Tour de France Comes Past Our House

The excitement is building with only a week to go until the Tour De France 2011 comes past the end of our road near to Montrichard.  It's not something we've ever been concerned about previously, but this year we've already got our seats booked.

It's definitely not the Alps here with a big hill being a couple of hundred metres high, but our grandstand (well, a couple of folding picnic chairs) is on a long uphill stretch so we should see the cyclists doing a bit of work.  I hope that we don't feel too guilty munching our baguettes and slurping down some cheap wine while the cyclists are working so hard in the scorching midday heat.

The forecast from Meteo is for it to be slightly overcast and 25°C so we're really looking forward to chilling out for a couple of hours while the caravan meanders past us.

Heatwave Ends - What a Relief

Sometimes it seems churlish to complain about the weather when in the round it is so fantastic here. But, and there always has to be a but, Monday and Tuesday of this week were horrendous.

The sky was blue, but it was incredibly humid with a strong, warm wind. These all combined to create a couple of stiflingly hot days where even at night the temperature didn't drop below 35C. Normally on a hot day we sit in the shade, but with the warm wind the temperature was the same in or out of the shade.

Last night there was a fantastic storm, with thunder and lightning. Not only did this water the veggie patch for us (thank you) but it broke the heat. Getting up this morning has been a real pleasure with a bright blue sky and a gentle cooling breeze. Now we're certainly not complaining.

Hoopoe Family

Over the last week or so we have regularly seen what we thought was just one Hoopoe around the house, including this morning sitting on the windowsill (in France,windows open in so the windowsill is outside) about 6 feet from us.  He looked very striking with his long beak and upright crest glinting in the early morning sunlight.  Unfortunately we couldn't photograph him because as soon as we moved to pick up the camera he flew away onto the front lawn.

Amazingly though, this wasn't the most brilliant Hoopoe sighting that we've had this morning.  Later, there was a family group of three Hoopoes on the lawn, picking away at the insects and worms.  A Hoopoe lays up to 8 eggs, but we don't know whether these were all juvenile Hoopoes.  We'd also love to know whether they have nested here or whether they are just coming here for food.

The good news is that they don't migrate back to Africa for another couple of months so we should get lots more sightings of them.

Baby Caterpillars

Scattered within the hawthorn and blackthorn bushes are these nests that look like matted cobwebs.  On closer inspection though you can see that they are home to dozens of tiny caterpillars that look very much at home munching the leaves. It's lucky that they move slowly as they are devastating anything and everything in their path.

Having watched these cobweb structures for a few days now we think the black dots might be the caterpillar eggs though unfortunately we don't know what species they are.

Nevertheless it is good to see them as it is more evidence that we are doing the right thing here by leaving lots of wild patches for weeds and trees to grow in.  It may not be the ideal outcome for the caterpillars and butterflies, but they will also make a tasty meal for all of the birds that are also being encouraged by the wild spaces!

Emerging caterpillars eating hawthorn leaves

Alien Caterpillar

Orange Headed Caterpillar

Leaving the city to start a new life in the countryside means that we are seeing many strange looking creatures. We spotted this tiny caterpillar having a good old munch on one of our hawthorn trees.

It stood out because while the other caterpillars had black heads this one had a translucent orange head.  If you let your imagination run riot it looks a bit like an extra from Aliens.

There are lots of these cobweb-like nests strung between small branches of the blackthorn and hawthorn trees. Last month these cobwebs contained a few chrysalis and hundreds of tiny back dots, while now they are full of tiny caterpillars that are feasting on the bushes' leaves.

We don't know what species the caterpillars are but it is good to see them munching wild trees in the fields rather than devastating our veggie patch.

Register an Imported Trailer in France - Part Two

This is the first update to Register an Imported Trailer in France - Part One and covers my progress so far.

Surprisingly, the bureaucracy is working at full steam and I got a response in a couple of days from Service.public.fr who told me that I had to write to DREAL (Direction régionale de l'environnement, de l'aménagement et du logement).  I had come across this organisation previously when I was looking at how to get my cars through their Controle Technique if I couldn't get their Certificates of Conformity.  However, whenever I went to the site the transport section seemed to be focused on heavy vehicles.

Nonetheless, I sent DREAL an email outlining my problem and they've responded asking a pile of questions, such as when was the trailer first registered, who is the manufacturer, what sort of body does it have?  On the face of it, these are all perfectly reasonable except that I either don't know the answers or there isn't an answer.

For example, how to respond to the question about when was it first registered, when in the UK trailers are not registered.  I could say when I bought it, but that feels like a case of not letting a question get in the way of a good answer.  

I suppose that there is no other option but to spend the weekend contemplating the best response and then bang it off first thing Monday morning.

Register an Imported Trailer in France - Part One

They always say that pride comes before a fall and I am beginning to think that it might just be true.

We were preening ourselves at having put our second car through its Controle Technique on Monday and registering it on Tuesday.  How brilliant we were, anticipating the roadblocks that the functionaries would put in our way and deftly steering around them.  

Until that is we went to the insurance broker and the subject of the trailer came up.  Being from the UK, it never occurred to me to mention the trailer to the broker previously as it didn't really seem relevant.

Wrong.  Now, I know that this will come as a real surprise to all of you, but in France there's a rule about trailers.  Actually, being France there are quite a lot of rules, but the main one is that if the total loaded weight is more than 500kg then it has to have its own registration document.

No problem there, just go to the prefecture and get one, the French wouldn't want to make it difficult would they?  Well, strangely enough it's not that easy.  First, you need to provide the Certificate of Conformity, but of course in the whole of Europe only France requires this, so no trailers sold outside France have one.  It crossed my mind that this is a bit like a trade barrier, but France is at the heart of the EU so that can't possibly be the case.

So, if you can't get a Certificate of Conformity how do you register the trailer?  Simple, you get it tested and authorised.  But, by whom?  When you go to the website of the government agency that is responsible you find that it has been disbanded and there is no useful information on who would be responsible for the tests.

So, I've written to Service-Public.fr, le site officiel de l’administration française, to ask them who is responsible.  I can't do anything else now except wait and see.  Ahh, the joy of starting life afresh in France!

Toads At Home

As avid followers will know, at the beginning of May we put a box in the ground in which to put the earth connection for our electrical supply.  Since the picture was taken we have put a lid on it so that it looks like a square manhole.  Nothing exciting there.

As we walked past the box this morning though a little head popped out of the cutout that acts as a handle.  "There can't be anything living in there", exclaimed Mrs Riotlife as I lifted the lid to show two toads.  One of them was small, dark and almost smooth so we think that he was very young, while the other was much more toady; brown, warty, baggy and about twice as big.

It is incredible that they can get in and out of the hole as it is about a foot deep with vertical concrete sides. Though having watched them climbing fence posts in the past we know they are very good at scaling vertical surfaces.  It is excellent that they have found somewhere safe to live as too often they live somewhere that is not safe from us, like under the car wheels.

Thunder and Rain

I wondered why the old combine harvester was out until after 10 last night harvesting the barley on a nearby field.

Normally these musings of an ex-pat are left unresolved but this morning I was woken up before 7 by the most wonderful sound of gentle rain cascading down the roof and and thunder rumbling across the sky.

I was so excited that I couldn't help but get up and, figuratively speaking, put pen to paper.

Now you might think that this is a bit strange being happy at this turn of events, but since the heatwave broke a couple of weeks ago we've had grey skies, high winds and humidity but no rain to speak of. Which meant we have still been watering the shrubs and veggies.

I'll give it ten minutes before I go out to check the water butts.  They need to be a bit like Goldilocks' porridge; not too full, not too empty but just right. 

Better Bureaucracy

Like most people, both ex-pats and locals, I find that the state in France intrudes too much into my life and is generally unhelpful.  However, having now successfully transferred both our cars onto French plates there are signs that the central government's modernisation programme may be helping to reduce the power of individual functionaries who make up the rules as they go along.

Our local prefecture in Blois has one young man who is responsible for granting you a French registration document (Carte Grise).  The first time we went to him, he sent us off as we needed to get a Quitus Fiscal.  Having got that, we then did some research and found that we also needed a Certificate of Conformity, which he hadn't mentioned.  It is quite clear that the intention was that we would return to the prefecture and be sent away.

Never mind though, we waited weeks to get the Certificate of Conformity and went back to Blois with all of our papers in order to get a provisional registration certificate.  Ahh, he said after taking all of the information off the Certificate of Conformity and issuing the provisional registration certificate, it is in English so you need to get it translated by an authorised translator for the full registration document. 

Knowing that this wasn't really needed we took the documents, including the newly granted Controle Technique, to Tours where, other than the three hour queue to be served, there was no problem with any of the documentation and we were given our Carte Grise there and then.

Now for car number two; we'd been through the process once so we knew what we were up against.  Back to Blois (it's much closer than Tours) and up to the booth where the young man makes his pronouncements.  One by one to his chagrin we peeled off the documents.  We were smiling inside thinking that there was no way he could refuse to issue the Carte Grise.  Oh, how foolish we felt when he got to the Certificate of Conformity.  It's in English he says, but that's fine it doesn't need to be translated, but it can't be a duplicate.  But we pointed out, this is what Saab sent.  Maybe in England, but not in France was the response.

Dejected and cowed, we beat a retreat knowing that we had been bested by the gatekeeper.  However, we set off to Tours again.  And again, no problem at all.

So, the brilliance of the modernised regime is that while there may still be parochial little functionaries making up the rules as they go along with the sole intention of making the public's lives as miserable as their own, you can now beat them by bypassing them.  Impeccable!

Second Car Has Its Controle Technique

We've had a massive success today, getting our UK registered Saab through its Controle Technique (French MOT).

We thought that we had to have French registration but both the prefecture and the MOT centre confirmed that we didn't, although I'm sure that this was not what they said for the first car.  However, the first car was stressful and we're a long way from being fluent in French so we may have misunderstood.

Now with that one ticked off it's off to Tours one day this week to see if we can get a French registration.  If they accept that the Certificate of Conformity is OK in English and as a duplicate then we are home and dry.  They accepted it for our other Saab so we are hopeful, although expecting consistency from the prefecture is a bit of wishful thinking.

However, we go to Tours for most things these days as it is much more cosmopolitan than Blois, our local prefectural town.

This article details the steps we took for both the first and second cars 

Forester Moth

Forester moth on flower

We had trouble identifying this moth as to us it looked more blue than green and there do not appear to be any blue moths in our part of the world. However after trawling the web we can confidently say it is a green Forester moth.

The Forester moth is very beautiful and certainly one to watch out for. A day-flying moth, the iridescent greeny-blue wings really catch the sunlight making it one of the more eye-catching moths.

I love the contrast of colours in this picture of the Forester moth on the bright yellow flower.

Kitchen Units

Old farmhouse kitchen being renovated

The old kitchen units here are quite unlike anything you would find at B&Q.

The units had sides made of yet more of the ubiquitous plaster blocks that cloak all of our walls.  Attached to these and the floor were bespoke oak doors in wooden frames which we've managed to take off without damaging them.  They will need some cleaning to get rid of 20 years of cooking from them, but they are really solid and they suit the house.

We thought about using them in our new kitchen but the doors are all non-standard size, don't have drawers and are incredibly low but with a bit of tweaking we hope that we can reuse them in one of the new offices cum workrooms. 

Old Postcard of Bridge Over Cher in Montrichard

We bought these lovely old postcards at the Montrichard brocante a few years back.  The postcards show the old bridge over the Cher along Rue du Pont, with the castle ruins in the background.

We thought it would be interesting to try and match the views in the postcards to modern Montrichard. As you can see we were not able to get the same angle as the postcard photographer, who we think stood to the right of the bridge on the left bank, as today there is a private garden preventing us from standing on the same spot.

However you can see there are a number of building that help match the images from over 100 years ago with the images from today.

A couple of interesting differences stand out.  Firstly there are a lot more trees in the modern images. Have a look at the ridge on the left of the of the castle .... quite a difference!  And the postcard photos weren't taken in the middle of a drought so don't show so much of the river bed and bridge supports.

More old postcards from Montrichard can be found in this blog about Postcards of Rue du Pont and Bridge over Cher.

Postcard of Montrichard posted 1908 with view of river, bridge and castle

Photograph of Montrichard with view of river, bridge and castle

Postcard of Montrichard with view of river, bridge and castle

Postcard of Montrichard posted 1915 with view of river, bridge and castle

Photograph of Montrichard with view of river, bridge and castle

Postcard of Montrichard posted 1909 with view of river, bridge and castle

Photograph of Montrichard with view of river, bridge and castle

Blackberries 2011 - In June!

Blackberries June 2011

Incredible as it may seem, quite a few of the blackberry bushes are fruiting. The first couple that we tried were not very nice, but then we came across this larger patch in a south facing field.  Let's just say that it was just as well that we took the photo before we started eating them as there weren't any left afterwards. 

We'll be keeping a close eye on this patch as there were lots of unripe fruit, so with a bit of rain (please) and sun we may get a good crop.

Nonetheless, it is strange to have fruit on some plants when the majority are yet to flower. I presume that this has been caused by the weather, with some plants taking advantage of the hot and dry conditions to fruit while others have been held back by the lack of water and the intense heat.

Blackberries June 2011

Rabbit Chasing Hare

We were amazed yesterday evening to look out to see a small rabbit pouncing on a hare as if to shoo him away. 

Strangely, the hare didn't seem all that bothered, he just moved off a couple of metres and started eating until the rabbit moved him on again.  This was repeated three or four times before they both settled down quite happily to munching on our grass.

Walking Through Old Doorway

Standing in old doorway discovered behind partition wall
LikeViews: 0

The doorway that we discovered behind the plaster walls and kitchen units is now fully opened and we can walk through it.

Taking down the plaster walls to show off the tuffeau walls is giving the house back its old-fashioned look and feel.  Having the old doorway with the rebates for the door carved out of the stone and a wooden lintel is a fantastic bonus.

We have also taken off the very old green plaster that was directly on the wall behind the modern plaster blocks and generally tidied up the wall.  We will now lime mortar the joints in the tuffeau and also render the lower 2 courses of stones with lime mortar render to stop the tuffeau deteriorating any more.

Mixing Concrete

It is amazing how something mundane and monotonous can suddenly become interesting.  When I was mixing concrete the other day to repair the bathroom floor I was mesmerised by the movement of the concrete as it was picked up and dropped by the blades.

More Tuffeau Walls Revealed

Tuffeau wall of old farmhouse being uncovered

A few weeks ago we found an old doorway between the bathroom and kitchen that had been bricked up and then plastered over.

We have been itching to open it up on both sides so that we can get a really good look at it and, silly as it may seem, we wanted to walk through it. The plaster walls have been in place for something like 20 years so we know that no one has walked through it in that time.

We have knocked down a 'breakfast bar' across the kitchen made from house bricks and cleared part of the wall that hides the secret doorway. The next job is to clear the kitchen units and the rest of the plaster from the wall so that we can see what state the tuffeau walls are in.  At first look, it is the same as the other walls that we have uncovered with the first couple of courses eaten away and then the rest are solid.

This is the sad aspect of taking the plaster off, seeing how the tuffeau walls behind have deteriorated because the plaster has not allowed the stone to breathe. Tuffeau is incredibly light and porous, but that means that it can absorb its own weight in water, and if it cannot wick this away then the tuffeau simply crumbles.

Balloons

Balloon over hay meadow in France

Settling down for a restful evening after a hectic day of renovation we looked out of the window and saw this brightly coloured balloon appearing from behind the barn and drifting across the end of orchard. As it was so close and looking like it was about to land we shot out to watch. 

As soon as we went out the front door we could hear the roar from the balloons as their pilots fired their jets to lift the balloons over the house.  Walking round the end of the barn we were rewarded with a most wonderful sight; the setting sun reflecting off 6 brightly coloured balloons as they flew towards the foreboding rain clouds.

We often see balloons in the sky of an evening, but not normally as late as these and seldom as close.  Normally they fly along the Cher valley to take in the chateau of Chenonceau and the pretty little towns and villages that lie along the river.

It was exciting to see and hear them, as they are a riot of noise and colour.  When we see them up close like this we can understand why balloon festivals are such a popular outing.

Balloon over hay meadow in France

Balloons landing in hay meadow in France

Luckily the balloons cannot land here due to obstructions on the land, as they are collected by big four wheel drives with trailers. When we are encouraging birds and animals to nest on our land we do not want them disturbed by a great basket landing on top of them or a 4x4 driving over them!

Balloon over farm in France

Sizing a Vegetable Patch

There have been some problems this year with the vegetable patches, with the deer eating the strawberries (I know, not strictly vegetables) in one of them, and the drought, rabbits and moles doing their best to kill off everything else.

Nonetheless, we are very happy with what has grown so far, particularly the spicy leaf, rocket and peas.  So, especially in light of the problems with food safety in Germany at the moment, we are planning a new, larger mole- and rabbit- and deer-proof vegetable patch.

Our ethos for the vegetable patch is that we don't use any chemicals for killing weeds or insects, the only fertiliser is our own nettle tea, and we recuperate from the roofs all of the water that is needed.

Plan for parterre vegetable patch

The overall design is based on the idea of a parterre garden, with its centrepiece a pond of about 30,000 litres which will provide us water near to the vegetables and will allow us to get through another drought like this year's.  

We will then put 5 beds around the pond, each about 10m x 15m.  Having 5 beds will enable us to rotate the crops each year and, if we choose, leave one bed fallow each year to give it time to recover naturally.  This will give us a large growing area, but it means that we can grow less intensively and try out different vegetables that we couldn't if we were restricted for space.

Our next task, other than preparing the vegetable patch, is to work out what and how much we plant in each section.

As we build the new vegetable patch we will provide updates on how it is going, and we will definitely give some details on the yield that we obtain next year.

Bee on Lavender

Bee on lavender

The warm sunny weather has brought the lavender on a treat. The flowers are just starting to open so that we now have a wonderfully fragrant bank of purple and green bordering the front of the garage.

We have been concerned this year as there have not been many flowers for the bees, so we are chuffed that they have found it so quickly.  

When the sun is out there must be 40 or 50 bees busily collecting nectar from the tiny purple flowers. Sitting in the sun, with the smell and sight of lavender and the buzz of the bees, you'd almost think it was summer.  Getting a picture of them is difficult though as they don't hang around on each plant for long. 

Lavender is a wonderful plant for here as it tolerates extremes of hot, cold, wet and drought, and grows well on the clay and chalk.

Also the deer, rabbits and hares do not like it so it remains intact for us and the bees to enjoy.

Rain at Last

Last night we were teased with a fantastic show of lightning flashing across the horizon but no thunder or rain. Then, this afternoon we got the thunder without lightning or rain. All very strange, we always thought they arrived together.

Finally, this evening the rain started, a nice gentle drizzle that will hopefully bring everything back to life. It will be superb to see green and not yellow grass.

We are lucky here as down in the South West of France near Avignon there has been terrible flooding today as a result of the rainstorms.

Bambi in the Back Garden

Roe Deer in back garden

Caught red-hoofed! Is this the culprit who decimated our strawberry patch last month? 

Early this morning we spotted this beautiful female Roe deer in the back garden. She had been sitting quietly amongst the Lupins before she decided it was time to get up for breakfast. Fortunately for us there is nothing but grass growing in the tunnel she chose to  munch from so no harm done this time. 

It is lovely seeing the deer so close at hand and, even though we have had this place for four years now, we still get a buzz from seeing them. It is also interesting that we have at least three different deer visit us on a regular basis. We wonder if they are part of the family group we used to see feeding in the fields in the winter.

Roe Deer in back garden

Bee on Ox-eye Daisy

Bee on oxeye daisy

Because it has been so dry there have been far fewer wildflowers in the fields.  Luckily for us and the bees though these ox-eye daisies flowered what seems like months ago and have just kept going.

We've decided this year to leave large areas of the fields unmown.  We did this so that we didn't mow all of the plants at the same time and also we wanted to leave large areas for the birds and hares to nest in.

Next year we will be able to see whether not mowing stops the wildflowers growing because the ground is too overgrown and rich.

Diary update - repointing the bathroom wall

Tuffeau wall revealed in bathroom

As you know we love the look of the tuffeau stone blocks that the old farm house is built from, so we want to preserve as much of this beautiful stone as possible.

As we work our way through the main house, stripping out the modern plaster block walls, we are uncovering some fantastic tuffeau stone walls that with a bit of TLC will look gorgeous. 

We have stripped the downstairs bathroom and found that three of the walls are tuffeau.

The two longest walls are internal which means we could keep them exposed.   The external walls are being heavily insulated in an attempt to keep us warm in the winter and our fuel bills low.

Both of the internal walls were originally covered in lime render and limewash. One wall is in a sound enough state that, with a little careful cleaning, we can retain the original limewashed render. We will protect this with a few coats of limewash when the temperature drops a bit.

The other wall has not fared so well as previous owners of the house have removed large areas of limewashed render to enable earlier renovation works.  We have now removed all of this render and cleaned the wall.

Unfortunately the lower section of the wall is crumbling due to damp, so we will render with lime plaster. The beauty of this for an old house built without a damp proof course is that the lime render allows the moisture to escape into the room. The stonework is damaged in this and other rooms because during the previous renovation the walls were covered in moisture resistant plaster and concrete which trapped the moisture into the porous tuffeau, leading to it crumbling away.

From about 1m up the stone is sound so we are repointing the joints to give an authentic and attractive finish.

Garden Cross spider on Ox-eye Daisy

Garden Cross Spider on Ox-eye daisy

One of the nicest things about this time of year is seeing all the young creatures growing and changing into adults.

Whilst walking through the fields the other day we came across a patch of Ox-eye daisies that have been able to defy the drought. In the centre of one of the flowers we found this beautiful, tiny Garden Cross spider. These spiders grow up to 20mm long, so this one could still have some growing left.

In common with many spiders the the female is larger than the male, but I have no idea how you tell the difference between them without a proper examination.

I love the shadow that the spider creates, like something from a horror film.

California Poppy

California Poppy

With the digging around the pond area over the winter and early spring loads of poppies have come up, including these wonderfully vibrant California Poppies. 

As these are not naturally occurring here the seeds must have come from one of the formal flower beds, but they do look superb here.
 

Frog on Lily Pad

Frog on lily pad in pond

I think that this is a fantastic photo of a frog who looks like he wants to be a hippo.  I love the way that his eyes really bulge when seen from straight ahead.

Log Rolling

It is very hot and humid already this morning.  It was 25C by 9 o'clock with a forecast for today of even higher temperatures, thunderstorms and, almost unbelievably, hailstones.

Over the last week we have been using a sack truck to haul a tree's worth of logs one by one from where the pine tree was felled. The route through the woods to the field is steeply uphill and uneven, so this was a real challenge.  A couple of times the sack truck rolled over when we hit a large bump, with the result that the log rolled back down the slope, though luckily not too far.

We had thought that being Saturday we might have a lie in, but it was just too hot even at 6 o'clock.  I got up and quickly checked the forecast as, while thunderstorms were the forecast yesterday for today, Meteo has been known to change its forecast more often than I change my socks.  

Thunderstorms were still forecast for this afternoon so we decided to hitch the trailer up and get straight down to the woods to collect the pine logs that we cut earlier in the year.  

They are now all randomly dumped around the log pile, so my next job is to split them and cut them to size.  Looking at the size of some of the logs I can foresee that I will have my work cut out!

Deer in the Garden

Young male Roe Deer in front garden

The wildlife here in France is everything that we hoped for and more. As I am writing this I have the door open so I can hear the Great Tits, Sparrows and Blackbirds, amongst others, chirping away.  I've not heard him yet this morning, but I'm sure that the Skylark will be adding his tune to the symphony soon.

Anyway, I digress from what I should be doing, which is writing about this gorgeous Roe deer who popped in for a munch the other morning.

Maybe if we hadn't disturbed him with the noise of the camera he might have sorted out the long grass around the Poplar tree!

We know from the stubby horns on his head that this is a young male Roe deer, probably about 1 or 2 years old.  We think that we have seen him about quite a lot with an older male, but of course it is impossible to be certain.

Drought Goes On

As the drought continues in this part of France it is having an ever bigger impact on the crops and plants.  

I'm no expert, but the wheat near to us is only 40cm or so high, whereas from memory it would normally be about twice that height.  Now, it may be that this year's crop is a different variety, but more likely it is linked to the drought, as these fields are not irrigated.

We are continuing to water the vegetable patch, but with temperatures regularly reaching 30°C it is getting beyond us.  Our aim now is not to encourage a crop but just to keep the plants alive so that when it does rain, and there is rain forecast for the next couple of days, they are able to take advantage of it.  On the positive side, there is a lot of fruit and flowers on the plants, including courgettes and peas, but the peas in particular are not developing well within their pods.

Actually, we are now becoming more concerned with the shrubs and trees around the land.  The leaves on the trees are yellowing and falling, and those on the shrubs are wilting.  We are certainly not hopeful for a bumper fruit crop this year, but we do hope that everything survives.

I don't know if it is related to the drought, but there have been gusty winds (Rafale) over the last few days and a lot of small poplar branches have been blown down.  In Montrichard on Wednesday a poplar was blown down across the Rue Nationale, knocking down the power and telephone lines.

Traffic Lights in Montrichard

A fairly useless piece of trivia, but to the best of my knowledge there are only two sets of traffic lights in Montrichard.

One set is on the main road from Loches to Montrichard on Rue du Pont at the end of the bridge over the Cher.  The other set is where the Rue Nationale crosses the road from Montrichard to Blois. 

Photograph showing Rue du Pont and Castle in Montrichard

Rue Nationale Montrichard with view of castle