Sunday, August 28, 2011

The setting

The house that Ken rented was in the middle of large corn fields. The corn surrounded us like a green wall. But this is not flat corn country, no sir. The land rolls up and down, and the rows of corn twist and turn with the land. It was very pretty.

You can see our rental house up top. The place was called La Bouée, and it was nicely isolated in the countryside.

The house was a typical longère, a style of farmhouse very common in France. The building is one room thick, and each room is connected to the other; there are no hallways. Originally, the people lived in one or two rooms of the building and the livestock lived in the rest. These days, of course, longères have been converted into beautiful country homes. Many include renovated lofts with bedrooms and baths upstairs.

Here's the house seen from the courtyard. There's Callie, too! Our room was behind the little window above the door on the right.

Ours had two large bedrooms on either end of the house and a third, smaller bedroom upstairs. The upstairs bedroom had a bath and shower. That's where Ken and I stayed. It was very comfortable. The house had been nicely renovated, but with its thick stone walls and dark wood, it felt a little cave-like. Still, it was comfortable and nice and I thought it was very cool.

We built a fire in the fireplace on Tuesday evening and that made things very cozy. Normandy is not as warm as our part of France toward the end of summer. And, speaking of the end of summer, the whole of France is entering its back to school/work funk. Summer vacations are over this weekend. School starts again next week.

Of course, if you're retired, life just goes on. Thank goodness.

15 comments:

  1. Love the photo of the gite from a distance-why didn't I think of that one? We found the house to be very comfortable.
    We built a top-down fire and used it to dry our towels out one night.
    You can tell the holidays are almost over here in Rambouillet.

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  2. Oh the rentrée! :-( Back to work at l'école on Tuesday....

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  3. Like something out of a movie... or "Absolutely Fabulous." So beautiful. We are about to experience our first end-of-summer, back-to-school, back-to-work event without having to acknowledge any of the preceding. Very exciting.

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  4. Well, some of us have to stop working in September and go on vacation. That's our version of the rentrée.

    Beautiful longère, wonderful stone. I looked up La Bouée on Geoportail and you were OUT there.

    Was Evelyn reminded of Kentucky?

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  5. The gîte looked comfy and in pretty setting. How was the food?

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  6. I don't suppose people eat that corn, do they?

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  7. Great place...and pet friendly! Callie's looking cute.

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  8. Carolyn, I was totally reminded of Kentucky with so many horses and corn being grown everywhere.

    We tried some of the corn- I think the horses and cows like it more than the humans.

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  9. Beautiful exterior but I can't imagine walls as think as a room. I'm hoping that is an exaggeration.

    Did the fireplace warm up the entire room, or were you cozy when you were just in front of it?

    Rentrée is in full swing here: school supply sales have been on for a good two weeks and the local news shows are always interviewing families who are trying to make their few dollars buy all the required items.

    Just like Carolyn said, time for those not working to take a vacay!

    Mary in Oregon

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  10. I love the look of those old farm houses.

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  11. Just when I thought Walt & Ken couldn't enjoy a better life in their amazing house, I find out that they experiences other homes in other parts of France. Charming.

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  12. I hope you life goes long a long time, and each year is prosperous and well.

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  13. Going for a more stately profile pic are we? Very nice :)

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  14. evelyn, ken told me about the fire. I'm glad it worked!

    n&a, our little neighborhood should calm down a little now.

    mitch, I am constantly reminded of that episode of AbFab. LOL!

    carolyn, enjoy!

    nadege, we made most of our own food, so it was pretty good! And we had take out pizza for lunch one day and that was darn good, too.

    john, nope. It's feed corn. Ken picked and cooked an ear just to taste it. It was tough with very little flavor.

    gene, yes, many of the vacation rentals in France welcome pets, as to hotels and restaurants. That makes it possible for us to go places.

    evelyn, I agree.

    mary, sorry to have confused things. The walls were thick, but not that thick. What I meant to say was that the house is only one room deep (except in one section where an addition was added on the back for a kitchen and bath).

    starman, they are pretty.

    stephen, you gotta watch us every minute...

    michael, live long and prosper! You must have some Vulcan blood in you. ;)

    evol, thanks. What have you been up to lately?

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  15. WoW! love the look of the house..pretty amazing..=D

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