Granville. Storm Coming.

The beach swiftly emptied as the thunderstorm approached. It was dead calm — and then a violent squall lashed out.

The Chestnut / Le Châtaignier.

On the road near my house, this is a wonderful huge sweet chestnut tree that covers itself in golden bloom every year in mid July.

It is not the horse chestnut conkers tree that flowers in pink garlands in Spring, this one produces edible nuts covered in spiky shells.

Wheat field with poppies.

A wheat field with red poppies, near Viessoix, Calvados. / Un champ de blé aux coquelicots rouges près de Viessoix, Calvados

The kind of field Theresa May would have run through as a naughty child.

Percheron Mum.

A Percheron mare at the farm next door had a lovely black foal with white breast.

Révolution in Vire.

In Vire, the capital of the Bocage Normand (rural Normandy), I discovered a revolutionary graffiti on the wall of a Catholic Convent. Not sure if it's connected to the recent success of the macronistes, but it definitely wasn't there last time I walked round that 'secret passage', Rue de rames. 

Je ne sais pas si ce graffiti est connecté à la réussite des macronistes mais c'est vraiment nouveau. Vire, sur le mur arrière d'un couvent catholique à passage secret derrier du sous-préfecture.

На задней стене католического конвента в Вире обнаружилась новая надпись: Революция. Не знаю, это монашки к чему-то готовятся или юные макронисты торжествуют, но точно в последний раз, когда я там был с месяц назад, этого граффити не было.

First photo by A.Anichkin, second by Helena Lecourt. (page on FB here)

Saint Armel.

Une image à Pâques.
Saint Armel, bois polychromé, XVI siècle, Scriptorial d'Avranches. / An image for Easter. This is a 16th Century statue of St.Armel displayed in the Scriptorial of Avranches (museum) in the South Manche. I loved the jolly, life-loving expression on his face. Painted wood, listed as a treasure.

Un vieux bureau de l'ecole

J'ai vu un vieux bureau de l'école dans l'eglise Saint Gervais, Avranches, avec des dessins par les étudiants. / An old school desk I found installed in the Saint Gervais church in Avranches.