A Flavour of France

I recently spent a week in France with a friend at her house, the 2nd time I had been there. The nearest town is Thenon, NE of Bergerac.

 It was a wonderful week of relaxation, walking, wild flower spotting, sketching, reading, eating and drinking - what could be better than sitting on a terrace over looking the fields and woods, glass of wine in hand watching a  deer in the field below and listening to the birds. Luckily the sun shone all week, such a pleasure compared to our current weather. Lots of lizards around, they liked garlic sausage!

Birds we heard included owls, nightingales and orioles; we saw lots of kites, buzzards, jays and green and spotted woodpeckers as well as more usual chaffinches and blackbirds. There were masses of wild flowers, as the small farms with animals are left empty. This is dropwort.

Meadow clary (sage family),

pyramid orchids all round the house,

lesser butterfly orchid on the grass verge

and a man orchid.

This unusal plant we identified as Bath asparagus, it was nearly 3 ft. tall.

We sat by this lake not far from the house one lunchtime with a cold beer in hand.

We visited a fabulous garden, Marquessac near Beynac, mainly topiary with great views of the River Dordogne in the valley below.

Beynac is a delightful place,

 I enjoyed walking round Bergerac again.

This sums up France to me, poppies

and walnut trees.

Happy memories as I wrap up here with an extra cardigan....

.......cheers!