To market, to market

I did get to the market on Saturday. The strawberries are plentiful and beautiful right now. I also got a couple of avocados for making guacamole. I also got some sausages for grilling (most of them went into the freezer).

Climbing up the stair toward the castle.

I parked down by the bridge so not to have to deal with parking in town. I took the stars up toward the château then the wide drive down into town (on foot; the drive is closed to vehicles). Along the way, I stopped to have a look from the terraces and notice my car parked down below. I didn't plan it, so it was a nice surprise to see how the car lined up perfectly with the view point below.

Looking down toward the river from the view terrace. Can you spot my little blue car? It's parked just left of center in the photo.

As planned, I mowed the west forty yesterday. Today I'm planning to finish up by cutting the north forty. There's also a little detail work to do; I've done a little of that each day with the walk-behind mower. I wonder how soon it will all need cutting again? 

It's not spring yet

Wednesday felt like a mild spring day, even if we're still just under a month from the equinox. Toward the end of the week, the weather gurus have predicted another drop in temperatures back into the single digits, celsius of course. As I've said, snow in March is not unheard of where we live.

They resemble columns and arches inside a gothic cathedral. I wonder how old these trees are.

But enough about the weather! This is a typical sight in France and other parts of Europe: pollarded trees. Pollarding refers to the style of severe pruning that you see here. These are planted on the quay along the river in Saint-Aignan. There are more lining the street that heads out of town toward the south.

Water, water, everywhere

The rain has slacked off and water levels are decreasing. The river is probably a lot lower than it was when I took this photo of the upstream end of the island at Saint-Aignan. Ken's planning to go out this morning, so he'll see what the condition is at the bridge.

The sign says "Prohibited." It's meant for river traffic. I'm assuming the graphic means "no entry" but I'm not at all certain. Any sailors out there?

I noticed yesterday that our daffs are starting to flower. Come on, spring! 

Sleepy town

Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher is a sleepy town. It's lost a lot of its commerce over the years since we moved nearby. After covid, the town moved it's weekly market out of the center and into a larger place. But some vendors never came back. We're left with banks, insurance companies, and real estate agencies. It's kind of sad, but that's the reality in so many rural places.

A street leading up to the center of town from the river.

The house feels cold while outdoor temperatures creep up. Come on, spring! 

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it

Or not. This is the Saint-Aignan/Noyers bridge on Thursday. It was closed with temporary signs set up at the approach. I'm guessing that it was closed so that crews could dislodge tree branches that got stuck under the roadway. That helps the water to flow better. Otherwise, I think, the debris in the water can form a kind of dam beneath the bridge that backs up more and more water as more and more debris gets caught. The road over the bridge is closed so that heavy equipment can work safely and unimpeded.

If you zoom in and look under the red truck, you can see tree branches stuck in the water.

Meanwhile, the rains have more or less stopped (the wind, too, thankfully). Temperatures are rising, too. We're expecting a high of 14ºC (approaching 60ºF) this afternoon. Yay!

Hell or high water

So far, it's just high water. I stopped down on the quay in Saint-Aignan yesterday after a quick trip to the supermarket. There was some action at the bridge. I think some fallen tree branches floated down river and got caught under the bridge. It's happened before. I saw signs that said the bridge was closed and there was a crew working to clear the trees. The closure didn't affect me; I didn't need to cross the river.

These trees and party pavilions are on the tip of the island in the river. Now they're under water.

I'm glad we're not close to the Atlantic. Cities and towns over on the coast are dealing with very high winds and abundant rain. And where there's rain, there's flooding. And erosion that threatens buildings that are too close to the beaches. What a mess. It makes our local wind and rain events seem like no big deal. We can be thankful for that.

One last glance

That's it for my recent walk on the island in the Cher at Saint-Aignan. I'll have to go back again soon since I missed a bunch of stuff. Like the beach and the fish ladder. Tasha loves car rides, so I know she'd be happy to go. It takes a whole five minutes to get there.

The château at Saint-Aignan at sunrise.

I haven't cut grass in a few weeks because of all the rain we've been having, but yesterday I was able to get the mower out and cut the strip along the road. I mostly wanted to run the mower to keep the battery charged. Now it's time to wish for some dry weather to get the rest of the property groomed.

And speaking of the property, we got the landscaper's estimate for all the things we wanted done but can't do ourselves. The estimate seems quite reasonable and we're both happy about that. 

What is it?

I don't know what that blue-green stuff is on the surface of the water at this spot. Foam? Algae? Some other kind of plant? I guess I need to go back and have a better look.

The bridge at Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher.

I called the ophthalmologist's office yesterday and I have an appointment in about two weeks time. Until then, my old prescription is standing in. It's not great, but it's much better than the new one.

Up a lazy river

Looking upstream from the island in the Cher at Saint-Aignan. The water is so calm because the river is held back in two places to form a reservoir for the now-gone grain mill.

Le Cher à Saint-Aignan.

I went back to the optical shop yesterday morning for my appointment. It was with a different woman, so I had to explain my problem from the beginning. Still, she was very patient and seemed to want to help. She tested my new glasses to be sure they conformed to my prescription; they did. But she was very surprised at the strength of the new prescription, just like the woman I saw on Tuesday. She said that amount correction after only three years with my previous glasses seemed excessive, something you'd expect to see after ten or fifteen years without an update, not three. She told me to go back to ophthalmologist to ensure that the prescription was what he intended, then to get instructions for what to do next. She was very deferential to the doctor's role and said she didn't have the authority to override his prescription.. But I could tell that she became more and more convinced that I should not have such a strong prescription. She called it une sur-correction, an over-correction. I don't want to be one who self-diagnoses with the internet, but my research confirms that I have all the symptoms of a sur-correction..

So, now I have to do that. I'm calling the doctor's office this morning for an appointment, sooner, I hope, than later. In the meantime, the optometrist put my three-year old lenses back into one pair of my glasses. They feel so much better, although my vision is blurry with them. But there are no distortions or discomfort.

Stepping back

I was using a 50mm lens on the camera so, to get a wider angle shot, I needed to physically back away from the subjects. I do have a 25mm lens for wide shots, but didn't have it with me. No matter. Here's a somewhat wider view that includes the château, the church, the bridge, the new passerelle, the old mill foundations, and the lock. No swimming allowed.

View toward central Saint-Aignan from the island in the Cher.

It rained on and off yesterday with some mild thunder in the late afternoon. We're still in the same pattern today, maybe with less rain. The high temperature is expected to be around 22ºC (71ºF). And it's a new moon! I wonder what its name is.

The municicpal swimming pool.

That should be plural. There's one indoor pool and one outdoor pool. Not being much of a swimmer, I haven't been in either of them. They were closed for a while recently for renovations. 

Saint-Aignan's municipal swimming pool, built on the island in the Cher.

I went to the optical shop in Montrichard yesterday and spoke to the woman who fitted my new prescription back in May. I did my best to explain the problem. She was puzzled when I mentioned that my two new pairs of glasses were different, that I couldn't use them interchangeably without a significant adjustment period. She said, "That can't be. They're identical." Well, they don't feel identical to me. Maybe I'm using them wrong.

She looked at the new prescription and the old and remarked, "Your new lenses are very strong. Twice the strength of your previous ones." I'm not sure how significant that is, but she seemed to be surprised, which surprised me, because she fitted them in the first place. The prior prescription is three years old; the one before that was six years old when I had it updated (both by different companies). Then I told her I'm nervous about driving with these newest glasses, said the equivalent of, "It's that bad?" Yup, it is.

So now what? She gave me an appointment for tomorrow (Thursday). If I understood correctly, she wants to test my eyes and compare her results to the ophthalmologist's. I'll let you know how it goes.

And throw away the key

This is the lock at Saint-Aignan. The photo shows the doors that open and close so that boats can move from one level to the other. Very small boats.

The lock doors at Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher.

I'm planning to go back to the optical shop that made my new glasses a couple of months ago. They're just not working. I kept thinking they would, that my eyes would adjust to them, but I've had it at this point. There's one tiny point on each lens where things are clear. Otherwise, my vision is blurry and distorted. Working at the computer is almost impossible and very uncomfortable. I trip over rocks on the vineyard road; my depth perception sucks. I worry about driving. Ugh. I checked my paper work and I'm still within the adaptation period for guaranteed replacement lenses.

The other side

As I've mentioned a few times, the bridge, and now the new passerelle, pass over the foundations of a mill that once stood on this spot. Here, the foundations form part of a dam that creates the mill's reservoir. There is also a lock so that boats can move up and down river. In fact, more than an few dams with locks along the Cher once made it possible for commercial river traffic to move goods downriver to Tours and beyond. I believe that all that is over these days; I've never seen any of the locks in actual operation. Maybe I'm not paying attention. I do know that some of the lock houses have been converted to vacation rentals over the years.

The steel gray/green passerelle recalls the industrial history of the site.

Yesterday was a wet one, as predicted. We do need the water, especially after the couple of heat waves we've had. It's supposed to rain again this morning. Temperatures are much lower since the systems moved through. I think they're supposed to stay that way for a while. 

A little to the left

Depending on where you're standing, St.-Aignan's château and the town's church can look like parts of the same building. They are quite close, but they're separate buildings. This view, without the château, was taken from the same spot on the island as yesterday's photo.

The two towers of the collégiale church at Saint-Aignan.

Today is expected to be rainy. In fact, it rained before I got out of bed (about 06h20), but not much. I was able to go out for a short walk in with Tasha since I've been up. It's sprinkling out there, but I can see on the radar that heavier rain is indeed headed toward us. Thankfully, there's no electrical activity to report, nor is any predicted.

Here comes the sun

Caught just as the sun was rising, this is the château at Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher. I was standing down at water level just upstream of the bridge.

Le château de Saint-Aignan.

There was a little lightning and thunder during a rain shower yesterday. Nothing threatening, thank goodness. I noticed lightning in the sky during the night last night, but there was no rain, no thunder. In fact, the sky above me was mostly starry with patches of cloud here and there. If there was a storm, it must have been a long way away.

The beach

I didn't get a photo of the actual beach this time. Like I said previously, there was a crew working over there and I didn't want to get Tasha all excited. It's not a big beach, but it is sandy. The river is shallow and slow moving there; I'm pretty sure most people could walk across it where the beach is. I wonder if the beach is natural or artificial. I've seen other small, natural beaches here and there along the river. There's a big beach in the river at Montrichard. I'll bet it draws a crowd on hot days.

The sign is positioned to be visible from Saint-Aignan. The actual beach is on the other side of the island.

Today would be a good day to go to the beach, except that I'm not really a beach person. The weather site I look at daily is projecting 33ºC (low 90sF) for this afternoon. After today, a major cool-down is predicted.

Where'd it go?

From the upstream side of the bridge over the Cher at Saint-Aignan, you can't see the new passerelle at all. Reflections in the reservoir on this side of the bridge are unspoiled. Water that flows toward the bridge is slowed by a small dam built at its foundations before spilling over and continuing on. The dam is what remains of a grain mill that was built on this site a long time ago; the reservoir behind provided the power to turn the mill stone(s). The mill since closed and a fire destroyed the building leaving only the bridge and the dam below.

A dam beneath the bridge creates a calm reservoir that once provided water to power a grain mill.

To help create the reservoir and keep most, if not all, of the river's water from diverting around the other side of the island, another small dam was built upstream. That dam was recently enhanced with a fish ladder, giving the aquatic critters access to upstream waters. One of these days I'll go back to see what I can see and, hopefully, take some pictures.

Ramp

Two ramps connect the bridge level to the island level below. This one leads upstream toward the beach and guinguette/picnic area. The other, just behind where I'm standing to take this photo, leads downstream toward the swimming pools and garden allotments.

Ramp.

Today is errands day for me. First, I'm picking up a prescription at the pharmacy. Then I'll stop at a nearby produce market for some seasonal melon (similar to cantaloup, but sweeter) and, hopefully some jambon cru (cured ham) to go with it. After that, I'm crossing the river to the vet's office to pick up some dental chews for Tasha, ordered online last week, and a fresh supply of her monthly flea and tick medicine. My last stop will be the Intermarché grocery store to turn in some plastic bottles for recycling (and a store credit!). Then it's back across the bridge to home. I hope the zoo traffic will have calmed down by then.

Passerelle pass-through

The new passerelle (pedestrian/bike bridge) in Saint-Aignan has an interesting feature: it passes right through one of the buildings on the island. I don't think the building is used for anything; I looked in through one or two of the windows. Nothing in there.

Buildings "on the bridge" are the access points to the island below.

The sign on the other building that says "Sur Le Pont" (On the Bridge) is for a restaurant that is, you guessed it, on the bridge. The last time I ate there was a long time ago. The restaurant served good burgers and pizza (I think). They have a terrasse down at water level so diners can sit outside with a great view of the château on the left bank. I'm not sure what they're serving these days, or if they're even open. I'll take a closer look the next time I visit the island.

The monument in the form of an obelisk is a memorial to over 800 American soldiers killed in the region during World War II. 

A morning walk on the island

There's an island in the Cher River at Saint-Aignan. I think I've mentioned that on said island there's a restaurant, a beach, the local pétanque courts, garden allotments, and the piscine municipale (municipal swimming pool). There are actually two pools, one indoors and one outdoors. Tasha and I drove over (well, I drove, but Tasha kept an eye out for oncoming traffic), parked at the new passerelle, then crossed over to the island for a stroll.

Entering Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher from the west.

Tasha's extendable leash was attached to my waist so she enjoyed a little bit of freedom and I had use of both hands to work the camera. I took this shot from the small parking lot on the left bank at the entrance to town; the bridge is just out of the frame to the left. The street bedecked with colorful flags winds up through the historic center of town to the Saturday market then on southward to the big zoo (Beauval).

Today's a holiday, so there was not much in the way of traffic at 06h30, but that will change as the day goes on, I'm sure. Saint-Aignan held it's July 14 fireworks on Saturday night the 12th (better than a Monday night, I suppose). I noticed there was a guinguette (a kind of outdoor bar/tavern) set up in the picnic area next to the beach. Of course, I didn't take any photos of that as there was a crew working to dismantle it and Tasha was a little anxious.