Morning walk under the sun and among the sunflowers.

 

I joined Pauline for her morning (7.5km) walk yesterday as the sunflowers are out on her route. We set off at 8.15 am to avoid the worst heat of the day, it was still 20 deg. but not too unpleasant for the walk.

Always good to se the sunflowers against a blue sky. Having driven across a fair bit of Touraine over the last few weeks our local ones seem well ahead of most,

It wasn't all sunflwers of course.

Last week's walks...Sunday

On Sunday we joined neighbours here in La Guerche along with visitors from Descartes walking club for a 9.5k walk up in the countryside behind 'Le Maupas'. There is a challenging climb to start but it is well worth it for the views back to the village and along the Creuse valley.    

We eventually reached the welcome shade of the forest,where at the halfway stage of the walk, we had a sandwich and refreshment to set us up for the second half.

 

Have to say it was good to see the village again and as we arrived we were greeted by an apero in front of the Mairie.

A walk around the lake at Bellebouche - and two sides to the story.

Yesterday we headed over to La Brenne to take the walk around the lake at Bellebouche. We have visited the lake a few times before but never completed the 7km+ walk around it.

The first part of the walk down the east side of the lake was lovely with a walk along a path through the woods with occational views onto the lake itself.

The return, back along the west side was not so interesting with little or any views of the lake. It was however made more interesting when we arrived at this point below. 

We had to give way to a French family coming out this little lane from one of the 'hides' who then proceeded to walk past the blue cross. We explained to them that  the cross meant that this was not the way to go. Now, the alternative route,at 90 degrees to it, did seem wrong in that it was heading away from the lake but we tried to assure them that we were familiar with route markings and this was not the way to go.

The son of the family was not having it and produced a map on his 'smart' phone that implied it was in fact the correct route and they walked off by the blue cross. After visiting the hide  I looked at the alternative that was a long straight road in what seemed like the wrong direction and made the decision to follow them, what was the worst that could happen? (Haven't a great track record here)

We met and passed the family who had stopped to take photographs and as we looked back we noticed they seemed hesitant to continue along the path - they perhaps had Googled 'comprendre le balisage des sentiers'. Anyway I decided as there seemed to be a path and it was,in my opinion, in the right direction we should continue. Pauline on the other hand was not convinced. Had I ever let her down before? (well that's another few stories).

My decision and sense of direction proved correct and we eventually picked up the track that took us back to our starting point - not sure how long our French family would take to catch up but we decided that after taking a refreshment at the lakeside cafe that we wouldn't wait to find out!

Images from our Sunday stroll...

 

Sunday stroll - under a cloud

 Well many actually! Need this spell of inclement weather to end in order to lift our spirits!

Weather forecasting - get some cows!

 

Pauline has been keeping her eye on the weather forecasts during this rather changeable spell, to try and find us walking slots. Yesterday morning was predicted to be dry with no rain until early afternoon - so off we went. As we got to the last part of the walk this herd of cows took to their heels and ran under the trees as if spooked. They knew what was coming! Within minutes we were under a huge black cloud and then the heavens opened up!

We arrived home a bit droochit but this is not an unfamiliar experience for us,being Scottish!. Anyway we got in our walk and enjoyed it just the same!

More pushing of the boundaries...the Touraine triangle

This week for our daily exercise we managed to take in walks around the three villages within our 10km limit, with walks up behind La Guerche, Le Grand-Pressigny and of course Barrou.

Our Sunday stroll...and changeable weather.

Yesterday's walk around Barrou was accompanied with an umbrella in hand as it was not the best day weather-wise. It proved not to be needed but the afternoon didn't really cheer up much. 

The last few days have been so changeable - judge for yourself - this was taken on the same walk on Saturday afternoon!

 

Simple freedoms...

 

This time last year we were taking advantage of crisp February days to walk with the local Randonnée Club unaware of what lay ahead of us. Simple freedoms like being able to walk in the countryside with friends now lost to us. Pauline and I were just about to head down to my brother's in Provence and would only just make it back the day before the first lockdown.

What a difference a day makes...

A lovely winters morning yesterday for our walk - so much nicer than Sunday's which was cut short by the rain