Palluau in 2008, and Saint-Aignan now

The photos I published yesterday were ones I took in August 2011, using a Panasonic Lumix ZS1 digital camera. The ones below are some that I took on an earlier visit to Palluau, in April 2008, with a TZ3 Lumix. That day and on two other occasions, I took a lot of photos inside two churches in Palluau as well. I haven't even started going through those again.

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We're having hot sunny weather this week, as it happens. Yesterday both of us were able to do some work in the yard and garden in the morning, before it got too hot. The afternoon high temperature was about 85ºF, which qualifies as nice summer weather, I'd say. Our Blois neighbors left yesterday, after spending about a week here, including several days of hard, chilly rain last week. Our Paris-area neighbor is here for a six-week stay.

And our new neighbors across the street seem to be settling in. We haven't actually met them yet. When I think about the little bit of gardening work we did yesterday, and how sweaty and buggy it was outside, I think of them and the tasks facing them. Their new place has a yard that is completely out of control. The hedges around it have grown to a height of 10 or 12 feet and are pretty ragged looking. I imagine they are full of thorny blackberry brambles and wild rose bushes, as parts of our hedge are (or were until yesterday — my hands and arms are all scratched up and banged up). The new neighbors are going to have to hire somebody to come in and get their vegetation under control, I think.

Palluau-sur-Indre et son château

Palluau (pop. 800) is about 25 miles south of Saint-Aignan, on the right bank of the Indre river. The first mention of a château there dates back to the year 1073. The French king Philippe-Auguste and the English king Richard the Lionhearted fought over it in the 12th century. The English occupied Palluau during the 100 Years' War. In the early 17th century, the château became the property of the count of Frontenac, whose grandson was appointed governor of the province of Québec (Nouvelle-France) by king Louis XIV in 1672...

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These are some photos I took in Palluau in 2011 using a Panasonic Lumix camera that I still have.

Châteauvieux art

One day we went to Châteauvieux with our friend Cheryl and we came upon an unusual and sort of funny display of artwork in the main courtyard of the château, which is occupied by a nursing home nowadays.

Châteauvieux

The château around which the village of Châteauvieux grew up is used these days as un EHPAD, also called une maison de retraite médicalisée. EHPAD means établissement d'hébergement pour personnes âgées dépendantes. Châteauvieux is just a couple of miles southeast of Saint-Aignan, and it's the southernmost commune in the Loir-et-Cher département. If you continue southeast, you come to Valençay, just 10 miles further on.

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The church in Châteauvieux was built in the 13th century, but the Renaissance-style château was built in the middle of the 16th, over the ruins of a fortified medieval castle. In Châteauvieux there are a lot of maisons troglodytiques — "cave dwellings" built into the face of the cliff that the church and château stand on. That bright yellow field you see in a couple of the pictures is rape (colza, a variety of cabbage), which is the plant whose seeds are pressed to make canola oil.