The Garden in Colour - October

It may be approaching mid October but looking round the garden late this afternoon, there is still plenty of colour...

Long may it last.... but I think that's a bit of wishful thinking!!

Sunday Outing

Any guesses where we've been this afternoon??

Clue: We needed our passports

Aldi Mercredi

Shoppers were there in droves this morning for the opening of the new Aldi store in Chinon...

It is obviously as popular in France as it is in the UK - and with good reason. We were lucky to find a space on the huge car park....

And inside the store was full of shoppers and offers.. It was light and bright and certainly doing some business.

No doubt we'll visit again - even if only for its gluten free chocolate; a rare find in France these days!!

Villandry with a difference..

Thanks to Jim Craig's post the other day, see here, we had a fantastic afternoon out at Chateau Villandry on Saturday.

The event celebrated gardens and gardeners, with the addition of local produce, crafts and entertainments for the children.

Here are a few of our photos:

And a special treat for me; the sight of all the cyclamen in flower in the woods..

Simply stunning!

Thank you, Jim, keep up the good work!

Advertising Standards.....!

Having enjoyed a successful day at Faye la Vineuse back in August and subsequent interest in and sales of some of my work, I thought I would do a "plug" for it and direct anyone who may be interested to my webpage: http://www.spangledust.co.uk

And on a completely different topic, can someone please reset this plants body clock for us?!

Seems a little unseasonal to us,  for the end of September!

A Most Enjoyable Traffic Jam..

We took part in the most enjoyable traffic jam on Sunday created by 200-300 old cars, on the RN10 at Ste Maure de Touraine.

The event was entered into with spirit, as you will no doubt see from the following photos. Styles from the 60s were worn by many of those taking part and we did our best with what we'd got!!

Spectators lined the route right from the start..

Along with the general mayhem of the day, there was the most amazing sense of bonhomie and fun.

 

Where else would you see "nuns" and "priests" rolling back the roof of a 2CV...

 

There were fake engine fires to be extinguished..

and Sapeur Pompiers there to respond..

Unfortunately when the handbrake snapped off in Tim's hand, Tim and Pauline were NOT faking it!

However, Susan and Simon made sure that they got safely home.

The whole event covered a course of little over a kilometre but the originality and diversity packed into that kilometre was amazing !

To finish, here are some folk who really got into the swing of things! The short video below shows them in action..

For a few more photos of the day see here on La Nouvelle Republique, (link courtesy of Simon: Thanks, Simon!)