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La Rochelle2 Jun 2009
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| Tues 2nd June---Weather: - Sunny/29degrees ‘Le Petit Breuil’ The name of Peters’ place means “little forest” I assume that is because there is a lot of undergrowth around, canopied by all sorts of trees including fruit trees of all kinds. One of the local farmers has suggested to Peter that they are very willing to come to prune a certain bush—at the right time of the year—as the clippings? Are very useful for brewing!!! The herb garden is lush with a lot of unidentified herbs so I think a visit from a botanist (or one of the locals) would be a welcome event. The French as the Italians are very good at selecting edible weeds that combined together make a tasty salad so if you are pulling weeds at the Manor you never know if this could have been lunch. Herman and Peter are outside at the moment playing with the mother lawnmower. The father lawnmower (tractor) is staying in the barn as I think that Peter does not want one of his house guests to do themselves an injury, there are lots of ruts and holes in the ground that have to be identified before you go blindly running over them. Then there is the little baby (normal) lawnmower, each has its designated duties. The tractor clears the undergrowth, the ride on mower for between the grapevines and the baby for the bits in between. So boys could really have fun here? I think that I can hear them scheming in the other room about Herman needing a 6 week tractor training course over here, next year. I wonder if that comes about if ‘Le Petit Breuil’ would still be an appropriate name for this place. This morning we went to the Port of La Rochelle with a stop off on the way at a pretty little village about 2km away called Mareuil-sul-Lay. La Rochelle’s position as one of France’s most sheltered sea ports helped to create its fortune and later helped to nearly destroy it during the Hundred Years War between France and England. La Rochelle was founded in the 10th century as a fishing village which began to expand in the 12th century to reach its apogee in the following century through the wine and salt trade. During the Second World War the harbour became a German submarine base. In 1945, La Rochelle was the last French city to be liberated but luckily escaped major damage. La Rochelle has really come into its own during the 20th century when vacationers discovered its white sandy beaches, medieval architecture, lovely weather and proximity to some of the most beautiful isles of the French coast and today we were able to join that group. A lazy lunch was shared, some sightseeing and another day of the holiday was not wasted. |
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