Visitors from France/Visiteurs de France

Je pense que c'est mieux d'ecrire en anglais so I will continue to do so...mais je reviens en français et Aurore aussi...

Between 4-11 july Aurore's parents visited us in Stockholm. 

This is the first part but there are other photos taken the same date but successively shown on the blog...

The weather was warm and sunny throughout their visit here in Stockholm. Living in the central parts of France, they are used to a rather mild climate. 
Last time they visited Stockholm was in april last year and they were met by the same sunny weather as now - to their surprise.

Our aim was to show them some parts of Stockholm we like very much ourselves.

We went down to the sea near our home on Lidingö where there is a small harbour with private boats.

We walked close to the beach watching big and small vessels cruising around Stockholm.

We also showed them other parts of Lidingö, our small Island in the sun.

A visit to Skansen, the open-air museum where they expose old swedish buildings and houses from different epochs and regions in Sweden from north to south, is of course obligatory.

The oldest building dates back to the 13th century and the most modern ones were built in the 1940:s.

Scandinavian flora and fauna is also shown, in its cultural context around the buildings.

Michel - the hunter among us - got to see two of the elks and many other animals. Luckily enough he didn't bring his rifles.

Skansen

The glass works at Skansen

Outside the church Seglora a church having been
moved entirely and rebuilt at Skansen.

The Visent or European bison below, talking to a wild boar.
The Vicent's  weigh between 500 and 900 kg (males), 
sometimes even more...

The bear below reminds me of a story from when I, Gunnar, worked at Skansen in the 1980's (May 1984 to December 1986).

I had an American visitor who wanted to know what Skansen was and what one could see at this open-air museum.

I told him about the old houses and farmsteads, the flore and the fauna, recreated to match each house, the traditional clothings and finally, the zoo.

The place where they keep the bears is called The Bear Mountain.

When talking about this, I did however pronounce it wrong:

"Then we've got the Beer Mountain"

The American visitor looked at me with big eyes. It was a ver warm day:

"The Beer Mountain??!! Where do I find that!!??"

I told him where to find it and he disappeared in a hurry.

Once gone, one of my colleagues told me about my fault.

"You know what you just said?
-Yes I told him about the bear mountain among other things! Why?
-Because you didn't say Bear you said Beer!
-Oops..."

I went to lunch and during lunchtime the visitor came back and wanted to talk with the man telling him there was a Beer Mountain inside the open air museum! He was obviosly disappointed!

One of the elks or mooses...

...and another one

One of the grey seals below, perhaps the one called Moses a real joker, I know from my work at Skansen! He once lay on the edge of the wall beside the water and on his back. The animal keeper said that he wanted me to caress him on the stomach. I went up to Moses and started caressing him but all of a sudden,

he threw himself in the water and splashed me full of water!

He then jumped up on the edge on the wall, wanting me to do it over again!

"Oh, no, Moses, not this time! I know you now!"

Tantolunden

Another site we visited was the so called Tantolunden, a park in the southern borough of Stockholm called Södermalm.

There we looked at the so called kolonilotter, allotments, one find in this park (among other places in Stockholm). 
Kolonilotter are small lodges with a garden where one can cultivate flowers, vegetables, aromatic plants, fruits (to some degree) and so forth.

These allotments were initiated by the politicians in Stockholm before or during World War I in order to help poor people who couldn't afford a summerhouse or go somewhere on their vacations. In this way they could - in spite of being poor - enjoy a kind of vacation with even a small house of their own without long travels and initially without paying more than a very small fee.

More photos from Tantolunden

In connection to these allotments there is a market called 'Street Market' where people living in this borough, Södermalm, sell a bit of everything.

Through a Glass Darkly (or broken?) (Såsom i en /trasig?/ spegel)

A somewhat bigger edifice is the Drottningholms slott, the Royal Castle where the royal family lives.

In Stockholm we call it Little Versailles but those of you who have visited these two castles, of course know that Versailles is a much more extravagant palace, making this building almost look like a pavillon.

So did Solange and Michel also perceive Drottningholm.

This first photo overexposed but...

Below Kina Slott

("The Chinese Pavillon" at Drottningholm)

built between 1753–1769.

Solange and Michel

We also visited another royal castle, 'Rosendals Slott' ('Rosendal Palace'), situated in the big recreational park of Stockholm - 'Djurgården'.

At Djurgården (or Tiergarden as English and American visitors call it) we also wandered around the old wooden houses in a part of the park called 'Djurgårdsstaden' (Djurgården-town).

One also find an old boatyard in these parts of Djurgården

A view from Prince Eugen's Waldemarsudde, the former

home for Prince Eugen, since long an art museum.

Another popular place in Stockholm is 'Långholmen' (more about it in the next blog chapter and in French) a small island (36 ha/1380x450 meters) where the former townprison were situated.
The old prisonhouses still exist but today with other activities: 
Hotel, a restaurantschool and a museum. Already in 1724 some kind of female prison were situated here and in 1860 a penitentiary were built and finally in 1880 a prison were inaugurated.

The last decapitation in Sweden (with guillotine) toke place on this island in 1910.

The bridge over to Långholmen

From this bridge you have this view

One of the entrance gates with a 

former watch tower, perhaps

Now people are sun bathing here on the cliffs,

something the inmates couldn't ! 

We also went up to 'Fjällgatan', where one have a wonderful view over the city of Stockholm.

A visit at IKEA(!) was unavoidable (unfortunately). I didn't go there. I get depressed when I visit Monsieur Kamprad's creation.

Besides this we wandered around Stockholm a great deal but I'm not going into more details now.

One mishap: I saw an add about a market in the archipelago of Stockholm - 'Stavsnäs marknad' - and after fifty minutes with bus (I didn't get a seat), we arrived at the 'market'!? The smallest, most uninterresting market I have ever seen. We overlooked it in ten minutes, ate some unimaginative food and went back to Stockholm as quick as we could.

Michel's comments on this failure and the good laughs it brought us....! Oh là là!!