Springing into fall... and maybe winter

It was not quite hot yesterday afternoon, but it was very warm. Our neighbors who live in Blois but have a house here, across the road from ours, were outdoors working in their big yard. They said they were seeing signs of plants flowering and growing as if it was springtime instead of fall. I think we're going into a cooler period now, though, and I kind of hope so. It's hard to complain about such beautiful weather, but it isn't normal after all. There's something worrisome about it.

    
Just to remind us that it really is the fall of the year, or at least soon will be....

    
A big branch fell out of one of our neighbor's poplar trees a few days ago.
And there are still hundreds of mushrooms in evidence all around the vineyard.

Yesterday was very warm, and this coming Tuesday is a holiday, la Toussaint (All Saints' Day). That means a lot of French people will take tomorrow, Monday, off and enjoy a long weekend. Right now there is a carnival set up on the big place (plaza) in Saint-Aignan, right next to the Saturday marché (outdoor food market). Traffic coming into town from the north, over the town's only bridge, was backed up for miles. I know, because I was in it, but I was going in the opposite direction. I wonder how many people spent the day at the Beauval zoo — thousands, I bet. Saint-Aignan is really changing because of that major tourist attraction.

I decided not try to get to Super U or the outdoor market to buy groceries, because both are on the main route to the zoo. I ended up driving over to Valençay instead. It's an hour-long round-trip, but it's a pretty drive and there was little to no traffic along the way. Since the Peugeot is running nicely, I enjoyed the drive. The town is famous for its château, its goat cheese, and its wines. One thing I noticed was that there were a lot of people out gathering wild mushrooms in the ten-square-mile forest on the northwestern edge of Valençay.