One last walk around Mortagne-au-Perche

I guess I'm posting too many pictures these days. Too many in the same post, in other words. The dilemma is, how many photos are enough? how many are not enough? It's like the old saw about letter-writing. I wanted to write you a short letter, but I didn't have time. So here's a long one. I don't have time to choose which pictures to post and which to put back in the archives. So I post too many... maybe. You can enlarge the ones you find interesting. You can just scroll through the others.

This morning, I thought I might have to break down and see if I could figure out why Blogger wouldn't work with Firefox any more. That might require a day's work or two day's work. Or I might never figure it out. Then, a hour ago, I started up Firefox for the day, opened the Blogger app, and everything worked the way it had until a few days ago. Somebody at Google fixed some bug while I wasn't looking, I guess. I'm glad I hadn't started messing with it.

So here are some more pictures that I took in Mortagne. It's amazing how there are no people in all these photos. Where were all of the nearly four thousand people who live in Mortagne? Hiding from me and my camera? Oh, that's my American friend Evelyn in one of the photos below. Enjoy.

Mortagne-au-Perche

Continuing my walk around the town of Mortagne-au-Perche...

Mortagne-au-Perche windows and doors

So what do you really see when you take a walk around a town like Mortagne? Or take pictures of? You do the walking for the exercise and for close views of everything. You take the photos for the memories. Doors and windows are often favorites subjects. Here are a few that I took back in August 2011.

Inside the church in Mortagne-au-Perche (2)

I don't have much to write about this morning, so I'm just posting a few more photos of stained glass windows that I took in Mortagne in 2011, and this: Walt got back from his 9-day trip to the U.S. yesterday. He had some airline adventures along the way, but since I don't know if he is going to write about them, I'll hold my peace.

Tasha was thrilled to see Walt again yesterday when we went to pick him up at the little train station across the river in Noyers-sur-Cher. I think she had nearly given up hope that he might return one day.

Our "pack" was missing one of its members. I did my best to keep her occupied by continuing to feed her on her regular schedule — Walt usually gives her her food — and by taking her out for both a morning walk and an afternoon walk every day. Normally I just take her out for one walk a day and Walt takes her out for one.

Inside the church at Mortagne-au-Perche (1)

It's Sunday, so here are some church pictures. I took these in August 2011 when I was in Mortagne-au-Perche with friends. The church is called l'église Notre-Dame and it was built between 1495 and 1535.

Walking around in Mortagne

Before I found these photos I took in August 2011, I had forgotten how pretty Mortagne is. We were staying in a gîte that was an old farmhouse on the south of town. There were five of us (including two couples) and we had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a big kitchen/living room. One of my goals was to buy and try some really good boudin noir. I like boudin noir and buy it here in the Saint-Aignan area several times a year, either in charcuterie shops and market stalls or in the supermarkets. In 2013 Walt and I even made an apple tart that contained some little "meatballs" of the blood sausage filling (here's a link), and it was delicious.

For some reason, I think my late friend Charles-Henry and I stayed in rooms at the hôtel du Tribunal (two photos, above left and below left) one night in 2015, when we were touring around in the Perche region on our way to Alençon. However, I can't find any photos of a visit to Mortagne in 2015.I just found a mention on an old blog post saying that C-H and I stayed in a hôtel in Mortagne. This has to be the one.

Arriving in Mortagne-au-Perche

I mentioned a couple of days ago that the town called Mortagne-au-Perche (pop. 3,800) is not very far from three of the châteaux I've posted about recently: Gacé, Médavy, and O. It's a 30- to 40-minute drive. I was there with friends in 2011. From my point of view, it's an interesting place because it has an interesting name, with that -au- stuck in the middle. It's also interesting for one of its culinary specialties, which is the sausage called boudin noir ("black pudding" or "blood sausage" depending on what dialect of English you speak).

These are photos I took in August 2011. In the one on the left above, we are arriving in Mortagne from the northwest. The one on the left is a rainbow we saw as we drove through a brief rain shower not far from the town.

Like many little French towns, it's a old settlement with narrow streets, and located on a hilltop.

It also has cafés like the one above and, of course, a big church at its center.

Where did it go?

The heavy rains and the strong winds seem to have jumped over us here in Saint-Aignan. It's hard to tell what happened. I guess the center of the storm (remnants of hurricane Kirk) passed to the north of us. We had a lot of rain yesterday (more than an inch), and some wind, but nothing like what was predicted. At the same time, one of the downspouts on the back side of our house seems to be stopped up and there are water marks on the ceiling in the room we call "the den" (Walt's computer room). I called a roofer and he said he would come by at 10:30 this morning to see what needs to be done.

We are still under flood warnings, because a lot of water is coming down the local rivers (the Cher and the Loire), but we don't have to worry about that at our house — we are on high ground. Obviously, no trees fell along the road that runs down into the river valley, so I have electricity, telephone service, and an internet connection this morning. Out on the Atlantic coast, about 160 miles from here, more than 4 inches of rain fell. In the Paris area, more rain fell in 24 hours (2½ inches) than at any time since 1920, according to the TéléMatin weather reports. The Seine-et-Marne département (the eastern suburbs of Paris, including the towns of Meaux, Melun, Fontainebleau, Provins, and Nemours) has a lot of flooded streets and roads this morning, according to the news. In Paris itself, a few metro stations are flooded.

Taking a break...

...because of our stormy weather. I'm sure we won't have the kind of destruction that central Florida is expecting, but we're supposed to have heavy rains and damaging winds starting later today and continuing for maybe 12 hours. If any of the trees along the road near us blow down, that will take out our internet connection and phone service. If you don't hear from me tomorrow or over the weekend, don't be surprised.

On this map, Saint-Aignan is approximately where I put the red X is on the radar image, just under the F of FRANCE. We live about 150 miles south-southwest of Paris.

Le Château d'O in Normandy

The Château d'O is built on an island in a small lake (un étang in French) which serves as its moat. It dates back to the 15th century and has been modified and renovated several times over the course of the centuries. The O family (some sources spell it Ô with a circumflex accent) distinguished itself during the Crusades. O is not the only one-letter proper name in French; there are a dozen others, according to one article I just read (no list).

Anyway, the O château was our next stop on that day in June 2001 when my late friend Charles-Henry and I spent about 12 hours touring around in Lower Normandy. It's less than 10 minutes by car from the Château de Médavy, and big towns nearby are Alençon, Mortagne-au-Perche, and Argentan.

These are some pictures I took at le château d'O in June 2001.
Don't confuse it with château d'eau, which means "water tower".