This weekend, we headed off into the depths of rural France (the département of Mayenne to be precise) for our niece's christening. Luckily, this was literally hours before the wind (which is being called #ukstorm or "tempête Christian", depending on which side of The Channel you're on !) struck. We were staying in a little gîte and on Sunday morning, the power line was down with a huge branch on it and the ponies at the end of the dirt track had got out because their encolsure had been destroyed. Looking back at these photos, it's amazing to think that this was the same afternoon ! Anyway, after the ceremony and a huge four course meal, we headed off for a wander around the medieval village of Sainte Suzanne to help digest some of that food ! It's a beautiful little village but the only bad thing was, we were all doled up to the nines which meant high heels for the women. Not very compatible with old castle ruins and cobbled streets ! Here are the two men in my life looking very smart - they didn't have to deal with heels at least !
The walk of faith ! I may not have been smiling so much if I'd looked at the state of the wall beforehand ! It may not look like it but this was really high up.
Little piece of Anglo-French trivia coming up. This is the "donjon" which is what the keep is called in French. Nothing to do with the dungeons, although Dungeons and Dragons is translated as "Donjons et Dragons" to keep the alliteration, and just to confuse everyone a bit more !
Beautiful views of La Vallée Verte - The Green Valley.
We sent the kids off to the dungeons for a while !
I wonder how many of these trees survived the wind !
Such a beautiful sky, it almost looks photoshopped !
You might notice, if you look carefully, that you only see the male guests in this photo - the women are all hobbling along miles back in their stilettos !
Tucked onto the back of the castle ruins is what Pierre dubbed the Princess Castle.
It's a lovely place to visit, especially with the surrounding cobbled streets and little gift shops. (If I've piqued your interest, you can find out more at http://www.ste-suzanne.fr/)
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No I understand the title, you poor ladies - I hope your feet have recovered! How could you not explore such a beautiful place, the photos are lovely and the day looked bright - the calm before the storm. Thanks for linking up and sharing with Country Kids.
ReplyDeleteIt was very pretty :)
DeleteSorry for your poor feet! The pictures you posted are so beautiful. What a nice adventure (except for you feet) for the afternoon.
ReplyDelete