Wednesday 9 June 2010

The view from our bedroom. the stork platform mentioned below is sort of in the middle above the oak tree. Not surprising that no stork has used it in Spain we saw then nesting on the top of electricity pylons probably 4 or 5 times as high!

Sunday 6th June
St Servinien to Aigrefeuille sur L’Aunis

The storm was fairly spectacular the thunder rumbled continuously rather than in bursts and the lightning lit up the whole sky. It has cleared the air perfectly. It is 10 degrees cooler than yesterday so we had to re-arrange all our packing and dig out our abandoned vests! By the time we made it down to breakfast one couple had already left and Monsieur was anxiously waiting for us as he’d unearthed some pots of cold rice pudding which he thought we’d need for extra energy. They were even better than Ambrosia but on top of the croissant, baguette, brioche and biscuits we are in danger of rolling home instead of cycling. As we were leaving we saw a stork circling around the house and hoped that he might stop here. We had noticed last night that they had a pole designed for storks to nest on in the field in front of the house, and said that we had seen some yesterday, but Monsieur said sadly that they hadn’t been back here for a few years. Perhaps they will now.
I did want to put in a photo of the stork tower here but Picasa tells me I've exceeded the number of photos I'm allowed in their storage facility - so we'll have to work out a way to enlarge our album!
Apparently they have 19 different species of birds of prey in this part of the world (it still amazes us that there is a mouse or a small bird left in the countryside) and we must have seen most of them. There are so many different shapes, sizes and colours that even with the bird book identifying them is quite tricky.
We left them in a bit of a hurry as where we are going doesn’t do dinner and the Super U in Tonnay-Boutonne closes at noon. As it happened everything was open and in Aigrefueille where we spent the night and there was even a restaurant which was open – so, no problems!


In Tonnay-Boutonne High St there are these ancient gates!

We had a very easy ride across pretty farmland where they grow acres of peas, but they don’t look like the ones we have at home, so think they may be marrow fat ones .

Now this is amazing 200 yds downwind from these towers and you can not hear a thing. So how come at Delabole you can hear the turbines from a mile away upwind! Alec's pro alternative energy rant!
We must find out, but need to stay with more farmers as tonight’s hostess was just a professional b and b lady. We took ages finding the nice old town house surrounded by a large courtyard with old farm buildings. It was in the ‘Rue de la Riviere’ so we tried to find the river but there was no sign of that, and no sign posts either. Anyway having circumnavigated the town a couple of times we came across it by accident. Laura Ashley wallpaper is very popular here our last 2 bedrooms have had the same shepherdess wallpaper that was so popular in the ‘80s. It rather suits these old stone houses.


One very smart duck house.

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