Sancerre/Bourge

after Paris, we went on to stay in a gîte in Sancerre, in the Loire Valley.

Our gîte was better than I imagined it could possibly be!

A wood fire, nice kitchen and big rooms with modern bathrooms

It was really cold, so we had the fire going the entire time. LOVE fires!!

S in front of the massive fireplace and the wood burner

the town, Sancerre, is a charming old town on top of a hill, surrounded by wineries

most of the buildings are this lovely buff colour

as it was right after New Years, not many things were open for the first couple of days

luckily, we brought all sorts of things to eat and drink from the markets in Paris

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to the wine tasting we went to

It was in a beautiful winery where one of the family gave us a private tour

the original cave was just beautiful - full of old oak casks and lovely stone

another day, we went to a local goat farmer to buy some cheese - no camera there either..duh

but the cheese was lovely!!

An old family friend drove up from her place in the south of

France to visit for a few days.

She brought a sparkle to our trip - brought all sorts of goodies to eat,

translated at the winery and cheese farm for us and never stopped talking!!

Kay and mom

We drove off to Bourges one day to see the cathedral; one of the largest in France

it was HUGE - and amazing........such artwork

I went a little crazy with the photos of statues - and they had some good ones!

religious statues just seem to have such a presence

the colours of the stained glass were so vibrant - they had been redone in the 1800s, so most were not original - but even the original ones that were at the very top seemed amazingly bright too

the reds and blues particulary

there were several life-sized (and bigger) statues of important patrons of the time -

kinda spooky to turn a corner and there are a group of people praying!

While in Brouges, we also went to see the house of Jacques Cœur

was a very interesting place

these were on the front of the house and supposedly depict the owner and his wife

there were lots and lots of stone carvings all over the place - check out the monkey below the guy

one of the giant fireplaces were covered in all sorts of monkeys.......what's the deal with that?

I wanted to take a photo of a street sweeper earlier, but was afraid he'd see me and not like it -

but then when I went into the building, I saw a broom, which is what I wanted to show

these brooms are still used today

or maybe a witch had come in to look around the house??

well........guess I cannot procrastinate any longer........

must. start. doing. things.

thanks so much for dropping by and especially for the comments - really makes me smile

and Susanna; yes! the lettuce is mostly beautifully arranged in baskets!

you could spend the whole day just wandering around taking photos of the beautiful displays of produce, etc

__a