The Château de Meillant is just half an hour's drive south of the city of Bourges. I've blogged about it before. I just want to remind you that there's a lot to see in Bourges and around Bourges. CHM and I saw this château in June of 2009, when I took these pictures.
We had an earthquake yesterday just before 7:00 p.m. It was quite a shock — not so much in terms of magnitude, but psychologically. I never really thought I'd feel an earthquake in this part of France, even though I know there have been some in past centuries. Walt and I were sitting on the sofa up in the loft watching television. We both felt the shaking (it was more like jiggling). I wondered if I had fallen asleep and had dreamed I was in California. There was no damage around here, but there was damage down south, near Bordeaux and La Rochelle.
Earlier in the day, I drove up to Blois to do some shopping for foods we don't find easily out here in the countryside. I came home with a pound of fresh kale leaves, nearly 5 lbs. of frozen shrimp, a bunch of green asparagus spears, a pound of beautiful green beans, and more. I drove up to Blois by myself. It takes about 45 minutes, even though it's less than 30 miles north of Saint-Aignan. Some streets in Blois were closed off to car traffic but I didn't get lost. My driving and directional instincts served me well.
An earthquake, oh my! Glad your got out to Blois without any problems.
ReplyDeleteEarthquake!??! Geeeeze. I remember reading a post of yours one day, about the big earthquake in California that happened during a World Series game (wasn’t it?), and you and Walt didn’t know where the other was for a good while. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteJudy
Your memory is good, Judy. I was down in Silicon Valley when the earthquake happened. Walt was in Berkely. About an hour after the big quake, I decided to drive home to SF. The drive took nearly three hours instead of the normal one hour, but I made it. I had no idea where Walt might be. No cell phones back then. I didn't know it, but he was trying to call me but couldn't get through. Finally he called our friend Cheryl down in Silicon valley to tell her he was okay. She for some reason was able to get my phone to ring and let me know that Walt would try to come home the next day, even though the Bay Bridge was closed because a section of it had collapsed.
DeleteI would never have thought that France had earthquakes!
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
Our part-time neighbors from Blois had a huge party yesterday. More than 40 cars and more than 100 attendees. We went over there for an hour or more. The buzz was that at least one whole village near La Rochelle had been evacuated. The hostess said she had called her brother, who lives in La Rochelle, and heard his earthquake story. A lot of shaking but no visible damage so far. There was a 4.0 aftershock yesterday morning. The neighbors were surprised to learn that W. and I actually felt the earthquake at our house. If we had been moving around instead of just sitting on the sofa up in the loft, we probably wouldn't have noticed the jiggling.
ReplyDelete