Fete Medievals de Loches - this weekend

Fete Medieval 2014

The town has an annual medieval festival - this year seems to be earlier than usual on May  24th & 25th

You can see the programme of events here:

http://a-tous-les-temps.over-blog.com/

You can see 2013's here : loirevalleyexperiences.blogspot

Chaumont garden festival 2014 - a walk through in pictures...

A slideshow of all the gardens in the sequence they are laid out at the garden festival.

Chaumont Garden Festival 2014

Here are some pics. from last Friday's visit to Chaumont-sur-Loire's garden Festival.

Church on Sunday...Saint-Christophe,Bléré

Interesting church, Saint-Christophe in the town of Bléré on the river Cher in that it is actually two churches that have come together....you can read more here....

The perfect day?...

Out to play again yesterday with Mike & Liz...good lunch at 'Le Cheval Blanc' in Bléré... 

then searching out the nice Sauvignon Blanc that accompanied the meal at 'Plou & Fils' at  Charge just outside Amboise and conveniently on the route to our afternoon visit...

...to the Garden Festival' at Chaumont-sur Loire. More details to follow! Mike was kind enough to drive...back to Barrou and over to Scottish couple who are staying in gite opposite us for aperos- the perfect day?

Expect the unexpected....

We were invited along to a 'neighbour' in the nearby village of Chambon for an aperitif last night and were really taken by his barn conversion.

His house is a delight of distractions from his 'live in' model for his paintings to his brocante purchases 

Deflating...

Yesterday lifted 32 concrete blocks on to my trailer,pulled away only to find one of my tyres didn't like it and I suddenly had a flat...took off the 32 blocks and fitted the spare...reloaded the 32 blocks only to find spare didn't have enough air in it either - wouldn't blow up with the load on...took off the 32 blocks,blew up the tyre reloaded half of them transported them and delivered them to their new home where they were unloaded - back for last sixteen - loaded them - delivered and unloaded them. Not a good way to spend an afternoon! I have to point out a very patient friend (Mike) helped me both with the lifting and keeping it together...body and soul.

Weekend's brocante...

Yesterday,due to the weather forecast, we decided to pick the closest one to us here in Barrou rather than what might reveal the greatest treasure - that meant heading over to a rather overcast Coussay-les-Bois.

We managed to get round the not-so-many stalls before the rain came on forcing the participants to bring out the polythene sheets. I bought another small original oil-on-canvas (€2) and was tempted by this quirky little table - but Pauline was not having it!

It actually cleared up enough for us to head into the market at Descartes - for some supplies - where it hadn't been raining at all and then rushed back as we were invited into our neihbours for our first BBQ of the year.

The rain eventually reached Barrou but we didn't let it spoil our afternoon.

Home sweet home...

 Our wee house in Barrou...

...on our big road,Grande Rue...

...where we have made many friends...

...by  the river Creuse.

We really are so lucky!

Picnic anyone?

Sounds like a great idea you take the Picnic they supply the wine...'Pique-Nique chez Vigneron Indépendant': 7th-9th June 2014.Thanks Jim...

http://www.vigneron-independant.com/pique-nique/

Wisteria lane...

Over working in the garden at 'Les Balcons' today where the witeria is in full bloom - nature is quite magical.

This weekend's brocante...

Was at at Saint-Rémy-sur-Creuse. under blue skies.

 Pauline picked up  a €3.00 gym map still in the wrapper and I was tempted by this familiar face ...

...but resisted though I thought our friend Liz may have liked it after listening to his 'tribute' act back in August

How time flys...or should that be flies?

Actually I don't have the time to care - maybe I should but I of an age where I am getting more and more conscious of how quickly time disappears...it is actually 9 years (can't be!) since we bought our little house here in Barrou in Centre Val-de-Loire and 9 years to the day since Pauline had her first glimpse of it. I had actually bought it with Pauline only seeing it on the web but it was love at first sight...

We are only just getting it the way we want it.

I could be a millionaire, if I had the money.

Then I could maybe put a bid in for this wonderful Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed house advertised in the Telegraph ...my dream house? quite possibly!

 Above image credits :http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Our last house in Scotland was built by a CRM enthusiast and had a few features linking to his designs with the stair rail having the four square hole design that is a much used in his furniture design...

like our dining room suite which was a replica of the famous 'Main Street Dining Suite' that he had made for his own house in Glasgow.

When we bought the house all the woodwork was dark rosewood - CRM style but we decided to change it  -Pauline almost wore her fingers down sanding it all - and go for his white look.

For the handrail separating the dining area and lounge I designed a sort of 'negative' in metal of his design which I hope he would have approved of.

BTW the dinning room suite has been in our barn here in Barrou since we moved over to France 6 years ago as it was just too big to accommodate in either of our houses but we have plans to restructure the lounge here in Barrou to bring it back in use -  we are looking forward to sitting down to eat at it again. 

Footnote: Post title is a line from one of my favourite songs by Clifford T.Ward

'Home thoughts from abroad' - here he is doing it 'live'