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P.R. Crastina's Travels

Started by evarburg, October 06, 2018, 07:09:50 PM

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evarburg

This one is from a city that fell victim to the prop pox or something equally lethal. Only those beach picts were left. And it was before we had all those wonderful NBVC's and JENX' and Namspopof's MMPs...Oh what we can do, today !  :)

..............

P. R. has flown to a literary conference in the South, far from the coming winter. Not that she doesn't like her North-Eastern winters, once they're there, but the rainy days that precede them just bring her down. So, South it is, with beaches, beaches, beaches, front and back, right at the foot of the hotel hosting the conference.



A bit farther down the coast, a local curiosity : there was a quarry in the ancient times, before the sea rose. Half of the quarry is now submerged, a boon for divers.



But what P. R. is really interested in, between talks, lectures, readings and such, are the beaches. Rock beaches, sand beaches, island beaches, nude beaches...
















































evarburg

The last time P. R. was in the South, she didn't do beaches. She did Sooky Lake, the Wine Country (to her liver's utter dismay.)
and if I did this right, the picts should be clickable for bigger size





















Seaman

These pictures are really nice to see. Thx for sharing them. I did found already some inspiration...

mattb325

I've always liked your mix of farms and small apartments. Very unique  :thumbsup:

evarburg

Another week, another city. Still in the South, where winter hasn't taken hold yet, P. R. is peddling her literary wares in the busy resort town of Villatesta. She's being lodged in the Pegasus Resort Hotel, a somewhat rustic but quiet affair – with horses. She loves horse riding ! Not much place to galop, but enough trails to trot her heart out. And there are several beaches. And hot springs!













 

















Although Villatesta is very much the touristic center of its region, it has taken a resolutely modern turn after the demise of its wood industries, thanks to its last mayor who didn't trust tourism to keep the books balanced. But that's for P. R.'s next recess – she has been booked by several schools and libraries, and work is work !

evarburg

Villatesta is a thriving city, and its citizens are very well educated, from kindergarden to the regional University...





... and various schools and libraries – P. R. has her work cut out for her. She will spend a whole week flitting from one place to another.

This is her first stop, The Felix-Antoine Savard Library, where she will meet with a throng of youngsters from several elementary schools (yes, she also writes for children and young adults).



And this is the new library, The Art E. Aphem library, a more daring concept, built at the same time as the old port was being gentrified.



Yet another library, close to Madame Benoît's College for Girls.



One of the two municipal open swimming pools, while we're at it :



The MacAllister high school. And the college, which has a very good Agricultural Program ; the students just have to cross the street to go work/study in the city's allotment gardens (a student brought P. R. a beautiful red apple...)





metarvo

College towns certainly do have their perks, for sure.  It's interesting to see the well-planned neighborhoods that surround these centers of education.  The residential high-rises fit such an atmosphere quite well; all those students need a place to stay.

Nice update!  :thumbsup:
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

Alan_Waters

#27
Very good! :thumbsup:
And what kind of skyscrapers stand near the intersection on the penultimate photo?  ()what()

evarburg

If you are inquiring about the diagonal one (also in the last pict.), it's, er, I think (this was done so long ago !) ... Simfox P44 tweaked by Paeng ; the two other ones are of course Simgoober's. A google search gives me this link for that version of the P44 : https://www.simsdom.com/pt/download/simcity4/item/paeng-39-s-p44-revisited-66566.

Alan_Waters

Quote from: evarburg on November 11, 2018, 10:17:04 AMthe two other ones are of course Simgoober's.
Here, probably, they also interest me.

evarburg

All things Simgoobery are here on the LEX  ;)

evarburg

While at the Art E. Aphem library, P. R. has had a glimpse of the port and she is itching to have a walk around.





One of the librarians (who is a fan) offered to take her on a tour and she gladly accepted. The city has retained some of its agricultural past, but is mostly dedicated to (generally high tech and non-polluting) industries. But all the modern mayors have had the same politics : zoning so that people live where they work (and, when possible, play). Villatesta has zero traffic problems !















Produce is shipped all over the region ("Buy Local" is big here), as well a industrial freight.





What P. R. really wanted to visit is the port, but the day was done ; Martha, the helpful librarian, obliged the following day.

Traffic being almost all by rail & road now, one (very) small part of the port is still used by industry, but it's almost...folkloric, like the logs still being floated down the river ; there is a Loggers' Festival, in summer, with nimble young men jousting on floating logs, and other such old-timey, muscular fare. But in fact, the logging upstream is being phased out as the logs become a hazard for the small Pondair's water planes.





The port sector is now dedicated to other things. A swampy lake in the beginning, it has been almost entirely tamed, now with promenades along its banks ; P. R. wanted a walk : her wish has been granted, and then some !



But one part of the original swamp has been kept in its pristine state (more or less) for the edification of the younger generations, with a boardwalk from which they can observe aquatic birds and other critters (otters !)














evarburg

#32
Today is Regatta Day in Villatesta !











Martha's Regatta team won and during the ensuing revelry (that went far into the night), she said to P. R. "And you haven't seen the Castle yet!" Well, yes, she had a glimpse of it while sunbathing on the main Villatesta beach, and right across the lake from her hotel, but..."Oh, but you must visit it before you leave !"



And so Martha rings P. R. awfully early the morning after, like around 10 A.M, annoyingly bright and bushy-tailed (she's young...) in order to go and visit The Castle. On a bike??? Why, yes, it is in Bicycle Park. Argh.









And so, well, yes, there is a castle – well, what's left of a castle, duly restored.







It has a pretty park – no bikes allowed there (relief...)




At the end of the day, her sore calves notwithstanding, P. R. had fun not altogether storming the Castle : beautiful tapestries on the walls, a very nice gallery of paintings from the XVth to the XVIIIth century, and a pretty decent three stars restaurant (all local food, of course). Friendly Martha puts her in a taxi to go back to her hotel, though. Enough is enough, and she has a long trip ahead of her to go home, tomorrow...

Akallan

Oh my god! That's wonderful! Every update is better than the previous one, you always get better, great work! I can not wait to see more! &apls &apls
My CJ :


My european road textures project : S N T - v.2.1

mattb325

I'll second that! The Tahoe lake water (I think?) and mmp-ing is really lovely  ;D

evarburg

Thank you both ! I was experimenting with MMPs, at the time -- and it was before we had all the wonderful rocks and sands (and greens) we have now. But it was as much fun then as it is now, painting over the landscape...That's what I loved and still love about the game.

evarburg

A small, incomplete entry : "Once Were Farms"

Since P. R. is a country girl, I wanted to make a large tile with only farms and just enough people to work them.  I also wanted to check which farms were available and good-looking between what already existed before SPAM and what had been made since then. Oh, I had such grandiose MMPs plans for that tile ! Alas, a CTD put an end to my countrified ambitions: the tile was hopelessly corrupted. However, I had taken a few pictures before the catastrophe. I'll put them here, as a tribute to custom farms batlotters, for my fellow country travellers – and for people who wonder what kind of farms we have in SC4. We have a lot of them ! Apart from SPAM, check Andreas (on SimCity Kurier), Barby BLS & BMD Mediterranean farms, the BLS normal and CAM Farms (go on, cheatplop...), Barby, Colyn, CSX, D66, FrankU, JMyers, Kwakelaar, Manchou (on TSC), NewmanInc, Nexis, Simgoober, TTC (The Tea Cat), ... OMG, so many (and on SC4D, you can search by category  -- how I raided those, way back then !). They're not all in those pictures, far from it ! Some lots may look dated by today's standards ; at the time, I chose the ones that appealed the most to me, but tastes can differ. I wish some of the great current batlotters would try their hands at modern farms – I know some are (FrankU & Nexis, hurry up already ! And Mattb325 gave them a nod here not so long ago  :))  But now that I am a modest re/lotter, I might have a go at it – at least to relot some of the best ones of old that deserve a second life.

N.B. : The picts should be click-to-enlargeable. And disregard Windows' annoying message in the bottom right corner; I had just graduated to my virtual Windows partition and didn't know how to get rid of that. It took some time...



















evarburg

And... we're back to our usual programming !

Canalia

While tidying up her photo albums after her last trip, P. R. found her Canalia pictures, taken (with a not very good camera...) during a long, eventful trip to Europe, when she was young(er), and crazily adventurous -- for a writer, everything is grist to the mill.

Canalia has been buit methodically on a low plateau threaded through by a  river opening to the sea. At some point in its past, The City's Fathers decided that, the river being good for commercial use, they wouldn't mind having more than one, like : canals all over the place. And so they dug. They dug a grid of canals. They dug not one, not two, but three big harbours, with locks.  And it was a good choice because it kept the road traffic pollution to a minimum ; no gridlocks in Canalia's nor on its canals. Most people walk or bike around anyhow. Of course, they dont get minus 40° winters...

















The city has room to grow, but its expansion is carefully managed, as agriculture is still its main industry, with many fields around and even in the city : farms have been experimenting with integrated, vertical hydroponics for quite a while now -- Pegasus Inc. is the leader of this type of intensive culture in the region. Canalia has always been on the cutting edge of technology : it was the first to get electricity from windmills, way back then. It has kept some of them, and not merely for the touristic appeal.















The Regional Fair is always a big event ; (it was a smallish thing back when P. R. visited, but it ate the adjacent rustic park since, for more exposition grounds and such.)







The picturesque Youth Hostel where P. R. was staying (and yes, some skinny dipping on summer nights) :







There's plenty of Bucolia to enjoy for Canalia's citizens : some can go fishing right in front of their residence.



And the cows like bargespotting :





evarburg

Canalia's river Ste-Marie as well as its net of canals bring the commerce of the whole region to the city's canal main ports and its harbour.

Port St-Martin :












The Harbour, with the coast-guard station and The Marina.









The old Harbour, now HarbourVillage Promenade :


The Harbour Locks :


Main seaport industries :


Paengue Shipping Inc. (for produce), at Port Issy :


Rorlasch Grain Loading Co. :


Some (rare) heavier industry :

evarburg

Canalia has a long history, illustrated by its many landmarks. Its university, to begin with, an old-fashioned wooded campus dating from the early XIXth century nested between its canals (in the quadrant called "University Square") and the St-Monica Basilica Gardens.











The ancient Roman ruins unearthed during the construction of the park have been carefully restored and preserved.





Two specific landmarks illustrate Canalia's role as a city open to the sea : the Cousteau Aquarium...



... and the Orbisonn Oceanographic Museum, both on the waterfront, the former near the Old Port Marina, the latter overlooking the New Harbour, with its small park.











The city is divided in squares or rectangles ("quadrants") by its canals, with the occasional pedestrians & bikes dedicated bridge, among which the oldest, and most picturesque, the Rorlasch Bridge ; but as you can see here by the little Rorlasch Metro Station, the city is on its way to implement a comprehensive subway transport system in order to maximize collective transport (there is an excellent bus system) and minimize the impact of individual cars on its road and street bridges, that were not built at a time of dense automobile traffic ; the City Council doesn't want to enlarge them at the detriment of well-established neighbourhoods.



The Canalians like their parks, promenades and pedestrian ways ; some of the Old Canal Port has been converted for the sake of barges and ships spotters :





P. R. remembers going to the City Archives Complex (close to the Mayor's rather unpretentious house), intending just a quick peek because it was listed in the Routard's Guide to Canalia : two buildings, a really old one which is more of a museum, and the (relatively) newer one, The Archives proper ; she met a talkative (and handsome) guy in the adjacent Japanese Garden, was persuaded to accompany him inside, and finally spent the whole day there (the two buildings are linked by a subterranean gallery with shops and food courts), fascinated by the wealth of History and time gathered in the labyrinthine corridors and show-rooms.