Annecy

On Friday, September 25th, a little after 6PM Lauryne and I began our trip to Annecy. We weren’t in the Alps, but we were going to be close. 

The next morning Pauline had some shopping to do. Parking was underneath the supermarket and so were the shopping carts. The escalator was fascinating. It stayed flat and gripped the cart wheels. The carts went up and down as easily as the people!

And then we were off to parts unknown. Pauline had a surprise and she wouldn’t even tell Lauryne. We drove past the lake and then began climbing. 

Along the way we spotted a couple of paragliders. 

 We could have driven a bit higher, but Pauline had reserved a table at the cliff’s edge overlooking the lake. 

Since I hadn’t known we were going out for lunch, my teeth were back at the apartment! It didn’t matter. Lunch was baked potatoes smothered with cheese that we melted at the table. The scenery was amazing, the food delicious, and then a few flying people appeared.

And a few more appeared.

And then crowds of flying people began appearing!

And the crowds got bigger!

My pictures don’t do justice to the amazing show we had throughout our lunch. Unfortunately, I have a couple of blurs in the camera that show up especially in pictures of the sky. 

Annecy is actually at the far end of the lake in this picture.

We returned to lake level. Roofs here are different from the Cluny, Sologny, Blanot area. They don’t have the clay tiles, but instead are wooden shingles similar to what can be found in the USA on George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon.

Then we were to walk through the old center of Annecy which is some-times referred to as the French Venice, though I didn’t see a single gondola.

The water level is extremely low. It should be up past the the gray cement and lapping at the house colors!

I thought it was cool to have a garden gate at the water’s edge.

Swans who didn’t want to swim could go wading.

Once upon a time this was a jail, right in the center of town, sur-rounded by water, but certainly not Alca-traz. 

I liked the split staircase on this old building. We found a store that sold the same kind of cheese we’d had for lunch and I bought enough of it to serve several times when I'll have company in Blanot.

A few days...

On Tuesday Lauryne and I walked through the backyard of the Godon’s home to reach her yard. 

Her house is the furthest roof behind the bushes and wall. The unpleasant neighbor is the tall roof in the background on the right.

This is the current entrance to her home, typical for this area of Burgundy. For most houses the ground floor is usually the actual ground and used as a basement.  

Lauryne feels uncomfortable about this entrance because the unfriendly neighbor can keep track of when people come and go on these steps. The new entrance will be out of the neighbor’s sight.

The next picture is looking down from the current entrance to the future entrance. The open space will become the living room. The enclosed space to the right is for wood storage with a door to the outdoors for stacking the wood and an inside door for easy access.

The glass shower wall doesn’t take up much space.

The living area is upstairs until the first floor is finished. At that time the upstairs will turn into 2 bedrooms.

I find it fascinating that the roof tiles can just sit there and be waterproof. Lauryne explained why the size of the older tiles varies. Apparently they were formed over the thigh of the tile maker and not every tile maker had the same size thigh.

 On Wednesday I needed to practice driving BB again. I took Marie-Annick to the post office in Cluny after picking up bread at the boulangerie. Behind the post office was one of the yellow mail cars.

That evening we were to eat with Elisabeth at her place in Blanot. Since we couldn’t take wine, her son is a wine maker, Francis and Marie-Annick brought an orchid. Francis had never before tasted Nicholas' wine and was quite impressed. 

Thursday morning I again drove Marie-Annick to Cluny in the BB car. Shopping in Cluny requires walking. There is no room to park on the streets. 

Marie-Annick seems to know every-
body so while she was talking to one of the shop clerks, I found a nearby table with 2 chairs. 

While I was sitting there, a gal who had just opened a shop across the street joined me for her cigarette break and we had a pleasant conversation, mostly in English.

That afternoon I followed Marie-Annick into Macon. She led me to College Breart where Francis teaches and then went shopping.

Lauryne met me at the gate. Security is tight. Even parents can’t just walk in.

I spent an hour with Francis, Sylvie and about 18 students. They asked questions in English and I answered, speaking slowly. I had taken in the skunk puppet and told the story of Francis and Marie-Annick thinking the puppet in my mailbox was a real skunk. The puppet was a big hit.

Driving home I was on my own. I was proud of myself, noticing all the landmarks, until suddenly I was on a main highway heading back to Macon and I knew I was in trouble. I was smart enough to not take the exit onto the toll highway. I know what peage means so at least I avoided that exit! 

I exited into Macon…otherwise I was heading for Geneva, Switzerland! At each rotary or round-about I just kept looking for signs of places I knew would be near Sologny. Once I was back in the countryside I asked a local man the way to Cluny. I didn't understand his words, but I did understand that I was headed in the right direction. Obviously I made it home, just had a scenic ride. It was good for laughs that evening.

The nice thing about driving on my own was being able to stop for pictures of this hedge. It’s a common sight for everyone else, but I wanted to capture the colors since, for me, it was unusual.

During this time I caught Marie-Annick's cold. Today I'm not as stuffed up and drippy as I have been, so I'm looking forward to the weekend. I need to pack because in a couple of hours Lauryne and I will be taking off to visit Pauline Annecy. 

Monday 9/21/2015

As a change of pace, here comes another color to write with. I need to learn something new to make up for my latest stupidity. I went with Marie-Annick to her lace association. Of course I brought my camera, but after two pictures the camera said its memory was full. At home again and I sat down to figure out the problem. I happened to open the camera and laughed at myself; I hadn't returned the memory card after downloading the last batch of pictures! 

What these gals can do is amazing....

Fortunately, Marie-Annick took some more pictures so I'll get to add them later...




If you count the threads below, you'll know how many bobbins this gal is playing with!

Though most just smiled a welcome, several gals were willing to try out their English and speak with me.  One gal explained that she had gotten her straight pins from Italy because they make thinner pins than those made in France. I asked if she had gone to Italy to get her pins and she laughed. "On-line" was her answer.

They use hundreds of pins to hold their work in place until it is finished.

Lauryne took me to the pool in Macon and we came home with information. Trying to remember all the turns she made...I'm convinced I'll never find it again! We had company for dinner and played Rummikub afterwards. Now the family has gone to bed and so must I.

Sercy, the Second Castle

A good night’s sleep and my day didn’t begin until 9:30 AM. I’m at the table having tea and, as promised, I’m working on the second castle, the one in Sercy. 

Yesterday, September 20th, was the one day each year when cultural entities open for the general public and are free, thus the crowd at Sercy. 

We approached up a long path past the horses who were grazing by the pond. 

This chateau doesn’t have a moat. but they do have a large pond graced by a willow tree on one of the two small islands.

Folks were gathering to hear a fellow telling the history of this chateau, but since he was speaking in French I took my time.

It’s a relatively small chateau, maybe not as impressive as Sully, but I think it is more beautiful than most. It has its own small chapel off to the side. Just keeping the mammoth hedges trimmed would have to be a full time job.

Apparently this castle burned in the early 1900s and sat for awhile until the family began restoring it in the 1950s. That may be why the one tower has open rafters at the top, but I don’t know for sure.

The chapel, though small, was quite beauti-ful inside.

Looking at the chapel from the back one quickly realizes that the worship area couldn’t be more than half of the building. The rear half was not open to the public.

There was a stone plaque naming the family members buried within the chapel, the latest just a few years ago. 

That might explain the purpose for the rear section of the chapel.

Marie-Annick and Francis joined me for a walk around the chateau. 

 I’m always fascinated by the openings built into the protective towers. Maybe in the melee of a battle it would be difficult to shoot into such an opening, but in a sneak attack I’d bet Griffin could send an arrow through.

Honey must be supporting some of the renovations. I’ve never seen this many bee hives in one location before.

Cattle grazed on the hillside out back, a herd of brown instead of the more common white.

We continued on our way to the other side of the castle where I was blown away by the cyclamen growing wild in a wooded glen. It was breath-taking.

Another out-building must have been the kitchen at one time, but gets used for storing toys and such in our more modern age. There was a diagram on the wall showing what the chateau looked like many years ago.

We were heading home, but others were still arriving.

This pond has moving water. I hadn’t seen an inlet, but water was flowing to the outlet.

One last picture. The cars weren’t here when, 3 years ago, Marie-Annick, Francis and I paused at this spot for pictures on our way to the north of France.

When we reached home we had 10 minutes to get ourselves to the local church just down the hill for a free saxophone concert by 4 musicians. That was well worth the hour or so of sitting on a hard wooden bench. Besides, my feet appreciated the rest.