Antoine

Elisabeth's kids are hard-working, kind, and intelligent, and their families are absolutely delightful. I'm blessed to have spent the day with them! The most fun was watching Antoine's basketball game. Four pre-game pictures are this whole post.

Sheep, Flowers, and the Blanot Auberge

A herd of sheep were in a field with a pond in Blanot near the road just beyond the auberge. We saw them because I wanted a picture of the next field with all its buttercups, known here as Bouton D'or. That would be translated as buttons of gold. That's Bouton D'or in the field beyond the sheep.

It becomes a mass of color in photographs so Elisabeth cut a bouquet for me of Bouton D'or...

I have yet to catch a good photo of the wild shrub that is in bloom along roadsides, so Elisabeth cut a stem of Genet for me. It now graces the fireplace mantle.

This is just one stem! It really does cheer up the roads. Below is the one-way section of road leading to the pottery in Blanot. The mass of reddish flowers are referred to as Spanish lilac.

Elisabeth's birthday will be next week so on Friday we gathered at the auberge for dinner...

From left to right...me (the oldest), Elisabeth (the youngest), Anne, and Francoise. 

Scarves on us all. In the States I forget just how comfortable scarves can be, and it was a chilly night.

This is also Francoise. She and Florence, who does the cooking, own the auberge. They are delightful people. Both the food and the service is super!


Time for appetizers. We all picked something different. There was a touch of honey on each slice of my fresh goat cheese.

For the entree, I chose the beef and potato with a cream sauce while the others had the veggie bowl.
Florence makes a marvelous lemon meringue tart and 3 of us chose that for dessert!

 Elisabeth stuck her almonds into the meringue when suddenly a candle appeared...

It was the end of the evening so Florence came out of the kitchen. She told us the funniest story about another lemon tart she had once made! I won't tell it here as a bit of revenge for the email Mimi and Harriet Ann have promised with their adventure story that they have yet to send!

Pauses by Joux, Taize, and Cluny

By the road in Joux, I noticed this old lavoir...

We visited a cooperative in Taize that specializes in fruit. I bought some fruit candies, applesauce, and mango sorbet. Elisabeth bought fresh rhubarb to use in preserves. 

We stopped to take a picture of these pink and yellow roses.

By the way, if you haven't already figured this out, Elisabeth has a red car. Parts of it keep sneaking into my pictures!

Then Elisabeth pointed out the church...

Poppies are in bloom along the roads and this grouping was asking to be caught on camera...

Not only is there a shoe maker in Lys, but also a sculptor of metal. 

The picture of his metal tree does double duty. That's a lavoir in the background.

Every time we drive into Cluny from Blanot, which is almost every time we get into a car, we pass over the Grosne River. This time I was a passenger and we had to wait for traffic to go by. There are steps at the far end of the walkway that I'd never noticed before. Grosne is pronounced Groan!

Cluny has become an equestrian center. One field along the main road is called the nursery and today the reason for its name became apparent. The foals looked absolutely huggable...

Pierreclos

One of Elisabeth's wanderings with me took us by a place where the poet Lamartine had lived.

The French are considerate. If you forget to notice the name as you enter a town, there will be a sign to tell you where you have been. That was a Lamartine chateau in Saint Point.

 Then we stumbled on a less prestigious chateau...

As we circled the building we noticed what seemed likely to be the remains of an old moat.


We continued along a narrow road called Col des Enceints. A col is a pass over high terrain from one valley to the next.


We saw this interesting arched entrance.

 When we were able to look down into the next valley, there was the chateau Pierreclos.

The tiled roof is the most interesting aspect of this chateau.

More tiles are at the entrance gate...

Not far from here are the old gypsum mines.

I may get to stop by them again, but they can be found further back in this blog.

Les Dentelles

No, this is not about a visit to a dentist.

Dentelle is lace.

Marie-Annick enjoys making lace. She invited me to join her and her friends to go to a lace exposition in Cluny.

I didn't expect it to be such a large exhibit. It was held in 2 buildings! I should have brought my rollator.

This is actual pottery using lace pressed into the clay to create the decoration.

For all my quilt making friends, here's another idea. Between the quilt and the lace I can't imagine how many hours of work this represents! Apparently it was a group project and Marie-Annick had made two of the lace squares. Here's a close-up...

There were a variety of hats using lace...

and dolls...and miniature scenes...

I appreciated the practical things the most, such as the lace drape and hand bags. There was a place for food with tables and chairs so I settled to wait for Marie-Annick. Then this lady came by. 

I'm not sure if she was wearing too much lace or if she needed a long skirt with even more lace.