medeival display

We went to one of the local chateaux, at Tiffauges and they demonstrate various siege engines, ride around on horses and pretend to fight. It was a good day out. Zoe enjoyed the horses a lot. We also got to listen to some very good and animated story telling in French. I understood some of it...

Locals having a scrap

and they take it very seriously round here!

French church on Sunday

 

This photo is taken at the end of church as everyone was leaving. It was a nice enough service but of course all in French, so some bits of it lost me a bit. One thing that intrigued me was the very prominent organ that's right behind the altar and yet it wasn't used at all. All the music was unaccompnied singing led by a cantor. it was okay music but it did seem strange to have no organ at all.

Zoë in the pool

Enjoying the pool at our gîte

We've got a lovely pool here. Not big but big enough. Abby was enjoying it so much she even let me take this photo!

Our Gîte

The gîte is very lovely in a quiet French hamlet outside of a town called Les Herbiers. There's a huge Hyper U not far away that sells everything we could possibly want and yet we're in the countryside enough to be surrounded by horses and cows etc. les herbiers is in the Vendée which is an area of France just south of Brittany.

lovely flowers at the Palace of Versailles

Lovely flowers and a beautiful sky.