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fr37.net

It's quince jam, or so they say

http://www.fr37.net/Potins/CdCoings_m-gb.html

It's quince jam, or so they say. When you walk along the lanes that meander through the Goute-la-Muanne, a village in south Touraine between the middle of March and early April, the air is permeated with a strange odour. Several years ago, the French administration stopped transferring distilling licences from generation to generation. Now that fewer and fewer have the right to make their own eau de vie (otherwise known as la goutte), what can the tourangeaux do with all the surplus fruit? Let the mass o...

fr37.net

The reluctant English valet

http://www.fr37.net/Potins/PT_m-gb.html

The reluctant English valet. Molière with an English accent - sacrilege! How could it have happened? It's a rather long story. Every year, in summer, the theatre director Jose Manuel Cano-Lopez, puts his life and reputation at risk by putting on a show in the streets, courtyards and barns of the little township of (not so) Grand Pressigny. How did he manage to find the hundreds of actors needed for this mad undertaking? The nocturnal landscape gardener. Shakespeare, plus glasses. It all started when the ...

fr37.net

Vietnam smiling

http://www.fr37.net/Ailleurs/VNSourire_m-gb.html

The traditional student's costume worn with pride and a smile. A smile to make you forget the inflated price you have just paid. An expression of their kindness, their good manners and their warm welcome for foreigners all of which our supposedly civilised Western society would benefit from relearning. A widow in the shade of her shop has a little snack - the image of serenity. Even an embarrassed smile lights up the face. Young and not so young, a hat and a smile are always a delight.

fr37.net

Wild orchids in our garden

http://www.fr37.net/Nature/OMonJardin_m-gb.html

Wild orchids in our garden. This page is dedicated to a very kind lady who put me up while I was on a trip to Germany. I was trying to make conversation in my rather broken German by talking about wild orchids. She could not really believe that we had wild orchids growing in our garden. We don't battle against mother nature, we compromise with mother nature and mother nature rewards us with an abundance of wild flowers, including orchids. We only have terrestrial orchids in the garden. They live in t...

fr37.net

From French cornfield to English garden

http://www.fr37.net/Nature/JardinPr1_m-gb.html

From French cornfield to English garden. The birth of English country garden. Anybody driving past this ordinary farmhouse in the middle of a cornfield would not really say to themselves . . . What a wonderful place for. An English country garden. But, Edmond and Sylvia are not just anybody - so let them tell their story . . . An Englishman's home is his chateau. In 1994, having retired early, we decided to move from the north of England to the Southern Touraine where we hoped to create our dream garden.

fr37.net

James Gassiot - the Chateau de Rys

http://www.fr37.net/Artisanat/GassiotRis_m-gb.html

James Gassiot - the Chateau de Rys. The Chateau de Rys after the storm. A storm sweeps over the Chateau de Rys. August 1991. A storm swept over the Chateau de Rys near Bossay sur Claise. The chateau was owned by Hispano Suiza and provided holiday accommodation for the company's employees. One of the turrets (pepper pots) damaged by the storm. With a few seconds, storm force winds tore a branch off a 100 year old cedar which seriously damaged two turrets and the roofing. A spire lying on the ground. Click...

fr37.net

The Touraine nutcracker

http://www.fr37.net/Artisanat/CasseNoix_m-gb.html

In bygone days, long before the family spent every evening glued to the tele, autumn was walnut cracking time. The long evenings were spent sitting around a table hitting walnuts with a small mallet. This was a time when subtlety was not considered to be a great virtue in Touraine. The tourangeaux did not use complicated machines with screws or levers: to crack a nut, you hit it. This one looks just like old Michou. This one looks just like my mother-in-law. The first step is to rough out a cylinder and ...

fr37.net

Patrick Boutet - Basket weaver

http://www.fr37.net/Artisanat/Boutet_m-gb.html

Patrick Boutet - Basket weaver. Baskets - Straw upholstery - Caning. A newly caned carver. Chairs are caned in the traditional fashion, entirely by hand, using cane or rattan. A carver completely restored. Patrick Boutet at work. Chairs are upholstered with woven straw, using the traditional reed straw, for strength, wrapped in split rye straw for the finish. The cushion is then stuffed with hay. The two colours are. Patrick Boutet showing his work. Introduction to basket weaving. Full table of contents.

fr37.net

Farmall H tractor 1948, a child's plaything

http://www.fr37.net/Memoire/Rondard~FH_m-gb.html

Farmall H tractor 1948, a child's plaything. It all started with a present. The end of the school year in June 1964 was the start of an adventure. My schoolmistress gave me a green box with a red tractor and trailer for my graduation from nursery school to primary school. You could cut out the box which had a scene of everyday life in the farmyard. It was a simple drawing of a boy running towards his father who was coming back from the fields on his tractor. Me, when I was young. My grandfather making hay.

fr37.net

The creeping thistle

http://www.fr37.net/Potins/Chardons_m-gb.html

There was a time when all was calm in Le Grand Pressigny. But…. one day, when I had not much else to do, I passed the time away reading the decrees posted in the entrance of the Town Hall. I thought to myself, whose business is it to tell the fish when it's safe to go in the water? Planning permission for construction work. Destruction of thistles. Destruction of thistles! By any possible means. The penalty for non compliance is . . . The penalty is what? What can it be? We go up to have a look - aaarrgh...