C'est le guet!

barbara ender

Il a sonné onze!
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With flickr@lausanne group, we spent an hour up in the cathedral tower with the night watch. He has been shouting out the hours since the 1400s. When the clock strikes 10, he comes out of his little wooden cabin between the bells, dons his hat, picks up his lantern, cups his hands round his mouth and calls out: It's the watch, 10 has struck! from all four sides of the tower. A disembodied voice echoes through the night "Shut your face! night after night you piss us off!" (the original French is much ruder; I spare your sensibilities).
Regardless, the watch carries out his duties every hour until 2 am, and this is really a much-loved Lausanne tradition.

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As I am not really equipped for night photography, I put on the 50-mm and experimented with blurry focus.

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