21st century 'Icarus'

Captured this helicopter as it flew overhead during our visit to the the International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire.

Something else for the weekend...

Something for the weekend Brocantes 30th June 1st July

Vic-sur-Gartempe

Brocantes / vide greniers Saturday 30^th June

* Up to 50 stalls ** 50 to 100 stalls *** 100 to 200 stalls ****More than 200 stalls    ? Unknown

Chaveignes  Vide Grenier  ?

Loches Vide Grenier  ?

Perusson Brocante / Vide Grenier  ***

Varennes Vide Grenier  *

  

Brocantes / vide greniers Sunday 1st July

* Up to 50 stalls ** 50 to 100 stalls *** 100 to 200 stalls ****More than 200 stalls    ? Unknown

Chambray-les-Tours  Vide Grenier ***

Chatellerault  'Les puces de Blossac' Brocante  **

La Riche  Brocante Vide-grenier **

Langeais Brocante du Lac ?

Nazelles-Negron Brocante Vide-grenier ***

Rivarenes Brocante Vide-grenier **

Saint-Maure-de-Touraine Vide-grenier ?

Sorigny Vide-grenier ?

Tours RueRoger Salengro Vide-grenier ?

Trogues Vide-grenier **

Veigne Vide-grenier ****

Vic-sur-Gartempe Brocante Vide-grenier **

Chaumont-sur-Loire International Garden Festival 2018 - a garden a day - 'La possibilite d'une ile'

We are going to feature some of our favourite gardens from this year's International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire . We will start with one of our favourite gardens 'Lapossibilite d'une ile'

You can read the designers description of the garden here.

Flash mobbing the pharmacy in Le Grand-Pressigny

It was Joannès, the pharmacist in Le Grand-Pressigny's last day yesterday and some of the locals decided to 'flash mob' the pharmacy.

We were delighted to be part of the little gathering afterwards at nearby 'Chez L'

Loire Valley's biggest price ticket?

We made our annual visit to the International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire, it was interesting to see that they no longer offer a 'gardens only' ticket option. 

For people like us who visit every year and don't necessarily want to visit the chateau interior every time it is slight financial loss that might otherwise buy us an ice cream or drink at their refreshment stop but would probably still say that  for the overall experience it is probably still good value for money.

This year's festival,in our humble opinion, wasn't as good as some of the previous years but still gave us some delightful highlights...

Back in the frame...

Haven't mentioned the 'La Guerche project' for a wee while so thought I'd post update. We have a new window in the downstairs bedroom which makes quite a difference. We have been working away...I have all but finished fitting the kitchen and the salon has its first piece of furniture in place...more pics to follow.

Last look...

My last look back on our great day out with Simon & Susan.  Liked how the lights of car above were used as a showroom.

This one had even more display potential. My suggestion to the French owner that he could keep some gold fish in it was met by only a slight touch of amusement!

This owner's mother-in-law was apparently kept in his boot!

I liked this car on a number of levels.

Descartes Sunday market...

Beautiful morning for visiting the morning market at Descartes and taking a stroll through their lovey public garden.

'Fete de la Musique' Le Grand-Pressigny...getting involved

Pic courtesy of Mike Funning

Dominique and I took full advantage of being involved in the 'Fete de la Musique' in Le Grand-Pressigny last night  with firstly a slightly bizarre set on the road in front of 'Chez Grand Ma' with the traffic driving in front of us, then on to the main stage before finishing off the night with a small intimate set back in the courtyard of 'Chez Grand Ma'...good fun.

Celtiqua on main stage

Anna Tanvir in the church

This was the first such event in the village and it was buzzing, a great credit goes to the organisers, with a great ambience and it was rounded off by the excellent Angie Palmer playing into the night. 

Video courtesy of Dave Madle

My 15 minutes of fame?

Fete de la Musique Le Petit-Pressigny

Dominique and I had our first 'public' performance last night at the 'Fete de la Musique' Le Petit-Pressigny where were the first act of the night. Good fun for us...hope our audience likes us! It was a night of diverse musical performances.

With the highlights for me being Zoe Thompson the 16 year girl from Tours' set and a rousing performance of 'Hallelujah' from the acapella  group 'Entre Nous'.

It was left to Celtiqua to bring the event to a lively close after a long wait to perform.

Brocantes / vide greniers Saturday 23rd / Sunday 24th June

Brocantes / vide greniers Sunday 24^th June

* Up to 50 stalls ** 50 to 100 stalls *** 100 to 200 stalls ****More than 200 stalls    ? Unknown

ATHEE SUR CHER  Vide Grenier ***

BOURNAN  Vide-greniers **

  

ESVRES  Vide-greniers ase ***

L'ILE BOUCHARD  Brocante Vide-greniers ?

LA CROIX EN TOURAINE  Vide-greniers **

LA ROUCHOUZE  Brocante Vide-greniers **

MONTBAZON  Vide-quartier Hespérides-Pomone *

NEUILLE LE LIERRE  Brocante Vide-greniers ?

SAINT BENOIT LA FORET  Vide-greniers **

SAINT GENOUPH  Vide-greniers ?

SEUILLY  Vide-greniers ?

THILOUZE  Brocante Vide-greniers ?

TOURS  Antiquités Brocante Boulevard Béranger ?

TOURS  Vide-greniers Quartier du Grand Marché ****

VERNOU SUR BRENNE  Brocante ?

Classic lawlessness...

One of the fun things about being involved the Le Blanc bouchon from a drivers prospective is the ability to disobey the rules and cause disruption. With well organised marshalling by the motor cyclists there was no need to stop at junctions and parking was 'as you want'. Like on the middle of a mini roundabout...

or across a junction.

That wasn't  'Célestine' badly parked btw - Simon did that perfectly

In the pink at Le Blanc

Showed you this car and caravan yesterday from our day out in Le Blanc. The proud owners let us have a look inside their 'van', no prizes for guessing the internal colour scheme!

Hip hip hooray...being hippies for the day

Yesterday we were invited to join Simon & Susan in 'Célestine', their fab classic Citreon for the bi-annual heritage traffic jam (bouchon) at le Blanc. The event emulates the traffic disruption that used to occur in major towns before the introduction of auto-routes. As you can see we chose to dress up from the day (helped by contributions for Cally & Jane)

We met up with the other vintage car owners (and hippies) at the 'salle polyvalente' car park in the town... 

before heading off in two groups through the regional park of La Brenne.

We stopped at the lake at La Gabriere for a bit of sustenance.

Where everyone was on their best behaviour.

Then it was back to the 'salle polyvalente' in Le Blanc for a spot of lunch with our hosts and over 500 others.

Simon had parked 'Célestine' in good company so we took the opportunity to have a look at the other cars on display.

Then it was on to the main event...blocking the traffic in the town! This is acheived by continually circuiting the town until the traffic snarls up, helped by the occasional overheated engine

It was good to see so many locals had turned out to witness the mayhem. 

Great fun, with Simon revelling in the free spirit of the day, as can be seen in this pic of Susan's