A month ago

My daughter and grand daughter aged 7 wished for a French Easter. I discovered that in this region of France families like to get out and about on Easter Sunday, but on Monday eat French agneau on a plate and spend time "en famille" in the home.
On Easter Sunday we did a tour of the Brocante. It was bitingly cold and I was for once glad not to be selling! I bought a rhubarb plant and that is all! In the afternoon we hurried to be early for the St Savin Abbey Easter egg Treasure Hunt, which was absolutely excellently organised.  It cost 20e for the three of us.  At the signalled start we all rushed to the gardens... we were at the front! There we grabbed as many wrapped eggs as possible leaving some for those behind us who were catching up. Those children who had none were brought to the front of the queue to go to the first level of the former cells of the monks. Again our family sprinted forwards, collecting and leaving! We were well pleased.  My grand daughter was trained to share her eggs with children who were rather timid and had not made 'la chasse'!  After that we had a short pause before being taken to the next floor where children sat in the front, adults behind for a wonderful puppet show lasting 50 minutes. My daughter was so happy! We certainly got our money's worth!
On Easter Monday we went to Azay le Ferron but it was rather tame compared to St Savin. One had to collect three or five corks which had been scattered about the gardens and easily found in exchange for a small bag of chocolates or a key ring. My grand daughter chose the key ring which was the same price as her entrance ticket. We wandered around the arboretum where there is an orchard of specially protected varieties of apple trees as well as huge ornamental species of other trees.  Very interesting!  However, groundworks were happening and we were cordoned off from some parts of the extensive land. We could have gone for a guided visit in the house, and it would have been interesting for my daughter, but I had already done it and explained that once caught in the system it was hard to get free. My daughter would have had difficulty comprehending the French language.  There were hardly any visitors so we declined.  However, at the bar opposite we had an entertaining discussion with an English ornithologist / twitcher who had lived in France for 45 years and afterwards with the bar owner who once danced at the Moulin Rouge. People are full of surprises. Anyone wish to buy a bar as she wishes to move to Brittany????
Inside the chateau are more 'animal trophies'!  It was a different era!

Hippoptamus

Alligator

On my way home

...being extremely tired after a night on a floor on a six hour ferry I needed to stretch my legs. It was eight in the morning when I deviated to a town called Falaise, which was just waking up.  On the ferry I had read that William the Conqueror had been born here, so I set off with my camera to the castle on a crisp and sunny morning.
A falaise is a steep rocky escarpment caused by erosion. With no time available I didn't view the chateau on the falaise at FALAISE from different angles.
In 2011, it was the 1100th anniversary of the town celebrating the birth and history of Guillaume le Conquerant...it is worth going to that link to remind us of a slightly different version of history than that which for example I was taught at school! It would be exciting to be at the planned events.

I saw the unfurled Bayeux Tapestry about 15 years ago.. stunning... I was in awe... at that time there were few people and so one could walk back and forth checking the images. Probably in my attic are photos and prints!!!
The Chateau Falaise is evidently similarly built to that of Corfe Castle, which I drove past on my recent travels and would dearly have loved to stop and be a tourist but we were on a see-the-sea mission! Shades of Chateau Angles sur L'Anglin.

It is also similar to the well-preserved Norwich Castle, which I know well, as my daughter lives in the city and it was my nearest city when I was occupationally resident in UK - an ancestral home... um... not the castle but an East Anglian seaside town!

Villandry Garden garden sculpture and furniture

I rather like these chairs which were in the kiddies playground area. I thought my son could adapt the idea as he is a jack-of-all-trades and is upcycling metal and wood objects and materials... someone's rubbish can be made or incorporated into an object of beauty! 

He is a metal worker having welded almpst the whole of the hull of his steel vessel, (possibly I am exaggerating... nevertheless it is huge and now it is his home shared with his wife.

Then there were sculptural bronzes of amour, with a central fountain, and Angel's Trumpets pruned into a tree shrub. 

It was all so very very delightful!

Villandry chateau - gardens

Blocks of herbs

The standard rose trees are intended to represent monks as gardeners!

Storm brewing