Quelques fleurs...

...et quelques pleurs



(Isabelle Boulay is a French Canadian singer.)

An outage and two plants

I got up at five this morning, as usual. I noticed that the lights on our fiber optic router weren't right. Instead of of three orange lights shining brightly, I saw only one orange light and one bright white light blinking on and off. I sat here wondering what to do. When the router stops working, not only is our internet out, but so is our telephone. And then suddenly, at 6:30 a.m., everything started working normally again. So here I am, back on line.

And here is my photo for today.

This is a Chinese money plant or, if you prefer, Pilea peperomioides. One French name for it is plante du missionnaire. My friend Evelyn brought it to me from the U.S. three years ago. I thank her; the plant is doing great. The other plant in the picture, on the left, is a succulent called a burrow's tail or donkey tail, Sedum morganianum. It's called une queue d'âne in French, among other names. I brought a little piece of it to France from the U.S. years ago, and I now have it growing in four or five pots. It's thriving.

Le Château de la Guerche

The Château de la Guerche is just 10 minutes southwest of Le Grand-Pressigny by car. The village of La Guerche has a population of not quite 200. The château is privately owned. It has been called un exemple remarquable de l’art de bâtir au XVè siècle. It's open to the public for guided tours. The river that runs by it is La Creuse. The château was partially demolished during the French Revolution and was re-built in the 1830s, according to Wikipédia.

Le Grand-Pressigny

Here I am still posting about one day in July 2006 when my late friend Charles-Henry drove around sightseeing in the area known as le sud-Touraine. Le Grand-Pressigny is a little town that is home to a very impressive set of ruins. The old castle was built here in the early Middle Ages. The pictures here show what remains of it. It's 35 meters tall (115 feet).

The building on the far left above was a French Renaissance addition and is now a museum devoted to the town's history (along with a 20th century building nearby. The population of the town is about 1,000 nowadays. It's 25 miles north of Saint-Savin and Chauvigny, which I've posted about recently, and 35 miles southeast of Saint-Aignan. The closest big town is Loches, 18 miles north.

The ruins on the left and on the right just above are the ruins of the old castle's donjon, or "keep". You can see the very narrow, steep spiral staircase that led to the top the othe old tower.