Autumn leaves

Because of my uninterrupted four-week Paris series, it's been a while since I've posted any photos from the vineyard we live in here outside Saint-Aignan. Below are a few shots that I took on October 30, the day after I got back from that enjoyable trip to Paris, while I was out for a walk with the dog.

We've had a great autumn here in the Loire Valley. The weather has been beautiful most of the time, and we haven't yet had a freeze. The grape harvest was finished in October, but the colorful leaves hung on the vines for quite a while afterward. November has been exceptionally warm for this part of France.

Today might be the turning point for our weather. This morning it's about 7ºC outdoors — that's close to 45ºF — but tomorrow morning the predicted temperature is 0ºC (32ºF). Welcome back, December. I haven't heard any predictions of snow so far. We are actually hoping to get some cold, freezing weather and some snow and ice this winter, because we didn't have any last year. A spell of freezing temperatures would be good for the plants and would kill off some noxious weeds, fungi, and insect pests.

Autumn colors tend toward the orange and gold in this climate. There aren't many red leaves to be seen on trees, but the grapevine leaves make up for it here at La Renaudière. Of course, the color of their autumn leaves depends on the type of grape. These particular red-leaved vines are "black" grapes, I know, but I don't know if they are Cabernet, Côt, or Gamay. A lot of the "white" grape plants seem to have yellow instead of red leaves in the fall.

I almost titled this post "Meanwhile, back at the ranch," but the fact is that my month-long trip report covering my six hours in Paris in late October gave me a little break from taking and editing so many photos. My camera finally caught a break. In all of November, I took fewer that 100 photos. In October, however, with trips to Burgundy and Paris, I took more than 1,500. I still have a lot of those I'd like to post — especially the ones I took in Burgundy.