Oradour-sur-Glane, - the village of martyrs .................

* this should have posted automatically yesterday

 Friday June 10th 2011 - 67 years on.....*

Last summer Tim needed to fly to the US in the middle of our holiday in France. I took him up to the station at St Pierre de Corps to catch the early morning TGV to Charles de Gaulle airport, then dashed down to Limoges airport to pick up Tom. Tom had spent 4 months in India doing some volunteer work for Christian Aid, so this was the first time I had seen him since May. He came through passport control over 2 stones lighter!

On our way home to Le Petit-Pressigny we decided to visit Oradour-sur-Glane again. Our first visit was in 1998, when Tom was 8, so he saw the village through very different eyes.

The story of Oradour is well known, so I'll only write a very brief explanation here, and include some of the many poignant images we took on the day.

On June 10, 1944, 642 people, nearly the entire population, were murdered by the Waffen SS, and only a handful survived. The soldiers ordered the town’s women and children to gather in the church, and led the men into barns. Once they were certain that the entire population was accounted for, a slaughter began. The regiment attacked the church and barns with machine guns and burned them to the ground. Then they set about destroying the village.

After the war ended, General Charles de Gaulle declared the village a national monument, a testament to the violence suffered by the French during World War II. It was to remain as it was left, burned and empty, and a new village was constructed nearby.

Whole families died and there are memorials in the cemetery.

It is possible to walk around the old village, which has been preserved as it was after its destruction in 1944. There are no guides for the village; visitors can wander through the ruins and see for themselves the devastation caused to a whole community. It is expected that visitors will be quiet and respectful during the visit, so the whole place is virtually silent except for hushed whispers.

There is a museum at the underground entrance, and the whole site is a moving and powerful reminder of what happened that day.

There is an excellent article by David M Thomas which you can read here  which explains the circumstances of the massacre so well.

The Brico Dépôt experience ..............

When we were in France at Easter we needed to buy a few things from a Brico type shop. We've tried out most of the ones close to us, but had never been to a Brico Dépôt so we decided to go to the one near Chatellerault. We found  Brico Dépôt fairly easily on the N10 to Poitiers, but hadn't realised just how close it would be to Futuroscope. It is a bit of a 'pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap' sort of shop, but some things looked of a decent quality as well as amazingly inexpensive.

As some blog readers will know by now, I am very indecisive! I can never make up my mind. As Tim would tell you, I'm never in two minds about something, it's more like five or six!

 Is it cheap because it will break quickly?

 Will there be a nicer one elsewhere?

 Is this the best colour? etc, etc etc.

Life is just too short to type out, or even think about the endless list of reasons why it might not be a good idea to buy something!

We ended up buying a few bags of 'pick and mix' nails, screws and bolts and a sprayer - all very useful stuff, but not priorities. What we didn't buy was the large,  cantilevered, tilting sunshade we desperately needed for our terrace.............. similar to this.........

Ours is not exactly like this, but was only about one third of the price of this one!

I didn't do a distance check, but think Brico Dépôt was about 50km away from Le Petit-Pressigny. Needless to say we were back the next day again to buy it - about 200km all together! We will need to make another journey(s) in the summer to pick up a ladder as we forgot to take the trailer with us and there wasn't room for the ladder, the sunshade and us! 

We are pleased with our sunshade, especially with the sunny weather we had when we visited at Easter and Whitsun. Time will tell whether it proves to be the bargain we think it was.

Watch this space ............

Bouges-le-Château...........

A few weeks ago I posted about a wine tasting trip we took with some friends to the Quincy area. You can read about it here.

On our way home we drove via the very pretty village of Bouges-le-Château, in the Indre department, and stopped to have a wander.

The village is dominated by the château which was built in 1759, and remained a private residence until it was donated to the state in 1968.

On this occasion we didn't have time to visit, but will return - we need more of the delicious Quincy wine we bought, and loved. Now when I say 'we', I actually mean 'I', as Tim doesn't enjoy wine! I don't argue much, as it seems a shame to waste good wine!!

It was a warm, late April afternoon and the little restaurant had just stopped serving ....

A couple sheltering from the heat of the day.

 The church was a very simple one. I liked the effect of  the sun shining through the window on to the floor.  We didn't manage to capture the colours as well as I was hoping to.

There are some beautiful villages to visit in the Berry, and our friends John and Maureen are excellent guides. The gite is in a great location, and they are happy to share their knowledge with their guests. You can find more information about their gite here.

Delicious food .......good company.......what else is necessary?

Yesterday we were invited to lunch by our friends John and Maureen who live in the small hamlet of Le Breuil aux Gittons, just outside Chatillion-sur-Indre. Julia and Chris joined us.

John and Maureen have been good friends for about 25 years – is it really that long? About 8 years ago they bought their home in Le Breuil and in that time have completely transformed the property and land with some thoughtful and highly skilled renovations. They have a gite which they rent out - more about this in a future post when I sort the photographs.

Poppy looking on from a safe distance.

Life is full of coincidences,  Chris and Julia, who also live near Chatillion, know the area where I was brought up very well. Chris once lived a couple of miles away and actually worked in Tredegar. Isn't it a small world.............................

I thought I'd post a selection of pics which capture a little bit about our lunch. What they don't do is fully reflect the wonderful relaxing time we all had, and how good  both the food and company were.

We started with some

and a glass of

Our entrée, 

followed by,

Then we has a delicious tiramisu and a taster of my cherry and almond  clafoutis which I posted about here.

To finish we had coffee and mints. What a delightful way to spend a summer afternoon!

As usual after a long lunch a gentle stroll through the lanes. Maureen and Julia trying to hide from the camera......

Where did they get those hats?

Chris has a liking for old carts and there were plenty to see here.......

Monday music (posted Saturday by mistake!) .......... my desert island disc collection part 5

There will have to be room on my island for Paul Simon. I could take just about any of his songs, either solo, or with Art Garfunkel. There is just 'something so right' about this version.

This one is for Tim…………30 years on and I wouldn’t swap him!

Well………………. unless David Beckham comes calling!

Ferrière-Larçon .........

 Yesterday we went a few kilometres up the road to the village of Ferrière-Larçon. This was our first visit, although we have passed through many times, but always on our way to or from somewhere else, and often in a hurry.

They were holding a brocante and vide grenier with plans for 200 stalls. By the time we arrived at about 10am it was very busy. We were so engrossed that I forgot to take any photographs!! However, I'm sure other bloggers wll be better organised.

We fell into the old trap of seeing something that we wanted to buy on a stall, walking off to 'think about it' and returning to find that someone else had been quicker to make up their mind. I'm a Libran....... (although I don't believe, I show some key characteristics!)

I am into 'knife and fork rests'! They probably have a special name. I rarely use them, but I am fascinated. Although I'm not by nature a collector, I think I could start with these.

Anyway, there was a stall with some pretty white chicken ones and also some glass 'sausage-dog' shaped ones but I thought there might be some better ones elsewhere, hence my hesitation. I didn't find any others - isn't that always the way? The chicken ones were long gone!

My friend Sally has some cut glass ones she found at Yzeures-sur-Creuse, a bit like these....

We once had dinner at a French home and they had some silver ones.....

Mine, in comparison, are very ordinary....

We will go back to Ferrière-Larçon to explore as I think there is so much to see. On our way back to the car we noticed a marked trail and managed to visit one of the viewpoints.

La Fontaine  Saint- Mande

*click  to enlarge.

The well was a place of pilgrimage and the waters were thought to cure fevers, rickets and an unhealthy pallor.  In earlier times, young women would go there for help in their search of a husband! Nowadays the waters are not for drinking!

Out with the old ............. and in with the new!

Over the past couple of years plans had been made to change the position of the Mairie and Post Office in Le Petit-Pressigny. New laws mean that both need to be accessible to disabled and less mobile people.

As you can see from the photographs, both have steps to climb in order to enter the buliding.

The old Mairie and Post Office at the side.

Last summer the new Mairie and Post Office opened adjacent to the Salle des Fetes. There was a celebration, speeches, nibbles and a vin d'honneur. A lot of the village turned out to mark the occasion.

The new Mairie and Post Office



The Salle des Fetes



There are discussions going on about what the old Mairie, which is a lovely old building, should be used for.

Any suggestions?