The Auvergne (1)

The next stage of our holidays was spent in the Auvergne, in the mountainous Massif Central, an old volcanic region We were staying in Chambon sur Lac, which was at an altitude of about 1000m , over 3000 feet. So the nights were quite cold - in fact, we had to buy an extra light throw because even putting on our hoodies in the middle of the night wasn't enough. But the days were mostly hot and sunny.
Most of the activity in Chambon sur Lac is centred along the lake, and the older village had suffered - there was a post office with minimal opening hours, the inevitable Marie (town hall), a bakery with a small but excellent range, and a rather defunct-looking dead hotel. Even in the more vibrant part down by the lake there were no grocery shops; we had to factor in a visit to one of the larger towns nearby each day to shop for dinner.

The round building in the graveyard was described on the noticeboard in the village as a 10th century baptistery, if I remember correctly. I thought I took a photo of the sign, but haven't yet managed to find it.

The architecture is designed to withstand the rigours of snowy winters; as well as being a popular summer destination, winter sports are popular too, and many of the towns and villages had "extra" winter facilities; Besse-en-Chandesse has SuperBesse, Chambon had Chambon- des- neiges.

After the rain

Some nigella self-seeded into my pots of star-gazer lilies. I spotted how lovely it looked after a night of rain when I went out to put a wash on before work on Monday morning. The heron is also from Monday morning...

France, an interlude

We headed from Brittany to the Auvergne, and had decided to break the journey in two and spend one night in the Loire valley on the way. Just as well - with the cold nights in Brittany, the tent was still quite wet with dew in the mornings and it was a while before it was dry enough to take down.
For our one-nighter in Azay-le-Rideau we used our little 3-man tent and did no more cooking than simply making coffee on the single-ring camping gas. We stayed in the municipal campsite right on the river, a lovely peaceful setting.
The castle is being restored and was swathed in wraps, but the town was lovely.

Brittany 7

Two evening walks - one the day before we went to Vannes, and one on our last night. I had sent a postcard which included a photo of La Tour Saint Vincent, and we hadn't come across it on any of our walks or drives, so we decided to look for it. It was a lovely walk which took us along the upper edge of the wheatfield and back down to the coast on the other side of the peninsula.
But...we reached a point where the painted waymarks had a low tide option (very short, we could see the tower), and the high tide option which we had to take and which was quite a bit longer.

the tidal mill, seen in evening light (Paluden)

Our last evening walk...

Brittany 6

And Vannes part 2 - mostly shop signs and detail photos from round the town.