Montrichard at Night

Montrichard Bridge at Night

Living near a pretty town was not high on our priority list when we were house hunting in France, so we counted ourselves very lucky that we ended up with Montrichard as our local town. It is a lovely ancient market town with a range of shops all the way from mid-sized supermarkets through copious estate agents to a specialist chocolatier that makes the most fantastic cakes.

Inspired by one of this month's categories for readers' pictures on the BBC News site we thought we would try to capture the night sky over Montrichard; especially as the moon is still almost full. We had hoped we would be able to capture the moon rising above the Cher with Montrichard's very pretty bridge in the foreground but unfortunately the moon stayed behind a large bank of clouds so it was not to be. All was not lost however as it was a gorgeously warm night with no wind so walking along the river bank was lovely. The town looked very pretty too with the soft glow from the street lights picking out the ornate roof lines and the dungeon's spotlights making the surrounding trees appear blue and orange against the black sky. To add to the spectacle we were also treated to a fantastic light show in the sky as we watched an electric storm pass by the town ...... sadly without any rain!

Sometimes we think that we comprehend the sheer number and variety of insects here,

Insects swarming around a street light in Montrichard

and then we see something that makes us think again. On the way back to the car after taking the photographs of the bridge and dungeon, we passed this street lamp on the bank of the Cher. Swarming on and around the light were hundreds, if not thousands, of flying insects. We are not sure what they were, however they looked a little bit like large flying ants. On closer inspection we could see that not only were the flies attracted to the light they also covered the lamp post and the pavement below. Certainly an unpleasant experience to walk through them, but luckily they were more interested in the light than us.