The Loire Valley and especially Blois
We’ve been back to the garden festival at chateau de Chaumont. The idea here is that our planet earth is nothing in comparison with the universe and we need to remain humble before nature. Yes, we’ll. Nous sommes retournés au festival des jardins du château de Chaumont. L’idée ici est que notre planète n’est rien …
Continue reading “Souvenir of the Future – Souvenir du Future”
Unfortunately the facade of Château de Bouges, which we cycled to this week from Château de Valançay, is being renovated but we were able to visit the interior and the grounds and admire the neo classical formal gardens with their low boxwood hedges in the form of fleur-de-lys, lined with linden trees. Malheureusement la façade …
This is the first time I have seen gnomes in a garden that belongs to the town council. It’s a little town called Chambon not far from Bouges-le-Château. C’est bien la première fois que je vois des nains dans un jardin communal. Il se trouve dans le village de Chambon près de Bouges-le-Château.
I learnt to my surprise today from my knowledgeable friend Susan from Loire Valley Time Travel, that helianthus is from the same family as sunroot or Jerusalem artichoke. I only replanted these in spring and was surprised to see how vigorous they are. J’étais surprise d’apprendre aujourd’hui, de la part de mon amie savante Susan …
Now that we have visited the remarkable garden of Aprémont, we want to discover others. We cycled for an hour and a half in intermittent drizzle today (not the weather predicted) from Château-sur-Loir to visit Château du Lude but it was worth it. The gardens are more formal than Aprémont. We were not expecting the …
Continue reading “Le Lude: Another Remarkable Garden – Un autre jardin remarquable”
We went looking for cyclamens recently because it’s that time of the year. We came across these on our bike ride along the Cher yesterday and I think they are the best we’ve seen yet. The second photo is the house that owns the cyclamens. Nous sommes allés à la recherche des cyclamens récemment parce …
Continue reading “Cyclamens along the Cher – Cyclamens au bord du Cher”
Of course the real reason we went cycling in the Nièvre was to replace to Gien Toscana teapot I broke just before lockdown. There was only one at the seconds shop in Gien but we only needed one. We also decided to treat ourselves to a Bagatelle set for afternoon tea in the garden. They …
This truly remarkable garden was built from scratch by Gilles de Brissac fifty years ago. We arrived about 5 pm when the light was just perfect. Every moment of the visit was an enchantment. What a visionary he must have been. Ce jardin remarquable est créé à partir de rien par Gilles de Brissac il …
Yesterday we drove to Guerche-sur-l’Aubois and started our day’s rode there. First stop was the lovely little village of Apremont-sur-Allier, then the Guétin bridge canal and onto Nevers which has a surprisingly well-preserved centre. On the way back we stopped in Apremont-sur-Allier again and visited the most remarkable garden I have seen in France to …
Continue reading “Cycling to Apremont-sur-Allier and Nevers”
I’m amazed at how healthy the flowers are on this shop at the end of summer. I thought they might be fake but they’re for real! Je suis étonnée de voir la bonne santé des fleurs sur ce magasin en fin d’été. J’ai pensé qu’elles étaient peut-être fausses mais ce sont bien des vraies!