Great day at Chaumont

Château at Chaumont

We got to Chaumont probably two or three times during the garden festival, which begins late April until October.  You can buy a ticket for the whole site which includes the château as well as the gardens or just a ticket to gardens, which is what we did yesterday. I'm trying to write this with the thud of heavy rain pounding away in the background. Stark contrast to yesterday - sunny and hot at around 25.


We have been caught in heavy rain over there in the past, but with plenty of trees about, there's no difficulty in finding some cover. Yesterday of course we didn't need it.  The light was really good and I got so much photography done that I used up my compact flash card. Didn't have a spare with me!! But in any case by then, it was early afternoon and the light had become too hard.  

Every year there is a different theme. For 2014 it's The Seven Deadly Sins. Twenty-eight gardens, each with the same dimensions. but each has a different designer(s) from around the world, as well as home-grown - sorry about that, couldn't resist it.

At this stage everything is looking wonderfully fresh. We're going back again June/July, just to see how the gardens have filled out. But we're also hoping to get over there for one of the late night openings, which happen throughout July/August. The evening starts at 10pm and finishes around midnight. 


May be we'll go over and have dinner somewhere in the town, and then wander round the gardens afterwards. It would fun to do that. There are five different eating places in the gardens, but they all shut are shut by 6pm. Fortunately there are two really nice places very close by. 

Top Girls?

There are always traditional design ideas alongside the abstract and the impractical.  The sort of mix that we really enjoy. Something always surprises. The gardens this year were allso interesting, from the simplest of presentations to the passionate and colourful. There was one that seemed perfect for an outdoor production of Top Girls.  We were there for about four hours in all. Clearly a good year.

Nouvelles du poulailler!

Bonjour a toutes nos poules!

Votre syndicat des poulettes a reçu quelques nouvelles inquiétantes. Comme la poule-parole en chef, j'ai la responsibité pour cette annonce. 
Attention! Écoutez soigneusement!!



Quelque chose d'extraordinaire est arrivé hier matin!  Nos soeurs à Cravant ont été envahi pendant la matinée hier - dimanche, pendant leur grasse-matinée. En fait elles s'étaient juste réveillées et étaient en train de manger leur petit déj dans leur cabane de luxe,
quand elles ont entendu un grand bruit.

La peur d'ils n'ont pas regardé dehors pour voir ce qui arrivait. Au lieu de cela raisonnablement ils sont restés à l'intérieur jusqu'à ce que le bruit n'avait baissé.
Alors soigneusement est parti examiner.

Ooh gloussement-gloussement! 
Leur petit mond a été transformé!!

Il était devenu une galerie d'art!





 


Qui sont les coupables!  Les soeurs ont discuté les événements et en fait une poule,
a été plus courageuse que les autres. Elle a jeté un coup d'oeil rapide! 
Il semble qu'il y avait cinq personnes. Deux hommes et trois femmes. 
Elle pense aussi que la plus petite pourrait une anglaise! 
Elle avait une voix très étrange.

Soyez prudent chères poules. 

On va les trouver



Regardez cet espace!! 

I have found my calling!

 Headed into virgin territory this morning, when I opened a new large Marmite jar. For me, it's as exciting as walking across freshly laid snow. Unfortunately this is my last jar. You almost need a mortgage to buy a jar that size over here. So new supplies are required from the UK - either when we go there or friends com here.

On a more positive note I passed my Advanced Landscape and Travel diploma with flying colours.  There were two parts to it. Firstly you had to build a website and then there was the project itself, for which a special page was needed.  Last year I created my own website using a Wix template. So I was partly there. But you also had to create a portfolio of images to a theme (twenty max) of which half were set specifically to check out technical skills etc, while the other half were my choice. The website and the portfolio had to be of a standard suitable for presentation to a magazine editor. Very useful and enjoyable. And I'm pleased with the outcome.

But so what - because any thoughts of a career in photography have now met with a challenge. Our next door neighbours have just acquired some chickens, which we're looking after for a couple of days while our neighbours have a quick break. We literally have three French hens living next door, with whom I have discovered I can communicate. I seem to have the right tone, sound and unfortunately the right movement (that's before a drop of wine has passed my lips). So a career as a chicken whisperer seems to be on the cards. None of this dangerous stuff for me though with lions and hyenas. I'll stick to local livestock and try to take some photos of Etta, Cara and the other one (Sara?) at the same time. No worries about the third name. I'll ask her tomorrow!

Bits and Pieces

We had such a good time today. Went to a gem of a place - Château d'Islette which is over towards Azay le Rideau. We'd been meaning to go there before, but just hadn't got round to it. So having been on our hit list for at least a year, and having heard rapturous reports about, and the weather suddenly changing for the better, we drove over this morning. 

There are all sorts of châteaux in the Indre et Loire - different shapes and sizes, histories and traditions. Château d'Islette, is relatively small, but just beautifully positioned and has the most tranquill atmosphere. You can take a picnic with you and spend the whole day, relaxing in one of the many comfortable chairs that are scattered around the site. It's quite blissful and has an interesting history. The château is still privately owned and has been for pretty much of its life, at various times requiring considerable restoration. It was classified as a historic monument in 1946.

On the spur of the moment we decided to go out for lunch and find somewhere in Azay le Rideau. It's not a place we go to very often, so don't know it well. We landed on our feet. A sweet little bistro - very reasonable and very nice food. Restaurant Coté Cour. We hadn't heard of it, but looking at the menu outside, everything looked interesting . . .and was! 

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We're in the middle of watching a fantastic French police series, Spiral otherwise known as Engrenages. We bought the boxed set of the first three series. Series four is either in the process of being made or is about to start. We're in the middle of series two. Anyway, a young algerian boy has just provided the police with information about a murder which he witnessed. It was a particularly viscious crime by a particularly viscious algerian gang, which terrorises its local community. The boy's older brother works for them - reluctantly, and is frequently beaten up. He discovers his young brother witnessed the murder. Terrified for both their lives he persuades the younger brother to go with him and their mother, to the police. By giving evidence the boy has endangered the lives of the entire family. The police arrest the murderer and the young boy identifies him.  The mother is waiting to hear the outcome of the police enquiry and is with the lead officer - Captain Berthaud. Due to an administrative error by one of the police team, which the sassy defence lawyer spotted, the suspect has been released. The mother, in an understandable panic, screams for protection. Captain Berthaud explains that whilst there is a witness protection scheme in America, there isn't one in France.  

There really isn't one in France. We couldn't quite get our heads round this. In actual fact there aren't many countries that do. There are seemingly just eleven who have varying forms of witness protection schemes. Not all are formal and none are in Europe:  America, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Taiwan, Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the UK and believe it or not, the Ukraine. 

It's quite startling.

Not quite The African Queen

going down river

We went on our first boat trip yesterday. It's something we've been thinking about doing for ages but had never got round to. Then the possibility arrived, when French friends rented a boat for a two hour float/ride, whatever it's called on La Vienne, which runs through Chinon. As there were ten of us we could have the boat to ourselves. 

We picked the boat up from a staging opposite the Chateau. Weather-wise, it couldn't have been better. Gorgeous sunshine with a reasonable river breeze. We were all wrapped up. Once the sun had gone it, you got cold quite quickly.

Traditional Boats

There are several types of traditional boat that are found on the river. They are all flat-bottomed. Small like the one in the photo, that comfortably take four. Ours was significantly bigger but open to the elements, so you really needed to have a decent day, otherwise you'd get soaked. There's a bigger version still, which has a enclosed cabin in the middle. They all look so lovely when you see them floating along, and our experience when it came to it, was great.

In good hands

Ours was a motor driven boat, but we were hardly aware of it. The engine was very quiet and steered by a local who clearly had excellent knowledge of the river. I'm not sure how difficult it is to navigate, but with the boat lying low in the water, you're more aware of the currents. There seemed to be a good variety of cross currents, with markers built into the river bed to show the channels. From our point of view it was a very smooth ride, which took us about ten kilometers down river to a canton called Rivière. It's somewhere we drive to quite often, to visit wine producers François Médard and Domaine de la Noblaie. The return journey took us back to beyond the Château at Chinon, before we turned round and headed back to tie up at the original staging. Around thirty kilometres in all. 

There were a few people on the river or by the river fishing. Some families were out having a picnic, but not that many and no other traffic on the river. So it was pretty idyllic and really interesting to see Chinon and other villages and hamlets from a river perspective. The mast in the photo when without a sail, is held at a lowered angle. It's a big piece of timber. The type of sail is similar to the viking sail boats, with one sail rigged, which puffs out when it catches the wind. We've seen the boats fully rigged and they look so majestic on the river. It's at times like this, when the river is running well but smoothly, that the appeal of boating becomes easily understandable. A good trip.

A May Day Tradition

image source unknown

I was looking at the different ways countries celebrate the 1st May. Many of the traditional English rites go back to Anglo-Saxon times, closely associated with celebrating spring-time fertility. Morris Dancing and the crowning of a May Queen are two events that I always think of. But down in Cornwall some places have a Flower Boat Ritual. Padstow I think still has one of the oldest of all fertility rites, when the Hobby Horse dances through the streets.

Some of our European neighbours such as Germany Sweden and Finland celebrate on the night before. We have a French speaking Latvian friend in Chinon who we see quite often. She's actually over there with her family at the moment. 1 May is celebrated there as in so many other places, but there is another significant reason. On this day in 1920, the Constitutional Assembly - the first democratically elected parliament of the Republic of Latvia - convened for its first session, to draft and pass the state constitution. We're guessing that there's lots of celebrating and hoping she's having a great time.

In France the celebration of spring is denoted by the selling of little bunches of muguets/lilies-of-the-valley as a good-luck charm, usually for a one or two euros. It's the only time when flowers can be sold on the street without a permit. The story about the custom is that it began in the sixteenth century, when wedding banns were posted at the beginning of May. Brides-to-be or someone from the family, hung little bundles or wreaths of muguets in their doorways.

Ladurée: Lily-of-the-valley

Les Muguets or the idea of them are used in all sorts of ways. As buttonholes, wedding stationary, floral arrangements. But there is a place in Paris called Ladurée which for a limited period only, 1- 6 May, produces Lily of the Valley flavoured macaroons. I don't need an excuse to go back to Paris, but that certainly makes a springtime visit even more enticing. If they  taste as good as they look in the photo, these macaroons can only be heavenly. Actually thinking about it, I haven't eaten a macaroon for ages. Note: add macarons (as they're called here)
to shopping list.


Our May Day was a mixture of things. Being a Thursday we went into Chinon for the market. We knew some traders weren't going to be around, but there was more than enough choice of essentials. People were selling lilies-of-the-valley on street corners on market stalls, just generally in the market and pretty much all over town. We met up with some friends for a coffee at Le Promenade, which is a Café Bistro+hotel, and right next door to the market. On the way out we bought some muguets. Then went back home, dropped of the shopping and then drove on to Panzoult, where the annual wine fair was taking place. We met up with a group of French friends there and bumped into other local friends and neighbours as well. So it was a really fun tasting. The caves at Panzoult make a great setting, so dramatic and unexpected. It's always a thoroughly enjoyable event to go to. There were about twenty-five wine producers and stalls both in and outside the cave which were offering other types of produce. The weather was a bit sniffy again. But as usual people were there determined to have a good time.