Feeling autumnal...

Wednesday is Loches day...the dujon in autumn

More on Loches' dunjon here

End of an era...

Yesterday  I attended the signing for the sale of 'Le Bourg' in my capacity as proxy. The house had been maintained and managed by us for our Canadian friend Miki for the last ten years. It has entertained guests from all around the world and has made us many new friends, with our frequent visitors, 'the sisters' from the USA topping our popularity poll!

We have witnessed many changes over the years both inside and out as we strived to make it as comfortable and attractive as possible.

I formed a terraced garden for her where there once was a wild slope and looking at the pic. below reminded me of the task it was.

When it was not rented out Miki allowed us to use it for get togethers and over the years it has hosted dinner parties, 'cake club' and our 10th anniversary of being in France, many happy memories!

And with Autumn comes the leaves...

Spent yesterday clearing the first batch of leaves from the courtyard of our holiday cottage and putting the courtyard furniture to bed. 

This is always a time of mixed emotions as it means no more guests but also means less work - although we still have plenty of project work to be getting on with, starting with our garden at the rear of the property which has been work-in-progress since we bought the place! Pauline made a good start to cleaning out the potager yesterday but its abig job keeping on top of it.

That said...Autumn does dress bring its dressings.

Brocantes this weekend 26th/27th October

You can check out your local brocantes here

Something for the weekend - Autumn festival at Chateau du Rivau

A lovely time to visit this enchanting chateau.

Website

End of the season...

We said goodbye to our last guests of the season at the 'Old Walnut Mill' on Tuesday morning, a lovely couple from Ontario, Canada. We felt a certain affinity with them as they have spent much of their lives renovating houses and although now in their 70's they are completing the renovation of church into their latest home!

Wednesday is Loches day...October in the public gardens

Une petite promenade...around La Guerche

Yesterday, as the weather had improved we decided to go out for a walk around the village...a very autumnal one!

  

Descartes public gardens...not a secret

Talking to friends last night about what the Loire Valley has to offer and the subject of gardens came up and although they have lived here for some time their busy work schedule has meant they have not yet visited two of our favourite places, Chateau de Villandry  and the garden festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire. Nearer to home here in Southern Touraine in spite of having visited Descartes' Sunday market ,they have not taken a walk through its delightful public gardens, which we highly recommend. Above is a slideshow of one of our walks this year,back in June but they are delightful at any time of year.

September

Bit of coulour on a rather dreich day...

To add a bit of brightness to our dreich day we stopped on our way through Le Grand-Pressigny and took some pics of Tony and Beverly's cyclamen...beautiful

A good decision...

On Thursday morning as we tried to avoid the rain while making a visit to Preuilly-sur-Claise we were thinking there was no chance that the weekly walk with our randonne club was going to go ahead in the afternoon.

At lunchtime Pauline reviewed the weather by using her trusted method of 'looking out the window'. It looked as if it was clearing up, so we made the decision to head over to Le Grand Pressigny to see if anyone else had the same idea. As it happens our intrepid leader was there when we arrived and then a further six brave souls joined us.

 The walk was a circular route in the woods around L'Abbeye and its etang.

It was beautifully autumnal and the rain stayed off. It turned out also to be a mushroom gathering and educational walk with one of the ladies managing to fill a couple of bags with edible varieties and explanations and investigations on Google for others.

 

  

The longer we walked the more the weather improved...

you can see the difference in these two pics taken on the two occasions we passed the lake.