La Premier Semaine

My first week in France is always divided by cleaning & opening the house & dealing with the fatigue of jetlag. The weather has been chilly & rainy. The sun has only been peeking out at intervals. Today it has been  constantly going in & out of the clouds providing at least some moments of glorious sunshine. Yesterday it rained pretty much all day. Whenever the sun does come out for any length of time, I get out as fast as I can & take a walk in the countryside.

This house has been closed up like this for as long as I can remember, at least twenty five years or more. I am sure that all of the furniture is still in place just as it was left. How I would like to take a look inside.

I did take a peek in the barn, however, & this is what I saw. 

It is so green this time of the year.

I had a bit of a staring contest with this curious cow. 

This is my friend Gabby's chicken coop. I love that it is beautiful with roses cascading over it.

Thanks for coming along on my walk with me. I hope your week has been a nice one & that you have had some glorious moments of 

sunshine too. 

A Walk Around the Village

An early morning stroll around the village is always a joyful & positive way to start the day.


I take a path past the château & it's lovely little footbridge, which crosses the road from the walls of the château to the large wooded garden on the other side.


Then on along the river where one finds the old mill just behind the towering walls of the château.


The neat rows of trees create a shady path beside the riverbank.


Just around another corner, I spotted this rose with its intense color & most unusual variegated petals.


Back in the square the sunlight shines on the old town clock. Once the hour was announced by the ringing of the bell at its peek. Sadly the mechanism no longer works but it was not all that long ago that the toll of the hour was a treasured part of village life.


My neighbor Claudette has already hung out her wash in the morning sun.


But not everyone has fully opened their shutters to embrace the day.


Almost back home again now, my neighbor, Aurora's pretty blue gate comes into view. The faintly visible decoration on the side of her wall was painted by the elderly previous owner's artist father. This being one of the many sweet details that reminds us of all of those that walked these same paths before us reveling in the same beautiful morning light.

Past & Present

It is hard to imagine that at one point our little village had its very own train station. Below is a photo of the train coming into the station. The figure farthest from the camera & closest to the train is the station master, who happened to be a women. That certainly must have been unusual for the time.


Today the old depot stands empty. Where the train tracks once were is now a busy thoroughfare. But the bones of the old building still exude the same dignified charm.


The old blue enamel sign still announces the point of arrival & departure.


I am very fond of the small out building that once housed the restrooms or perhaps more correctly the public "outhouse". The words "Hommes" & "Dames" are still unmistakable above the doors. Although, someone has taken away the pretty old doors that had remained there until only recently, there is still enough detail to imagine it as it once was. I believe that the center part, which as far as I can tell was always left open, was for some sort of sink or place to wash up after a long journey.


There is one other building that seems to have been some sort of warehouse space or perhaps something to do with the mechanics of the trains. It has a large opening which makes one curious about its use.


The arriving passengers would walk from the station across the old foot bridge, which crossed the river just in front of the château, & into the village.



The thirteenth century château is still standing, looking very much the same. But the little foot bridge is long gone. Although the bridge is no more, the old stone steps which lead to it are still there, now leading to nowhere in particular.



In 1930 the town experienced a great flood, which is still talked about today. It washed away many of the buildings along the river as well as the foot bridge. The waters rose so high that there were actually boats in the town square.


After the flood a new bridge was constructed. The kind gentleman, who shared these photos from his collection of old post cards with me, remembers the day the new bridge was inaugurated. He was five years old. Everyone wore their Sunday best & came from near & far. But what he most remembers, were the tiny pieces of brightly colored paper that they threw into the air. It was the first time he had ever seen confetti.


In comparing the old photo, which was taken soon after the new bridge opened, to the one taken today, it is evident that the street & the houses remain very much the same. In the old photo you can even see the wisteria arbor that runs across the front of the end house on the right.


That arbor is still there, & as beautiful as ever. Above is perhaps a better view, looking in the opposite direction from the bridge towards the end of the street.



The heavy twisting trunk of the wisteria must be some indicator of it's age but there is no question that it can be seen in the photo taken more than 80 years ago.



It weaves its way completely around the house & is magnificent in spring when it is fully in bloom.


Past or present, there is certainly a great deal to appreciate about this little village.