VulpineCitrus - Photographs

The Forest of Brocéliande

2025-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

i recently walked a bit along the abbey lake</a> of the town of Paimpont, in western Brittany. The entire town is surrounded by a large historical forest, one that is associated with the Arthurian myth: Brocéliande is said to be the forest where Excalibur was set to rest inside of a stone. The actual name of the forest is “Paimpont forest”, according to the name of the town.

The lake is surrounded by a walking trail for tourists, with decorations and little segments of boardwalk. The area is a big marsh: it would be impracticable otherwise.

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The January 2025 Flooding of Rennes

2025-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Between January 24th and 25th 2025, Storm Éowyn</a> struck Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the United Kingdom. It was the most powerful storm to hit Ireland since the 60s. With barely a day to recover, Storm Herminia</a> hit the south of England, Wales, and North-western France.

i live in Brittany, one of the regions hit. My department, Ille-et-Vilaine, takes its name from two rivers that merge in my city: Ille and Vilaine. The two rivers flow and meet in the city before going south to the towns of Pont-Réan, Guichen, etc, before reaching another big city: Redon. All of them got flooded.

On January 26th, i took my camera out along with my Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens to get some shots of the worst of the damage that occurred in Rennes, focused on the path of the Ille river. The Prairies Saint-Martin</a>, a former pastoral area converted into a flood control zone, was completely drowned in flood water. Several other streets nearby were impracticable, and 400 people were displaced.

Thankfully, as far as we can tell, nobody was seriously injured. Nonetheless, the pictures are impressive.

For the interest of potentially sharing some of those in a different context later, they are all licensed under CC0. If you do attribute (and i would encourage it), author should be lux alopex lemoni</code>, as in the EXIF data.


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Walking Along the River Vilaine
2024-10-26T00:00:00+00:00
Last time, i went to Vern-sur-Seiche</a>
and took some pictures with the Fujifilm All-in-One camera i got at a yard sale
for 15 bucks.</p>
i had been looking to buy a Digital Single-Lens Reflex for about as long as it
has been commercially viable for non-pros. i am not entirely sure what happened
in the world of camera technology, but the second hand market is flooded with
perfectly good DSLRs at a somewhat</em> affordable price.</p>
So the other day i got a second-hand Nikon D5100 and a lens for a good enough
price, and the next Sunday i decided to get out and walk around downtown to test
it.</p>
One of the features i had been looking for is the power inherent to editing RAWs
vs JPEGs. Every camera i had owned before already processed the image into a
container format, discarding a lot of valuable information that could have
helped me save a shot. This power comes with a great deal of confusion however:
editing RAWs is kind of a mess for me. i have found a routine that seems to work
and produce okay results, so i just stick to it, and the images are crisp</em>.</p>
The trip started around the old mills downtown. Rennes used to have mills
running over a part of the Vilaine rivers. The old part of the mill is, as far
as i am aware, currently disused, even if the buildings aren’t. One of the
enormous wooden wheels is visible to onlookers walking in the district.</p>
My path then goes through the Odorico footbridge</a>,
adjacent to Rennes’ old Grand Mills, followed by the Pierre Gardin de la
Gerberie promenade</a>, the
Red Berets footbridge</a>, and the Red Berets
promenade</a>.</p>






    
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Oddly enough, it took me enough time to edit these pictures and put them online
that the D5100 actually broke due to a known defect on that model: the command
wheel (used to select aperture and shutter speed in manual mode) progressively
stopped responding until it no longer did.</p>
Fortunately, by a twist of fate, the other camera i had been eyeing, a Nikon
D7100, had reduced in price at the second hand store i got the D5100 first.
Warranty be blessed, i upgraded to a better camera and got back 10€.</p>



A Saturday Trip to Vern-sur-Seiche
2024-06-08T00:00:00+00:00
In the process of exploring my city’s growing bicycle infrastructure (the
REV</a>,
or Réseau Express Vélo</em>, Bicycle Express Network), today’s trip took place
from Rennes</a>’ station Triangle, nestled
between the busy living districts of the Blosnes and Poterie, towards
Vern-sur-Seiche’s park alongside the
Seiche</a>.</p>
For once, the path itself was almost entirely correct from what routers
indicated, save for a mistake near Poterie where routers believe bicycles can
enter the car park to get to the bridge that leads beyond the bypass and
towards Vern. Here is the corrected GPX 📎</a>.</p>
The Vilaine</a>, from which my
department</a>’s name is derived, is its
mouth. The river Seiche flows into the Vilaine some 20 kilometers downstream
from where me and some friends spent a lovely little hour and a half taking in
the sun, surveying the area for OpenStreetMap, and taking photographs.</p>
Speaking of photographs, just below is the dump of what I ended up exporting.
Enjoy!</p>






    
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