Grapes and a snow job

We saw this statue of a bunch of chenin grapes in the nearby town of Montlouis during our trip in 2001. I haven't been over that way in a while, so I don't know if it the statue is still there. Maybe on our next nice day I'll take a drive over and see. I know they're chenin because that's pretty much the only grape they grow in Montlouis, just like across the river in Vouvray.

Wine country statue in Montlouis-sur-Loire. Can you spot Ken behind the shrubs taking my picture? Digitized color slide, Spring 2001.

The weather people are all a-twitter over the possibility of snow this weekend. The wind is from the north and temperatures are dropping. They are predicting snow in the eastern part of the country on Friday and Saturday and the snow zone includes us at its western limit. If any falls here at all, it will not be much. I'm kind of hoping to see some snow. It's been a while.

You swam the moat?

I remember, many moons ago, seeing a televised version of "Once Upon a Mattress," the comedy musical based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Princess and the Pea. It starred Carol Burnett (she was in the original 1959 Broadway show) and Ken Berry, if my memory serves. When Winnifred (Burnett) arrives at the castle to meet the prince, she gets in by swimming across the moat and appears before the royals dripping wet. When the incredulous queen meets her, all she can bring herself to say is, "You swam the moat?"

No longer needed for defense, this moat has been fancied up. Digitized color slide, Spring 2001.

So, here is a section of les douves (the moat) at the Château de Villandry. I think that castle moats were largely decorative in the late renaissance and after, but defensive moats were still being constructed around forts and other military installations as late as the eighteenth century.

The keep

The medieval donjon (keep) of the Château de Villandry was kept (pun intended) when the castle was acquired and rebuilt by Jean le Breton in the fifteenth century. Most of what exists today is the renaissance style château built around the keep. The French Wikipedia site provides oodles of details about the castle's history. By the way, I was wrong about those boxwood topiary. They were still there when I last visited the castle in 2014.

The crenelated tower of the castle's keep is all that remains of the medieval building. Digitized color slide, Spring 2001.

As promised, our weather is changing today with the arrival of some light rain. It's expected to get rainier as the week goes on, and the morning low temperatures are expected to drop to freezing by the end of the week. After a week of nice spring-like days, I'll be back to building fires in the wood stove soon. Mother Nature giveth and she taketh away.

That gîte in Vouvray

Here's another shot of the vacation rental we had in Vouvray. You might remember that we rented it twice; once in the fall of 2000 and again in the spring of 2001. The second time, I was able to watch the French Open tournament on television. Most of the time I listened while sitting outside in the beautiful weather we had.

This is where I sat, enjoyed local wine, and listened to the tennis tournament. Oh, and hung laundry out to dry. Digitized color slide, Spring 2001.

Right now I'm watching the men play in Miami. Next week they move on to the clay court season, most of which takes place here in Europe. That means little to no time difference and I won't have to record matches over night. And, as you know, the clay court season culminates with the French Open in Paris in late May. Ah, spring!

Cut grass

I snapped a few quick shots of the back yard from the den window on Saturday just to document the first mowing of the year. I cut the south forty (to the left of the garden path in the photo) on Thursday, then the west forty (to the right of the garden path in the photo) on Friday. Yesterday I cut the strips outside the hedges, but they're not visible in the picture. I'm still holding off on the north forty to keep the primrose flowers visible, but it won't be long before that's cut as well.

Looking west out the den window on Saturday.

Our nice spring weather will be with us for a couple more days before temperatures start to fall again. The last few Aprils have brought freezes, some were severe enough to damage new leaf growth in the vineyards around us. We'll see what this year brings.

Back to the Loire

Spring blooms took precedence over these twenty-one year-old slides this past week. But now they're back. Still at Villandry, here's one of the cygnes (swans) that live on the grounds, swimming gracefully in a plan d'eau (water feature).

A swan at Villandry. Digitized color slide, Spring 2001.

I was industrious once again yesterday and got the west forty cut. It's starting to look like someone is taking care of the place again. There's still much to do, but I feel we've made a good start. This evening I have the chore of turning the clocks ahead. We still have plenty of clocks that don't adjust themselves, including some with actual hands and numbers. They seem almost old-fashioned these days.

Gendarmes

Not to be confused with your friendly national police agent. These are called firebugs in English. They're abundantly visible right now as they congregate in sunny spots. They are particularly attracted to the trunks of tilleuls (linden or lime trees). Indeed, these were gathered on a mossy wall a foot or two from the trunk of our tilleul. Gendarmes are pretty harmless, as far as I know.

Mating pairs of gendarmes connect to each other at the back end. They wander around connected like that for hours, even days, apparently.

I was industrious and cut the south forty yesterday afternoon. I did not, however, change the oil in the lawnmower. That will wait for another day. Today I plan to cut the west forty, the largest section of the yard. I'm saving the north forty for last, to keep the primroses blooming until I can't stand it any more.