h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The French Pyrenees - A1315766
Author: Gnomon - U151503

Encouraged by Number Six's Royal H2G2 Geographical Society, I've written this guide to the French side of the Pyrenees.

Hi Gnomon,

this looks great, .

Indeed, I read that EG entry on France recently and feel that it is pretty poor by PR standards. It simply doesn't cover very much of the material at all!

This is much more like it.

Perhaps just one suggestion... something more in the way of a conclusion. The last section on Carcassonne is fine, but doesn't seem to wrap things up in the way that a good little final para might.

just my thoughts
cya on the Front Page
spiff

Hi Spiff! I'll think of some sort of a conclusion.

Nice entry Gnomon,

Couple of possible additions and a couple of winges (about the area, not your entry)...

Just south of Biarritz is a smaller, less expensive and (in my opinion) much nicer little resort town - St.Jean de Luz, might be worth mentioning..

Also there's quite a history of prehistoric caves and art in the region... have a quick glance at http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/app/eng/parcours.htm

it might be worth throwing in..

Carcassone:
The reason it looks like every old film you've ever seen is that it _is_ every old film you've ever seen, it's regularly used as a backdrop for historical films (probably the most famous recently was Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves)
Nice place to visit but _very_ touristic when you get inside the old town.

Lourdes
Beware, rant coming up...

When visiting Lourdes... just try this little game... look at the number of people drawing water from the enormous length of galvanised steel piping running alongside the church/cathedral...
Calculate the amount of water that this 'spring' must be producing (easy to do, they're all filling 1 or 2 litre plastic bottles with a tacky image on the side sold for a small fortune in the multitude of tourist shops in the town - if you come up with the same figures I did the 'spring' must be one heck of a size (think medium sized river!)

Second rant... If you really want to you can queue for an hour to buy a candle and have it lit in the grotte itself... (What actually happens is that you buy a candle and then hand it to someone to be lit at a later date...)
However, considering that a candle burns for several hours, they seem to burn a few dozen candles at a time and in mid season during that 'several hours' they have sold several hundred (if not thousands) of candles - the maths doesn't work! Draw your own conclusions

Secondly, I heard an unverified fact whilst there... Lourdes has actually more hotels than Paris...

The place should come with a health warning against the effects it could have on your blood pressure if you don't like tourist traps As someone who is not generally very religious I was outraged by the whole thing! The whole scene strongly reminded me of Jesus casting out the Merchants and Money-changers from the temple

oh, btw, you might link to the EG entry on the 'miraculous' events at Lourdes - A803431.

Whisky, I must admit that while I was appalled by the tourist shops of Lourdes (and I think I got that point across in the entry), I found the religious section of the town surprisingly tasteful. I expected it to reek of exploitation, but it doesn't, in my opinion.

A friend of mine brought his seriously sick child to Lourdes for a possible cure during the summer. One person on the trip died of the heat.

Hmm, I suppose that the inner area of the town is reasonably well organised - by the time I got that far however I was that wound up I suppose I was looking for things like the candles and quantity of water being used.

I'll agree with you on the 'feel' of the religious side of the town, it doesn't 'reek' of exploitation, it's just the sums didn't add up in my opinion. And I'm not sure you could really add any of my Lourdes information to your entry anyway as it's all opinions anyway - or rants - After three hours in the town I literally ran back to my car to escape the place.

Nice overview of some breathtaking mountains Gnonom

Just four small things I thought of-

"We call this language Basque"
That seems a bit peculiar, in the sense of "who's this we?" How about "the rest of the world calls this language Basque?

"The picturesque Lac d'Artouste (lake of Artouste) is reachable only by a little train"
Speaking as one interested in trains (), do you know what sort of train? Diesel, electric, steam, what gauge the line is, just those details is all I'm looking for, so it would be "The picturesque Lac d'Artouste (lake of Artouste) is reachable only by a little four foot gauge steam train", or whatever it is.

"Before the advent of the Hubble Space Telescope, the best place to put an observatory was on the top of a mountain, because the air is thinner there"

How about a footnote explaining why this is a good thing?

"Here you will see amazingly detailed pictures of the animals that these people hunted, along what have been interpreted as spears and 'stick people'."

"along with what have", surely?

Thanks, KerrAvon. I've addressed all the points you've raised.

Whisky, thanks for the Miracle link. I've added it.

I'll think about St-Jean-de-Luz.

I still need to add a conclusion.

Or rather, Thanks Spiff for the Miracle link.

Thanks Gnomon.

I've added a very brief conclusion, so that the entry doesn't just stop dead.

Whisky, can you have a look at the short section on St Jean de Luz (a place I've never been) and tell me does it capture the spirit of the place?

on my way

Looks fine to me...

One other point might be worth mentioning in the gastronomy section (which does seem a little bit negative to me - I loved the cooking down there and the wine ) but the south west is the home of that wonderfully politically incorrect substance foie-gras... might be worth a mention

Hiya,

Conclusion looks a bit odd to me, . Very sudden, and the Bilbo quote... well, a bit out of place. sorry to be negative. I'll try to have a thunk about some appropriate Frog quote, perhaps.

re Gastronomy, I think the single foodstuff most commonly associated with the S-W in France must be cassoulet. Is there an EG entry. If not, I may just feel inspiration coming on...

Cassoulet How to loose friends and set up a 20 yard exclusion zone around yourself

or: France's answer to Beans on toast.

btw, the entry on France that is linked to here is a pretty p**s poor representation of the country! I read it a while ago and i think i left a note to say so.

Don't usually like to knock other people's hard work, but as an entry on France, that'un doesn't make the grade at all. In my not-so-humble opinion, of course.

I'd like to say that I'd put in hours of hard work on a more satisfactory update, but... well... er...

Thanks, Whisky, I'll leave St Jean de Luz as it is.

Spiff, I'll accept your evaluation of the conclusion. I'll remove it and think of something else. Although what else is there to say? Whoo! Big mountains!

I'll bulk up the Eating section with bean stew. Does cassoulet always include small sausages, or is that just a variation? Confit de canard and paté de fois gras probably deserve a mention too.

Not sure about the 'official' ingredients of Cassoulet. Figure it's one of those things that local wars are fought over. It usually does have *some* sausage of *some* description in there *some* where, though.

As to the conclusion... well, i feel a bit odd having suggested that you needed one, to have convinced you to get rid of it again!

*reflects*

I've added a mention of Cassoulet, Foie Gras and Confit de Canard to the 'Eating' section.

I've addded another attempt at a Conclusion. It's still only 2 lines long, but doesn't mention Bilbo.