Under an upside down boat

In the centre of Bourges in France you can find the building known as Palais Jacques Coeur which was built in the mid 15th century as a "grand maison", just a larger than normal residence. The word "palais" or palace started to be used in about 1820 when the royal courts of justice moved in. Unfortunately Jacques Coeur never saw the building completed, and it passed from owner to owner until 1923 when the state bought it. By then it was in a sorry state and massive restoration had to be carried out.

I've seen the palace from the outside more than once but early last summer we decided to see the inside. I remember the day well.  We arrived too early and had to wait for the doors to open, but it was exceptionally hot and trying to find a shady spot to wait wasn't easy.

Many of the ceilings inside are magnificent but these two at least are reminiscent of upturned hulls of boats.  I don't know if it was by accident or design but Jacques Coeur made his fortune from trading and commerce and owned twelve ships.  There are references to his ships in a number of places so I like to think the ceilings reflect his dependence on ships too.

This second picture shows the attics which would once have been an area for storage and for servants' rooms.  The ceiling is apparently unique in that it's made entirely of rafters. 

A two-in-one post for the Photo Hunts. 

A whole month

I don't believe I have a proper excuse.  I had to go back to France to see to the house and that was a problem, a hurdle that seemed to grow larger with each day that passed.  In the event, it wasn't as distressing as I expected, I think because the house has happy memories going back all the 10 years since we first looked at the ruin it then was and decided it was our dream home.

French inheritance laws are a nightmare so I set off with every certificate I have ever owned up to and including the cat's vaccination certificates.  I'm not sure why those came too, because he didn't accompany me on this trip, but you just never know. However it all became unnecessary when we discovered that the notaire (lawyer) who drew up the original purchase documents decided, I assume, he's help me out by giving ownership to our sons.  How he managed to do this without feeling the need to let us know, I'm not at all sure.

So there I am, over there to put the house up for sale and it turns out I have no house to sell.  This has required a massive rethink. 

The indecision hasn't been helped by the beautiful warm sunny spring weather we had over there.  The garden and river looked especially good.

Can I really leave all that behind?

Though driving through Paris on the way home could have changed all those thoughts.  First the traffic jams (of a continuous nature):

and then the startling sight of a shanty town on the city's outskirts.

They don't advertise the "bidonvilles" in the tourist guides.  Seeing this make me count my blessings.

Brave hearts

It was a beautiful morning when I first looked outside today but I did notice the thermometer on the outside was reading 1 degree, so I imagine it must have been down to freezing an hour or two earlier.  In spite of that, there were these hardy souls cammping on the beach, fishing.

The nearest ship had been there all night but the other two were just passing by.  The French coast can be seen very clearly across the Channel, which locals always say means there is bad weather on the way.  I'm not convinced.  They never say how soon.  A day?  A week?  A month? 

Since then, the temperature has risen to about 5 degrees, the ships have gone, even France has gone, but the fishermen have stayed.

Cistudes

This was the second of two lakes I visited in the Brenne the other day.  I was going to include a picture of the first but to be quite honest, one lake looks very much like another.  I hoped to see some birds because it's supposed to be migration season and many migratory birds stop over here.  Not the day I was there.  I could have guessed that before I got to the lakes because there were no men marching around with very large lenses, and looking disdainfully at my small camera.  Always, always, they check out other people's cameras, a quick glance to one side.  It doesn't take long for mine to be dismissed as no challenge.

A channel or ditch leading from one lake to another.  A slightly different view.  The lakes were almost all man-made during the Middle Ages, intended for fish farming.  One lake would be drained into another so that the fish could be harvested. 

On one of the roads, or maybe several, you can see signposts that warn you of what looks like tortoises crossing the road.  They are called cistudes but when I went to look them up, they are turtles.  I must have misread the article because I came away with the idea that they are tiny, and wondering how to avoid them on the road.

I was completely wrong.  On this visit there may have been no birds but there were some cistudes, also known as European pond turtles, Emys orbicularis.  They are really quite rare.

You will need to click on these photos to have much chance of seeing the turtles, two of them doing what comes naturally.  That is to say one of them was attempting to.

The female turtle got pretty fed up with this and chucked him off into the water to cool off.  Here you can see him clambering out at the near end of the log.  He didn't try again.
 

The park provides shelters or hides where you can watch all these natural goings on.  As you can see, there was nobody about.  I spotted notices that asked photographers to allow other people at the windows so I imagine there are times when it can be very busy.

The shelters are nicely done out with benches by the windows and this one had this decorative screen for no other reason that to be decorative, I think.  There are always identification guides on the walls and generally list of what might be around at the moment.  They've constructed these places quite cleverly in that not only do they allow you to see wildlife you might not otherwise see, but they also keep you well away from them.

Those were the days

This is not a car, it's a way of life, so says one of the stickers on the back. I had two of them during the 1980s, the first was yellow and the second red.  They were fun, but then my sons grew too large to fit in the back so I had to get something more sensible.

Citroen decided to stop making them in 1990, sadly.  Since then, in France, all you could see were increasingly elderly looking examples.  Until recently that is.  Recently I've noticed increasingly well cared-for and shiny examples.  They are becoming collectors' items or so it seems.  I wish (almost) I'd kept mine.  I did enjoy the waves and smiles from other 2CV owners (mostly young men and mostly with beards).

From the BBC, if you have 15 minutes or so to spare:

Sturdy houses, their doors and gates

I have a fascination for doorways and gates and as they are generally fairly sturdy and often lead into homes, I thought I could use some of the many photos I have taken over the years today.

This very sturdy gateway was once the entrance to the home of Maréchal Foch in 1913, from January until August.  Not long but long enough for a claim to fame.

This has seen better days, I think, and it's a shame about all the cables leading in and around the doorway.  It was once home to a lawyer, judging by the plaque by the door.

Still sturdy though definitely it has seen better days, this gate will soon lead to 12 new homes, apartments in the original building.  In fact, given that this picture was taken a couple of years ago, the homes are almost certainly already complete.

In some cases, the door looks sturdier than the home but in this case the building had been there a long time and is presumably propped up by its next door neighbours.

A two-in-one post for the Photo Hunts. 

Memories were made of this

On 19 June 1994, I remember the day exactly, I went out with an American friend of mine to do some shopping, the same friend who sent me off on a cookery course.  We both lived very near Paris and both of us were coming to the end of our three years' stay in France.

Almost everyone I knew seemed to be leaving Paris that summer but although we had been there three years, we had been offered another couple of years.  Maybe.  I wasn't too happy about staying on because I loved it.  It may sound contradictory, but I thought if I stayed longer I'd never want to leave.

So all in all I wasn't on top of the world that day, and a shopping expedition sounded just the thing to take my mind off things, especially as I wasn't doing the shopping, just observing.  We went to the rue de Rivoli, one of the famous roads in the centre, famous names, famously expensive.  Some of it, it has to be said, is just expensive tourist tat.  It runs past the Louvre and the Tuileries gardens.  Its main advantage to me was that it had the English bookshop, WH Smith, many times rescuing me from certain boredom.

Sue, my friend, asked my advice on a coffee cup she was planning to buy for a mutual friend.  I said I thought she'd love it, that whenever she drank from it, she would be reminded of our times in Paris.

Of course, I was slow on the uptake, and the coffee cup and saucer were bought for me.  Every time I saw them, I did remember Paris, but now they are in several pieces - the cup and saucer not the memories - and about to be consigned to the bin. 

I did consider trying to find a similar set but I can't find any and it wouldn't be the same anyway.  Unfortunately then, it seems as though the memories will eventually follow the same fate, unless of course I record them somewhere.....

Symbols of power

Medieval castles, five of them in this small town of Chauvigny, all symbols of power of a bygone age.

Chauvigny is situated on a high promontory over the River Vienne, the only medieval settlement of its kind in Europe, so the promotional literature says.  The five fortresses are grouped inside a single outer wall and overlooked by the belfry of St Peter's Church.

Left to right in the view above: Château Baronial, Château d'Harcourt, St Peter's Church, Château de Gouzon, The other two fortresses, Flins and Montléon don't show on this picture.  The tower of Flins is now a private residence while Montléon has all but disappeared by being incorporated into more recent buildings.

But as with many symbols of power, they have crumbled over time.

Taken over gradually by vegetation ...

 ... and other wildlife.

A two-in-one post for the Photo Hunts. 

Old and Loud

Although the cathedral in Albi dates back to 1287 it took 200 years to complete.  even still, it is far older than its organ which dates only from 1736.  Still old enough to qualify as old, I think.  You'll have to trust me that it can also be very loud when required, or watch and listen to this video.

You could also say that some of the patterns on the walls are loud.  they may look modern in their geometric design but they date from the 1500s.  If I had them in my living room I'd have a perpetual headache.  Here though, the effect is amazing.

My photos are not all they might be because, quite rightly, they don't allow any artificial light inside, and I'm not about to start carrying a tripod around with me. 

A two-in-one post for the Photo Hunts. 

Vintage hearts

If you walk along the streets of Bourges in central France, you will come across plenty of evidence of Jacques Coeur.   As you can see from this road name, he was the king's treasurer in the 15th century, a position of great importance. and his surname translates as "heart".

His house in the centre of Bourges remains today and reflects that great importance.  On it you'll notice carving of hearts and shells.  The meaning of the hearts is obvious enough, but the shells are there as a play on words: Jacques in coquilles St Jacques meaning scallops.

A lady, maybe Madame St Jacques, leaning from a balcony with a carved and [vintage] heart below.

A [vintage] heart with scallop shells either side, on the same building as above.

A two-in-one post for the Photo Hunts. 

Sparkling water

We haven't had much bright sunshine this winter so when I saw the light shining off the flat surface of the water through the twigs, I had to take this picture.  It looks better enlarged but it doesn't capture the full sparkle properly.

A two-in-one post for the Photo Hunts.

The joy of circles

Most of these photos seem to come from in and around churches or cathedrals and that probably reflects the joy I find in visiting these very often ancient buildings.

The bishop's gardens, le Jardin de la Berbie, in Albi with circular patterns described in boxwood hedges.  This is how it would have looked from 1678.  Everything is tended by hand, watering, pruning, weeding.

A circular window above an ancient door in an equally ancient church in the south of France.

A small gravestone behind a small church in England.

Circular panels in this stained glass window in a church in central France.  The colours are so rich and vibrant.

The final picture possibly brings me most joy because I made the effort to go out very early on an autumn morning to catch this reflection while the mists were rising from the river and before any breezes ruffled the water.

A two-in-one post for the Photo Hunts.