10 March 2010

Local color

This is the country. It isn't remote country, but still. And it's agricultural. The fact that the agriculture is mainly viniculture — growing grapes and making wine — makes it a little different from regions to the north (La Beauce) and south (Le Berry).

Barrels behind a barn out on the road

Old farmhouses sometimes have a lot of junk out front, along the road. The photos here are a couple of examples. This is an old farmer or winemaker's house I sometimes walk by with Callie. It's on the paved road parallel to ours, on the other side of a deep ravine that a creek runs through.

Any guess as to what this piece of equipment is for?

I like the local color of it all. I wonder if the other neighbors do. It's in a hamlet called La Grand-Maison — « Grand » is not a typo — where most of the other 15 or so houses are like ours: relatively modern and almost suburban in appearance.

6 comments:

  1. That's a grape grinder. Put a container for the juice under the spout. Then put your grapes in at the top and grind. You get wonderful fresh grape juice for immediate drinking or you can try to make wine! You can try it with other juicy fruit like your greengage plums but I don't think it would be very useful with apples except maybe as a first step before pressing the pulp to get juice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Ellen. I thought it probably had to do with processing grapes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was thinking, too, that it might be something for grapes, though I wasn't sure what :)

    Ken, how are the pre-renovation/pre-travel chores going? We have Spring Break next week, so I am getting excited-- weather is lovely, too, despite some rain.

    Judy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for your blog, which I've recently discovered. We toured the region last autumn, including visiting Patricia and Bruno at Domaine de la Renaudie, and drink their wines at home with fond memories. Your blog enables me to relive some more memories of a beautiful area!

    ReplyDelete
  5. When is junk aesthetic junk and not rubbish ? !
    Possibly something to do with the lack of plastic perhaps - rusty iron always looks so much more appealing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It looks like a couple of those barrels have seen better days.

    ReplyDelete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?