Travels around the world.

This small village is said to be one of the most beautiful villages of France.  It’s about an hour from here, so we decided to go see it for ourselves. It had been rainy in the morning, but as we pulled into Saint Céneri we saw people putting down their umbrellas. The weather stayed dry while we were there. This village was visited in 1855 by artist Jean-Baptiste Corot, who is said to have fallen in love with it. More artists followed him and the village has attracted artists ever since. As can be seen from the banner above the street this month will see another meeting of artists here. This view of the stone bridge over the Sarthe is a popular one with artists and photographers. Here is the church in the village. On the wall at the back of the church we found this plaque. Roughly translated it says: “In 898 Charles III, (the Simple) sent his army to resist the Normans who protested against his reign. The soldiers, based not far from St. Céneri, conducted th...

We went back to Normandy for a few weeks in March. We wanted to do a few more things to the house before another of our co-owners, Jim's sister, Alice arrived. And Jim continued working on his book. He went to Munich for 3 days, but I stayed in Normandy. I had planted a few bulbs in the fall. When I bought them I asked for ones that would bloom in April, so I wasn't sure there would be much in bloom in March. I was therefore surprised to find the garden looking like this. I didn't plant any of these. The ones I planted are in a small group just to the right of the photo. They were blooming too. By the end of our three weeks the forget-me-nots were in full bloom in the back half of the garden. They're just weeds, but are pretty in the spring. I thought that in order to make better use of the garden, it needed some stepping stones.  I wanted round ones, but couldn't find any, so we settled for these square ones that match the ones in the pathway. On the insid...

I have a wonderful detailed map of the area we are living. It shows almost every building, the names of the individual farms, etc.  I have discovered a few inaccuracies, but mostly the map is spot on. I noticed it indicated a château not far out of town. During the middle ages, this part of France, and most of Europe was agricultural land owned by the king and managed by barons, counts, knights, etc who provided goods and services to the nobility.  The kings had very large châteaux, the other nobles, smaller ones. Normandy is dotted with large and smaller estates, country houses, villas, châteaux, whatever they should be called. Though I've done some research I haven't found much information about these places. I don't know how old they are.  I will continue to try to find out what I can. I noticed a château indicated on my map just at the edge of town, so headed out one day to see if I could find it. It is in the middle of an apple orchard, where ...

As promised last time I have now uploaded photos of the two bike rides we took when Ken and Marta were visiting. It's all explained on this page on my website .  I like to use this site, because I can control the size of the photos and you can see them all by scrolling up and down.  Here's a teaser photo.   We are back in Duluth for a few weeks, but will return to London and Normandy in November. As always, I love hearing from you, so do leave a comment if you enjoy this site.

In the U.S. we call it a yard, front yard or back yard, but in England they call it a garden.  We wanted a little outdoor space of our own, so all the properties we looked at had some form of garden.  Here are some photos of those outdoor spaces. This was a lovely garden, which was slightly separated from the house.  Another part of the same garden. And this is the pathway down to the front door of the house. The barn or storage space in the foreground was not part of the property. This one had a similar situation. A lovely garden space surrounded by trees and a hedge, And this is the pathway down to the house. This empty field also went with the house.  I believe it is the part on the right that has been mowed less often that went with the house we looked at. The other part went with the house next door. This was a nice garden accessed from the house either by going through the garage or around the house next door and down the alley. the rea...