August 31, 2025

The Milky Way Over France

A photo taken at night showing the milkyway and an old farmhouse
A photo taken at night showing the milkyway and an old farmhouse
A photo taken at night showing the milkyway and an old farmhouse
A photo taken at night showing the milkyway and an old farmhouse

For the past two weeks, I've been traveling - Austin, Texas, to Scotland to see my parents, then on to central France, where my folks have a couple of small farmhouses that they renovated post-retirement to spend summers in. Since Covid, and some illness, they've been unable to get out there. So, I took it upon myself to head out and do some light repair work, make sure everything is still working, and that feral cats have not just taken over the whole place (although honestly, that would be kind of cool). Frequent collaborator and photographer Matt Wright-Steel happened to be in Scotland on a tour with UT, so we timed flights to be able to meetup in Scotland, then fly to Paris, followed by a long drive to the farm. While there, we took a couple of really cool shots of the farm buildings late at night. There is almost no artificial light in that area, so it's really easy to see the Milky Way, shooting stars, ufos, and more. Using one camera plus iPhone flashlights, here's what we got. If you look closely you can see shooting stars caught by the long exposure.