I'm off for a bit of an excursion, wandering, meandering, and otherwise peregrinating through Brittany and then down the Atlantic coast of France - something I've wanted to do for a while. There will therefore be some uncertainty around when and whence the next post. But coasts are fertile environments for arenaceous musings, and who knows what will catch the interest of your faithful blogger. I'll be starting at Mont-Saint-Michel, pictured above, a World Heritage Site that is the focus of an ambitious sedimentological restoration project - so there's grist for my mill already. Then Brittany: ancient geology, strange linguistic heritage, and sandy coves; and my birthday (details withheld) at the westernmost point on mainland France.
Turning left, the plan takes in Les Sables d'Olonne (un "côte sauvage" but also a major port where the Vendée Globe round-the-world single-handed yacht race begins and ends) and onwards to the estuary of the Gironde and the bay of Arcachon.
The white expanse at the top right of the image above is the Dune of Pyla, the largest in Europe and active. I think I might drop by. And then what? Well, the Gironde runs through a region called Bordeaux - I'll figure out something ......
[Mont-Saint-Michel image by Uwe Küchler, GNU Free Documentation License, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mont_st_michel_aerial.jpg; Dune du Pyla photo from http://kitusai.blog.lemonde.fr/2007/01/21/dune-de-pyla/]
Micheal, I'm now moderating the "Fluvial Geomorphology" group on Flickr--please consider posting your images of water-worked sand in that group!
Posted by: Steve Gough | September 26, 2009 at 08:05 PM