps et qui a tres certainement joué un role dans ma décision de ne pas retourner à Paris à l'époque. Il est cependant assez difficile d'y aller sans trouver du brouillard!
So I crossed my fingers mentally while I drove over to Marin Healdlands. And these pictures are part of what I saw when I was up there...
Alors c'est en gardant les doigts croisés mentalement que j'ai conduit jusqu'à Marin Healdlands. Et ces photos sont une partie de ce que j'ai vu là haut ...
I know it's very hard to see on this picture, but all the way up on top, where everything is quiet and the City seems so far away, I saw a couple of eagles ... My goodness, are these guys are big, silent and unbelievably powerful! One second they're right next to you (!) and a couple of seconds later they're already a hundred yards away!
Je sais bien, c'est dur à voir sur cette photo (ci-dessous), mais tout en haut, ou tout est calme et la Ville semble tellement loin, j'ai vu une paire d'aigles. Comme ils sont grands, silencieux et incroyablement puissants! Une second ils sont juste à coté de vous (!) et 2 secondes plus tard ils sont déjà 100 metres plus loin!
The picture certainly doesn't do them justice, but you gotta understand, they were really quite a distance away from me when I got that shot, and they were moving very quickly. I wasn't up there very long but got properly sunburned ... well worth it!
On ne voit pas grand chose sur cette photo, mais comprenez bien qu'ils étaient vraiment loin de l'appareil à ce moment, et surtout ils bougent très rapidement. Je n'étais pas la haut bien longtemps mais cela a suffi pour attrapper un bon coup de soleil... ça fait rien, ça vallait largement le coup!
On the way down I crossed path with a lot of tourists. A few of them handed me their camera and asked in broken English if I would take a picture of them with the Golden Gate bridge in the background.
En redescendant, j'ai croisé pas mal de touristes. Certains m'ont demandé d'un Anglais incertain de les prendre en photo avec leurs appareils devant le Golden Gate bridge.
One of them identified my accent and said "Are you from Paris? That's my favorite city! And you live here? But why?!!" And I said ... "Look around you ... It's a fair trade!"
L'un d'entre eux a repéré mon accent et m'a demandé "êtes vous de Paris? C'est ma ville favorite! Et vous vivez ici? Mais pourquoi?!!" Et je lui ai répondu... "Regardez autour de vous ... c'est un échange equitable, non?
And he replied... "For sure... this is definitely God's Country."
Et il a répondu ... "Certainement... ici, c'est le pays du bon Dieu."
* * *
The video below is a long overdue little present for Julie who delights many of us with her words and pictures. I focused my camera on that particular area of the bridge because I believe that is where Julie went to seat some 20-some years ago to write a certain letter ...
La petite video ci-dessous est un present que je devais depuis longtemps à Julie qui enchante les uns et les autres avec ses recits et ses photos. J'ai pointé l'appareil vers cette partie du pont car c'est là que Julie s'est assise il y a environ 20 ans pour écrire une certaine lettre ...
Gorgeous Day Over Golden Gate Bridge
Video sent by TomateFarcie
posted by Tomate Farcie at 7:17 PM
13 Comments:
OMG, thanks so much! I'm working on a website for a client with a San Francisco theme and my latest manuscript is set there, so these were great to see. I love the Headlands. I have some beautiful photos from an afternoon spent there and some freaky memories from a nightdrive through the fog. I was sure we were going to be murdered in our car.
I really can't wait to see this in 2008, when the Popular Culture Conference meets in San Francisco.
Awwww... thanks, guys!
Gabrielle, I don't know about being murdered between San Francisco and Marin... on the "other bridges" of SF, maybe, but the GG? Nahh... Would be too hard to see who is killing whom in the fog! ;)
Dr. Denton: that is a great compliment! Not sure I deserve it, really, but thank you anyway! :)
Elizabeth: Anybody who lived in San Francisco will tell you this, there is absolutely no guarantee that you will be able to have any such view when you visit, sorry. In fact, most people who come visit are fairly disappointed by the amount of fog in that area. Marin County is always pretty much in the clear, though, and the fog in the City itself clears up around noon usually.
Well, you know, it was one of those girlie things. One says "We could so totally be murdered here" then one says "What was that?" and another says "Was that someone?" and we end up freaking each other out and racing for the car--then stopping at the rest station just before the bridge and almost walking into a skunk, which made us all run away screaming again.
Photos exceptionnelles! Tu as eu beaucoup de chance de te trouver au bon endroit un jour sans brouillard.
Ceci-dit ,la Bay without fog ne serait pas la Bay...oui, oui, cela a son charme!
Gabrielle: the skunk would have me run to the other side.. wait.. not run, SWIM to the other side!!!
Angelina: Ouais c'etait un coup de chance. A chaque fois que je vois le pont un peu degagé, je suis coincee au boulot. Le temps que j'y aille, c'est fini, le pont a presque disparu dans le coton!
Ah, I just took a trip "home" through your photos. I used to hike the headlands and that landscape gets into your bones. It was always a place of solitude and rest for me. That container ship coming into the bay reminds me of the day there were just two of us on my friend's 30 foot sailboat and a ship that large traveling at great spead honked at us to get out of its way, and my friend said, "We're under sail and they are under power, so we have the right of way." I saw my life flash before me in that instant and convinced her that might makes right when a Honda car transport ship is honking at you. It loomed so huge over us!
And the TV tower up near twin peaks, I used to call it The Martian Tower, and it glowed at me through my kitchen window in the Inner Suset every evening when I was firt married.
Wonderful photos. I KNOW you had a wonderful day up there. Thanks for taking me with you!
-Kim
These shots are beautiful. They make me long so much for vacations.....
and tomate said..."...show you guys one of the most beautiful sights in the San Francisco Bay Area..."
I think you should have said, "one of the most beautiful sites in the world!"
I know this is probably everywhere by now, but I thought you'd appreciate the humour tomate. It's a secret video of the Italian football team in training. Enjoy!
merci pour cette beauté - bien sur on sait mais tu nous le montres - et on voit très bien les aigles
merci, tant pour le vidéo que les images!
je voudrais bien utiliser une image et la vidéo pour la mettre près (après la note de lettre) puis-je la faire?
tout en envoyant les gens à ton blog bien sûr!
Bien sur! Aucun probleme, Julie. :-)
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