Apple Relief and Autumn Harvest

I ended last week’s post full of trepidation about what might happen on Monday.  I had confirmed when making the appointment that the repair to my iPhone would be done while I waited and that because I was on vacation here I could not readily return another day to complete the job.  My expectation was that I would get to the Apple Store in Nantes, after the two-hour drive, and find out that the repair could not be done because the only person who could do it had broken a fingernail on the weekend and had called in sick for the day.  That was going to mean another trip and more uncertainty.

So we arrived just a little before my opening time 09h30 appointment and I am the first person in the door.  They have me on the list of appointments at the Genius Bar and someone is with me immediately.  Thankfully English was well spoken in store because I would have been up the creek if I had to conduct this exercise based on my primitive French.  She begins to explain that the machine they need to replace the screen is not there at the moment and could I come back in at say 15h00.  My heart sank because I know very well that that is code for, “come back tomorrow” or later.  Then she went on to offer a second option.  The screen repair charge was €159 but they could replace the phone with a new one for €249.  To cut a long story short and skip the bit about tears etc., the girl was extremely helpful, spoke to her manager and got me the replacement phone for the repair price.  Genius indeed!  I was assured that it would be the same model and the same in all respects, except of course the screen would not be broken!  So they unboxed a new unit and upgraded it to iOS 7 and in 10 minutes I had it plugged in to my Mac started restoring all my content.  Ninety minutes after my appointment I walked out €159 poorer but with a new phone that already had all my stuff on it and did everything just like the old one.  Bloody brilliant!

The Apple Store at the Atlantis Shopping Centre in Nantes. Brilliant!

Now that we had the phone sorted it was time to have a wander around the city of Nantes.  It really does seem like a prosperous place with lots of activity and a nice commercial area.  None of the closed up shops that we have seen in most other places.

Notre-Dame du Bon Port in Nantes. Didn’t go into it, don’t know anything about it. Just felt compelled to photograph it! The location was on the square where we found a parking space.

There were significant areas of rejuvenation in progress in Nantes and the Opera House was in one of them.

This is another area that was being upgraded and I am sure will look splendid very soon.

The Rue Crébillon seems to have more than its share of high end stores and for a change we did not notice any shop closures.

Château des Ducs de Bretagne. Taken from their own website… The Castle of the Dukes of Brittany is the last of the Loire Châteaux before the Atlantic Ocean. Set in the historic heart of Nantes, once a colonial and industrial port and now one of the most important urban centres in Western France, this exceptional site is the flagship of the city’s urban heritage and its oldest historic building besides the Cathedral.

Château des Ducs de Bretagne.

Château des Ducs de Bretagne.

We haven’t done a lot else for the rest of the week really.  The weather has not been conducive to being outdoors even though it has not been cold.  In fact conditions have been so good that you can almost hear the lawns growing.  We did go to Parthenay on Wednesday morning but by the time we got there it started to rain off and on so we visited the boulangerie, had a coffee and came home.  I did stop and photograph a field on the way…

This ploughed field is less than a kilometre from where we are staying. Ten days ago it was a mess of weeds and self-sown remnants of a past brassica crop. On Wednesday it looked like this (it might have been completed a day or so before). On Saturday when we drove by it was tinged green with 70mm high spikes of what I assume is wheat. A testament to how damp and warm it has been.

The skies were clearing by noon on Saturday and we really needed to get out of the house so we went to Niort for a look.  Another very nice town.

La Sèvre passes through and around Niort as it meanders westward to The Atlantic.

Dragons seemed to be something of a theme at this end of the pedestrian area of Niort.

What can I say? It’s a dragon.

Inside Église Notre-Dame in Niort was this incredibly detailed wooden pulpit.

On the way home we got caught behind a tractor and trailer unit carting maize to the local grain store.  These things don’t leave much road for anyone else.  We met a postie van on one section and with each one almost in their respective ditch they managed to pass.  Then I decided to put on the video recording on my phone.  It was fixed on a windscreen mount so you get a part of that in the frame but it tells the story.  Here is the link.

If you have just watched the video you probably know what happened next.  I was lurking with intent to photograph over near the field beside the grain store.  Next thing the tractor driver (a different set up altogether from the one we were following) comes over to me and one thing lead to another, in spite of my extremely poor French, and we are invited to ride in the cab with the operator.  Wow!  That would never happen in NZ.  They would have OSH all over them like a rash.

So I climbed in and sat on the second seat beside the operator and Leanne rode standing in the open doorway and off we went.  Very cool.

We got caught behind this tractor and trailer unit on the narrow country lanes about 3km or so before our hamlet. Those big tyres on the trailer were bulging under the load. It was still able to do 25~30kph though! We decided to follow him to the grain store which is less than a kilometre past our stop so we could watch him unload.

Right beside the grain store this field was just being harvested as we arrived.

As we waited for the harvester to complete his circuit of the crop and come back into view, the attendant tractor and trailer unit arrived.

And then the main show arrived. Not a big one but still the closest I had been to have a look at one of these machines… so far!

Looking from the cab at the transfer from the harvester to the trailer unit.

The whole machine.

This is the guy who arranged for us to ride on the harvester. Standing here on the weigh bridge after checking his tare weight post off-loading.

So our otherwise quiet day turned out to be very interesting.

There has been a storm here today that began in the middle of Saturday night. We got up in the morning to find one of the plastic growing tunnels had been shredded at one end. Ran out of duct tape trying to secure what was left while the wind did its best to stop us.

The only other news is that France came off summertime and the clocks went back one hour today.  So it is now a twelve-hour time difference to NZ.

By the way, this is post number 99 since we started our Mid-Life OE.  Next week will bring up my maiden century.

The Charente – What A Beautiful Place

We certainly are in a beautiful part of France… at least that’s how it seems while the weather is still friendly!  Leanne arrived as planned on Tuesday and we have been enjoying where we are as well as making the most of the good weather to explore some of the local towns and villages.  The list so far is impressive: Fomperron, Parthenay, Saint-Généroux, Airvault, Oiron, Saint-Maixent, Saint-Loup-sur-Thouet, Sanxay, Ménigoute and there are lots more to see yet.

The photos are not actually in full chronological order but they should all make reasonable sense as they are.  Hit the comments button if I have left out any key information.  Enjoy but remember, I shan’t be held responsible if your boss catches you reading this at work!

Looking upstream along the River Thouet from the tower at Porte-Saint-Jacques in Parthenay.

The view back into the old town which is nestled in the valley.

A close-up in the old town of Parthenay showing a range of different styles.

Pale Tussock moth, Calliteara pudibunda, #2028 (Linnaeus, 1758). This little gremlin was found crawling up John’s shirt while he was mowing his lawn (John is an English neighbour). The four tufts are quite distinctive as is the red plume at the rear.

Also, the areas between segments is quite black making for a striking looking caterpillar. BTW, it is only about 20mm long.

Almost harvest time, these will need to go in the shed soon.

The aubergines are plentiful and make a good ratatouille although I could see it getting a bit too much.

Not sure what we will do with the marrows – I am not a big fan.

Long term unemployed.

This very rustic farm building is beside the lane that leads past where we are currently housesitting. I ended up with an audience of one! The old farmer was probably wondering what some idiot was doing taking pictures of the side of a barn!?! Must be a bloody tourist!

The walking track out of Sanxay quickly became quite charming, which should have been our first clue that we were on the wrong track!

And some of the paving was possibly Roman, we were after all heading for some Gallo-Roman ruins.

We passed by lots of lovely scenery…

By the time we got to the hamlet of Herbord we knew we had gone the wrong way. It didn’t matter too much because it was part of a big loop, it was just that we had intended this to be the short version of the walk so we could get to some other walks in the afternoon. Never mind, the scenery was charming.

Looking over the side of a bridge, once we had re-joined the main road in to Sanxay, I spotted a group of frogs. They even stayed around long enough for me to change lenses and get some better shots of them.

We finally made it to the Roman amphitheatre. According to TripAdvisor, “Between the 1st and 4th century, Sanxay was an important centre for cures and pilgrimages placed under the protection of two divinities. Set in the verdant valley of the Vonne, the remains of the largest buildings (temples, amphitheatre, thermal baths) located throughout a 19-hectare site make the site one of the best preserved and most interesting of the monuments belonging to Gallo-Roman times”

OK, I did the research on this one for you! It was spotted (yes that is a pun) near the amphitheatre… The European Peacock (Inachis io), more commonly known simply as the Peacock butterfly, is a colourful butterfly, found in Europe and temperate Asia as far east as Japan. Classified as the only member of the genus Inachis (the name is derived from Greek mythology, meaning Io, the daughter of Inachus). The Peacock butterfly is resident in much of its range, often wintering in buildings or trees. It therefore often appears quite early in spring. The Peacock butterfly has figured in research where the role of eye-spots as an anti-predator mechanism has been investigated. The butterfly has a wingspan of 50 to 55 mm. The base-colour of the wings is a rusty red, and at each wingtip it bears a distinctive, black, blue and yellow eyespot. The underside is a cryptically coloured dark-brown or black. The Peacock can be found in woods, fields, meadows, pastures, parks, and gardens, and from lowlands up to 2,500 metres elevation. It is a relatively common butterfly seen in many European parks and gardens. The Peacock male exhibits territorial behaviour, in many cases territories being selected en route of the females to oviposition sites. The butterfly hibernates over winter before laying its eggs in early spring, in batches of up to 400 at a time. The eggs are ribbed and olive-green in colour and laid on the upper parts, and, the undersides of leaves of nettle plants and hops. The caterpillars, which are shiny black with six rows of barbed spikes and a series of white dots on each segment, and which have a shiny black head, hatch after about a week. The chrysalis may be either grey, brown, or green in colour and may have a blackish tinge. The caterpillars grow up to 42 mm in length. The recorded foodplants of the European Peacock are Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), Hop (Humulus lupulus), and the Small Nettle (Urtica urens). The adult butterflies drink nectar from a wide variety of flowering plants, including buddleia, willows, dandelions, wild marjoram, danewort, hemp agrimony, and clover; they also utilize tree sap and rotten fruit.

The ruins of the Roman baths were stunning. The entire ruin has been over-built with a very substantial roof under which there are walkways that allow viewing right down into the various features. It is very well done.

On the ground level there was access right to the ruin. This appeared to be part of the heating system for the “tepidarium” (next photo).

The remains of the tepidarium with feature from the previous photo protruding on the right. At the top right the elevated walkway is visible.

150m away was the ruined temple. Not much information on this – try Wikipedia.

Tuileries Martial Victot et Fils, tile factory. I was told by a local that there has been a tile factory operating on this site since Roman times. I searched but did not find any further information on this.

The abbey in Saint-Maixent was splendid. There was a monastery established on the site in the 5th century and the abbey was built from the 10th century. As usual with wars and changing politics, the abbey was damaged and rebuilt through the centuries with the last major work being in the 17th century and the spire added in the 18th century (according to the plaque outside and my memory!).

The main tower of Saint-Maixent Abbey.

This building in the centre of our nearest village of Fomperron looks like a private home but I suspect was originally a public building.

The view northwards along the main street of Fomperron. A tidy little village.

At the square is a newly re-opened (only a week ago) café. The new owners are a very friendly young English couple and we will probably be regular visitors while we stay nearby.

It was forecast to rain on Sunday so of course the weather was splendid! By early afternoon we were in the town of Airvault.

The restored stonework near the entrance was fantastic.

The tower of the church at Airvault was completely shrouded in scaffolding which was an impressive structure in its own right.

The market hall in the centre of Airvault was also impressive.

This appears to be the home/workshop of a skilled plasterer and he has used his frontage as a demonstration of his art. Very well done!

I guess these were the town’s defensive walls. The tower is now part of a B&B.

This looked like a cool idea – a modular hanging garden.

The Château d’Oiron which houses a modern art museum these days. We didn’t bother but liked the outward appearance of it.

Since we got north of Parthenay on this drive the land was the flattest we have seen for a while. Just miles of grass, wheat, sunflower, maize and a few other crops.

In the church at Oiron, which was originally the private church belonging to the château, we did notice that the heads of all the statues and ornaments were missing. The figure on the top of this sarcophagus still had a head but the nose and feet were missing as well as the head of the Gryphon at her feet. Curious.

I know there will be a story around these glazed ceramic signs but in my search tonight I didn’t find it. There were several around Oiron and on the way out of town there was a square granite pilar near an intersection with one on each face.

An interesting new streetscape in Oiron.

Leanne has inherited a gene on the 47th chromosome from her Mum. It makes the carrier put on an awful face when confronted with a camera. Here is a sequence documenting her brave attempt to overcome this debilitating condition.

Just starting to feel brave now!

And finally a compete, natural and lovely photo. Didn’t she do well?!