Scratched

A few days ago, I realized that my camera's lens has a scratch on it. At first, I thought it was just dirty, so I cleaned it well. The scratch was still there. I can't actually see it on the lens, but I can see it in pictures I take.

When I zoomed in on these roses, they were 25 or 30 feet away from me in a neighbor's yard.

I see it especially when I focus on a solid color background like the blue sky. Fortunately, we don't have to worry much about blue skies these days. The weather report is on Télématin right now, and it looks like another lousy day for most of France. Our high temperature might be as high as 70ºF. If you are watching the coverage of the Tour de France, you know what I'm talking about.

So I took the camera out on the walk in the vineyard with Callie a day or two after I noticed the scratch and took a whole series of close-up photos of flowers, grasses, and grapes. (I'll post grape pictures later.)

Meanwhile, I had already done some research about buying a similar camera to replace the scratched one, which is only two years old. The fact is that cameras are getting to be more and more affordable.

Anyway, the test pictures came out really nice, I thought. The light was right. As always, you can click or tap on the images to see them at a larger size. I've decided I don't need a new camera right now. If I notice the scratch on an image, I can try to remove it with Photoshop.

The little pond out back has been taken over by an invasive aquatic plant, but it has also been full of croaking frogs for weeks now.

Speaking of the weather, it seemed like it was improving yesterday afternoon. The morning had been gray and it seemed like it might rain any minute. It was starting to feel cold in the house. (You can understand why people here mostly don't need to have air conditioning in their houses.)

The sun came out in the afternoon and things started to feel warmer. Then we started hearing thunder. I looked at the weather radar on the web and I saw a line of thunderstorms approaching from the northwest. It was between Le Mans and Tours, and then it was over Tours, and then it was over us.

This is a composition — mirror images stitched together.

The lightning and thunder got closer and a very hard rain started falling. Callie went wild barking. The rain didn't last long, and at least it didn't turn into hail. This morning it's just foggy and gray outside. Maybe the fog and clouds will burn off. Always the optimist...

Les Vaux de Cernay, near Versailles

Just a few miles south of Versailles is the little town of Cernay-la-Ville with its old abbey church, in ruins. L'abbaye des Vaux de Cernay (vaux is the plural of val and means "valleys") was founded by a group of monks from Savigny in Normandy back in the year 1118. In 1147, it was attached to the Cistercian order. CHM and I went to Cernay in late May.

The abbey had its highs and lows. It was thriving in the 13th century, but in decline by the 15th. It was abandoned after the 100 Years War with the English. From the 16th to the 18th centuries Les Vaux de Cernay saw a lot of activity, but financial problems put an end to that period.

During the good times, a monastery was built and the old buildings were repaired, but just before the French Revolution the property and all its furnishings were sold off.

For 75 years, until 1873, Les Vaux de Cernay was "mined" as a stone quarry.  Then it was bought by the Rothschild family and turned into a private residence. It was sold again, twice, in the mid-20th century and now it is operated as a luxury hotel and restaurant. Here's a link to the virtual tour on the Vaux de Cernay website.

“Autumn” weather and a château near Paris

That's how the weather woman on Télématin just described the weather we would have today — un temps automnal. It's raining. It's gray. It's chilly. It doesn't feel like July at all. It feels like October.

Yellow means cooler temperatures and redder means hotter.
Today would be a good day to spend on the Atlantic coast.

I'll think back to the spring, when we had warmer days and a good bit of sunshine. On May 31, for example, I was driving back to Saint-Aignan from Paris with CHM. Here's a château we saw. It has a Loire Valley connection, but it's not in the Loire Valley at all. It's just a few miles outside Paris, and not to far from Chartres and Versailles. It's a French château in the style classique, and it was built toward the end of the 1600s. It's the Château de Dampierre in the village of Dampierre-en-Yvelines.

The property, where an old manor house had stood for several centures, became the property of the Duc de Luynes in 1663. His family also owned the Château de Luynes, on the Loire River just west of Tours. Charles-Honoré d'Albert de Luynes undertook to modernize the Dampierre property and buildings, and he brought in the royal architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart to be in charge. Just around this time, king Louis IV decided to move his court out of central Paris to nearby Versailles.

The buildings have been modernized and modified several times over the past 300 years. The Duc de Luynes at the time of the French Revolution was briefly arrested by the village authorities, but he was soon allowed to return to the château and spent the rest of his years there. He was responsible for setting up an impressive library at Dampierre.

Le jardin potager en juillet 2014

Even though the weather is crummy right now, considering that we are approaching the middle of the month of July, the vegetable garden is looking beautiful. We had enough warm weather last week to spur it on, and the dampness of the weather seems to be doing the plants good. Everything is vert vert vert. Today's weather looks pretty nasty, by the way.

Le jardin vu à travers un rideau de petits artichauts — the garden throught a curtain of little artichokes

If we get a few more sunny, warm days this month and next, 2014 may be a banner year for the vegetable garden.

Tomato plants — quite a few of them, of several varieties

I don't take a lot of credit for the garden, especially this year. All I have done is the tilling. Walt has grown plants from seed, decided where to plant them, put them in the ground, and watered and weeded for weeks now. My job is just to make lunch. I hope to be cooking soon with tomatoes, eggplants, corn, beans, chard, and cucumbers that we've got growing.