The title of this post is what CHM said when he looked over my shoulder and saw what photos I was processing this morning. Machin is French for "what's-his-name" or "thingy". In this case, it means Sully, the French finance minister under the French king Henri IV of "a chicken in every pot" fame. Sully acquired a nice little place on the water during his tenure as a government minister.
Anyway, we got back from the short trip to the Perche and lower Normandy last night, and I haven't had time to get organized with photos and ideas for this blog.
I'm just posting a few pictures of the Château de Sully-sur-Loire, where I stopped for a few minutes Saturday morning to rest a little and take photos.
Sully is east of Orléans on the Loire and about half way from Saint-Aignan when I take this route.
The picture of the car below shows not the main roads I was driving on, but a narrow lane through some woods just south of Sully where I made a French-style pit stop — if you know what I mean.
We are resting up today and getting organized. Tomorrow we are going to Sancerre, which is about a 90-minute drive east of Saint-Aignan. It's a return trip for me but CHM hasn't been there in more than 50 years, unless I'm mistaken.
I'm also making a blanquette de veau this morning for our mid-day meal.
This term machin is very convenient to use when you can't remember what the right word is. If you want to sound really educated you can append chose or truc to machin adding thus to the uncertainty. We've had two wonderful days and I can't wait to see and read Ken's posts about our short trip, école buissonnière style.
ReplyDeleteFaire l'école buissonière means (in U.S. English) "playing hooky" from school. It's fun.
DeleteLove thing a majig words- they come in very handy for old age forgetting lol. Glad you are safely chez vous. How did you do driving in Paris?
DeleteGood point, Evelyn, about the getting older part of the equation. I did fine driving in Paris. I know my way around when it comes to CHM's neighborhood, and I had the garage space reserved. It all worked out perfectly. Driving the Citroën was a pleasure, in the city, on the autoroute, and on the winding country lanes.
DeleteI had a feeling that you would be able to manage driving in Paris still- it's like the back of your hand still.
DeleteHeading over there on 17th plus a return trip to Sancerre...visited last November :http://loirevalleyexperiences.blogspot.fr/2013/11/sancerre-road-trip-part-4now-for-some.html
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim. We'll be hitting the road tomorrow morning to go to Jars, Le Noyer, Chavignol, and Sancerre. It'll just be a day trip but it will be fun. Playing hooky again...
DeleteA French style pit stop...
ReplyDeleteyou run on BP then??
Don't you do pit stops when you are on a road trip? Another, more euphemistic term for it is a "biology break". Taking a leak...
DeleteWe'll be playing hooky in France in September and "machin" will come in handy since we forget at least one word per sentence.
ReplyDeleteHow often do you think we can drop "machin" into a sentence before someone realizes we're not actually French? Or do you think the
look of confusion on our faces gives us away immediately?
Walt pointed out that people often say "machin-chouette" as well as "machin-truc" and "machin-chose" to mean "what's his/her face" or "thingamajig" when they can't remember a name. That caught-in-the-headlights look we all get when the French phrases start flying is a dead giveaway, n'est-ce pas?
DeleteThe chateau is groovy, classic 16th (?) century. Wonder what the interior looks like. Is it possible to go in?
ReplyDeleteYou can go in, but I didn't have time. Here's a link to the chateau web site.
Deleteohhhhhhh wow... how lovely is this château, eh?!? I've seen it before, but never with such glorious photos :)
ReplyDeletechm and Ken, it warms my heart to hear of your wonderful visits with each other... every June? You always seem to revel in your drives around wonderful places, and in your shared excellent meals. Oh boy!
The recent pattern has been CHM visiting in June, right after he arrives in France. He often has other obligations in July and family visits in August. People who work for a living aren't free in June, but we are. CHM and I both really enjoy getting lost out in the country looking for the next château, manoir, church, or village. And the lunches and dinners are always memorable. Over the next week or two I'll be blogging about our quick trip to Alençon and all the other towns we saw this past weekend.
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