Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Monday, 21 October 2024
Random update
I grew a small amount of sorghum this year. I'm not sure why, perhaps I thought it was a good idea at the time. The grains are now drying in the conservatory. Anyone got any idea of what to do with sorghum grains?
It was windy on my walk the other day but this tiny butterfly was holding its own. Not a good piccie, the phone zoom is not that good.
My walks sometimes take me past this barn. It's never been in good repair, but the roof has finally collapsed after the recent storms.
Our village hosts art exhibitions every year. This evocation of a forest I thought was excellent (it's complete with sound). The careful use of mirrors makes it look bigger than it is. Can you find the hedgehog? The mouse?
Monday, 7 October 2024
Piccies of the Puy du Fou
Monday, 30 September 2024
Visit to Puy du Fou
The park now consists of a number of shows and immersive experiences (some outdoors, some indoors) plus some newly constructed or renovated buildings simulating a medieval village, French town square in 1900, etc. and 4 historically themed hotels.The name comes from the ruined Chateau called Puy du Fou, which was the focus of the earliest show in 1978. Over intervening 40+ years many things have been added or revised. A few shows and restaurants were closed when we went and also the famous lakeside evening show (Cinéscènie) had finished for the year. New shows are being added every year, with an emphasis on French history, particularly of the Vendée area where the park is located.
Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Fête du four
There is a bread oven in the village. It's not in frequent use, but once a year it is fired up as the focus of a general get-together of the villagers. Everyone brings something to cook, and shares it out when ready.
Heating the oven needs care, and has to be done gently. A small fire is set on Friday evening as a first pre-heat, with a further pre-heat on Saturday late morning. And the real thing starts early Saturday evening.
Friday, 13 September 2024
Fried chips
We had a power glitch the other day. Not one of the more common sub-second extinguishing of the lights combined with the beep of the UPSs cutting in. This time, UPSs went beep, but Anita's PC, mains powered, (no battery) but connected to the UPS) went down, but the lights stayed on, the clocks kept the time, and everything else seemed normal. Strange, a power spike maybe.
Until that is, I turned on the stereo. Most of the time it was working fine, but a couple of times at first, and then all the time, it was emitting a nasty chug-chugging sound in all of the speakers. Sounded like a power supply problem. The process of elimination traced it to my hitherto faithful Behringer cross-over.
I use this device as a low-pass filter to drive the bass bins, and although it can be used as a three-way cross-over, the sound quality is not good enough for the mid-range or treble, but it is fine for the bass. It has died. Fortunately I have a less versatile but fully adequate substitute, and my stereo is back in fine fettle. I am unlikely to be able to fix the Behringer, so it's probably for the dump.
Friday, 6 September 2024
Sign of the times
The Hotel Beauséjour at Ste Suzanne is closing down. They have been looking for a buyer for a while, without success, and they are now selling off their equipment. The Hotel du Commerce in Vaiges has been closed for a few years now since the owners retired. There were talks about turning it into an old people's home, but they come to nought, as far as I am aware. That's two large hotels, both within 20 minutes of us, gone.
Booking dot com and Air B&B are reporting downturns in activity, and we are also seeing this. Our laundry service who deal with smaller accommodation business in the area have complained to us that they have less business than usual, since there are fewer tourists.
My own opinion is that no-one has any spare money, what with the swingeing increase in energy prices and the increase in mortgage rates here from 1%-ish to 4%-ish. Competition from the olympics probably doesn't help, either.