Walks, Perche-style

When we go for walks at La Renaudière, which is the name of the hamlet and vineyard where we live near Saint-Aignan, we sometimes see deer, rabbits, badgers, or foxes. We see a lot of birds and sometimes other dogs and people. We even see a donkey now and then.

This is two pictures of the same cow, pasted together.
Looks like a typical Normandy cow to me.

At La Bouée in the Perche, we got a new view of the world. We saw horses and we saw cows and steers. Callie is not used to being close to such big animals, and she was afraid. One morning, a whole herd of white cattle came right up to the fence along the road to check us out. Callie kept her distance. She was obviously nervous.

These white cows and steers came over the ogle the tourists.
I think they might be Charolais cattle.

Up the road between La Bouée and the main highway is a farm complex called La Bodonière. It includes a huge barn/stable along with two big farmhouses. A couple of times we saw a car parked in front of one house, and once or twice the shutters on that house were open, so there were people there. We never saw them.

The road out of La Bouée one morning...

...and one of the farmhouses down the lane, near the highway

The weather in the Perche region was iffy. It rained. The sun shone. Clouds formed. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. Two evenings, we had a fire in the big fireplace to take the chill off and try to dissipate the damp. Le Perche is not far north but the weather there is different.

Meuh !

In fact, the Perche includes the northern part of our département, the Loir-et-Cher, and La Bouée is just over 100 miles from Saint-Aignan. But when Walt came home on Thursday, he said the temperature was 25ºC here and he was sitting out on the terrace in shorts and a T-shirt. At La Bouée, we were wearing fleece and sweaters and we had built a roaring fire.