Confluence: La Gartempe et La Creuse rivers: two rivers and their hamlet

I like being at these kind of junctions!

On Saturday my friend accompanied me on this walk I had been intending for some time.  The track wasn't always where I wanted one,  and in one place woodland had been ploughed by the farmer!
The confluence was difficult to see through the river bank shrubs and trees. The soil was alluvial. Lovely word...the land probably isn't geographically speaking such,  but... I like the sound of words...

Uxorious is another word I like the sound of ... and the meaning!

The ground was strewn with interesting stones;  a large 'potato stone' I carried home!  Some of the rounded stones were far too huge to move but a river could dislodge and move them over the years!

We came across a millenium garden out in the middle of nowhere.  Now that isn't true. The somewhere was Confluent - an agricultural hameau and when I saw it a few years ago, on a Patrimoine day,  it seemed untouched.
BUT NOW, if you look on Google map you can see where builders and farmers have carved out the soil to renovate a house, expanding land like a gravel pit but it isn't one.   AND also, several buildings have been re-roofed with red brick colour metal.  OH DEAR! What of conservation? 

We went because I wished my friend to see the wind powered turbine invented, constructed by Ernest Bollée and one of his sons Auguste, who, I think also have something to do with the invention of bicycles and I was led to believe that the auto-moto-velo museum at Chatellerault has information about them.   I have a leaflet somewhere!

PHOTOWALK
The Millenium Garden is rather nice and I can imagine sitting on one of the available benches in the sunshine of peaceful solitude reading a book.... 

 Walking at the edge of planted crops to reach the river...

 Along a pea field the tracks of deer or small chevreuil?

 Oh...how did the crow get into the cage... we watched and thought... then saw a dead one in a second cage. Were they bait?  Or had they entered the cage set to catch partridges?  We each wanted to release it but cautious?  Then he opened a door whilst crow or rook sat still until his freedom fighter had returned to a distance.   The black bird cried 'phwew' as he got free!  Hop Hop ... something wrong with a wing or hungry bird needs to gather strength.  We continued looking back seeing him still on the ground.. But then, when we got to the fox or badger holes we saw a rook or crow soaring as if to say 'Thank you".

On the way back two man made lakes seemed much bigger than when I was last there. WE came across a dolmen which was once considered the best in the region but last century it was destroyed. 

PEOPLE!!!

The stones around once marked the limit of the tumulus ... it was once a burial hill...

 As we came to the road it all looked so different.  But there was the wind turbine in the distance.

 And now the uniform holes for plastic doors and windows... and the razing of the countryside...

 Old French stone house

 How to create a wall in a barn...

 Gates of importance...

 all at the crossroads                           at                                                    on the site of

 

 red metal roofs!

 beautiful old shutters and their nailed crossbars...

 how many people ever stayed here?

 ans the gate is secreted from view

 Times of old...

Chateauroux: 2 of 3

After lunch we did a recommended route to look at 19th buildings.
This one needs a good clean and care by the Notaires who work there or by the Region as it is so beautiful. Needs a bit of TLC to honour it!  However, walk to the back and it is so ugly!  Note the architect and sculptor plus the decorative panel camouflaging the hole to the basement.

sunfllowers?

Then we lurch from one epoch to another as across the road is a 'lean-towards-the-road' structure.. part of the cinema, library, parking and who knows what else complex

Also opposite is this:

and this...

and this...

Having walked through all that... there was an impressive 20th century frontage incorporating the individual elements but walking along I was not in a position to capture the curving, glass frontispiece, which I did not like!  We came to the 'Chapel of the Redemptorists' .. disused but at one time an Unemployment office... three steel chimneys were acting as an aeolian pipe, humming away! I wonder if the architect who created the heating system was aware that this would happen?

This building was not mentioned on the leaflet of the route.  Most of the coloured decorative work had fallen off.

Then another lovely doorway!  Again not mentioned on the inadequate leaflet.

Look at the former wealth of the Post Office building!  But later, I didn't think to take a pic of the now disused sorting office by the railway and bus station.

This building was a former fencing house!  I rather like the sculptures. BUT we only knew what it was from the promenade leaflet.  No plaque to celebrate its heritage or to explain history and art to passers-by.  AND it is being used by wealthy notaires, lawyers or architects!

HOWEVER marvel at these:
and look at this link about the construction of GUITARDES:
http://www.historicalcarpentry.com/guitarde---beautiful-french-dormers.html
where it describes these buildings.
This one is beautiful:

but just along the road was a carousel / manège with windows!!!!! Never seen one like that before! It seemed a pity to have that at the end of a clean, attractive modern "residential public courtyard".  Bit like the awful chichi wagon at la Place near the eating establishments. I tripped over his cable.. no health and safety concerns at all!

More guitardes, french dormer windows showing the skills of carpentry trade.

they must have had a head for height!...this one on the tipple.. whoops ... topple!

In between those buildings I found some other interesting, more elegant dormers... more my style!

More guitardes on the house you could buy!

I like the star  .. I could have had one or two of those on my lucarnes instead of my little birds!

and a balcony would be a treat!

Now that I have used three hours of my time in creating these two posts and the next, giving my body time to recover from the aches and pains of driving, walking and several weeks of work PLUS medical intervention,  I ought to move about, get my mind working on what needs to be achieved in the next couple of weeks.

It is cold again after a few days of warmer daytime weather.
In the afternoon it was hot enough to wear shorts and tee shirt whilst I dug the green manure into the soil,planted potatoes, carrot seeds, Italian chicory, radish and peas.
Seeds are various stages of age and so they may or may not grow!