2nd I had occasion to go into Royan and St Georges de Didonne today. In both towns mask wearing is mandatory even outside on the street. This is emphasised in Royan with stencils on the pavements.
10th. Nature is totally confused by the peculiar weather that we have been having. On our walk in the fields I found to my amazement that the Elder tree has flowers again, alongside the berries that are normal for this time of the year. It obviously thinks it is spring again. On my return home I inspected my fruit trees and sure enough the plum has a few blossoms! WIERD.
13th. I hired an electric bike and a kiddy trailer (there being no pet trailers available) with the objective of seeing how Cassidy would take to it. He took a bit of encouragement to get in but after that he was fine with me walking him but each time I got into the saddle and started peddling, he jumped out. This is going to take more work but I am sure with the right configuration we will get it right.
16th. Finished the automatic irrigation system and the box to hide all the gubbins on the front tap. I am also enjoying grapes off my vine.
15th. Drove to Nontron today and spent the afternoon visiting Patti. I had taken her an old, small TV/DVD player of mine and a few box sets of DVD’s. Unfortunately she was unable to manipulate the remote but the staff assured me that they would pop in on her regularly to facilitate her being able to watch what she wishes. The technician will come tomorrow to connect the coaxle cable as the one I bought doesn’t fit their sockets.
16th. Popped in to visit Jonathan and Caroline Smith. Old friends of Patti from Botswana days and from here in France, It turns out they only live 15 mins away from the hospital. I hope they will keep an eye on her. In the afternoon the TV was connected and works. They are also going to fix it to the wall so that Patti can still see it when she is in bed.
17th. headed home stopping to take a walk at Le Rochebeaucourt and take another look at the ruined castle. This time I went up the stone staircase onto the terrace. A woodland walk led off from here which was very pleasant.
Another search on line had revealed that the orangrie had been restored and was normally open to the public with its gardens. At this time though it was temporarily closed. I did discover where it was though and took a photo of what was obviously left over from the fire, the restored part is behind the wall, glimpses of it are visible from the main road.
I also stopped at Chateau de la Mercerie, known as the Versailles of the Charente. This is a bizarrely unique chateau built in the 20th century by the Rhétoré brothers to house the statues, paintings and Portuguese blue tiles that they had collected on their travels, in fact it is a folly. They bought a neo-gothic 19th century manor house on the site and proceeded to transform it into the huge Renaissance style Chateau that exists today. After the death of the brothers the castle fell into disrepair but it has more recently been restored by volunteers from the municipalities historical society. I did not bother to do the visit. Cassidy and I had a lunch break in the beautifully lawned car park and took some photos of the exterior but it is so vast that it was impossible to get far enough away to encompass the whole in one photo!
However I wasable to take a nice panoramic shop of the castle and village of Villebois-Lavallet.
capetocarpe 