Cruas

We continued our drive south through the Rhône Valley. Our friend CHM had recommended that we visit a town called Alba-la-Romaine just over the hills across from Montélimar, so we turned off the road at Le Teil. But before we got there, up on the bluff above the river we spied the ruin of a medieval castle and we stopped to explore it. It was just there ; no tours, no fences, and we parked and walked in.

The ruins of a château at Cruas.

While climbing around inside and out, we noticed that down river to the south rose four huge cooling towers. We were seeing the nuclear generator at Cruas. The side of one of the towers was adorned with a huge painting of a playing kid.

The nuclear power plant at Cruas on the Rhône River.

I took a photo of the plant through one of the windows of the castle. Then we moved on to look for Alba.

Troussay

Nestled among the grand châteaux around Blois is the little manor house at Troussay. The house is open to the public and the staff offers guided tours of the house. You can also choose to stroll around the grounds for a lesser fee.

We visited Troussay in July of last year (2006). This is a view of the door that opens out to the garden behind the house.

There are many lesser known châteaux, manoirs and gentilhommières in the Loire Valley region open to the public. They offer a less crowded but no less interesting view of the genteel country life during the French Renaissance. Seek them out if your travel plans include a visit to the Loire Valley.

The entrance court at the Gentilhommière de Troussay.

Puppy Pic Of The Week

This is Callie and her frisbee. Or what used to be her frisbee. She's chewed out the center and it won't fly anymore. That doesn't stop her from playing with it, though.

Sercy Et Berzé

We spent the night in a contemporary, nondescript hotel in Dijon and headed south again the next day. Between Dijon and Mâcon, we passed several châteaux, but only stopped to look closer at two of them.

The Château de Sercy is right on the road that follows the Grosne river.

The first was the Château de Sercy. It was a quick stop to gawk and take pictures. No tours or anything like that. But the setting was pretty and it was worth a look.

Berzé-le-Châtel sits up on the western flank of these hills in the Mâconnais wine region. Across them is the Saône Valley and the city of Mâcon.

We continued south and saw Berzé-le-Châtel off in the distance, so we pulled off to the side to find and identify it on the map and to take a few snaps. Then once again we were motoring south.

We would reach northern Provence that evening, but still had one more night before our scheduled arrival at the gîte.

Word Of The Week

gazon

Since this is week two of Wimbledon, I thought gazon would be an appropriate word. Even though pluie (rain) might be more apropos.

Tennis sur gazon à Wimbledon.

In French, le gazon is the surface they play on in England. The word comes to French from a now-defunct Germanic language spoken by the Francs. Specifically, it means grass that is manicured into a short, compact form.

Tennis, anyone ?

Image from www.wimbledon.org

Kitchen Collection [29]

Canning jars come in handy all the time and usually not for canning. I've been using them as canisters for a hundred years. Well, maybe not a hundred, but it's been a long time. I keep tea, spaghetti, sugar, flour, rice, coffee, baking soda, and all kinds of other things in them.

Rice stored in a canning jar.

We have a variety of shapes and sizes that we've collected over the years. Some are out on the counter and some are in cabinets. I like being able to see what's inside each jar ; it's practical and I think dry goods look attractive in the glass containers.

Every now and then we have to seek out new rubber rings so that the jars continue to seal well. I did some brief research and found this wire-type gasket closure is called a lightning closure. I'm not sure why, but it may have to do with the first company to use it.

Mason jars are named after the man who invented them. I tend to call all canning jars "mason jars" generically. I guess that's not technically correct, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Rainy Morning Vineyard Walk

Callie and I went out for our morning walk on Sunday after it had rained a bit. We were lucky because about fifteen minutes after we got home, it started raining again. Phew ! I took the camera because I thought the light was nice and these are some of the things we saw :

The immature grapes are starting to look good. I don't know if these will be white or red ones.

A shower off in the distance - looking northeast across the Cher.

Wild blackberry leaves.

Several varieties of morning glory (belles de jour) grow wild among the vines.

A blue flower in a field that's lying fallow.

I have no idea what these are, but they have sprung up all over the place this year, including in our yard.

Callie inspects a woodpile.