PROMENADE A POUANCE

POUANCE AUX MARCHES DE BRETAGNE

Voici la petite ville de 3500 habitants où j'ai grandi de 2 à 23 ans. Pouancé, située aux portes de la Bretagne est chargée d'histoire et à travers mes balades à vélo j'ai redécouvert cet endroit. Elle a subi de nombreuses guerres de succession entre l'Anjou et la Bretagne au 13ème siècle. Voici d'abord le château du 13ème siècle où serait passé Du Guesclin pendant la guerre de 100 ans. L'Anjou, dont fait partie Pouancé, était un pays de "grande gabelle", la taxe sur le sel. Il avait donc son grenier à sel encore visible aujourd'hui.

Je suis passée au pied du grand moulin qui n'est plus en activité depuis 1982 mais qui a fourni le farine à la population pendant de nombreux siècles.
Je me suis dirigée vers le quartier de la Fuye (les fuyards était le nom donné aux pigeons) où l'ancien pigeonnier seigneurial du 15ème siècle a vu sa charpente restaurée.

J'ai suivi le sentier de Tressé qui m'a conduit près de l'étang de la Forge où un observatoire à oiseaux a été installé. Puis le château de Tressé s'est dévoilé au détour d'un bois. Sur le sentier des écureuils, le nom de nombreux arbres étaient inscrits me permettant de développer ma connaissance sylvestre.

Après ces redécouvertes nostalgiques, je suis rentrée me reposer dans la ferme de mes parents, " la Landefrière".

TO THE MANOR BORN

Bruce and Steven's party in Varennes.


Which way to the party?


The grand entryway.


Bruce, the host, tout fleuri.


A very handsome couple at the party.


Bob and Mark (Real Housewives of Key West).

“PEUPLES DU MONDE, NOTRE HEURE EST VENUE”

Hopeful sign on a window-ledge in
Càndes-St-Martin

Dans le discours prononcé 24 juillet à Berlin, Barack Obama estime qu’il faut désormais “render l’espoir aux oubliés de la mondialisation”. Le candidat à la Maison Blanche reconnait qu’en Afghanistan “les Etats-Unis ne peuvent pas agir tout seuls”
Le Monde, July 26 2008.

OBAMA'S SPEECH IN BERLIN

JFK'S SPEECH IN BERLIN



Notre fleur est venue!

FELIZ CUMLEAÑOS, ANITA

A beautiful rose in Càndes-St-Martin

We made the traditional pilgrimage to light a candle in memory of Rich’s mom, Anita. This year we walked down to the church in Cándes on her birthday. Hopefully, Vladimir remembered to light a candle in Redwood City for his grandmother. If not, we will do it together when we get back.

I wanted to light a candle in memory of the Cuban Revolution which is considered to have started on this day in 1953 with the assault on the Moncada Barracks signaling the beginning of the end for the Bautista regime. Barack Obama made no mention of the continuing embargo against the Revolution in his speech in Berlin. Does he plan to continue the embargo when he becomes the 11th president to menace the Cuban people or is he offering hope to them too?
We had coffee at the Brocante des Metiers where I bought another copy of the Petit Larousse Illustré (the 1910 edition).

VISITE DE LA PRIEURALE DE CUNAULT

Vous êtes à la prieurale de Cunault. Ce petit village qui fait partie de la commune de Chênehutte-Trèves-Cunault fut un centre important de pèlerinage au Moyen-Âge. Des moines s'y sont réfugiés pour fuir les Normands arrivés de Nantes par la Loire. Cette église romane est une des plus jolies de France. On peut y observer les reliques de St Maxenceul, un orgue majestueux et une très belle piéta. Durant tout l'été 2008 s'y succèdent des concerts de musique classique réputés.

Chers Mairtin et Richard, nous avons passé de très belles journées en votre compagnie et nous vous remercions, c'était un réel plaisir!

SCHOOL DAYS

Christelle in her classroom in the town of Cunault.

We drove to Saumur to meet Christelle and Christophe. They were going to take us touring through some of the small villages along the Loire north of Saumur. We especially wanted to see the church at Cunault. As a bonus Christelle wanted to show us her school. Dark clouds were threatening rain but we were in a good mood and didn't really believe that it would rain. It did!


Epouvantils (scarecrows) in the school garden.

We went first to Christelle's school. She is the head teacher but also teaches the equivelant of K-1. There are only two teachers at her school. Her colleague has a classroom with a wide range of ages, from 2 through 5. It's a bit like a one-room schoolhouse from Little House on the Prairie.
Christelle's salary is paid by the State but almost all the other expenses are paid for by the local government. Just like schools in California that arrangement can lead to great inequalities - wealthier communities pay for lots of extras, rural villages struggle to provide the basics.


Gallo-roman leftovers.


The tymaneum of the church of Cunault showing the Virgin in majesty with Himself on her lap.


A well-known writer I had never heard of. A local boy.

After the school we took a look in the local cemetery which holds the final resting place of Herve Bazin, a writer. This little cemetery was a little like Père Lachaise with its one famous novelist.


Algeria was the big one for France but this poor guy lost his life in France's lessor known war in Tunisia.

As we were walking down to the church it started to rain. We ducked into the church to avoid the rain but were greeted by a stunning Romance interior. Majestic tall columns marched down the nave narrowing as they approached the apse giving the illusion of even greater height. The church, a priory really, has been beautifully restored. The tuffeau stone radiates a soft white light that invites stillness and contemplation.

ROAMIN' ROADS

The Ecomusée at Véron.

I spent the afternoon with Christelle touring the Veron region on our bicycles. Rich had to go to Saumur to LaPeyre (something like a Home Depot) to make arrangements for someone to come out and measure for our new windows. Christelle helped with calling to find out what the procedure is and suggesting vocabulary to use. She also helped decipher the arcane language of our property tax bill and Rich’s speeding ticket (he got a ticket for a stretch of road where there is a radar-activated camera).
After all that secretarial work (muchíssimas gracias, Christelle) we were ready to get out into the countryside on our bikes. We crossed the bridge at Càndes and went looking for the old Roman road that is marked on the map. We followed the cycle path and even though there were not the typical paving stones we concluded that the cycle path and the Roman road were one and the same.



Christelle talks a goat into a corner.


Black sheep of the family! (Photo courtesy Christelle)


Unusual black-wooled sheep of the Poitou region.

We headed for the Ecomusée. I was just there on Sunday but I enjoyed visiting with a native-French speaker who could fill in the details that I didn’t fully understand. We both agreed that the museum would be much better if they offered guided tours, perhaps by older local people who were familiar with the traditions of the area.
Something new that I learned this time was that the nuclear reactor was originally planned for a site directly opposite the church at Càndes. Imagine what that would have done for tourism! Fortunately, the planned site was considered unsuitable (for geo-mechanical considerations, not for aesthetic reasons) and the reactor was eventually built at Avoine (even though it is named Centre Nucleaire de Chinon).



Christophe and Christelle. (Christophe is the one wearing the gay flag).

In the evening Christophe drove down from Saumur to join us. We went to the creperie for dinner. Everybody had a crepe except me – I tried the pickled herrings (harengs a la ancienne) which were served with boiled potatoes and onion. Christophe complained that the pickled herrings that you can buy at the supermarket are never as good as these restaurant herrings. He tried to get the proprietor to tell him the secret of the pickling that made the bones soft and edible but she wouldn’t divulge her grandmother’s secret recipe. We did ask her about the man who used to be in charge in the restaurant. She gave us a glowing smile as she said that “he was gone”. We think he is now the ex-husband who she is glad to be rid of.



Christophe (tres matelot).

After dinner we came back to the house for an after dinner glass. We finished off the last of the épine from AnneMarie and Tim.
Christophe and Christelle are very amused by my attempts to speak French. Most of my vocabulary comes from LeMonde, which I read every day. They were particularly amused by a word that was used in an article about Jack Lang’s vote for the constitutional reforms proposed by M. Sarkozy. Lang went against his colleagues in the Parti Socialiste and gave Sarkozy the one additional vote he needed to pass the reforms. LeMonde used a hunting expression – c’est l’hallali, to indicate that it would now be open-season on Lang among the PS faithful. Apparently, “hallali” is not a word that one uses in everyday conversation.

MENHIR

The dolman at Thizay


Self-portrait, while sitting atop the dolman.


Dead badger on the side of the road.


Dead owl on the side of the road.


Rivière, where David and Dottie live.


Hanging jewel in Dot's garden.

THE ROCKRIDER

My new bicycle.

BELATED FOURTH OF JULY PARTY

Carpet of sunflowers close to Nico’s riding school.

We went to the French “class” today. Unfortunately, there were only three French people. The rest of the participants were English. The group gets together twice a week – on Mondays to speak French and on Thursdays to speak English. It happens in Chinon every week but I guess a lot of the French people are on vacation. It is a little difficult to learn to speak French from English people.



Floral centerpiece at the party.

In the afternoon John Shaw came by to take a look at our house. He is an Englishman living in this area who has developed a business of remodeling old homes for the large number of English people who live here. We wanted him to take a look at our house to advice us on what it will take to get plumbing up to the first floor and convert the granier into another bedroom. He was very positive about what he thought we could do. He thinks that we will have to have a custom-made spiral staircase to fit into the space we have for accessing the grenier. He also suggested that we should put a wood floor in the grenier instead of a lightweight cement floor. He thinks he can do most of the work during the winter when we are back in California.



Nico, waiting for his front teeth to grow back.

After our meeting with John Shaw we went to meet Karen and Nico at the riding stables where he is taking lessons. They were also going to the Fourth of July party at Tom and Mark’s house. We followed them because we didn’t know the exact location of the house. Christina and her friend Jessica were also in Karen’s car. Jessica is a friend of Christina’s who has just gotten back from a 10-month stint in Nepal. Her tales of head lice and ghiardia were a little unsettling but she never made mention of the historic changes that have taken place there in the past few months (Goodbye king, hello Maoist paradise).
At the party there was a bunch of people we knew. Tim and Steve were there with Bailey the dog. The other Steve was there too but I never did meet his partner Bruce. We also met some new people and I was introduced to a lot of people who Rich already knew.

EN VERON

EDF1 at Avoine with its characteristic dome.

Today I did make it to the Ecomusée. I waited until the afternoon to make sure that it would be open. The manager gave me a brochure in English and pointed me the way for the self-guided tour. The museum flows through the rooms of an old house of the region. In te first three rooms the exhibits are all to do with the history of winemaking in the region. The wines belong to the AOC of Chinon which means that they are made from the cabernet franc grape for reds and rosés or the chenin blanc grape for whites. Originally white wines predominated in the region until the phylloxera struck in the late 19th century. Now red wines are the chief product. I also learned that there are two kinds of wine produced based on the soil that the vines are grown in. The chalky clay of the region produces wines that are high in tannins and the sandy loam produces lighter and sweeter wines.
In the temporary exhibits room of the museum there was an interesting presentation on the history of the nuclear power industry and the building of the reactors at Avoine. I learned that the first nuclear reactor in France for electricity generation was built here in the late 1950’s. Since then several more reactors have been built and the economy and demographics of the region have been transformed.



Monument to Armand de Montmorin “tombé pour la France”.

From the Ecomusée I headed north, intending to cycle to Bourgueil. I passed the Centre Nucleare and stopped on the bridge over the Loire to take some pictures. I continued on the D749 as far as Port Boulet. At that point it was already six o’clock so when I saw a little boulangerie open I stopped to take refreshment. Even though I was only about 4 km from Bourgueil I decided that it was time to head home.
I cycled back along the D7 which parallels the Loire. I passed a roadside monument and decided to go back to check it out. It was a memorial for a young man who was killed by the Germans in 1940. I wondered how many people ever stop to remember him and his valiant deeds “pour la France”.



The church at Candes perched high above the Vienne River as it flows into the Loire.

A VELO

Jesus in the sunflower fields at the edge of Savigny-en-Veron.

I went for my first ride on my new bike. I started out to visit the Ecomusée in Veron but when I got there it was closed. It was a pretty easy ride to get there – through Candes, across the Vienne, and down the D7 for about 2 km.
Since the museum was closed I decided to continue riding through Savigny and Avoine. Along the way I encountered the dead pheasant in the road. I stopped to investigate. I wondered what had killed it. The obvious answer was a car but why would it have stayed in the road long enough for a car to hit it when it could have seen the car coming from a long way off. I moved the corpse to the grassy verge and as I did I noticed that the heart was left behind in the roadway. I began to think that a predator had recently killed the bird and was eating the juicy parts when I happened along.


Dead pheasant on the road.

I continued along the same road. There was very little traffic but when cars did go by they went at more than 70 km/hour. That seems to be the French speed limit on back roads in the country.
I loved seeing so many fields of sunflowers – fields and fields of yellow and green like golden waves rolling through the countryside.
Finally, I got to a place where I had decide between continuing on to Chinon or turning off in the direction of Huesmes. I dedcided to take the road to Chinon which was posted as being a mere 9 km from that point. That road took me all the way to the roundabout where the fire station is. At that point I could have crossed the Vienne again and entered Chinon through the back way on the other side of the river. I decided to take the bike route because it clearly had a lot less traffic on it. That was a good way to go. It turned out to be the way Rich had shown me earlier in the week.


Avoine across the fields.

When I got to Chinon I needed to stretch my legs for a bit. I walked around the center trying to decide whether to go for coffee or continue the journey. I noticed that the library was open so I went in there to check it out. I sat for an hour reading different magazines and just relaxing after the long bike ride.
I did go for coffee to the Café Hotel de Ville and later in the afternoon I met Rich there before cycling back to Montsoreau.

WATCHING THE HOLLYHOCKS GROW

All our visitors are gone so we have plenty of time to ourselves for hanging out. Today we rolled out of bed late, just in time to get to the mairie before they closed for lunch. Then we hung about reading the newspapers (stockmarket crash, bank panic, recession, yada yada). That put us in the mood to go back to bed for a nap.

We are quite tired today because we stayed out late last night in Saumur.
We met Christelle and Christophe for an apero before going to see the movie "Hancock". The movie was dubbed in French without any English support so it was a little taxing. I understood the main thrust of the plot (crash, bang, wollop; good guy as fallen hero; the journey of self-realiztion and self-actualization; good versus evil, Black versus White; the Barak Obama phenomenon) but the details were lost on me. Christelle was very gracious in filling me in.
After the movie we went back to their apartment for a light meal and lots of alcohol - cider, wine, champagne. By the time we had finished it was close to 2:30 in the morning. We walked back to the car, thankfully we were the only people on the street at that time (No Hancock in Saumur, though there is potential for a Batman) and drove home to Montsoreau.

CORRECTIONS: Christelle would like it known that she works in Cunault, not Fontevraud as previously stated. Christophe is an electromechanical engineer not a simple mechanical engineer as intimated in a previous post (though what the difference is escapes me other than that a mechanical engineer is a person who does engineering with machines and an electromechanical engineer does engineering with machines powered by electricity. Can that really be the difference?).


La fontaine au Place de la Fontaine, Chinon.

TOUR DE FRANCE

I bought a bicycle today at the Decathlon store in Saumur. I rode it all the way back from Saumur to Montsoreau.

NICO'S DAY

Steve, and Tim, and Rich, and Karen in the gazebo at La Blanchière.


Nico with his picture of a butterfly that he made specially for me.


Pot aux fleurs.


Self-portrait with rabbit ears.


Karen by Nico.