No takers...

 

Canoes for hire on the river at Angles-sur-l'Anglin 

The longest lunch...

 

Lunches here in France can sometimes extend to an afternoon and yesterday's impromptu invitation to join Dennis and Angela to help finish the remains of the splendid repas from their party the previous night led to a thoroughly enjoyable marathon 7 hour session. We were even joined for a time by David and Jane plus a French father and son who were looking for a place to fish on the Creuse, who must have wondered what they had stumbled upon - great fun!

Mon banc dominical / My Sunday Bench

Angles-sur-l'Anglin 

Is it us?

 

Went on another walk yesterday morning with Mike and Liz over at Angles-sur-l'Anglin and before doing so Pauline picked a map (?) of the proposed route. There are a number of good choices around the village, we choose to take the one that takes you up on the highground overlooking the river. 

It is a bit of a climb but once you are up there the great vista is worth it.

You then descend back down to pick up the narrow  shaded 'chemins'. 

At one point we had to step aside to give way to this horse and cart which took up the width of the track.

So far so good - following the 'marked' route wasn't always easy as the markings sometimes proved difficult to find, especially at locations where you had a 'choice'! Pauline had proved to be our most reliable 'spotter' but even she came unstuck at points. 

We ended up doing an extra two and a half kilometres as we all scratched our heads and phones trying to get back on th actual route.  We were under a wee bit of pressure as we had booked a table for lunch and were running late!

We ended up returning to the village from the other side on  a long stretch of the D2 - Pauline and I were familiar with this part of the route as the 'directions' had defeated us on a previous try. We all cheered as the village came back into view and ended up only 15 minutes late to take a lovely lunch on the terrace of No15.

Yesterday's short walk - rainbow paths and tricks of the light...

 We had a lovely morning for our 'short walk' yesterday up behind Le Grand-Pressigny around the l'Abbeye. Loved the way the light played with our surroundings.  

At one point we disturbed a group of butterflies which put on a show for us as we walked through them. 

Wising up...

Almost missed this fellow on our walk through the grounds of the chateau at Azay-le-Ferron last Saturday. He was part of the "Le Loup et le Cerf" an exposition of animal metal sculptures by Jérôme Garreau which are located throughout the grounds. Had it not been for our friend Mike being wise enough to look up we probably would have.

Wednesday for windows - pretty in Preuilly...

Preuilly-sur-Claise
 

From yesterday's short walk...

Short walk yesterday up behind 'La Perriere'

 

A walk in the grounds of Chateau d'Azay-le-Ferron

Mike and Liz joined us for a short walk on Saturday around the grounds of Chateau d'Azay-le-Ferron which are currently enhanced with an exposition of animal metal sculptures by Jérôme Garreau.

 "Le Loup et le Cerf" 

The walk should have been a bit longer than it was, normally including a walk around the perimeter wall but due to storm damage this had been cut short - it would have been good to have been told this before we set out as we did a bit of head scratching and map turning trying to find our way around the 'marked' route - I know, I do not have a great track record here but...anyway did not detract too much from a pleasant afternoon.

Mon banc dominical / My Sunday Bench - Azay-le-Ferron

Room for everyone in the gardens at Chateau d' Azay-le-Ferron

From garden to table...

 

Yesterday's pickings from our garden here at the Old Walnut Mill which Pauline used to make a lovely meal at a dinner for 'reuniting' friends last night in the courtyard and so begins another full weekend of socializing...and we wonder why the pounds are going back on! 

A short walk and what some people will do for a free lunch!

 

For yesterday's 'short walk' David took us over to the 'Foret de Preuilly' on what was a drizzly day - not what we would normally expect for August. This was disappointing as a picnic was planned for after the walk.

We were not going to participate in the picnic as we had a busy afternoon planned but as fate would have it we were invited to join in.

I was careless/stupid enough to lock my keys in th e boot of the car after changing my shoes. I was not a happy chappy!

Despite valiant attempts by Chris (we owe him a breadknife) David and his visiting son Jamie, we could not break into it - which I suppose is somewhat reassuring. We were sure we had a spare key in the house at La Guerche but the keys for that were,you guessed, in the car. We were invited to join our friends and ended up with a good lunch having a share of some very good picnic selections.

We had a number of offers to get us home from our generous friends and took up Chris and Gail's afternoon being driven to Barrou to get some tools to get into La Guerche, pick up the spare key and get us back to the car - too kind!