Most mornings in the Marais Poitevin, we awoke to a regular but fascinatingly varied dawn chorus started, as at home, by a Robin proclaiming his territory. He was quickly joined by a Song Thrush and a Blackbird before various other…
Author: Franco
Suspension of Sanity
Our overnight stop at Brantôme was quite pleasant with broken cloud/sunny intervals and a riverside pitch complete with a friendly moorhen, which I’ve never before witnessed. It’s diet was fascinating, too. As well as tromping across teh grass to retrieve…
Overnight Brantôme
At last we’ve uprooted ourselves from the Marais Poitevin, bade farewell to Mike and thanked him for his excellent hospitality and Thai food, and hit the road again. Thirteen nights at one place is a long time for us but…
Marais Revisited
Well, if this was an example of a French stormy day, bring it on. There were a couple of spells of rain overnight – other than precisely three drops when we were out scouring the countryside for Francine’s orchids this…
Franco and Francine Font le Pique-Nique
French time is weird. France is on Central European Time but it obviously isn’t central Europe (other than politically, of course!). France is quite clearly western Europe. 10:00 AM in France feels like early morning which, in fact, it is;…
Water Torture
Guillaume is up to his old tricks. He developed a case of incontinence in France last year which we finally tracked to water trickling back out through his inlet. This led to a drop in water pressure which activated the…
Moules et Frîtes
French cuisine has a deservedly high reputation. Both the French classic cuisine and the French country cuisine have given us a series of notable dishes worthy of repetition, IMHO, even though the emphasis on butter and cream in the classic…
In-Flight Entertainment
Given the right equipment and a co-operative specimen, taking a picture of a perched dragonfly is relatively straightforward. Naturally a few skills need to be employed, such as: not making any sudden movements; approaching stealthily; ensuring that your shadow doesn’t…
An Intro to the Marais
The network of channels and canals that drain the marais encloses a series of fields which are put to various uses by the locals. The water channels are described with some precision by specific words according to their size. Having…
The Emperor’s Clothes
Francine had devised a cunning plan to barter for the use of Mike & Linda’s washing machine: maniac that she is, she volunteered to help Linda working on her allotment (a.k.a. the farm) for half a day. The allotments in…
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