September Colours

We have been enjoying the favorable weather, plenty of sunshine which enables us to have some lovely walks in the mornings. My walking is a stop to take a photograph and then rush to catch up.

Here is the start to our walk.
The last few days we have had morning mist and the sun is still low in the sky.

Paper Boats

I have started a new French class, and I have to memorise this poem.

Tombe la pluie
Arrose les jardins
Et la rue et les chiens

Tombe la pluie
Et fais sonner tes gouttes
sur les toits et les routes
Tombe la pluie le long des caniveaux
Et change les papiers en tout petits bateax
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think that the last two lines mean.
The rain falls along the gutters And changes all the papers into small boats

When it rains like mad around here the force of the water can be witnessed at the castle in Fougeres.

I think I may have forgotton something.

The French use this word a lot....Truc ....It seem to drop into all the younger peoples conversation all of the time, how do I know this? I watch French tv because that is my truc. My thing.

But it seems that even a thingumyjig can be a truc.

So I guess that this plaque on the wall in Fougeres could be a truc???

I liked this weird bar sign Les Oubliettes is it a bit obscure? A quick rummage through a hard copy dictionary explains that oubliettes can mean dungeon, to put completely out of mind.

Will I remember what that word means?.. This is the French word to forget.

Here is Mr Joe Cocker singing N' Oubliez Jamais.

First Visit

To Rennes.......much nicer than I had imagined. Lunch out with my brother,celebrate a birthday, and tick some other boxes too. I wanted to take photographs although I always feel a little self conscious with crowds of people around..

There was a marvelous outdoor exhibition of photographs which were all in black and white.

A group of children are looking up at the boards with their teachers..

The weather is sunny and we walk down the streets which have delightful old buildings.

There are cafes and restaurants which have tables outside and you can take a glass of wine and watch the world go by. We saw a really unusual object called Chrysalid........

The building where our weekly paper is produced was a delight to see too.

Village life

On Sunday, Dimanche there was a wheelbarrow race in our village. There is a very large parking area opposite the church which comes in handy for these kind of events.

A brass band of sorts milled around and they practiced blowing a few notes as the brouettes...(wheelbarrows) raced around. Tables and benches where set out under marquees for their repas......lunch.

We went out to watch them and some of the lads where obviously in it to win!! It was a very sunny day, so the racers had a good day out.

More basket work at Fougeres

Today I took some more pictures around the castle at Fougeres. This one shows the jardin next to the castle ramparts. The retaining weave is finished off at the top just like a basket.



This little garden is amazing it is right onto the street and the wall on the right is part of the castle.
The French word to weave a basket.

Baskets

Last year the gardens next to the castle ramparts in Fougeres had a make over. I watched two people weaving low fences around the gardens, it looked quite hard work. This week in the park I visited I saw this lovely basketry around a fun garden which had pretty cabbage plants in it.

New Park

This week I found a park in Fougeres that I hadnt been to before. I had noticed the path alongside the river and had wondered where it might lead to.

Walking past the end of peoples gardens and some well cared for blocks of flats the pathway widens out into a lovely area with allotments, and then a more formal area. There are pathways across the river, and interesting views of the backs of old houses and what looks like bits of the old castle too. I will be back to take more pictures soon.

New Face

Confused I stopped the car and looked in amazement. The horse hadn't even looked pregnant and yet here was this foal...wow what a beauty all legs and a bit shy. I had taken photographs of a chestnut mare in this field several times this year. However a quick look through Flickr helped explain that the locals are playing tricks on me. The mare is indeed a different horse. For once I didn't have my camera because I was driving back from a visit to the vets so the next day I walked up out of the village to try and take a few snaps. My dog didn't appreciate the lack of attention, so this is the only picture that was okish.

The French word for a young horse

Chestnut and Memories of a Capital City.

So unable to go to the forest I donned by welly boots and walked around the village taking the wide tracks which run in between the fields champs. I picked up a leaflet the other day in the supermarket, and I read that there is a bad contagious disease in some of the chestnut trees. The banks around the fields are called Bocage. These banks full of trees caused many problems for the American tanks during the war when they tried to move through Normandy. The word for chestnut tree. The disease is some sort of fungus and is red and orange in colour, it is boursouflure. The only cure is to BURN the tree and then burn the remaining stump, and use some fungicidal spray afterwards.

Oddly enough roast chestnuts always remind me of London. Roasted in big black contraptions by the side of the street. I can smell them now the vendors put them into paper bags and they are black and sooty and soooo sweet..(that is the chestnuts and not the vendors!!!!)

I bet the politically correct mob have banned small boys from playing conkers in Great Britain, in case the little darlings hurt themselves.

Misty mornings in the Forest

I really like this time of year, the weather is so pleasant. Recently we have woken up to misty weather. I really prefer walking in the forest but now the hunting season has started the forest is out of bounds on Monday mornings. I have been enjoying taking pictures of the forest in the mist when the sunshine is streaming through.

The French word for Mist

More about Mrs Sarkozy aka Carla Bruni

L'amoureuse

Paroles: Carla Bruni. Musique: Carla Bruni 2008 "Comme si de rien n'était"
© Naïve


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Il semble que quelqu'un ait convoqué l'espoir
Les rues sont des jardins, je danse sur les trottoirs
Il semble que mes bras soient devenus des ailes
Qu'à chaque instant qui vole je puisse toucher le ciel
Qu'à chaque instant qui passe je puisse manger le ciel

Les clochers sont penchés, les arbres déraisonnent
Ils croulent sous les fleurs, au plus roux de l'automne
La neige ne fond plus, la pluie chante doucement
Et même les réverbères ont un air impatient
Et même les cailloux se donnent l'air important

{Refrain:}
Car je suis l'amoureuse, oui, je suis l'amoureuse
Et je tiens dans mes mains la seule de toutes les choses
Je suis l'amoureuse, je suis ton amoureuse
Et je chante pour toi la seule de toutes les choses
Qui vaille d'être là, qui vaille d'être là

Le temps s'est arrêté, les heures sont volages
Les minutes frissonnent et l'ennui fait naufrage
Tout paraît inconnu, tout croque sous la dent
Et le bruit du chagrin s'éloigne lentement
Et le bruit du passé se tait tout simplement

Oh, les murs changent de pierres, le ciel change de nuages
La vie change de manières et dansent les mirages
On a vu, m'a-t-on dit, le destin se montrer
Il avait, mine de rien, l'air de tout emporter
Il avait ton allure, ta façon de parler

{au Refrain}

Je suis l'amoureuse, je suis ton amoureuse
Et je chante pour toi la seule de toutes les choses
Qui vaille d'être là, qui vaille d'être là

Big Bong

Everyone is talking about this enormous piece of kit situated under the ground. La machine a Big Bang.....(pronounced BONG). If you watch tv over here and the advert for Cillit Bang comes on you will know what I am talking about its definitely Cillit Bong.

So how come the average person dans la rue is not aware of this humongous piece of costly equipment until the last minute!!!.....It certainly does look a lot like Stargate which was a favorite programme of mine.

I am not really sure that I can approve of all that money being spent on an experiment??.....undecided yes.

It makes me wonder what else is going on that we have no knowledge about either!

Stargate Link here

Today I discovered SteveTheCat.......if you have never seen his blog before click here!

Well now that I am totally spaced out here is Elt The Belt and Rocket Man

The President looks

Fatigued. A couple of times recently when I have seen Sarkozy he looks shattered. I guess he has had a busy time since he took on the role of President. Is it the job or his new wife that is wearing him out? Here she is in the latest tv mag, where it tells of her changing life from model to singer to First Lady. Carla already has that sleepy eyed look so maybe it doesnt matter if she is tired too although I doubt if she is.

Here is Carla with her guitar.

Sunday Dimanche 7th September Pockets

I awoke at about 3.30am. So today I have been a bit Zombie like! When I cannot get on the PC I love to look at words in a dictionary with a notepad and jot down notes, then I wonder how the words came about. The French word for pocket is poche. So it is not difficult to see how the word poacher may have come into use I can imagine poachers stuffing things in their pockets? Well I think it makes some sense.

It makes me wonder how hard it must have been to live around here in the past when the forest covered the area here and there were no shops as we know them today.

The farming around here is mainly cows and maize with some other arable sowings like winter wheat. Some people don't like the maize because it totally changes the landscape or in fact obliterates it! I am on the fence because I understand that people have to make a living., but I do not approve of GM crops.

Working the fields must have been hard, I believe my Mom worked with horses in the Land Army in England.

The weather is turning

There is a spate of bad weather across the world, so what we are getting isn't so bad I guess. The summer has been a bit of a non starter and so as we await an "Indian Summer" we are disappointed. The storms have killed five people across the Manche in England.

The French call "The English Channel" La Manche, which is also the name of the Department that is home to Cherbourg a busy ferry port. Makes me think why should the English call it the English channel anyway?
Here is a picture taken this summer at about 6.30am at Cherbourg.

Indian Summer.

Manche also means sleeve.

Here is a picture approaching Poole in Dorset England.

Stopped in my tracks

Reading a French book, well trying to read a French book I stopped and puzzled. The book was about enclosed gardens. And then I saw the word Fils.......which means son...pronounced like feece. I looked up the word Fils and it means other things too!

I look this picture in the spring it amused me I called it Eds bar.

Here is a picture of some local cows behind a barbed wire fence.

Wednesday

We are going shopping in the afternoon, but in the morning a walk in the woods keeps our dog happy. It isn't unusual to see people in the forest collecting mushrooms, and I believe that you can get them checked at the Pharmacy. A small punnet of mushrooms in the shops costs 2euros but all the same I wouldn't risk picking any of the strange ones that we saw today.

The colours are changing and you can see further through the trees than a few weeks ago. On Monday the chasse started and so the forest is forbidden two days per week, well unless you want to be shot! In a few weeks time when they start hunting in the fields you will also come across the sign Chasse Interdit.....not everyone welcomes the hunters.

Funny thing was I realised when I was home from shopping that I hadn't got any mushrooms.................there wasn't any mushrooms in the supermarket!!

English Connections

Today it rained a lot and so I have spent time cooking and now I am watching television. With a digi box you can receive a lot more channels and the channel we are watching tonight is NRJ 12. We are watching Life on Mars. Understanding the dialogue is normally helped by reading the dialogue on the screen (in French) with the soutitrage. Unfortunately with channels that are not "mainstream" but are picked up via a digi box subtitles are not available.!

So I am watching English tv albeit in French. Oh what did I cook for dinner tonight? A curry which was all homemade since the French dont really care for hot spicey Onion Bhajis and food like that.

Here is a link to the BBC Life on Mars.