Camillia and a host of...

Well two actually, of golden daffodils but it is still only January!

Another zeal of Zebras...

I did a post way back in 2011 about our local villages' apparent penchant for zebra crossings and was reminded of it on my way from Ligueil to Descartes (and back...for another post). This journey takes you through the village of Cussay on the D31.On the way through (first time) I noticed that this village actually tells you how many they have.(they actually have at least 10) these 8 are on the main street.

                       


On my second 'passing through' I decided to clock the distance from entering to leaving the village, It was 0.3km, so that means that the crossings are one every 40 mtrs or so.Now I would have to say that. like most villages here, I have never ever seen anyone on any of these 8 crossings anytime I have driven through this village.

As touched on by Colin & Elizabeth on my last post on the subject,.the French Code de la Route (the Highway Code) exists to protects pedestrians. The law passed in November 2010 states that any driver has to give right of way, if necessary by stopping, to pedestrians engaged in the crossing of a road or clearly showing the intention to do so. Drivers can be fined €135 and lose 4 points on their license if caught.

However, the rule does not apply less than 50 metres away from the pedestrian crossing.

Now I wonder if the mayors of villages are so zealous re their crossings to protect drivers as they won't have to stop for random pedestrians given the frequency of the crossings, can't think of any other reason,unless they have loads of surplus paint and manpower!

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Something for the weekend...

CLASSICAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

From 29 to 01/31/2016

SAUMUR / FONTEVRAUD ABBEY 

Website:

'Burns night' in Southern Touraine...

Celebrated 'Burns night' with friends here in France and they did the 'Bard' proud.Excellent meal of cullen skink, tatties,neeps and haggis and rounded off with cranachan.

As the only  Scotsman present I was called upon to read some of the bard's work and do a bit of of chantin' and wheechin.

What do you mean it's not spring yet!

21/01/2016

The mild weather we had at the end of the year has meant some early flowers here at the the Old Walnut Mill in Barrou 

23/12/2015

We also had roses hanging on in there at Les Balcons

 23/12/2015

Another Irish soiree...

Attended meeting of the committee of the Fet' Art Pressignois on Tuesday night and happy to report that   Le Grand Pressigny will again be hosting an Irish soiree on the 1st July this year. It is an event that proved very successful last year among the locals and expats alike. Looking forward  to it already, put it in your diary.

  

A story for the birds...

Just finished watching 'Hitchcock' which I rather enjoyed and it reminded me of our visit to Dinan back in October 2014...here was the post from then.

When we visited the seaside town of Dinard a surprise find was this statue of Alfred Hitchcock which sits on the seafront. The town has been host to the 'British Film Festival' for the last 25 years.and every year, it short-lists six films, with the best – which is chosen by a jury of leading figures – is awarded the Golden Hitchcock. Apparantly the locals claim Hitchcock spent time here and based the house in Psycho on a villa overlooking the beach but there is nothing to substantiate this. Had we been a week earlier we could have taken in a movie. Previous winners have included Peter Catteano’s 'The Full Monty' 

Springing forward...

Spring at Chateau Villandry

With the first real taste of winter arriving here in the Loire Valley,we are looking forward to Spring already.

Spring at Chateau Cheverny

Spring in the gardens at Loches

Winter colour at Les Balcons in Le Grand Pressigny.

We got a few opportunities during December here in the Loire Valley to finish tidying up the garden at Les Balcons our vacation rental house in Le Grand Pressigny, where we were given a little show of winter colour.

Unexpected candlelit dinner...

Had an unexpected candlelit dinner party on Saturday night,with EDF deciding to deprive us of electricity for around 3 hours off and on (literally). Fortunately Pauline had finished cooking the meal before our first blackout.

Tours Airport by tram.

On Tuesday we had to go back up to Tours as our previous trip had been in vain due to the new opening hours of our 'Regime' offices being 9.00 am until 11.00am only. This meant that we could not use the great value (2.40 euro each way) bus trip from Le Grand Pressigny, as that doesn't arrive in the city until 11.50am! In order to make best use of our trip, I decided to treat Pauline to another outing, all in the name of research for my experienceloire.com website - a trip on the tram to the city's airport 'Tours Val de Loire'.

The purpose, other than treating Pauline, was to check how easy it was to do, as since October 2015, there is no shuttle bus service between the bus station and Tours Airport

You now need to take tram from the stop to the right of the railway station,'Gare de Tours' to 'Terminus Vaucanson', which runs on a regular basis,every 8 minutes.You should allow around 45mins for the trip.

You buy your single journey ticket (1.60 euro) from the ticket machine at the tram stop which takes credit cards or cash..There is an English language option available.

The journey time is 20 minutes (13 stops) to 'Vaucanson' which is the end of the line.

You then have a 10 minute walk from the terminus to the airport itself.

The 'park & ride' area at the terminus

Follow the sign 'Tours Val de Loire' 

Which includes crossing a busy dual carriageway

After a short time on the road leading into the airport the footpath disappears and you have to continue on the road itself! 

Not only did Pauline get a tram ride but also a nice lunch at the airport restaurant.

Noticed that in the airport there didn't seem to be any information on taking the tram into the city...maybe the demand isn't there.

 If you do plan to do this you leave the airport and walk along the road until you come to the roundabout.

Go to the left of it and cross over the dual carriageway. Continue straight on until you catch sight of the 'LeRoy Merlin' store on your right - the terminus is set back on your left opposite it.

Enlightening...

With the Christmas lights coming down all around us I wanted to pick my 'National Lampoon' winner which is this house (above) at 'La Malgache' just outside Le Grand Pressigny.

If you missed Chenonceau this Christmas...from www.experienceloire.com's blog

Today was the last day to see Chateau de Chenonceau dressed up for Christmas. If you didn't make it along

here are some photographs giving you a taste of what was on offer.