I know it's hot but...

Spotted in Lesigny this morning.

A walk in the park...

On Sundays we recommend that our guests at our holiday cottage visit the morning market at Descartes and follow it with a walk through their beautiful public gardens...a walk we do often ourselves. The gardens are a credit to the town and their talented gardeners.

Phew what a scorcher!

If we were back in the UK one of the dreaded tabloids would certainly have this headline. We are expecting 40 deg. today and we have a changeover to do at the Old Walnut Mill!

Where to cool off...

Barrou / Lesigny 'beach'

With the unusually high temperatures people are already taking to dipping in the water.

Barrou

La Roche-Posay

Chatellerault

Up on the roof...

Went up on the roof yesterday of the outbuildings behind 'the project' to take down what is left of the roof cover we had taken down during an earlier bout of demolition - only lasted a couple of hours under the sweltering sun. Made me thankful of actually having the choice of stopping, consider the poor people who have to work no matter what the conditions!  

Wear a hat if out and about...

If you head over to the morning market at Loches be sure to wear a hat under these so so warm skies but don't worry if you don't have one - you can always buy one there.

Visiting the garden festival ...

Some images from our previous visits over the years

Our current guests at the 'Old Walnut Mill' are heading up to the garden festival at Chaumont-sur Loire today as at least there is supposed to be a little cloud cover in a week of very high temperatures.

You can check out some of our photos of previous festivals here

La Guerche has a face-lift...

La Guerche has just had a small face-lift opposite our house. As we watched the workmen go about the job from our window we had been curious as to the final outcome.

They removed the existing paving and filled it with hardcore awaiting a top coating. They added some white cobbles for effect and created some planting areas, all very nice! 

They then covered the planted areas with a coating of straw mulch and put in a top coat of compressed sand (?). As to the longevity of this - time will tell! 

.

There will no doubt mixed opinions in the village as to the work but this and the new planters as you enter the village as positive.

Fete de la Musique weekend part II

Thoroughly enjoyed being part of the second evening of the 'Fete de la Musique' in Le Grand-Pressigny last night as 'Old Hat' with Dominique...good fun. There was, as normal at these events a real diverse selection of music at two seperate locations in the village with 'The Twins' above giving us something for the younger generation on the main stage.

Dominique and I opened for the acts on the main stage and did a set at the other location in front of 'Chez Grand Ma'

'Passe Moi le Sol' 

Celtiqua

The 'Big Band' from Chatellerault were great fun with everything from 'My Way' to the wonderfully surprising 'YMCA' plus some Gloria Gaynor, among other things!

'The Mom's'

Kicking off the weekend...

Dominique and I kicked off the 'Fete de la Musique' weekend last night at Le Petit Pressigny with me making it, at times, difficult for him to follow me but think we just got away with it! Will try harder tonight when we are on first at Le Grand-Pressigny. Pauline and I have a 'changeover' at the 'Old Walnut Mill' to fit in before then. It was good to see departing guests along for last nights performance. 

Last night saw familiar faces both on and off the stage with some very enthusiastic dancing as the night rolled on - good fun!

More entertainment tonight at Le Grand-Pressigny.

*Top photo courtesy of Gaynor 

Something(s) for the weekend...

Image courtesy of Alison Juestel

A lot on this weekend,the excellent tourist office in Le Grand-Pressigny very kindly have it summarised outside their offices.

Two villages in harmony for this year's 'Fete de la Musique'

This year for the 'Fete de la Musique' the villages of Le Petit-Pressigny & Le Grand-Pressigny have collaborated to give performances over two days. Delighted to be part of these events singing with Dominique on guitar, performing as 'Old Hat'. We are on at 8.00 pm on Friday at Le Petit-Pressigny and 6.30 pm on Saturday at Le Grand-Pressigny, so you will have to get there early to catch us - or late to avoid us!

It takes two to tandem...

Met this intrepid German couple passing through Barrou, they are doing a 6 country Tour from Altenberge in Germany to Lisbon in Portugal. As they left heading east I wondered if I should have said something!

More from Sunday's brocantes...

As well as the brocante at Abilly we also took in the one at Leugny where we didn't buy this but I won't bore you with who did!

There was also a 'vide maison' in the village - this is Pauline and Liz being apprehensive about entering the maison that was hosting the 'vide-maison' -Mike and I were already in there!

We were not finished there as we headed over to Betz-le-Chateau where disappointingly it was not held within the streets of the village which I prefer. 

Its location did offer us a view of this bit of water which goes under the delightful name of 'Etangs de la Philipponiere (I take it there is another behind this one) that I actually hadn't noticed before, probably as we approached the village from a different direction due the on-going works at La Celle Guenand.

Voitures et confitures

We visited the brocante at nearby Abilly yesterday with our search for treasures based on kids toys as Michael Rose and Ada are coming over for a visit in September so looking for a few things to keep her amused.

There was,as ever, a lot on offer and we picked up a few thing we will reveal later.

I pride myself in the fact that I can normally park pretty close to the action at these events but was surprised to spot this line of cars in among the stalls - how did they do that? They were actually cars from the local garage showing a little initiative by bringing their cars to the people - could start a trend!

It was also good to see the jam stalls back.

Here are some things we didn't buy even though we pondered over the first item - 12 plates for 1 euro!

We did not buy these 'ready to go' roller skates...

or this convenient garden chair.

Impromptu soirees and the ring of fire...

Our latest guests arrived late (8.00pm) last night at the Old Walnut Mill and had been booked in to take part in the *Fete de St Jean celebrations in the village. We spoke to Catherine in the restaurant who said it was ok for them to get there when they could. As we were still in Barrou we decided to pop along for a drink before heading home after a long day.

We had asked if there was going to be music on the night and had been told no,so were surprised and delighted to see there was indeed some entertainment. We gatecrashed a table of some of our neighbours and enjoyed a good night - I even got a chance to sing a few songs and Pauline joined other locals dancing around the fire that is lit to welcome in the summer solstice (although a week early, so as not to clash with the 'Fete de la Music' perhaps). It was the first major event for Catherine & Pascal at the restaurant and it went very well which must be satisfying for them after all their hard work.

*Fete de St Jean  on Wiki