Taking the Long Way Home

Well, actually, it was taking the long way there, and finding that we were but a short way from home, on the return...VERY close to home, in fact.
When you leave home, you can go left or right at the cross roads. We went right, and perhaps we should have gone left. However...and this is a BIG however, we wouldn't have seen everything that we saw today, and that includes chasing after a Moulin de Vent which Mon's brain told her was a Mill for Sale, but was in fact a WINDMILL! Duh! the difference being an E at the end. Vent means wind, and Vente or Vendre means For Sale.
We also wouldn't have seen a couple of deer fly across the road in front of us, which was a real thrill. These are rural parts, you know!

Our first tiki-tour of the day started after our breakfast of muesli, fruit and yoghurt...not necessarily in that order, and actually all mushed up together, to be honest. No, I didn't photograph that!

After visiting Villebois Lavalette briefly yesterday, we decided to return today and walk the small town center.
Getting there took us through Goute Rossignol, a small hillside village with a post office, a church, restaurant (not open in winter, typically), but some interesting houses, which we came back to take a look at on the way home for lunch.
We also went through Fontaine, and  Pas de Fontaines, both Hamlets with some interesting architecture....aren't they all? One might say so.

The spire of the old church (they are all old!) in Gouts Rossignol can be seen for miles (kilometres, actually). The small town overlooks glorious countryside in all directions. The entry to the town is stunningly lined with these trees, which Im sure are very showy in summer.

 The fog took a while to burn off this morning, and now it is about 11am. The fields are a patchwork of brown, newly turned soil, and the early growth of Winter Wheat. Lines of poplar skeletons, as on the left in this photo, add to the whole scene.

 Past Gouts Rossignol we come to another small settlement of Fontaines.

 We got a bit excited about this building....what we couldn't do with that! Especially as it had a lovely view.

 Next up was Pas de Fontaines with it's mill at the bridge, and mill races underneath.

 Out the other side of that village and we are headed up that hill, ahead. Those are rows of Grape Vines. Not a lot in this area, but they are here, and tend towards small plots.

 Winter wheat crops are bright green.

 Grape Vines. These didn't look like they had been pruned, so perhaps they aren't important anymore and being left to grow out.

 High on a hill is this Farm house and outbuildings, also know in France as Dependences (Day pon donce).

 The flags are outside the Mairie in Villebois Lavalette, looking up the hill to the old church, and beyond that is the 10th thru 15th century Chateau we visited yesterday. The town rises up the hill on both sides.

 Interesting buildings all the way up the hill.

 We finally parked opposite a Boulanger, where we poked our noses in and found it wasn't worth a visit. There was a better one further up the street, and we indulged for our lunch. We carried the box all the way around the town with us, taking it in turns to carry the box, because the wind was ghastly and we literally froze!
This is the old Market square known as Les Halles. It is used as that today, and today was market day. Not much in the way of produce, but we did buy some honey from one of the vendors. It is excellent...I had some on my baguette with lunch, at 2pm.

 Cyclamen for sale...6 euros per pot! Gorgeous colors in this otherwise grey place. The fog still hadn't lifted, and it was freezing.

 Under the ancient canopy of the Halles, there were few vendors this market day.

This was the smallest honey pot offered, at 225gms, and 3.50 euros for the pot. Waz had the change, fortunately.

 The town well

 Where we are about to ascend.

 There were a few stops along the way to take photos, and to take a closer look at a large looking house on our left. Waz and I enquired of it from the realtor, a little later on. The elderly man from Lyon wants waaay too much for it, of course. No yard, and no real views, from this stunning vantage point.

 Waz taking photos of the 1600 something house that has been nicely restored.

 I wish the fog had lifted, this early...being noon!, but locally the sun was shining, but with little heat. It was FREEZING! Holding onto our box of patisserie  necessitated sharing the duty, as our hands got colder and colder.

 And then the sun came out on the field! Gorgeous, on the winter wheat field.

 I forget which century this church was built, but it is more than 300 yrs old.

 Lovely stone details of course, above the portal.

 Looking left from the Eglise towards the Chateau, which is 10th13th century.

 We walked around the grounds of the Eglise, and then left towards the Chateau, thinking we would see more than we actually saw. So cold now, we hurried back to the Halles, and into the warmer office of the realtor. We REALLY like these parts....today! We are fickle though, and upon hearing some of the house prices, decided we needed to look further afield....as in north of here.

 The view is really spectacular, and I really cant do it justice with this camera and the fog to boot.

I was interested to find all these Bird's Nest Ferns in this cold place. Yes, they had some frost damage, but generally they were healthy if not frightfully large specimens as they are in a rainforest. We find many subtropical plants in these parts. Summers must be good!

 Opposite the chateau is a ruin that has been somewhat saved. it is PART of a ruin now used as a gate/portal. Lovely. Repurposing at it's best.

 The rest of the Manoir.  It might even be THE Manoir du Chateau.

 There is a path that goes all the way around the Chateau, and on any other warmer day we might have gone the full distance, but I had memories of another such walk around a Chateau in Hautefort, in December, and decided to head back to the car. Wise choice.

 After meeting with the realtor in his office opposite the Halles, and ascertaining that there was no property in our price-range that we would want to look at, we took to the streets again, having stowed our pastries safely for the drive home.
We needed to find the SuperU supermarket, which is new, on the outskirts of the town. This photo was taken from the parking lot there.

 A few essential items later, from the supermarche, and we stopped in Gouts Rossignol on the way to see what we could see. The sun had come out of the fog and the rest of the day looked promising for further exploration. Meanwhile, we were hungry! and it was almost 2pm...again! We have a habit of doing this with our mornings.

 We didn't exit the car, on our short drive through GR, and the pastries in the rear of the car were getting warm. Ha! I just made that up!:)
Good thing I had thawed out some vege soup, and good thing we purchased a Baguette in the SuperU, because that made up our lunch...along with a little of the new creamed honey and dessert, with a lovely cup of French Press coffee to break the sweet.
Waz chose a Buchette de something...a bit like a Paris Brest, only log shaped. If you have ever had one of these, you will recall the delicious taste.

 I chose something I had never eaten before, and may never eat again, but it was stunning! Something Raspberry....forget the name!

 How to describe it? On the bottom were two different crunch wafer things, then a layer of raspberry mousse, followed by a layer of chocolate cake, one of thick caramel, more mousse and then the whole thing enrobed (my favorite word when it comes to anything chocolate!!) in sticky, shiny chocolate glaze with two wee dots of something shimmering gold. WOW! Fantastic. BUT...I should really have eaten dessert first! Seriousement!

After our lunch and because it was still fine and warming up somewhat, we decided to make the most of it and do some more Tiki-Touring.
La Tour Blanche was somewhere we wanted to return to, after viewing it through streams of rain on the windshield, last time. We approached from a different direction this time.

 I spied this Father Christmas attempting to escape his bonds. No wonder, it's the end of January already! sheesh!

 We were going this way because I saw a sign that said MOULIN VENT. Of course this was a red rag to me. I mistook the VENT for VENTE. Vent is WIND, and VENTE is sale. The rest of the story is a bit funny, but we made an excellent discovery as a result...as you do!
This is what Waz calls the Dead Center...you know, the Cemetary! Makes sense, right? There are some serious crypts here!

Following those Moulin Vent signs...and the search for a Mill for Sale (brain fart happening obviously!) we went around the back of La Tour Blanche...which literally means White Tower.
In the process we found the old Lavanderie, or Laundry, where the women of the village would gather to do their laundry.

There is a small river nearby that flows through here. The Lavanderie.

And we discovered an old church...well, Chapel, actually. Love the insignia on the side. No idea what it means, but ...

There was a Water Mill along the road further. This little Chapel is Notre Dame de Pitie. The building to the right is the Maladerie.

A little further along...and by now Waz was making rude remarks about not getting home before sunset!!!...another ruined Chateay! Not sure what this brick chimney was for...we can imagine>?

From the back, the Chateau looks interesting...lets see what the other side looks like.

Behind us, this biker had gone to the cemetery as we were turning towards the supposed mill.

Aha! The gate to the Chateau. This is Propriete Prive...Private Property.

Voila! There she is! What a beauty!

Being Saturday, there were plenty of Peleton of bike riders. I'm guessing that is the correct plural?

And...ROCK! Plenty of rock. This is a Plateau covering a rather extensive area here.

Oh look! There is that extraordinary Chateau we saw the other day.

I just had to go up the road to find out what was up there, didn't I?
Against my navigators better judgement, I went up the driveway. There was no Private Property sign, to my defense, so we went!
OOps...someone in residence! Make a 3 point turn and down the hill we go!

Oh look! another Eglise (church). This we HAVE to see.

We are on our way up the skinny road to Eglise Saint Pardoux.

The view from there was gorgeous. The sun was mostly out! yay!
We went up that road, and past it looking for somewhere to turn around. You really need to make a good decision when going up some of these skinny roads, because there are ditches on the sides, and few places to turn...maybe a 15 point turn? hmm...

We kept driving along past the church...and voila!  This is a lovely home...former ruin.

Back on the main road, and remember those rocks? People build homes into the rock, and sometimes build storage facility in there.

Right then. Here we are in Mareuil, one of the other places we wanted to knock off the list. At 4pm we were thinking of a coffee, but being Saturday, many places were closed. This one wasn't, however we had already had our sweet treats for the day.
Mareuil wasn't as pretty as we thought it might be, but the surrounding countryside is absolutely glorious.

We parked in the Centre Ville, and walked for a bit. The restaurant on the left is for sale, and like many other places in the middle of the village, was vacant. Lots of these towns have little in the way of commerce, anymore. The young people leave as soon as they can. Lots of retirees, and we found two Brits chatting in the middle of the parking lot. Got chatting to them and all they could think of on this cold day, was going somewhere warm, lol.

Center of Town. Centre Ville.

Leaving Mareuil (mar rer eey) we happened upon the Chateau de Mareuil. Well, its another ruin! But a rather attractive.

We were pretty tuckered out after this excitement, so off home we toddled. The GPS took us home in 2 mins flat. Hmm...If we had gone out that way, we wouldn't have seen all the lovelies we did, today. Good thing we took the long way.
The neighbors have Daffodils growing outside. Lovely! Must be coming up Spring!? We can hope.
Ciao for now.