On the route de Compostela

Streets in this region of Chatellerault have recently been upgraded and this one pedestrianised.

Chatellerault is on the pilgrimage route of St. Jacques de Compostela. Construction of the Saint Jacques Church began in 1008 on the ruins of the chapel of the priory of Saint-Jacques. The Bishop of Poitiers, Isembert II consecrated the church in 1066.  In 1632, a votive offering celebrated the end of the plague in the town.  The church was restored in 1858 and has a 17th century polychromic, wooden statue of St. Jacques. It has a carillon of 50 bells - the only carillon in the Poitou-Charentes region. 
The restoration of the church was not to the liking of one of the inspectors of historic monuments who refused to give the church any government subsidy because it replicated the facade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Poitiers.  His power of generosity did not extend to the understanding that sometimes imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery!  "Thou shalt not steal" he quoted from the Bible.  Nor did he survive to hear Steve Jobs say in 1996 that "Good artists copy, Great Artists steal!"

Wikipedia Photo of Notre Dame Cathedral, Poitiers

Jeanne d'Arc rode here

 

The hanging ball of the Plane tree (Platane) is an achene (akairn). This fruit, a seed-box, gradually breaks open in winter to release stiff hairs which carry tiny seeds on the wind. (wind dispersal)

Beneath three plane trees which were in front of the former hospital, now the site of the Tourist Office, the Loft theatre, a new school and architectural museum, lies an almost inconsequential dwarfed monument that is in need of restoration. It was made with 'tuffeau' stone of the region, which is easily eroded by weather. I am witness that it has seriously eroded in the last 9 years.  Increased traffic pollution?  The engraved commemoration is becoming illegible and perhaps in 15 years will be replaced.
"Ici s'élevait la porte Ste Catherine par laquelle est passée Jeanne d'Arc en Mars 1429 se rendant de Chinon à Poitiers.  Cette borne a été inaugurée le 17 Mars 1929 à l'occasion du cinquième centenaire du passage à Chatellerault de l’héroïque Bergerette."
I can't translate it exactly. Joan of Arc in March 1429 travelled through Chatellerault from Chinon to Poitiers. Saint Catherine was one of the saints who Joan said advised her. The city gates have long since disappeared. The monument was inaugurated 17 March 1929 on the fifth centenary of the journey of the heroic Bergerette (young shepherdess).

History of the Battle of Tours / Poitiers 732 AD plus Nature Reserves

The BBC recently aired a programme "In Our Time" presented by Melvyn Bragg.
I quote from the programme blurb: 

In 732 a large Arab army invaded Gaul from northern Spain, and travelled as far north as Poitiers. There they were defeated by Charles Martel, whose Frankish and Burgundian forces repelled the invaders. The result confirmed the regional supremacy of Charles, who went on to establish a strong Frankish dynasty.  The Battle of Tours was the last major incursion of Muslim armies into northern Europe; some historians, including Edward Gibbon, have seen it as the decisive moment that determined that the continent would remain Christian.

I have provided these links for anyone who enjoys history:

 http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/tours.html

http://www.histoire-pour-tous.fr/forum/moussais-86-la-bataille-de-poitiers-en-732-t9979.html 

I can't find my own photos of Moussais... possibly pre this computer's photo system.  It is quite an interesting outdoor museum / exhibition but last time I was there it looked as if it needed TLC.   It is sited near the lake of St Cyr which is heaving with waterside visitors in Summer but in Winter there are more avian visitors and it's good to walk around the lake... nearby a golf club! Also it is not far from the Reserve Naturelle de Pinail...where  now that mining for millstones has ceased there is heathland and small ponds, a haven for wildlife.  A group visit might be a good idea???????

Twelve years ago

... today, I became the owner of half a former English inn ... it was 400 years old, behind which, were old Tannery buildings, some had been demolished but others were renovated as storage, garage or workshop. I employed my best friend to renovate which he did exquisitely!  That house was my pride and joy apart from the fact traffic vibrated the living accommodation on the second floor in the loft space!  The pavement in front of the house was not really wide enough for a wheelchair or pushchair. One could almost reach out and touch the buses! I have some regret leaving that beautiful home which was haunted and I only discovered that in the last week.  The stained glass window on the front door was my design, representing the town and common, painted beautifully by my friend's daughter. One of our cats, Little Feat, used to greet Neal Powell, an author, almost every time he walked through the back yard. He adored her when she rolled over his brown polished leather shoes.

I must find photos of interior and exterior. It is one of my jobs to trawl through a lifetime of photos, paper, framed and unframed, and those on CD and on iphoto........ help!

My house was by the river, not far from Elizabeth Jane Howard's island. I always thought she was a most beautiful woman but when I lived near her I was too busy to read her novels. I enjoyed the recent BBC radio 4 serialisation of The Cazalets, always thinking that I could hear “her” speaking, then to my surprise I discovered that much was based on her own experiences.  I could sympathise and empathise with her somewhat Bohemian lifestyle, failed marriages, affairs of the heart, passion, mooning over men, mistreatment yet she'd had a good life …such ambivalence is there in love and passion. I know bohemian but not all her traumas, thank goodness!

I had the enormous privilege of meeting her in her kitchen. I remember being served tea and cake,  being in awe of her very simple lifestyle which reminded me of my grandmother, being allowed to wander onto her very own island. What joy to be on that piece of land that I had coveted and marveled at just a few years before, when, not knowing the future, I had stood on The Common and decided that I wished to live "over there". Unwittingly, unknowingly, I completed my dream in 2002.  It was several years later that the memory of the incident returned. 

What a wonderful thing for her to have lived where she lived and to have written from her heart.

What a wonderful thing for me that I met her... just the once and I can write from my heart.  She was a great authoress.  In Memoriam.

As mad as a march hare?

Puiseaux, Loiret dept 45 is about 300km north of where I live but I can't discover any mention of Ste Henry Bordry.  Note it is not HENRI! Sainte is the feminine form of Saint?????  Hmmm?

The expression:- "C'est du nanan"means that something is good, exquisite, agreeable, easy.

As far as I can understand, nanan is an old word dating back to 1640. Originally Nanan was meat but by extension for children it became something delicious like sweets, candy or candyfloss.
Then by further extension it came to mean something easy. In English we might say "as easy as pie" or "it's a piece of cake" or "it's a breeze".

This sign has intrigued me for some time.  I wonder why a hare, or, is it a rabbit?
Is it for the hare/rabbit as meat or to eat?
Is it as in folklore where the hare is a trickster or has magical powers?

I sent an email to my pottery teacher asking her if she knew anything about this sign outside her house. Here is her reply: La personne qui habitait là élevait et vendait des lapins. Nanan doit être une marque d'alimentation pour les lapins.  
Then I found a site written by a Frenchman who installed electricity for houses and industrial stes who wrote: Le Nanan produits alimentaires des animaux à Puiseaux. 
Enquiry solved!  

Beauty, Mystery, History

Angelic Sculpture for 13th January 2013

I am keen to discover a story 

about this exquisitely interesting carving 

that attracts me fully each time I pass it by.  

Changing my mind

Change the mind and change my world!
I've just had several days or was it weeks when apart from trying to organise the mess that I create  and cleaning for a friend, I now feel optimistic!
Being lazy on a Sunday afternoon with the sun shining warmly, I decide it's better to be a social human being.  I decide not to shut the world out of my courtyard but to achieve what once a friend and I said we would do in France ... I open the gates, meet people, see places.  

First port of call was a small Brocante at Bonneuil Matours.  No more than a dozen stalls.  But no vide-grenier which was a welcome change! Then I wandered to where I thought there was a Park, carrying my picnic basket. Realising it was too far, I returned to the car. However, with a 'no entry' to my right I decided to explore, driving into narrow streets of the old town.  I wished to go into the church but at mid-afternoon the riverbank wall, warm with sunshine, urged me to eat my raw salad, yoghurt, scone and plums with Earl Grey tea.  The dam was automatically operating and seeming to clean the vanes of the barrage.  To my surprise, it is an old moulin which once created flour and now creates electricity.

I have to practice my French to read / understand more  here and here.  The noticeboard outside the mill was very interesting but I couldn't absorb all the history.

Then I found a park which will be ideal for my grand daughter as there is mini-golf, zipwire,  climbing apparatus, the usual roundabout things for younger children PLUS space to play ball or fly a kite and in the summer a place to swim or paddle with lifeguard present.  FREE!

Feeling quite buoyant I set off for home but took a different route and came upon L'Abbaye d'Étoile which was absolutely stunning.  It is a redundant, salvaged Cistercian Abbey.... the only one in the region of Poitou. The Cistercians lived in Silence but used Sign Language to communicate.  Unlike the Benedictines at St Savin, the Cistercians lived in austerity and poverty.  Some of the buildings have received much preservation work but more is required.   It will cost a fortune! How come I have not discovered this in the last 9 years of my knowing this region?  I definitely wish to return. After my solitary visit, apt to get a feeling of the vastness and the space that monks created and prayed in,  I had the opportunity to listen to the guide speaking to descendants (?) or people interested in, Les Acadiens. There was I think a twinning group from Archigny.  After a while I sloped off, for I did not wish to be "Who's that woman in our photographs?"  

A model of the entire site

Stars and Moons

The Chapel

There is quite a lot of history to learn!

Pomp and Pageantry

I love  P & P & Circumstance. Even though I disapprove of the public cost of Royalty,  I believe that in a modernist world they probably do help charities. However, there are so many people who could have benefited from the cost of those seats on the barge that the Queen would not sit on!
The public fund in UK has been slaughtered and yet who knows how much the 4 days of celebrations for the Queen have truly cost.  This could have helped pensioners, those with disabilities, children and what do we hear??? Oh yes cut the taxes on Granny flats!!!!! It's only those who are more rich who have Granny Annexes!   So the flagrant use of public funding does make me boil!

Since Diana's death magnified an emotional outpouring of the Nation, giving a public outlet for bereavement and loss, I confess, I became fascinated by some members of the Royal Family.  I believe that because we have a Land of Hope and Glory (thank you, Sir Edward Elgar) it is better to keep a Monarchy than to have a Presidency.   Rule Britannia  is what I say!  And all the music that has been generated for Royal events.  We've been lucky with the type of Monarchy that has been created and established over the last 60 years.  In my opinion, England / UK has been fortunate since 1952 and after WWII.  I am grateful that the Monarchy / Government / World  produced freedom and peace in Europe and that I have been lucky to have experienced the kindnesses of humanity.  I love my country. I like the fact that I am British and that the United Kingdom is the home for so many international peoples. Yet I love France and Europe too. I love the diversity of people, culture, places and systems of celebration.
 
However, I wonder as to where all the clothing goes once worn.  I wonder about the cost to the private person like me and what the minor royals do to justify their existence.  Perhaps the Jubilee has given people an opportunity to communicate with each other and be friends and develop community.  However, a previous neighbour who promoted such street parties and bon homie became very bitter, rude and spiteful after breaking through a Georgian stud wall into my property.  Therefore, I am left to wonder about the "street party bash" and the degree that it can help to transform neighbourliness.

Without a television, it was a pleasant surprise and pleasure that I could watch the flotilla live on my Apple Mac whilst living in France. Thank you BBC and those who dreamt up the idea and organised it! But again wouldn't the funding have been better utilised?

I really don't like the coinage of the term "New Elizabethans" and I nearly vomited when I heard CAM oron, woops spelling mistake M. Cameron sycophanting about her Majesty! If perhaps it was Neo-Elizabethans I could cope!!!!!

A cucumber sandwich made with my home-made poppyseed and mint bread was enjoyed with Saumur demi-sec bubbly! Very nice and as equal to a Cremant de Loire or Cremant d'Alsace which I prefer to champagne, unless it's an expensive one, of which I rarely have imbibed!

NOSTALGIA
Tomorrow I might make a "Victoria sandwich" for nostalgia, you understand!!!!!!! I rarely make one preferring to make other types of cake. It was my version and with pineapple!!

I remember being 3 and sitting at long tables at the Coronation party in what was eventually my High School,

I remember the Queen's Silver Jubilee when my son won first prize in the village fancy dress competition. We still have the Jubilee sovereign. A tea-towel, wrapping paper to make a hat, a windmill, a flag, his blue school jumper and trousers! It was one of the only fancy dress events my children have ever participated in!

ADDENDUM June 4th
It's not surprising that Philip is ill... We saw the Queen go downstairs... but he did not, me thinks. Conditions were perishing and even I would have required several toilet breaks, hot tea and a hot water bottle.  They did not wear suitable warm woolly blankets to keep out the rain and chill and at their age more consideration should have been given to that than Pomp and Pageantry. The lady would not sit down and so neither could anyone else.