Last night's sunset, with clouds

Have I told you lately how beautiful the skies are here in Touraine? They match the landscape.

Views over the vineyard from the back gate
9:00 p.m., 30 May 2008

And did I mention that even though the Atlantic coast and the Ile d'Oléron have a beauty all their own, that I'm glad to live in Saint-Aignan.

Last Saturday, as we drove back from Oléron, we stopped in Poitiers for lunch. Nothing really special, just a steak-frites in a chain restaurant called Courtepaille.

Then we got off the autoroute for good at Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, not too far south of Tours. We drove due east through the villages of Bossée and Manthelan, arriving at Loches. A lot of that drive is through a dense green forest.

After Loches, on the way to Saint-Aignan, the countryside turns into rolling fields of farmland with patches of tended woods. Last Saturday, it was emerald green, freshly rained-on, and lush. The sky was full of big puffy clouds with some patches of blue.

Loches isn't far from Saint-Aignan. Someone told me it takes about 20 minutes to drive it, but you have to really put your foot down to make that kind of time. Better to slow down and enjoy the sights — little villages of stone houses with flower boxes of geraniums, the picturesque château de Montrésor, tall church steeples, and birds feeding in the fields. And feel good about being back in Touraine.