Thursday, October 07, 2010

An October evening in Saint-Aignan

When Callie was less than a year old, I would often take her over for a walk on the island on the Cher just opposite St.-Aignan. There's a park on the eastern end of the island, where this photo was taken, and a spillway at the very tip where the river splits around the island. The spillway creates a small reservoir of water just above the bridge where there is a lock for boats and, more importantly, there used to be a mill.

Looking upstream from the island near the spillway.

The little reservoir provided the water to power the mill's turbines. The mill is long gone, but the spillway and reservoir remain, creating a body of slow-moving water at St.-Aignan's front door. There's a boat dock on the St.-Aignan side from which a tour boat departs in summer months, and a local kayak rental company often puts their boats in on the island side. I've even seen the local fire and rescue squad practice water rescues here.

Downstream from the bridge, still on the island, are the municipal swimming pools and the town's garden allotments. These are plots available to residents of Saint-Aignan who don't have land for a garden. A couple of friends of ours who live in town have one of the allotments and make the time to tend their garden there.

8 comments:

  1. How much do they have to pay to get one of those plots? Whatever it is, it's a great idea. You know in the US, they would use the land for a parking lot.

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  2. Beautiful!
    Your Friend, m.

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  3. Beautiful photo. Did you position that boat yourself, so as to get the perfect shot ??!!

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  4. Actually, Starman, there is a community garden in my corner of suburbia in California.

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  5. Hey Walt, your Waltfrance Yahoo Messenger account has been hacked. I just had a lovely conversation with "you" during which you tried to entice me to go to an "IQ test" site where I could get myself nice and infected with the Yahoo Messenger IQ Test Virus. And when I used google translate to say thoroughly rude things in French, "you" persisted in encouraging me to take the test.

    Here's a website with instructions on what to do about the virus. http://silkenhut.com/yahoo-messenger-iq-test-virus/ I looked at a few sites, but this one seemed to have the most comprehensive remedies.

    And here I thought you'd stayed up late (or is it gotten up early) to chat. Broken hearted, I am.

    ...Susie

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  6. susan, thanks for the heads up. Another friend had the same experience and just emailed me about it. The name is not mine; if you look close the last name is not spelled right. Also, that's not the name I use on Yahoo Messenger, AND I haven't used messenger in probably over a year. I'm glad you had the wisdom not to click the link!

    starman, I don't know if there's a fee or not. I'll have to ask.

    mark, thanks!

    jean, nope. It was just there.

    cheryl, there are those all over the place, that's true.

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  7. By the way, I've changed my Yahoo password and will uninstall messenger on my computer as advised.

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  8. Walt, I didn't even think to look at the details. I have an IM aggregator with all my accounts linked to it, so there's undoubtedly all sorts of cruft lingering there. I have two different IMs for Ken, for example, neither of which he appears to use any more. That's why I was so surprised when the ping from waltfrance popped up. Anyway, no harm, no foul. Hope the burn day goes well.

    ...Susie

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