Cognac: Streets, Museums, Gardens

Rose window outside in and inside out:

 Exhibitions of beautiful bottles with display of creativity:

Films in the museum were extremely interesting and an excellent modern approach to make stuffy museums vital-alive!

More vintage bottles - these were analysed samples!

A stairway motif:

Bottling

Corking

Labelling

Sales to China were the most!

"Advertising in the Family!!! (Family humour - I am a descendant of "The Royal Scotts Equestrian Circus" and proud of it!

Above a doorway - probably to signify what the owner made!

Beautiful architecture

My number one girl! I shall remove photo if she tells me to!

The seedy side of town

Patina

L'eglise

Un café

Almost symmetrical

Evidence of ricochet on end church wall

Disused

Low down to the pavement graffiti

Missing statue

Asymmetry

Ghoulish

Dragon

Interesting architecture on the building with the dragon

Curves

Blackened stone from trees and humidity where sun and light can't penetrate!

Former grandeur: two hotels in 1889 became the town hall and the museum in the grounds of botanical gardens where the Cognac Blues Festival is performed,

 

Another feature of French museums is that they provide jigsaw puzzles where one can sit awhile for the attention of the child to take the mind away from ancient artefacts.

My friend has one of these!

I'd like a room with flooring and deep skirting panels such as these!

L'orangerie

A good brood!

Can't remember

She sure can swing! One does not wish to stand in the way of this determined young lady!

Cognac Degustation Visit

A little while ago we went camping for two nights in Cognac, a town where for some time my family had wished to visit.  It was within a reasonable driving distance from home.  The Cognac distillery was the priority and we found one for less than 10e per head.  MARTELL. The first photos are of Vintage bottles then a very neat ledger. One would not wish to blot a copy book with a jot of Cognac!

 I think this model was original size for we looked down upon it!... or maybe half or quarter size!

 After the vintage poster a photo of earlier or later days depending on date of poster!

 Then photos of fascinatingly detailed maquettes: models that my family passed by!

Above: part of the former distillery, now the museum and visitor centre.
Below: visual displays through glass windows.

 

It was an excellent presentation in English of how Cognac is distilled, with a brief History of the Martell Family, but no mention of where the Cognac is distilled today.  There were films and interesting information at the correct level.  To end were tastings. As there were unclaimed glasses of Cognac I enquired about the taste of a Cocktail which was a choice.  Reluctantly, but politely, he poured one! After all of that, I told him I preferred it neat. At home we compared a Cognac with an Armagnac which is what I normally buy for emergency, medicinal usage. Armagnac has a brightness whereas Cognac is mellow! However, one should compare quality with quality! I shall stay with Armagnac! It was all my cousin's fault!

Killer Cat

The lovely Big Feet, now aged at least 13, recently, ostensibly treated for arthritis by the vet, although I suspected a pulled muscle, has shown improved action in the field, so to speak!  I don't know why but she has become more grumpy, more vocal, insisting she goes out or insisting she stays in.  She cries in a way that she didn't in her previous home (not that I was aware of), for food, or to be let out or to be let in!  She likes people. She likes company. She is a talkative cat. She likes affection. She gets affection. We talk to each other.
BUT... RECENTLY...she has returned to her younger youthfulness and become KILLER CAT!
This cat used to be a moler if she could be bothered! She used to trot across a busy road to the pedestrian pavement of the bridge, cross the road again and go to the English Common by the riverside, return the same way with a large, LARGE, rabbit or baby rabbit and proceed to be proud of her display!  Or go in the other direction to a garden to remove moles. The owner was very happy!
RECENTLY, the mouse population outside this house has been decimated by at least one a day. Not shrews, but mice, and I am convinced that at least one was a harvest mouse, so I was upset.
Cats kill and I know that!  BUT THIS CAT IS GAINING WEIGHT!!
I was distraught when I heard what I cheerfully thought were baby birds squabbling in the courtyard but to my dismay it was BIG FEET in Le Grand Salon batting an 'Eurasian Blue-tit' fighting for its life.  Poor wee thing!  Knowing that it had little chance of survival it was taken outside, set on the rockery to draw breath, but to no avail!
I am searching my conscience as to why I am upset when she kills a swallow, or a harvest mouse, or a blue-tit, or bat but am not emotionally straught, yes I mean this word, when it is a shrew... although I have rescued those in my time and been bitten in the process!
Imagine what it would be like if a HUGE GIANT CAME AND ATTACKED US... if a dino-saw-us!
I would faint! I would be DEAD!
 with thanks to Wikipedia photo usage!

An Amble in Richelieu

to reduce the layering of cake carbohydrates!

I just love this and wonder what the shop sold

Who had to hear this?

A grand giant knocker alerted the Doctor for the King. He lived in this house which became a  hotel, however, he couldn't afford to pay the (purchase?) price of 10,000 livres. Building costs were more economical to have no alleyway, therefore no gates into the courtyard. It is the only hotel which never had a grand hallway entrance onto la Grande Rue.

Whereas this one, on the second of the four ways of the crossroads does have the porch onto La Grande Rue as well as different window styles to the side of the house in the street opposite the grand knocker!

 

Different window styles

Part of La Grande Rue with Arched gate entrances for every house. Each was afforded by a person of rank. I believe.

An example of how to reduce window size!

I like the deep mulberry blue and planter on the door!

 

 Above: two interesting gardens down to the 'canal' behind the uninteresting façades below.

Well he would work in wood, wouldn't he?

This lean-to would worry me but it is held-back!

A strange surprise.