Hot air in La Guerche

Spotted over La Guerche last night

Barrou in bloom!...

The label 'Ville Fleurie' has been around since 1959 here in France and is given to towns and villages who satisfy the necessary criteria of making their environment more attractive both for their own residents and for visiting tourists - this normally involves a lot of hanging baskets and troughs overflowing with multi-coloured blooms.There is a rating of one to four flowers but as with many things over here it does not always follow that a four 'fleurie' town or village is 4 times as attractive, indeed we have visited a few lower rated towns that are way ahead of many of their higher rated rivals.

Barrou has no rating but the guys who look after our village work very hard at keeping it tidy and attractive to visitors  this year they tried something a little different. On probably the least attractive corner of the village they have spelled out the village name in flowers - unfortunately it will not be immediately obvious to people driving past but they have to be commended for their efforts.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate their work might be to take a flight aboard our latest piece of local entrepreneurial flight of fancy at http://air-lae.blogspot.fr/

The early bird...

On Saturday morning around 7.30 am I heard the now not unfamiliar sound of a hot air balloon burner - which sounded as if it was out in our courtyard - it almost was! These things are noisy! 

What must it be like in the basket if we are hearing it as loud at ground level? I can only assume the relevant earplugs are issued on take-off. This is something we would like too experience - but it is a bit too rich for our pockets. 

They must have got up early for this flight as they were just about to land in the field by the side of the road on the way into Le Grand Pressigny, as we drove past to say goodbye to our guests just before 8.00 (they had a long drive to Zeebrugge ahead of them)..