At "Lantis"

Thursday, April 25th, 2013.

Today, Monsieur Honey had a day out with the boys...his story to follow in another post.

I spent the morning doing some laundry and other household chores.

Madame M,  my new friend who doubles as my walking companion/ tour guide arrived at my door just after 1PM and I joined her for another walk..she said "we can do as much or as little as you want..and if you need to stop we will call "Monsieur Guy" to pick us up".

Away we went, walking out of the village into the countryside with my plan not to do a too long of a trek today.

Madame M suggested we walk to "Château de Lantis".

The Château de Lanits is a 17th century monument that is now privately owned, offering tours.
Centuries ago in one of the interminable wars in France, this castle was a safe house for soldiers.

It was a very warm and sunny afternoon.
I had left the cottage today without my pedometer so I had no idea how far we had gone..by the end of our tour we had walked just over "10" kilo-meters through tiny hamlets, tree-lined lanes and we found our "Atlantis ".

Setting out.

Who knows what's down this lane?

The rolling hills.
"Over hill, over dale
Through bush, through briar....I do wander everywhere"
Quote from William Shakespeare..Midsummer Night's Dream.

The Château de Lantis.

Colourful shutters.

The road home!

Antiques Road Show....

On the road again....
this Wednesday we headed to Prayssac where a two-day "Brocante" was being held.

This event was highlighted in yellow in Monsieur Honey's "Brocante" guide book.

I was indifferent about going after last Sunday's outing which was held outdoors in a large stony field.

This event was listed as a "Salon des antiquités - Brocante " but I did not read the book until after we returned.

As we arrived I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was an outdoor section of vendors with their wares and inside a building similar to a Community Hall...there were several shops set up by quality antique dealers.

The Hall provided a great venue for this event with wonderful wall hangings for a back drop.

The "Salon" was inviting and the wares pleasingly displayed by the dealers with some added accessories, such as beautiful flower arrangements of fresh cut lilacs.

We wondered through the various stalls and saw several items that appealed to us...there was a "Christophe" silver soup ladle, a set of Hermès bottles from 1952, some beautiful linens (napkins and tablecloths) and I think I found my new kitchen table but getting it home would not be that easy.

To "Monsieur Honey's" surprise an addition to his French bronze collection was found.
A deal was made at an acceptable price and it "feels" like our luggage will about 8 pounds heavier.

We enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine as we checked out the other vendors set up outside.

Monsieur's new acquisition is a dog believed to be a Pointer on a black marble base.

Will the dog and bear live side by side?

Blooming Blossoms

Irises, tulips and now the wisteria are starting to flower.

The planters have been full with pansies since we arrived.

Soon the terracotta and stone planters will be filled with geraniums of every colour ...nothing says "French" like geraniums and lavender.

Some varieties of lavender will also soon have some blooms.

And in nature, there are the wild flowers such as the yellow cowslips and orchids growing in the most unexpected places in fields, on the roadsides and out of crevices in the stone walls.

This week I saw my first red poppy, but I was not able to take a photo; however today I photographed some yellow and orange Californian Poppies.

Many trees are also full of blossoms and it won't be long now before the leaves unfurl and dress the "naked" plane trees.

"All gardening is landscape painting said Alexander Pope"... Rebecca Solnit from Wanderlust, A History of Walking.