The wild,wild wind...

We recently moved into our Le Grand Pressigny ('Les Balcons') house for the winter. Of our two houses, our Barrou house winters best.  Being  stone built, with good thick walls, it survives with just turning everything off and closing the door. 'Les Balcons' however requires a little more TLC, so we are as well  using it while administering it! The other thing is, we do not get a chance to use it during the warmer months as fortunately it rents out well during these periods. Our houses are our business so we need to look after them well in readiness for the new year ahead. Since all the major projects at 'Les Balcons' were completed for the beginning of last season, the work now is more 'tweaking' to make sure everything is up to standard. The one thing we can't prepare for is 'natural disasters' so the current high winds (over 50mph)  make us feel a little vulnerable. I am a light sleeper, so do not enjoy lying listening to the phenomenon that is wind, especially when it is a wild one! I have visions of our lovely balcony roof soaring through the air to its new destination.

What is wind exactly? - it's air, which on the face of it is pretty harmless but when it becomes wind  it can be real scary, with the strength to blow off roofs and rip trees out of the ground. From my school days (not yesterday) we were taught that wind is 'moving air caused by differences in air pressure within our atmosphere. Under high pressure air moves toward areas of low pressure. The greater the difference in pressure, the faster the air flows' and we have wind. I don't know about you but I always felt short-changed by this explanation - maybe because we can't see or touch it but only see the effects of it. Wind, has always for me, taken on a somewhat mystical quality. Its ability to go quiet and appear to have 'passed over' but then sneak back up on you with a wham is awesome!


We are currently waiting for daylight so as we can view the house externally as from the inside it sounds as if it has taken a real hammering - will let you know how we get on,,,

Under cover ...

Because of the inclement weather on our visit to Tours on Friday we sought out as many opportunities to be undercover as possible thus we ended up in 'les Halles' the city's indoor market, a place we had not actually visited in all our trips here. They are splendid indeed with quality butchers (so many - how does someone choose?) fresh fruit and veg.stalls plus many more.

There is also the 'Palais des Epices' where you will find all the spices and pulses you'll ever need.

But what really caught my eye was someone leading a very large dog out of the market at the other end of the halls - with a second look I realised it was in fact a goat! I tried to take a quick pic - below is the result  - sorry about the quality.

Window dressing...

December flowers


While walking through Tours I spotted this lovely Christmas window dressing cleverly utilising the still-blooming geraniums of summer - its December?

We also had the 'wild marigolds' cheering us up 

opposite the bus stop in  Le Grand Pressigny.

The hard sell...

One of the things I dislike about the Christmas markets is the hard-selling techniques that the stallholders apply,,,

Not !!!

Christmas Tour(s)ing...

Lack of festive cheer.

We visited Tours, here in the Loire Valley, on Friday to check out their Marché de Noël. We took the bus from Le Grand Pressigny 3.40 euro return, great value, although currently they are offering a 1.00 euro deal on Saturdays in December to promote this - even better. There were not many visitors nor a great deal of Christmas cheer about - the dreich day did not help. In spite of this we had a good day out with the usual lunch (at the 'Chien Jaune') and coffee stops.

It did get slightly better towards the end of the day as night fell and the lights came on to provide a small degree of festive cheer.

Still, there is always next year...

Out for a walk around the village I took a closer look at the sign on our distillery at the edge of the village.It seems that if you were not here with your fruit on the first of the month,the chance has gone.

 It may not look much but it is an important part of the village history. The right to distil liquor has been handed down from generation to generation We believe that in the past every village had its owns still or alambic, producing eau-de-vie (water of life), the traditional, unsweetened, clear fruit brandy that is distilled from pears, raspberries, cherries or plums but almost any fruit can be used. We have heard that the current distiller does not have an heir so sadly the 'right' will end with his demise, though he looks to have a good few years left in him yet. I went a couple of years ago with my neighbour (and his pears) to experience the process.

The process ends with the 'water of life' dropping unceremoniously  into a yellow plastic bucket - nice!

Zeal of Zebras...

Recently I have noticed that France seems to have a fresh zeal for pedestrian crossings in their towns and villages.As I drove through the villages along the D50 on my return from Tours recently I could not help but be drawn to the fact that the number of crossings seemed inappropriate to the potential demand for them. I saw no-one using any of them, indeed I only saw one person crossing the road between Tours and Ligueil and he did not use the nearby crossing.  The ones in Liguueil were the only ones I saw used. I shouldn't have been surprised as we all know its rare to see anyone on the streets in many of the villages anyway. Almost all our guests at our houses ask us "Where are all the people?" we explain it away with by fact that most of these rural villages have an elderly population who tend to stay indoors for most of the time. Either that or the Martians have 'beamed' them all up!

Sadly my thinking along these lines (black and white) got me noticing them more and more - did you know for example that between the town centre and out of town shopping at Yzeures-sur-Creuse here in the Loire Valley there are 9, yes 9, crossings - on a one kilometre stretch of road - why?

Footnote:

Here is a photograph from wikipedia of probably the most famous zebra crossing in the world - I, like many others  have taken time out during a London visit to walk across it.

'Brocontes Bizarres'

 The local authority at Chatellerault should have sent someone along to this brocante to help with their traffic control issue. Apparently it was not very heavy for transporting! I had to control myself so as not to buy it!

Light on traffic control...

The D725 route into Chatellerault has changed over recent months with the addition of three mini roundabouts, something along with pedestrian crossings, the French seem to have embraced with great gusto in recent times.

As we used the route it was interesting.to note that for the most part there was no traffic control with seemingly a free-for all attitude prevailing. We did have a giggle to ourselves when after leaving the town we headed over to buy some walnut oil, at the mill at  Availles-en- Chatellerault - we came across this set of lights,on red,on a country road with no visible work going on and no other traffic on the road!

They could have loaned them to Chatellerault.

French road signs 4

Commenting recently on French signage or indeed the lack of it meant when we came to this junction on the D2/D5 Angle sur l'Anglin /St.Savin road we were really surprised.

It had a total of 17 directional signs !! is it a departmental thing?

This was in Vienne - maybe they have a bigger budget.

A walk around...

It was such a lovely day on Friday (2nd Dec.!) that we decided we had to go out for a walk. We drove down to one of our favourite villages Angles sur l'Anglin to try out another of the five 'Promenades communales' walks around this lovely village.We chose the walk that took us by the cemetery and 40 metres up over the river L'Anglin.With the wet leaves underfoot some parts of the walk were just a little unsafe - in the UK you wouldn't be allowed to walk there until it was fenced off. Once we climbed up on to the top there was a terrific viewing point 'Roc a Midi' which was downright dangerous - I braved a step onto this rocky outcrop to get you a photograph that shows quite a different view of the village.

Click on the image to enlarge it -the village is unrecognisable apart from the castle ruin on the right

We actually diverted slightly off the route and ended up doing a few kilometres more than we intended but it was a good walk.We came back into the village via  the D2 road which gives you some excellent views of the castle ruins.

Marchés de Noël -La Roche Posay

Yesterday we visited our first Christmas market of the season,at La Roche Posay.It was actually a bit underwhelming and sadly when we were there, just after lunchtime, it was not very well attended.Most of the voices we heard were actually English.which felt a little strange - it was rather a dreich day so no doubt that had a bearing on it. A little rain doesn't stop the Brits from getting out there enjoying themselves.

Here is a sample of the entertainment provided by the ever enthusiastic troupe.

Ra Beatles...

On our recent trip to Chatellerault we were walking around near 'Les Halles' when we saw a second smaller tourist office (does the town really need 2?) which was advertising a concert for May 2012.  I had to do a double take.There is a Beatles tribute band here in France and they are coming to Chatellerault. I enquired inside - once I distracted the web-surfer in this not busy office, to ask the ticket price. They are 36 euros each! Now I am a big Beatles fan and might have been interested but not at that price.  Apparently they have been making a good living from this since 1999. 

Here are the Rabeats in concert - judge for yourself.

Footnote: One of my favourite concerts ever was Wings at the SECC in Glasgow 1990 where Paul featured some of the Beatles hits - great! You can see the set-list for that night here. Sadly I still have the ticket stub.

One of my all-time favourite albums is  Wings' 'Band on the run'.                                                     Favourite Beatles album? Revolver/Abbey Road equal . 

Window eye-popping...

While in Chatellerault we popped into the church (you know we like churches) 'Eglise Saint-Jean Baptiste' as in spite of the number of times we have visited the town we had not crossed its threshold, maybe because it tucked away at the end of the busy Boulevard de Blossac.

We are glad we did - the windows are a delight!

Window shopping...

We have visited Chatellerault many times since moving here to the Loire Valley. Although it is in the neighbouring  department of Vienne it is within easy reach of our Southern Touraine locations. Our shopping trip last week opened my eyes a little to the fact that it has more to offer than perhaps our earlier visits had indicated. This was probably a lot to do with the fact that we were normally making a frustrating visit to the Orange shop with some problem or other re our phone or 'livebox'. I would have to admit to actually taking a small degree of pleasure from our walk round the shops -lunch stop and coffee stop helped.

As we were doing a bit of window shopping I tried to buy this one but they weren't selling!

ORANGE footnote: Did you know you could be paying too much for your phone and internet service.You should not be paying any more than 40 euros for the package that includes internet and free international calls. Their prices went down but unless you ask for the better deal they do not offer it, they say it's for new subscribers - you have to push for it as it is your entitlement.

Not Bernard-Gautier but...

Before I packed Pauline off for her visit to Scotland we decide to take a trip into Chatellerault - we would have lunch at restaurant 'Bernard-Gautier' as a treat - my idea - and do a little Christmas shopping - her idea. The restaurant had been recommended to us by friends, so off we went in expectation,only to find that it was closed for redecoration!. We advise our house guests to phone ahead when thinking of dining here in France - sound advice!

Photograph courtesy of www.idealgourmet.fr

So having planned to arrive just in time for lunch as we had, we had to come up with an alternative, now as it happens Bernard Goutier is located in a less than salubrious part of town - next door to a builders merchant's yard - but this somehow makes it more appealing to us. The yard actually separates it and another restaurant La petite Villette which  is a bar/restaurant and seemed comfortable in its surroundings -we decided against it - well I did actually. I have since been told by my friend and neighbour David that it's  an excellent eating establishment -in fact a 'Restaurant Traiteur' which Wilipedia describes thus:

"Today in France, a traiteur is a catering business devoted to take-out food and service of banquets. Many traiteurs also undertake home delivery. Generally there is no seating on the business premises; a few traiteurs may have very limited seating. Especially in market towns where there is competition, traiteurs take great pride in the beauty of their window displays" and here was me thinking  these establishments were owned by people who had not distinguished themselves during the war!

Anyway, we headed back into the centre of town to a place on the main square (rectangle?) to the Cafe de l' Industrie where we had lunched a couple of times before. Not gourmet food but always good and great value -plat plus dessert plus coffee  11.00. We had lamb on couscous... plus a lovely creme broulee.

As you can tell from the photograph the town has been infested with giant moths and the evidence of preventative measures are there for all to see.

Staggering!

This staggering tree trunk can be seen on the D13 road to La Celle Guenand just outside La Grand Pressigny.
Just after taking this photograph we saw two fallow deer running over the field in the distance and on into the woodland beyond. What amused us was the sight of their white bums bobbing up and down as they ran off, as if nature had played a bad joke on them, making them easy targets for chasseurs who are currently out in force.

Mistreeria lane...sorry!

I was desperate to show it - it's actually the road leading up to 'La Folie' off the D59 

French road signs 3 - where to now?

Haven't the foggiest!

On my way over to take some updated photographs for 'La Folie' ( I designed the website) last Friday I had to pass through Betz le Chateau (there are still some bananas about) then take the road marked for Ligueil. That brings you to this junction on the D58 - now I know I need to go left but strangers arriving for the first time,  if they turn around at the junction, get to know where they have come from and where turning right would take them - so by deduction it must be left  - is that how it works? or do we need to have a map or sat -nav - no fun in that!

Here's the misterious looking chateau of Betz le Chateau.

Lunch over in a flash...

A few Sundays ago as we were out and about, we decided to try the Auberge Saint Nicholas, part of the 'Logis hotel' group, in the nearby village of  Preuilly-sur-Claise.

We had eaten at a couple of other restaurants in the village before but had not tried here. I would have to admit that in the past we were slightly put of by its rather drab exterior but at a recent fund raiser held by our friend Denise we were introduced  to a charming French lady who,while talking about restaurants in the local area, recommended it.

The inside of the restaurant was very pleasant and belied its dull exterior

The food was good local Tourangelle fare with a lunch menu priced at 18.00 euros (Sunday) plus good value wine by the carafe. Before I took the photographs I did, as I usually do, ask the lady 'front of house' if this was ok. She asked if I could perhaps wait a little while before dong this, I thought perhaps to allow the few other diners time settle into their lunch. When we had just finished our deserts madame presented herself to say she was ready to be photographed! Slightly embarrassed (not as much as she) I explained it was in fact the restaurant interior I was after as subject matter! She did take it well however and I now feel we should go back and take her photograph - maybe she is/was someone famous and is used to being asked to be photographed.