Another walk through the fields and woodlands of Vitrac Saint Vincent.

Last Tuesday, our leisure club met in Vitrac Saint Vincent for a short walk along the banks of La Rivaillon, the small stream which runs through the village.   We walked south east along a country path, with the stream on our right, until we turned right to cross it, via an ancient narrow stone footbridge; soon thereafter we climbed uphill and turned right again, to follow a hillside contour, through oak woodland, back to Vitrac.  You can see our route below and read a bit more about Vitrac HERE.

Meeting in Vitrac next to the church.

The route we walked on  each side of the river.

The small village of Vitrac Saint Vincent. The old epicerie (grocery) on the corner has been for sale for several years, as has the little local bar, three doors up the road.  Sad, as it would be a lovely place to go and have a drink!!

La Rivaillon, now somewhat narrower here than it used to be, flowing under the road bridge on the D60.

We walked past the local junior school as we left the village.

Soon we saw this donkey, who greeted me very noisily!!

Walking on past the trees in their autumn colours... 

Our route took us back to a point very close to the stream.  The water level is quite low at the moment, but to see what it looked like in flood in 2011 see HERE

A couple of cows watched us walk by....

and these mushrooms, Gymnopus fusipes, were gathered by one of the walkers with much relish; she was telling us how delicious they are when young and fresh! We are very wary of collecting wild mushrooms, but the French seem to know just what they are doing!

Three huge oak trunks seasoning by the side of the road...

or, as you can see, it really is just a  farm track.

I was fascinated by these unusually shaped berries, but I have no idea what they are.

Thanks to both Nadege and the Fly, I now know this is Euonymus europaeus   commonly known as a spindle tree.  The berries are very toxic.  European spindle wood is very hard, and can be cut to a sharp point; it was used in the past for making wool spindles.

Crossing the river by the ancient stone footbridge.  The ground on either side was pretty wet and muddy, so I ended up with wet socks!

Golden leaves litter the woodland path on our way back to Vitrac....

and in the wood too.

Then the rain started to come down; luckily we both had waterproofs with us!

Despite the rain, it was not a  terribly cold day, so we much enjoyed a very pleasant walk in good company!

Also see my daily diary HERE

and My Life Before Charente (updated 16 October 2014) 

The Promised Renovation Update

When we bought our house in 2005 there was much we wanted to do, but due to various circumstances (the economy being one!), renovation has taken rather longer than we hoped or intended!  The final phase of work was to make 3 rooms upstairs in the grenier (attic) of the barn, and last year I helped a friend put the ceiling into this area, with  insulation above. The latter is 300 millimetres (one foot) thick - the current recommended standard! - see here.

The kitchen and lounge renovation, if you are interested in going back, is here.

The very dark earth- floored barn at the other end of the house, which became our bedroom, is here.

Finally, what has been keeping us in complete chaos for the past few weeks, is HERE.  I have put these photos as a stand alone page for my convenience and I am hoping that this does not deter you from viewing them.

Meanwhile, autumn has well and truly arrived here, and the temperatures are on their way down, with possible frosts early next week, so the forecast says at the moment!

Our oak tree is dropping acorns everywhere, but sadly we have no pigs around here who might benefit!

These pumpkins  will have to be brought in this week, before the cold arrives

This is a whopper of a butternut; it's not really ready to come in, but it cannot survive a frost either!

The chard looks great and this is a fantastic survivor in cold weather.

and last but not least, the butterflies are still fluttering around. 

Small Copper - Lycaena phlaeas.

Thanks Noushka

 

See also - My Life Before Charente updated  7 October 2012 

The Drive south......

Many of my readers will know this drive so well, but I thought that I would put on a series of photos for readers from other parts of the world.  Sadly the sun always seemed to be in our eyes, whichever road were were on, and many photos were taken on the move with my £70 Samsung, so I ask your forebearance with the  quality!

Autumn colours by the side of the M20 heading out of London to the Channel Tunnel

Not sure, but this was probably a junction between the M25 and M20, but I thought it was an interesting photo of the four level intersection.

The Folkestone White Horse is a stylised figure carved into the chalk of Cheriton Hill near the Kent  coastal town; an echo of the more famous and much older similar figures in southern England.  It overlooks the English terminal of the Channel Tunnel and was completed in June 2003.

In the queue waiting to board the train that takes us through the tunnel

and on the train.  I may add here that I hate the tunnel; when on my own I always travel by ferry. I am not happy with the closed in feeling and being under the sea!

 

Environmentally friendly maybe, but I am still happier 'on top'.

In my view, the French have brilliant graphics on their motorway  signage and the signs often inspire me to dig a little into the history illustrated on them. This sign, and the one that follows, are in northern France  and depict events from the Second World War, fought bitterly in this area.

La Coupole is a bunker complex built by  Nazi Germany in 1943-1944 to serve as a launch base for V-2 rockets against London and southern England. Constructed in a chalk quarry, the complex comprised an immense concrete dome above a network of tunnels that were to house the rocket launch facilities.  However, due to heavy bombing by Allied forces, the Germans were unable to complete the work and it was captured by the Canadian Army in September 1944 The site was subsequently abandoned and it lay derelict until the mid-1990s when it was redeveloped by the French into a museum.

Eperlecques is the site of another part completed rocket launch base, built and captured in the same time scale as La Coupole. It was designed to launch up to 36 rockets daily and was constructed with the aid of 2000 slave workers. Today, the bunker is preserved as part of a privately owned museum that presents the history of the site and the German rocket programme. It has been protected by the French state as a Monument Historique since 1986.

A shorter route south was suggested to us, and mistakenly we thought Paris might be quieter on a Sunday, so we took a trip on the Paris "Peripherique" (ring road)....    Not a good idea!

Most of the views we had of the great city (above and below) were all underground!! I wouldn't like this in the daily rush hour!

Beauce  is a highly productive, very flat, agricultural region southwest of Paris planted mainly with wheat, sugar beet, maize (corn) and barley.. Production has been diversified to include rape seed, potatoes, vegetables (for the canning and frozen food industries), and pulses.

Wind turbines as far as the eye can see.....

Valencay is  in the Loire valley. Its 12^th century Castle was rebuilt in 1540, but an owner in 1747 knocked down a lot of the building; the much reduced castle is  what can be seen today. Its owners seem to have struggled with finance and taxes – nothing changes!

Le Dorat is an ancient town in the Limousin area, with fine examples of Romanesque architecture, especially the 11th Century Collegiate of Saint-Pierre, pictured here.

We took many pictures of road signs, but due to the adverse light conditions, the above were the only ones worth publishing!!

Finally we made it home!

and the boxes and furniture arrived the next day

to await unpacking!

This post has, with Nigel's help, taken several days to write.  I am still not well and I have a really bad cough which is causing major headaches.  What with lack of sleep I am not a very happy person at the moment. I see the Dr again this afternoon so fingers crossed......  I will get back to blogging eventually!

Amazing Autumn

I have lost a lot of blog writing time over the past week, so I thought that I would just post these pictures, of subjects displaying what I think are beautiful autumn colours.  Yesterday we drove through the beautiful Oxfordshire village of Goring, so for those who asked me to post some accounts of places in the UK, watch this space.  There will be a post on Goring very soon.  These autumn photos were also all taken in the UK over the past few days.