Florac

I visited Florac last year. It was our first outing in our van after I picked her up last year.  We arrived by the memorial and as it's Remembrance Sunday I thought I would begin here. I was reminded of Florac by Owen and his Magic lantern show blogspot. 

We approached Florac via some mountain roads through limestone  mountains. 

It was half past when we arrived.

I have been looking at these old presses on the french equivalent of ebay here, they can be uses to press apples for cider or juice  or grapes for wine. This one is a good one not too huge.

Along the middle of the village we sat outside Le  21  for coffee.  The barman said it gets very cold in winter with a lot of snow. I liked Florac, it seems like there is an interesting sub culture. We spotted lots of crafts, wholefood and small galleries here. 

I don't see many Renault 12s around. I once had one that could be seen travelling west or east from Bromyard, HRFDs to Aberystwyth, Wales or vice versa . I did a Fine Arts degree at Aber. 

I included this because one day I would like some of those dungarees worn by Guy Barbier I took this image in Florac as I often to to research later names, crafts etc. Back to the dungarees, these are  a lovely blue and I remember arty friends, particularly potters,  wearing them in the 80s.  The dungarees here in France, are referred to as 'Bleus', like many other 'laboureurs' clothes. I often see men wearing the blue jackets, Blue Serge working their gardens, it is prooving harder though to spot these men. Agricultural cooperative shops sell the closest thing but the quqlity isn't quite what I'm after. Anyway this man on the poster has the ones I want on.

There is something about places that are still undergoing some sort of change but very slowly and comfortably.

Hopeful

I have more images to follow but do take a walk along this interesting little road.

I recently asked my neighbour if I could buy his Citroen HY Tube. I have wanted one for ages and then while out walking I spotted one behind a  shed amongst other stuff.

This is where I discovered the Citroen HY van there are Charolais in the shed along with  stray cats.

An agricultural workshop.

My neighbour has a dog on a chain. It greets me as I arrive and then as I walked away it ran at me in a quite scarey way. I am a dog lover fairly confident so his antics were lost on me. Still these dogs are big.

Road to Phillipes.

I found a lovely pot today in a hedge. I put old chicken wire in the base and filled it with compost.

I had a look in my garden and spread out a bit of compost for next year.

Also I had a job fencing this afternoon. We have sheep to contain, I have to clip back bracken so we can put up electric fencing; 

I love my cat.

Lilac against the old garden shed.

Today I visited my neighbour Phillipe. He was at home with his neighbour, a maths teacher

drinking wine. I had to explain that I had trouble locating wheels for the HY Citroen he recently gave me.It's in his field at the minute wheeless and thus motionless. Soon I intend to pull it to my garden so that I may dream one day of driving her but without any wheels so hard. Phillipe lives in a house with the most incredible views down a valley. 

When I arrived home we had a call to say i could buy a wheel and tyre from a man in Cercy La Tour for 20 euros for my Citroen Tube. It's slowly moving.  

This was the view from my car window today. It is very warm here, unusually 17°C. As we drove down towards Autun though there was a bit of low cloud. 

This is a bottle bank in a tiny village. Looks like I missed the party.

This was a shop window display in the making. A shop on Avenue Charles de Gaulle in Autun called Arezzo. The images below are from the same shop. My favourite shop is next door Morvan Brocantes.

I've been meaning to have a go at some reupholstery of this kind for a while.

My village at sundown we are on fire, or so it appears.

Another attempt at shopping yesterday. We went in the opposite direction,this time, towards Moulin Engilbert. Here in this image is the nearby village of Villapourçon to which commune we belong. It has a small municipal campsite with a swimming pool.There is a tiny bar, a church, shop and the mayor has an office here.

Outside Cafe de la Paix at Moulin Engilbert.

Onlay

Back at the farm.

Toussaints

Unfortunately the shops were all shut for Toussaints.  But it was a spectacular trip none the less .

Explosions of colour;

Typical Morvan cottage. This rendering is attractive, I think.  The slate roofs here tend to be be quite new this being down to some destructive hailstone storms four years ago.