A morning walk to Cheniers

05.11.2013 by Trish // Leave a Comment

It has been raining on and off for the past fortnight and I have spent a lot of time going through my seemingly thousands of photos of castles, sunsets, and food.
A fair proportion of time has been spent in the very comfy sitting room of our cottage Watermeadows, reading a selection of the thousands (I kid you not!) of books which line the walls. These include the entire collection of the Poldark books for those old enough to have swooned over Ross Poldark in the BBC TV series, plus an awful lot of Dick Francis.
And of course, I have been eating! Lovely, delicious, scrumptious food like home made cake with strawberries from the local market and farm cream, to go with the hot chocolate to warm the cockles of your heart!

In the weeks before the rain I was able to justify such food delights by spending hours each day exploring on foot, but walking in the rain doesn’t hold any romantic appeal for me, and as a result, I think that either my jeans have shrunk a bit in these French washing machines, or perhaps they haven’t ……….

That is why, at 7:00am daylight saving time (translation…..only just light) I set off to walk the 6 kms to the local village for the daily baguette. Our cottage is in Champeau de Bas in The Limousin area of France which is sumptuously green and lush, with fields of golden canola dotted here and there, rusty red cows, little villages of stone houses with the quaint blue wooden window frames and dainty bright blue, yellow and white wildflowers twinkling in the grasses and ferns along the fences. The crisp air echoes with the song of the birds, the water bubbling through the undergrowth and roosters welcoming the sun shining through the trees.

How gorgeous is this countryside

Watermeadows as I set off at first light.

The vegetable plot

Ouessant (Ushant) sheep, bred on the island of Ouessant so that women were able to handle them while the men were off fishing

Les Hirondelles, a beautiful stone cottage

Sunrise

A freshly ploughed field (plus reflection, I love a reflection!)

View across the valley

They just followed me home, can I keep them please Mum? Please?

Halfway!

I love these tunnels of trees

Wildflowers

Chicken and donkey barns

Hello!

A stone cottage with green shutters (I know I said blue but this one has got green!)

Cheniers from across the valley

Only 1 km to go!

And it’s just started to rain……

The church spire, nearly there!

For sale, I wonder how much they want for it?????

The war memorial, still with flags and flowers from 8 mai.

Village shop and Post Office/Tourist Bureau/Bank/newsagency

The town square

I made it! A lovely walk through the French countryside. The driver kindly came and picked me up and I would like to have had a photo of me and the daily baguette, but I was cold and wet, so here’s the donkey outside the shop instead!

8 Mai 1945

05.08.2013 by Trish // Leave a Comment

8 Mai 1945
Le 8 mai 1945 est la date de deux événements historiques marquants :
La victoire des Alliés sur l’Allemagne nazie et la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en Europe marquée par l’annonce de la capitulation de l’Allemagne.
Ce jour est appelé le « V-E Day » pour « Victory in Europe Day».

May 8, 1945 is the date of two historical events:
The Allied victory over Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe marked by the announcement of the surrender of Germany.
This day is called “VE Day” for “Victory in Europe Day .”

Today I attended the Victoire 1945 ceremony in the small town of Aigurande, France. I was particularly keen to attend having missed out on attending ourvAnzac Day dawn service. All my attempts to find out from shopkeepers the previous day if there was going to be a ceremony, and if so when and where, were met with blank stares (note to self, brush up on war ceremony vocab) so it was lucky that on our trip into the town to buy our daily baguette we happened to notice a group of elderly gentlemen, some wearing medals, gathering at the town hall. This time I was lucky enough to find someone who’s war ceremony English was better than my war ceremony French, and also as luck would have it, we were just time for the ceremony.
It wasn’t a gathering as big as our Anzac Day ceremonies, attended mostly by elderly men and women and their families, with just a small gaggle of onlookers, and of course I only understood a smattering of what was said, but the feeling was the same.
As I watched the elderly men and women I wondered what their memories of the war were. Some of them would have been around the same age as my mother and aunty, whose memories were mostly of going down into the bunkers at Beaconsfield School in Fremantle with their gas mask, water and barley sugar when the air raid sirens went, and my aunty getting into trouble for eating her barley sugar. That story has been told over and over in our family, but I am sure there are stories that were never again told amongst these French men and women.

French flags around town

The war memorial in the town square

Gathering for the ceremony

This guy seemed to be the organizer but I just wanted to yell at him “Don’t let the flag touch the ground!”

Not sure who these guys were, cadets I think

Laying wreaths

Congratulations on receiving a medal, unfortunately I don’t know what the medal is.

Good to see young children involved

Salute to La Marseillaise, the French National Anthem

Living in a fairy tale: Verteuil-Sur-Charente

05.05.2013 by Trish // Leave a Comment

Dear WordPress, you may have noticed that I haven’t been around as much lately, my words few, no photos to show. I am sorry WordPress, but I have to confess I have been unfaithful. My eye has been taken by Fotopedia Reporter. It’s not that I haven’t been happy with you dear WP, I have, and I hope we can still be friends. In fact I hope we can all exist in a happy threesome.
It’s just that FR adds something different to my life, something “Je ne sais quoi”
This may just be a fling dear WP, I’m sure it is, I will be back…….
Trishagale

We have had a fabulous week in the fairy tale village of Verteuil-sur-Charente which I want to share with everyone and I think the pictures tell the story better than my words could. As I said in my confession to WP, my eye was caught by Fotopedia Reporter, so thought I’d give it a try! Enjoy!

FR and I are still ironing out a few relationship issues so please follow the link on FB or in the email.

People, places and patience

05.03.2013 by Trish // Leave a Comment

I’ve been back in France for a few days,trying to adjust to saying merci instead of gracias (being ‘sort of ‘multi-lingual can be a bugger sometimes!) and getting used to the fact that I can have dinner before 9:00 pm. But before I put Spain to bed in the blogging sense, I would like to share a few final thoughts What I Iiked best about Spain I know that most of you will think I’m going to mention something about food, and yes, I did enjoy eating in Spain. But what I have enjoyed most about Spain is the people and the real sense of community I felt when I was out and about. No matter where we were, whether it was a village, a town or city, there were places for people to get together – a little square with a few seats, a beautifully laid out park, a tree-lined footpath or a large plaza. I loved watching the couples, young and old walking along arm in arm, the kids playing football or riding their scooters, the old men sitting together enjoying the sun and having a snooze. I will miss our walks in the crisp, clear Spanish evenings, stopping to have a drink and tapas and watch the world go by.

Men in Mijas

Mobile DJ in Seville

What I learnt in Spain Patience! It is no good tapping your fingers, or sighing loudly if the man in the ham shop talks at great length to the customer he is serving, even after the ham has been delicately cut and wrapped in a cute little parcel, and money has changed hands. Even if there are 5 other people waiting to be served. He will keep chatting until he is ready to move on. End of story. Similarly, don’t toot if the person driving the car in front of you stops to talk to someone on the pavement. No-one else in the line-up will toot, the driver will finish his conversation and move on, and so will everyone else, all in good time.

What I didn’t like about Spain There’s nowhere to buy a coffee at 8:00am, cafes…….closed!

8:00 am - where can I get a coffee? — 8:00 am – where can I get a coffee?