It's a dogs life...

Spotted by Dennis at the exhibition 'Lumières Célestes Marcoville' at Église Saint-Julien in Tours on Thursday. 

A full day out...in and around Tours

A good day out yesterday with friends Angela and Dennis a bit of wine tasting & buying at Vouvray & Montlouis-sur-Loire

Followed by lunch at 'Mamie Bigoude' in Tours which we thought would be good for future visits with their grand-children.

Then a quick stroll through the old town ...

To the wonderful free exhibition *'Lumières Célestes Marcoville' at Église Saint-Julien.

  
*Thursday to Sunday until 22nd September
We rounded off a good day out with a refreshment down by the Loire.

'Bacon's Law' - Me and Ricky Ross from Deacon Blue

Paintings For Sale, Botanic Gardens, 1958

'Bacons Law' or 'Six degrees of Kevin Bacon' is a game based on the "six degrees of separation" concept, which states that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart. I have applied this to the above photograph which Rose (Ada's mum) posted on Facebook. She found it contained in a BBC article about Scots / Italian photographer Oscar Marzaroli whose photographs have been donated to Glasgow Caledonian University. It actually features paintings by her grandfather.

For their debut album, 'Raintown' one of my favourite bands, Scotland's own 'Deacon Blue' chose one of his photographs to feature on its cover. Lead singer Ricky Ross, who was a fan, invited him to take some photographs for the album.

Back in 2015 the BBC were filming an interview with Ricky on the poet Robert Burns in Ayr when we bumped into him - he insisted on being photographed with me!

Here is one of my favourite tracks from the band  - has some special memories.

Winging it!

Before we had TV here at La Guerche friends kindly furnished us with some box sets which,even though we now have TV we are still working our way through. We have just finished watching Aaron Sorkin's 'West Wing' ( I know we are very late to the party - it's an age thing) which in my humble opinion is some of the finest TV ever made...will miss these guys! Shame we can't have Jed in the White House at the moment.

Wood you believe it...

You know you have embraced the French way of life when you spend an afternoon in August stacking your winter wood in 30+ degrees!!

Too hot - nothing bot!

For yesterday's brocantes we headed over to Chaumussay and Cussay but with temperatures in the mid 30's it was difficult to concentrate. 

There was some shade at Chaumussay but there wasn't much that caught the eye, although this coffee/tea set did, simply because of the presentation.

There was not a lot of shade at Cussay and although there were a lot of treasure hunters they were either hiding in the shade of the refreshment tents or queing  for food.

It was the place to be if  you were looking for soft toys or bicycles but it was too much for us and unusually we didn't make it around all the stalls. The only thing we bought was a lovely freshly made loaf directly from the village bread oven.

Age is but a number.

It was a pleasure last night to join Mike, Liz, their family and friends to continue to celebrate his special birthday. 

We were then lucky enough to head over to some other friends for a lovely dinner where we enjoyed more good company, great food with the added benefit of 'climatisation'.

Something for the weekend...brocantes Sunday 25th

Two popular brocantes this Sunday (25th) at Chaumussay and Cussay

A welcome walk in the woods...

Friends organised an impromptu walk yesterday in the woods around L'Abbeye, just outside Le Grand-Pressigny as a precursor to the randonnee season restarting. The warm sunny day made the shade of trees very welcoming.

We had a water stop here which prompted quite a discussion...but that is for another time perhaps!

This area of woodland seems, to the untrained eye, to be well managed although at one point our path was completely blocked by a very large fallen tree. Jungle Jim (a title bestowed on me by the photographer!) was the only one man enough to scramble over it!

It wasn't all woodland as we passed these sad sunflowers on the route,shame their season isn't longer and the etang d'Abbeye'.

It was a good walk in good company.

Not so upfront!

Our dining experience at the 'Hotel de France' in Loches back in July had us wondering why we hadn't  noticed its facade during our many visits to the town. As we normally visit on market days the photo above of Rue Picois,taken on a previous market visit,helps explain why

Can't come soon enough...

May & Ada have a chat at the weekend.

So looking forward to our visit from Michael, Rose and Ada at the end of the month. Friends as ever, have been generous with their support re things we will need to accommodate our little treasure.

A man of letters...

When we spotted these 3D zinc letters laid out as they were at the recent brocante in La Celle-Guenand we thought they would make a good birthday present for our friend Peter (Cole)...they now take pride of place in his 'manshed' and are looking great!

Microphone on the menu at restaurant in Barrou

Image courtesy of Les Burgess

A welcome return...

As Pauline and I walked along Grande Rue under our umbrella last night to take in Angie Palmer's return to 'Les Tilleuls' I was hoping Meteo's forecast of the rain stopping at 8.00pm was going to be an accurate one.

  

The restaurant had taken the precaution of installing a barnum for the evening but Meteo got it right, so it was more of an event room than shelter from the rain. The band were excellent with the crowd, with a large contingent of Brits, showing their appreciation.

Catherine and Pascal and their staff did us proud - a very sucessful night - oh and did I mention Angie allowed me to join her on 'Knocking on heaven's door' - good fun.

image courtesy of Les Burgess

 

Angie Palmer Band rocking out to 'All along the watchtower'

Wot there was...

 If you have not visited the annual 'L'Art et la Matiere' at the chateau at Le Grand Pressigny on Quinze août here is a taste of what's on offer...

I am sure there is place for these

On reflection,this was a classy stall!

This lady had a mammoth sale on apparently!

Interesting (?) idea, painted and decorated paint spray cans.

Rather liked these, which were on display in the orangery.

Magali, our local potter had her excellent work on display. 

Not a lot caught my eye at the Lesigny brocante, though these cool dudes made me do a retake!

Missed this other cool dude though Karen captured it, apparently it did not appear to mind.