guerrilla art

They're signed but I don't know who these are by. I'll ask around.

peeling

Villefranche de Rouergue

martel

We visited Martel this weekend. A small town in the Lot with fantastic architecture and pure heaven for anyone with a penchant for French doors!

This one has to be my favourite - I love the mixture of beauty and aggression! It also illustrates the rather refreshing attitude the French have to personal safety and public responsibility - Don't be an idiot, it's a spiky door, it'll hurt so don't lean on it.

In England there'd be barriers round it and disclaimers or even worse it would have been taken out. Do you remember the story of the pear tree in a public park in Wolverhampton (I think) which had it's pears removed lest  they fall on unsuspecting passers by...

for olga

Some pictures of the Abbaye de Sainte Foy in Conques. It is a beautiful plain church. Pierre Soulages designed the opaque windows to exclude the outside world but admit the most unaltered light possible.

The fourth and fifth photos are of the tympanum which shows the Last Judgment. The good are on Christ's right and the sinners on his left. The sinners are not getting off lightly!

more conques

slate/ardoise

Our roof is covered with terracotta tiles as are those of our neighbours but 

if you drive north for less than an hour you will start to see slate roofs.

Thick shiny, chunky slates in a fish scale pattern. The one above is in Conques, a remarkable village

with it's huge abbey, amazing tympanum and dramatic setting. It is one of the 'plus beaux villages de France'. This is a good time of year to visit - in Summer it's absolutely heaving.

I'll dig out some more photos to show you another day.

spring

It's definitely Spring when you can buy fruit and vegetable plants on the market and the swallows return. I did buy some salad and parsley plants but I'm really not ready for the vegetable garden this year...

faded

Capdenac le haut