Lussac les Chateaux Market

Today I am mostly wearing...

...my showerproof mac...

...cos it's another of those rainy days - and a bit cold too.

Viv and I went to Lussac les Chateaux to go round the big Depot Vente there...

...but it was shut! No reason, no notice on the door...

Lots of cars pulled up outside, while we sat in the car and drank some coffee from our flask (getting to know the score now) but still, by nearly 11 am, no-one had come to open up.  We concluded that, as yesterday was a holiday and the shop doesn't open on a Saturday, they had taken the 'pont' and would not be opening today. 

Eventually we drove off and, at the lights, decided to turn left instead of right (the route home).  Immediately we were in the town centre and saw the market, so stopped and parked to have a nose around.  It was a really 'French' French market, with lots of lovely food stalls and only a very few selling weird dresses and skirts.  

The flowers and vegetable plants, in particular were of really good quality.  

...and I bought some pretty geraniums...

 

...no - not all of those - just three.  I'll show you some pictures when I've potted them up.  The stall owner told me to cut off all the flowers and buds when I had planted them.  Some hope!  What did he think I had bought them for?  I realise that is probably the best way to get them to bush out, but I WANT THE FLOWERS NOW!!!

There was a great BIO stall selling fruit and veg and veg plants too...

...and I bought a potiron plant here, which will (if the rabbits don't eat it first) give me some lovely pumpkins in the autumn.

One stall sold only asparagus, the white, woody kind that the French seem to favour...

There was also a BIO cheese stall, selling goats cheese, but I had already bought some strong Salers cheese at another stall.

Viv and I also shared a tray of beetroot plants and some blue salvia plants.  I bought a round courgette plant (the fruit is round, not the plant) and some flat parsley to plant in the garden.  Again, the man said I should give it a severe haircut (he illustrated by twisting all the leaves off one plant and leaving just a pot full of short stalks) - personally, when I have bought plants like this in the supermarket for cooking with, I have thrown them away when they look like that...  anyway, I'm ignoring him again, and just going to pot it up as it is and use the parsley in my cooking.  It'll soon look like just stalks anyway...   and if it doesn't regrow I shall be VERY ANNOYED with that man!

Le Jardin Anglais

On the way back we went to visit a garden that Viv & Pete had seen signs for previously - Le Jardin Anglais.  It was just a short distance from Moulismes, which was on our way home.

The garden was lovely, although the weather was not, and we had a brief look round, and round their Antiquites in the lovely converted barn, and I'll certainly go back in a couple of weeks, when the roses are out - and the sun too - hopefully!  Just outside the door to the 'boutique' was this fabulous Rosa Banksii Lutea...

...Ruth and her husband Tony own the garden, although Tony said it was Ruth who is really the gardener.  It's a large plot, and well worth a visit if you're in the area.

Irises Again

 When I got back home, and went into the garden to plant a seedling Ruth had given me, I was stopped dead in my tracks by these beautiful irises which had opened whilst I was out!

I DO love irises!