Domaine de la Baronnie

 

The town where I teach my English class in the evenings, Douvres-la Délivrande,                                    has this three-hectare parc with some restored 14th and 15th century buildings.                                            I had some time to kill and went for a gander.   

      

   It was a manor house of the Bishop at one time, rented to farmers, was French National property during the French Revolution and now belongs to the town and is a National Monument.                                

     You can also rent it out for weddings...swanky.

The garden and playground with "the Little Library"                                                                               where I found this gem of a book. 

Hodgepodge of beautiful doors and windows...

Here's the detail of the above door....

seashell on the right side embedded in the façade.

The entrance gate dates back to the 15 th century

The stable.....

This nice little entrance gate and house are are just across the road from the Baronnie, 

must be nice to live there:)

Vacation....

 Vacation you say? 

I finished all of my sewing projects,                                                                                                              spent a short week at Chênedouit, saw some friends, got a bunch of things off my to do list.....

We've been baking bread....                                                                                                                         with my new to me bread machine for 10€.                                                                                             Nothing good looking enough for a photo though. Still working out the kinks.  

I did make cinammon rolls from scratch yesterday.                                                                                        A fair amount of work, but since you can't find them here, I gave them a try. 

before baking after the two proofs.....

                                                   before baking after the addition of cream and pecans....

                                                                          out of the oven.... 

and with the glaze. 

(We thought the glaze was a bit much...

but didn't stop us from finishing the two:)

Chênedouit .....

A frosty morning at Chênedouit....

Here's the plot of land we just bought. 

Our neighbor's old vegetable garden. 2,475 sq feet. 

Looking full of weeds you might say? 

Well, just you wait and see 'till I get it all cleaned up and looking good. 

Before Summer....

I cut out some of the dead bushes in back of the dying quince tree on the right of the pic...

eventually I'd like to cut in some stairs that go to the other side for easier access. 

Here's the other side (house side) of the bushes...

Where I had my veggie garden in the past. 

Here are some shots of our back field during 

my recent , digging, pulling, cutting, burning week. 

Before.... 

too bad I don't have any shots of all the hand tearing thorny branches 

that were up to the roof along the granite boulders along side of the dépendance.  

And after.... 

all cleaned up, no more wire or blackberry thorns. 

Two good afternoon's worth of work. 

I'm very much in love with my new little granite wall between the dependence and the existing wall. 

I know, just 1 meter of wall, but still.....

we'll see if it's still standing after the windy weekend that we've had:)