03 July 2015

Chavignol from above

I actually posted the wrong picture of Sancerre yesterday morning. I meant to post the one just below to go with the shot of the table d'orientation, which I'm including again. This photo shows the road you see on the tourist map:


And here, below, is a view of the village of Chavignol from on high, with Sancerre on its hilltop on the left. You can see how the village snakes through a deep valley, and you can see the church on the right:


Here's a closer shot of the center of the village and the church:


And, finally, one more, still closer:


Chavignol is famous for its Sancerre vineyards, but it's even better know for its Chavignol goat cheese. More about the crottin cheeses tomorrow.
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Weather update: our high temperature was 33.3ºC / about 92ºF yesterday, after a reading of 35.5ºC / 96ºF the day before. Today, predictions are for another blast of Saharan air, taking the temperature up to 37ºC, which is human body temperature (98.6ºF). We'll see if our thermometer reading matches that. Soon, this heat wave will be just a nice memory.

If I often mention air-conditioning, or the lack thereof here in Saint-Aignan, it's because in most of the U.S. people's houses have AC, and it gets a workout in summer. The opposite is true in France. In fact, the last time Walt and I lived in an air-conditioned house or apartment was back in 1983-86, when we lived in Washington DC. In the SF Bay Area of California, as here in Saint-Aignan, we never really needed AC in the various houses and apartments we lived in.

14 comments:

  1. Ah! It's Chavignol!

    Trève de plaisanteries, tes photos sont excellentes. Cannon ou Lumix?

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  2. C'était le vieux Lumix, que j'ai depuis 2010. Je n'avais pas encore le nouveau Lumix, et j'avais décidé de ne pas emporter le Canon ce jour-là. Comme toi, je trouve que ces photos sont bonnes. En même temps, je regrette toujours mon Lumix de 2012.

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  3. Hot – 34.4 right now. Not a record tho'.

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  4. Lovely temperature inside right now : 26.9 C. I am lucky!

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  5. chm, do you have air conditioning at your Paris residence? 78 is about where we set the thermostat here.

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    1. Hi Diogenes. No, I don't have any air conditioning in Paris. My apartment is on the first floor with windows facing south over a small private garden full of greenery. The stone walls are very thick, so it takes time for the heat to permeate. I keep the windows shut. That inside temperature is ideal for me. When I lived in Salton City, Frank and I had the thermostat set up at 80°F all year round. It was great!

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  6. CHM, lucky you who enjoys warm weather! moi aussi

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    1. Hi Evelyn,
      Yes, I love the heat. I miss my little paradise in the desert of SoCal. The thermostat was never below 80°F. You'd have liked it, I'm sure.

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    2. CHM, have you turned your heat off yet?

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    3. No, it's still on, but since the temperature is somewhat higher than the thermostat's settings it doesn't go on. Lol!

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  7. When I did a 15-day tour of France back in 2001, I decided to arrive 4 days before my tour began so that I could recover from jet lag and see sone sites I'm Paris that were not on the tour. I booked a nice motel online. It never occurred to me that it would not have A/C! It was really HOT during those 4 evenings in late June! I was very happy to move to the hotel where the tour began and finally have A/C.

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  8. And news from your hood: https://www.facebook.com/topic/Kill-Devil-Hills-North-Carolina/113094988703922?source=whfrt&position=2&trqid=6167456790674899969

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    1. Here's that link live. We have always had a lot of sharks along the N.C. coast. A man who was a friend of my parents was killed by one back in the 1950s. We were on the beach that day when it happened. There are shark "attacks" nearly every summer in the waters off Morehead City. Most are not fatal. Thanks for the link. Interesting photos.

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