ship on the beach

Today the kids and I went with a friend and her son to Les Sables d'Olonne, a city an hour or so from here, to see a freighter that ran aground Monday after serious storms. Here's a link if you are interested in seeing a photo:

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080311/img/pwl-france-stormy-weather-9-2da75ebf98300.html

Apparently it got pushed off course from high winds and got stuck on the beach there, very close to the wall that separates the beach from the road. No one was hurt and the ship is totally intact. We drove to check it out and the area was swarming with onlookers watching the progress of the bulldozers trying to dig away the sand to make a passageway for it back into the ocean when the tide comes up again. It is pretty surreal, seeing this huge ship just stuck like a beached whale in the middle of a big beach, right next the center of town.

I was also thanking Michel Crépeau (former mayor of La Rochelle) for his preservation efforts here after visiting this beach side town. The entire beach front of Les Sables d'Olonne is looming with monstrous high rise buildings and looks awful. The city center on the port here in La Rochelle has been totally preserved and has only the old small stone buildings, and retains a strong feeling of history as well a an aesthetic congruity. It also lends a sense of openness and accessibility to downtown, a place for sitting, walking and exploring. Ah, how I love this town.