Richelieu under seige!

When we went into Richelieu today and saw this gathering:

the first thought which sprung to mind was that these were medical students at the start of the academic year.

Well no, actually,  our first thought was "What's going on?"  So we asked  a friendly looking lad.....

and from his lengthy and rather rapid response we gleaned that these were medical students doing what students do best - dressing up - taking 'The Three Musketeers' as their theme!

It was difficult to make sense  of much of what he told us but looking online we noticed that the film "The Three Musketeers" is due to be released this week and this has obviously informed the choice of theme for these start of year celebrations. And what better place to come and re-enact the tale than Richelieu itself?!
 

Our next thought was 'Is now the right time to start worrying now about the future of the health service?!'

I wonder what Cardinal Richelieu would make of it all!

Causing Chaos at the Supermarket...

All I wanted was a box!

Our glut of fruit has led to storage problems and in an effort to alleviate these I thought it would be a good idea, whilst at the supermarket, to ask an assistant for an empty box. That's all! Just a box, like the one fruit comes in....

Well... off went the supermarket employee telling me to "ne bougez pas"......as if I would dare!

He returned with a carbonated pad and proceeded to write (endlessly, it seemed). Colin quietly asked if I thought the poor man was under the impression that we wanted to purchase a full box of apples - heaven forbid!!

Eventually he handed me a piece of paper.....

We hadn't a clue why and I hadn't the heart to ask if he would mind if I took two boxes... In any case I had the distinct impression that Colin would have disowned me if I did!

And so we continued our route round the supermarket, box and piece of paper in hand. Until, that is, I saw another man with empty boxes.... So I took the plunge and asked. He simply handed me a box; no piece of paper - just a box!

"1 carton"

Did he see me as a kindred spirit? Or had word got round the store that staff were likely to be approached by a mad English woman with a box fetish?

We have since realised that the form filling of the first assistant was part of the store's policy of logging customers' requests; hopefully to act on them!

What a brilliant idea! Well done, Auchan!!

Pont de Chinon

We have noticed on several occasions when we have visited Chinon that some major works where taking place on the beach adjacent to the bridge. It turns out the bridge is in danger of collapse if work is not carried out to underpin some of the arches nearest to the town.

The works are to provide a temporary bridge to supply materials to the site in order to keep the main bridge open to traffic during the repair work.

 

Today we were on the bridge when the first section was lifted into place... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well it does fit then!!!!!

My compliments go to this man, the crane driver, he certainly could handle that crane....

The original bridge probably built in the 12 ^th century under Henry II has under gone many restorations over time. For more details see here.

Harvest time.

Yesterday was the start of the local wheat harvest... It was the arrival of the Combine Harvester that caught my attention for yesterdays pole men blog.

What a fine piece of machinery. New Holland C980 Combine Harvester. It looked new but this model has been superseded by the CR9080 several years ago.

With a cutting width of 9.15 metres it made short work of the wheat fields in front and to the left of our house.

As I was grass cutting at the time it made me feel a little inferior!!

If you fancy one there are several available on the internet  Price tag  €120,000 for a 2006 model with 1300 hrs on the clock....

Having trouble getting it up.... Not the French...

This afternoon there was alot of activity on our road up towards the main road. We had seen a long concrete 'electric' post by the roadside for a couple of days. Today was the day for getting it up... Heres how its done!!!

Move the pole into position

Attach a small drill

Drill the hole

Deeper and deeper

Drop the pole into your hole

Well!! it should fit!!

A bit of backfill

and voila its up!!!

Now you  are probably asking "What is it for?" We have no idea. 

My best guess is it could be a mast for the radio internet. We went to the meeting here. It is the same type of concrete pole that is  used for main electrical overhead cables but it is long way from the village power supply... and looks higher but that may be an optical illusion. We will let you know...

Art et Meubles de France: Grande Vente

After our experience at the Grande Vente Emmaus, we were tempted when we saw the following outside 'Art et Meubles de France', on the outskirts of Richelieu.

As with the Emmaus sale, the entrance was unprepossessing..

But inside there were two floors packed with reproduction wooden furniture, fabric and bric-a-brac, from the sublime to the ridiculous.....

 

 

The furniture was sublime; the prices, ridiculous, even at "vente" figures!

Unbleached fabric being cut to protect purchases??

Needless to say we left without purchasing but fascinated at what lay behind the humble facade
......and we're already on the lookout for the next "Grande Vente"!

The Drought - another view.

This morning our friend Susan posted a blog about how severe the lack of rain has become. Details Here.

This is our first year in France so we had noted the limited amount of rain (being from North West England you could not fail to notice) but were not aware of the extent of the actual drought. We took some photographs on Sunday of the fields and pathways on our walk around Le Louroux, showing just how dry things are.

 

 

Despite this the rape seed crops give the appearance of doing well. The crop below was just about 6 feet (1.85 mtrs) tall.

From our point of view, both our wells are still producing good supplies of water so we have been able to keep our potager and new areas of grass fully watered. How long this will continue we do not know. The weather forecast for Richelieu is showing rain for Tuesday 24th of May as the only rain in the next two weeks. However it has shown days of rain in the past and we have not seen a drop!!!

We really could do with some now. Send some down from Lancashire I am sure they have some to spare!

Up Up and Away...

Colin spotted a 'crowd' (in Braye terms, anyway!) gathering across the field so we got out the binoculars and the camera to see this:

 What a fabulous sight to see right on our doorstep on a cloudless April evening!