Tour de force

For those skeptics who read the post below and doubted we were ever really in France, here's another couple pictures. They don't come any Frencher than this.

Laissez le bambu roullez!

We traveled all the way to Strasbourg, France to photograph this uncanny grove of north Atlantic bamboo in the university botanical gardens. At 48º N, Strasbourg falls somewhere between Seattle and Vancouver in terms of latitude, but without the Pacific influence the winters can be pretty harsh – it actually snowed on us earlier that morning. So it was no surprise in March to see that the bulk of the garden was still deep in dormancy. But this unidentified species of bamboo was standing firm, resilient as ever in the European winter. And I with my soft, spongey bamboo socks and warm baguette. C'est bon!