Vallée des Fresques

The Valley of Frescos.  A fair while ago I went to visit the Abbey of Saint Savin sur Gartempe, a beautiful abbey church decorated in the most magnificent frescos.  While I was there, I took a short walk along the river and noticed a sign indicating that if you followed the river far enough you'd be able to visit several other churches with similar frescos, hence the name, Vallée de Fresques.  I made a mental note that I should do that before long.

That was 18 months ago, but the other day I finally made it back.

This was not a successful trip.

The idea was to start at Montmorillon because there I could see three things at once: a church, a chapel and an octagon.  Apparently.  From the car park I could see a church but I never actually managed to reach it.  The two other places had no sign posts to them at all, so I didn't see them at all, never mind reach them.

The river looked pretty and I could see the church from here too.  This was just about as close as I got.
Onwards.  Plenty of other places on the list.  Next, Jouhet.

The river at Jouhet, the same river, the Gartempe.

This is the funerary chapel.  I went to the church first by mistake, which was shut.  However on the chapel door there was a notice to say that if you wanted to see it, the keys could be found in the bar.  Or, if the bar was closed, they would be in the Town Hall.  Well, it was a very small chapel and there were still plenty of places left on the list....

The church at Pindray .... was shut.  There was no indication of any keys anywhere.

They appeared to be having some difficulty in the surrounding graveyard, with rainwater washing away the earth.  Many of the gravestones had fallen over or were propped up at odd angles.

Pretty fountain, though.  Maybe it overflowed into the graveyard?

It wasn't until I got home that I discovered I should have been looking at the nearby château and not the church at all. I didn't lose anything though, because the château isn't open for visiting.  So that's all right then.

From flickr

On to Antigny.  Antigny appeared to be open - as we sailed past.  It was by now lunch time and my chauffeur was rapidly losing interest.  So I noted the open door for future reference.

And it was back  to St Savin itself for a bite to eat in the only place serving food for miles around.  Wednesday.  Why was everything shut?  There was only one more place left on the list, St Germain.  I didn't hold out a great deal of hope, and it was just as well.

It was shut.  You could collect the keys from the Town Hall, if you happened to know where that was.

The side entrance was locked too.  The church was very clearly recently renovated, possibly over-renovated?  It all looked a little too perfect for a mediaeval church.  The surround for the side door looked as though it had been painted on but it really is stone.  It will be pleasant when, if, it's allowed to weather a bit.

Every cloud has a silver lining, however, and I found that the river here gave one of the better views of the abbey itself.  All was not lost.  Lunch was OK too.  Ice cream for dessert. :)

School

My camera is back and working so I have been able, at the last minute, to take some pictures of a school.  I did consider a school of fish, but they wouldn't stay still long enough, and I don't know enough about schools of art or architecture, so it's back to education.

This is the courtyard of our local school which students attend from the ages for 11 to 16.  It is called the collège.  Before that they attend the école and afterwards they go on to the lycée in the "big" town.  As you can see, it's a very old building and once upon a time it used to be a monastery built in the 12th century for the monks who founded the town.

I doubt whether this tower is in everyday use, though it may be of course, but they do have superb views across the river and beyond.

On the far side of the courtyard with the Romanesque church which the monks built. All public schools are uncompromisingly secular so it's a little ironic that this one is physically and historically so closely associated with the church.

This is my exceedingly late entry for this week's Photo Hunt.  Visit TNchick's site where you can find more people who have joined in.

Life on the ocean wave

Well, no, not quite the ocean wave but I'll be crossing the channel this weekend.  Under it, and not this direction.  In this picture you can see the Isle of Sheppey but I'm headed for France.

The Timeball Tower

A timeball is a device created to signal the time, usually to ships at sea.  It is a large metal or wooden ball which slides up and down a mast normally on the roof of a building. The ball is dropped from the top to the bottom of its mast at a specific time each day, allowing people, sailors in particular, to check the time.

The Timeball Tower in Deal is a four storey building on the seafront.  Until 1831 the tower carried a semaphore mast used by the Coastal Blockade to pass signals along the coast about Smuggling Activity in the area.  Deal was reputed to be a great smuggling town.

Before that, there was a shutter telegraph, built in 1796.  It was at the end of a line of telegraphs, 12 of them, that stretched back to the Admiralty in London.  It closed in 1814
The present timeball was put in place in 1853.  It operated from an electric signal from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.

At 5 minutes before 1:00 pm, the ball is raised halfway as a warning, then at 3 minutes to the hour it is raised the full way.

At precisely 1:00 pm it drops. It was regarded as the most important signalling device after Greenwich at a time when Deal was an important port with a Navy Yard.

Not only were sailors able to have an accurate time signal, but so too were the people in surrounding areas.  Several churches kept their clocks accurate by observing the Timeball tower by telescope.

When the navy Yard was closed, wardens were appointed to live in the tower to maintain the system.  At one time there was a family with 13 children living there.  By 1927 its days were numbered because of the arrival of accurate radio time-signals (the BBC's pip signals).  It stopped working on 25 February 1927.

I've scanned in a picture I noticed in our local paper showing a detail of a watercolour by Rosemary Hammond.   The foreshore looks very different now, and the few boats left really don't do very much at all apart from allowing themselves to be photographed.

Hot

The hot news is that my camera has broken.  It feels as though my right arm has been taken away.  I use it almost like a diary and reach for it to record all sorts of things that are never shown here or anywhere else.

As a result, you will be seeing pictures from archives today and the foreseeable future.   Fortunately there are ridiculously large numbers of them.  So, for today, one from eight months ago and another from this time last year, both taken in France.

It was about 25 Centigrade (77 F) that day. Not so very hot, you might say, but it was 26 December in France and just a few days before we had been ploughing down through the snowed up autoroutes.  You can see the sun wasn't very high in the sky in spite of being midday.

I'm fairly sure I posted this picture not long after I took it, but the hot and fiery sunset just asks to be shown again.

Now pay a visit to TNchick's site where you can find more interpretations of  "hot".

EDEN (European Destinations of Excellence) Part 1

 “Europe is full of hidden treasures that are worth being discovered”

The idea behind the European Destinations of Excellence (EDEN) is to encourage tourism in areas that emerging in tourism, little known, and committed to sustainability, not only environmental, but cultural and social too. It gives lesser known (and less crowded) areas an opportunity to show off what they have to offer. Each participating country holds a national competition to choose that country's representative.

2007 was the first year the programme was run, when 10 countries chose rural destinations. In 2008 the theme was intangible heritage, and 20 countries took part. In 2009 22 countries proposed areas for the theme of protected sites.

And now in 2010, 27 countries entered an area reflecting the theme of aquatic tourism.
That's rather too many countries to cover in one post, so here come the first eight.

From flickr

• Austria ‘Seelentium’ Upper Austria. Salzach River, Eggelsberg, Franking, Geretsberg, Haigermoos, Stronghold-Oh, Moosdorf, Ostermiething, St. Radegund, Tarsdorf, St. Pantaleon.

A unique feature of the area is the Imber Moor nature reserve.  It is the largest marsh/bog area in Austria with many rare and protected plants.   Apart from the many lakes and beautiful landscapes, there are more breweries in this region than anywhere else in Austria.

From flickr

• Belgium ‘The lakes of Eau d’Heure’ Cerfontaine, Plate-taille, Falemprise, Froidchapelle, Eau d'Heure Natura Park, Amphibus 

It consists of 70 miles of shoreline, 600 acres of ponds, 600 acres of forest, 600 acres of grassland straddling the provinces of Namur and Hainaut.  Almost every sort of water sport or pastime can be found here, not to mention plenty of land based activities, and even a few in between.  The largest dam in Belgium maintains the water level of the river Sambre and the produces electricity.

From flickr

• Bulgaria ‘Silistra’, Silistra Nature Reserve.

Silistra is on the River Danube, near lake Srebarna, an important stopping off point for migrating birds travelling from northern Europe to central Africa.

From flickr

• Croatia ‘Nin’ This is the oldest Croatian royal town, located on a small island reached by means of two bridges.  It is attractive because of its heritage (the smallest cathedral in the world!) wonderful beaches and healing mud baths as used in Roman times.

 

From flickr

• Cyprus ‘Kato Pyrgos’ Pano Pyrgos, Morphou Bay. Another little known area offering superb beaches, in west Cyprus.  The surrounding environment is has been preserved to give the tourist unparalleled natural beauty.

 

From flickr

• Czech Republic ‘Bystricka’.  The area is full of rivers and has a 40 ha  reservoir which was created between 1907 and 1912. Obviously it's very attractive to water sports enthusiasts, but beyond that there are trails for walking or riding through the beautiful countryside.

 

From flickr

• Estonia ‘Lake Võrtsjärv’.  There are several islands in Lake Võrtsjärv: Ainsaar, Heinassaar, Petassaar, Pähksaar, Rättsaar, Tondi Island.  These are mostly in the southern part of this, the largest lake in Estonia.  Recreational opportunities are being developed, hiking trails being labelled and views are being cleared on to the lake.

 

From flickr

• Finland ‘Saimaa’ - Lake Saimaa, Linnansaari National Park, Rantasalmi, Oravi, Järvisydä.  The largest lake district in Europe offers visitors unique natural surroundings.  Linnansari with its hundreds of islands and vast open waters is a paradise for lake excursions.

Next week, Part 2.