St Maixent

St Maixent is the only town we visited while i was there. The rest of the time was spent admiring the countryside. This is a beautiful well preserved medieval town.

More trees and walks

Spring Blossom in France

the weather may have been poor...........but somethings were good.

The little wood spirit.

While in France I took several walks in the fields and lanes by my sisters house. This particular tree fascinated my. It was along a deserted lane overlooking a derelict cottage. I imagine the little wood spirit of the tree sitting guard over the ruins night and day. Actually, it was quite spooky.

A misty morning in France

Its taken me a while..............but here are some of the photos I took in France. The weather wasn't that good and I started taking early morning walks if it was dry. One morning it was cold, damp and misty, but I thought that made every thing look beautiful.

Song saturday...........music from France

And, in keeping with my mood, here is some music with a distinctively French feel.............

Returned from my travels.

Returned from my travels.

Here I sit, returned from France and more or less caught up with myself. It was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to spend time in ‘very’ rural France with only the sound of birds, cows, sheep, the donkey who lives down the lane, frogs and the occasional tractor to break the silence.
It was equally good to spend a bit of quality time with my sister, not to mention experience her delicious country cooking.
The weather was pretty awful at times, we had some sunny days and, on the whole it was warmer and dryer than it was at home, but it wasn’t the hot sunny break I’ve experienced in the past. I walked along the country lanes some mornings before breakfast; the cold misty mornings showed me a whole new side to the area. It was quite beautiful, but in a totally different way. I just love her garden, it’s quite wild, and much bigger than most gardens, more like a small field really with magnificent views across the country side. She has cherry and apple trees, many different fruit cains, a walnut tree, a fig tree and a selection of vegetables, salad food and herbs in varying stages of growth. The Forsythia was in full bloom, along with the hawthorn flower and the blossom from the peach trees, but every thing has been delayed by about 3 weeks due to the exceptionally harsh winter and the recent bout of bad weather. This time last year every where you looked you would see Wisteria, and Lilac in full bloom, this year the buds started to show just as I was leaving.
We explored the little towns nearby where I admired the ancient medieval architecture; France seems to retain so much more of its historic built environment than we do. We preserve grand houses, but France seems to have more of the humble traditional buildings left intact.
On one of our excursions we visited a local trade/ craft exhibition where I spied this tiny rose quartz Buddha. He was pretty expensive for what he is, 22 Euros, but I bought him anyway because I fell in love with him.

We had some sunshine, I even managed to get a bit of a tan, but some days were spent on the sofa beside the log fire with a good book. These days I only seem to get the chance to read while on holiday, it was a real treat to have uninterrupted peace, no phone, no doorbell, no anything, just glorious isolation and peace. I picked up a book at the airport that I’m still ploughing my way through, it’s a fascinating, enlightening, thought provoking  book that should be compulsory reading for any student of international politics/ economics. Yep it’s more of a a ‘serious’ read than your typical holiday reading, in fact I’ve not picked up a book like this since I left Uni. The book in question is ‘When China Rules the World’; by Martin Jacques, published penguin, ISBN 978-0-140-27604-6. Most reviews seem intent on dismissing his ideas, personally I found the whole argument interesting and in places pretty convincing. At times its a bit repetitive but its easy to understand, you don't need to sit with the dictionary to read it and its full of ideas I've never thought about before. If any one is up for a political read please give this one a go and let me know what you make of it. I would be interested.

On the nicer days I did some drawing and painting, but not as much as I planned. I painted the tiny building opposite their house that they presently used as a garage.
This one little painting that should have taken a couple of hours ended up taking three or four days. I would go out, set up my painting stuff, and just as I was getting into the swing of things, down would come the rain and off indoors I would go until the following day when the whole process would start all over again. I eventually finished it by taking a photo of the building and painting from that on the kitchen table.

So … briefly….. that was my holiday, the rest of the weekend will be spend doing all the normal ‘just back from holiday’ things, catching up with laundry, check the garden, contact the kids etc etc. Hopefully I’ll also spend a little time catching up here, and then on Monday it’s back to work I go.

Fields of corn

Just a few pictures of the corn that was growing every where. that area seems to concentrate on oil crops, the sunflowers were grown for oil and so is the corn. Fields and fields of corn growing in the red soil always looks good in the sun.

ruined rural buildings, France

These are some of the many ruined farm buildings found in South West France.I thought they would make good paintings

Sweet peas growing wild.

This tiny grey house is empty and in ned of total renovation. It stands next to my sisters house in France at the bottom of the lane. This was one of my favourite places to sit and draw while I was there. the sweet pears are glorious, many of the other flowers were past their best when I was there and in some places the landscape looked dry and bleached, but this little corner was a riot of colour.

Plan d'Eau, Saint Christophe sur Roch 79410 CHERVEUX

What is a Plan d'Eau?
Many Deux-Sèvres villages in South West France have recognised the need to provide local water-based facilities for leisure activities for both local residents and tourists. Several areas have invested in parks with artificial lakes, woolands walks, beaches, recreational games, fishing, picnic areas and swimming. These places are perfect for lazy family days out, and they are not usually crowded or expensive, Swimming areas are cordoned off and usually have lifeguards in attendance.
In total there are 17 Plans d'Eau in Deux-Sèvres, ensuring that there is at least one within close proximity to all local communities. This particular one is

Saint Christophe sur Roch 79410 CHERVEUX
Water toboggan, swimming, mini-golf, tennis, fishing (top category), pedalos, games and picnic area, camping, restaurant
05 49 05 21 38
plandeaucherveux@aol.com

Satallite picture here

http://www.campster.fr/object.aspx/36561/Camp_Du_Plan_DEau_De_Saint_Christophe

This place made me understand why so much of the best art has come from France and why all the best artists seem to have spent time in France. Every thing an artist needs for inspiration is right here..................

Rouille and Sanxay , Southern France

A couple of the small towns I visited on my recent visit.

France; the area around L'audouiniene

This is the name of the tiny hamlet where my sister lives. There is her house and the house opposite and that is all. These photos are all taken within walking distance of her house.

France; Fish, wildlife and garden ponds.

A collection of some of the wild life, including a big shiny blue beetle that I can't identify and some of the green frogs that make such a noise.

The helpers, the dogs and the field.

This is the small field. Natsumi is planting veg in the bit thats already cleared and then Garry arrived and cleared some more of the brambles and dense undergrowth. .

France; The House and Gardens

this is the bit where they live.

I have so many photos, it could take me a while to post them all.....but here are the first. These are all of the actual house, out buildings and gardens.

return from France...........

Hope you all had an excellent Easter, I had an unbelievably wonderful time in France. I went back to work the day after I arrived home and it has taken me another week to catch up with myself.

The situation in France is that my sister and her husband have gradually bought up a row of tiny rural cottages situated in the heart of south west France in the middle of no where. They are both now retired and have finally relocated and are permanently resident in France. One end of their building is totally renovated and they live there, the rest is in various stages of neglect, decay and/or restoration. They also have a large garden plus a small field, which is good, but to start with it was all totally overgrown with brambles and trees, which was not so good, they have cleared the land little by little. They grow as much of their food as they can and hope at some point to be virtually self sufficient in food. They both have health problems and in order to get every thing done they take in 'helpers'.

Apparently there are websites that put helpers in touch with hosts and vice versa. The deal is; the helpers commit to working a twenty five  hour week over a five day period and in return the hosts give free accommodation and three good, home cooked meals per day plus weekends off. It seems to be a mutually beneficial arrangement for those wanting to travel and see the world on little or no money and those who like a rural life or have undertaken large building projects and are unable to do all the work themselves.

While I was there I met a lovely Japanese lady called Natsumi who helped with the gardens and cooked authentic Japanese food. Then a couple of Scottish lads turned up and helped clear part of the field ready for ploughing and planting. As I was leaving a lady called Erica from Texas arrived, she was a little older than some of the helpers and I think she was about to take over household duties and give my sister a bit of a rest.

Just before I arrived my sister had replied to an advert offering about 50 pond goldfish and various pond plants free to a good home. The lady who placed the ad was closing down her pond and just wanted every thing taken away. By the time I arrived my sister had put up a very old ( also very big) childrens pool in her garden and relocated the contents of this pond into it. I spent a large part of every day lazily walking around the pond netting all the fry I could see.

By the end of my stay I had set up a nursery tank with over 40 fry, set up a display tank with six of the prettiest adult fish and relocated a couple of the fry to her small wild life ponds ( more ex-childrens pools) because I noticed that the mosquito larvae was already beginning to appear. I can't begin to tell you how utterly relaxing it was to have nothing to do every day except listen to the birds, listen to the frogs, wander around the grounds, eat well and spend hours every day netting fish................ahhhhh bliss, can't wait to go back.

I have so many photos, I've already separated them into different folders and I'll post them all over the next couple of days. I thought I would be able to post something while i was there but her connection was very slow and I didn't really get the chance..........too busy enjoying myself.