French Summer Idyll

As M is now back at school after the LOOOONG summer break I thought that it would be a good time to look back at the holidays.  So, what did we do?  Well after the canal boat jaunt  (See here) we returned to a fairly sunny but horribly horribly dry France.  Having missed the patronal festival - much to the children's disgust (there is a roundabout, just one)  - we realised that we had three days before the end of the Souvigny medieval fair.  No time was to be lost.  The Souvigny fair is fantastic.  Set in Souvigny with its abbey and beautiful church where several Ducs de Bourbon are buried, the whole of this small medieval town makes a great effort to become as authentically medieval as possible while still keeping it fun.  Geese are herded through the streets, street jugglers, fire-eaters and musicians perform on different corners, soldiers march through the town and a few horsemen try to avoid trampling the crowd.  There are stalls a plenty  and the  hypocras flows.  Many people go in costume which adds to the crowd of street artists.  We go in full medieval dress too which is just so much fun! Anyway here I am;

Apologies for the poor quality but in the attempt to stay as authentic as possible we left the big camera at home and relied on J's mobile phone cunningly hidden in a deep pocket, but the settings were wrong.  There are loads of photos here if you are interested, but not taken by us.

The rest of the holiday flew past and what we did and when we did it is now a bit of a jumble. There were quite a few afternoon teas, an apero that ended at midnight, picnics down the country lanes and the ever present brocantes.  We had a lovely day out in Charroux - a pituresque village full of little artisan shops and a fantastic new restaurant that serve the very best smoked salmon "galettes" (french savoury pancakes) with a pink grapefruit salad that I have ever tasted.  And to finish of in style an old friend came over from Scotland and we enjoyed 10 more days of frolics.

In the Sioule gorges 

  Donkey walking

And finally there was time for a last go in the park as the leaves are now beginning to fall.  Back to school we go - and UP a class.  But that's a whole new adventure and another day to tell.