France - The house in Fongauffier

We were lucky enough to be invited to stay in a lovely Gite in the Perigord Noir part of the Dordogne in France. The house was wonderful, very French!

This was the view from the terrace taken one sunny evening during our supper.

The Gite was formerly a working farm and this is one of the many barns. It looks grand from this side, however from the front it was in a near state of collapse.

And this is the bakehouse, complete with ovens, bread shoveler (is that a word?) and work surfaces.

The farms around are all growing corn, although the area is mainly known for growing walnuts (there were several in our garden) and tobacco.

This lavender was growing copiously on the terrace

France - The house lizard

This little chap was very friendly and played on the wall a lot, watching us eating. I didn't realise why he was so keen on our patch of wall until I zoomed in on the photo and saw that we were not the only ones enjoying our meal!!

France - Stormy Weather

These photo's were taken on a balmy eveing about an hour before a huge storm broke. The raindrops were very powerful and it rained all night long. Having seen these photographs of the sky I am no longer surprised! The curious thing was that at the time these were taken it was very sunny and hot, in fact we continued eating outside until the rain started.

France - Evening in Domme

On wednesday Evening we decided to have a quick drive out to the small town of Domme. Domme is a walled town, rather reminding me of Mdina from the outer gate.

The streets are pretty steep, and were full of shops, much to my horror and the boys' delight. I was rather taken with these two shop windows though, although I think I prefer the bottles to the foie gras!!

The main reason to toil up the steep streets to Domme town centre is to see the view. Domme is built very high up above the river Dordogne. The river snakes past the town to right and left and even the bits with no river in are pretty splendiferous!

The church in Domme is as in many French Villages, beautiful in it's simplicity. the walls were bare brick, but the windows heavenly!

France - Belves Air Show

On a blisteringly hot afternoon we decided to have a look at Belves Air Show. The Airfield, which we had passed a couple of times was usually home to a couple of planes , a man and his dog, but it was spectacularly busy this afternoon. I was nervous as many of the planes looked like they wouldn't pass their MOT let alone the Loops and spins that they were pressed into. Here are a few of my favourite pictures, which I am blissfully ignorant as to what they are or even when or where they were built.

Just as we were about to leave word came through that a French Jet was flying over from Bordeaux. This roared into view moments later and looped the loop to it's little French Pilot's Heart's Content

France - The falconery at Chateau Milandes

On our last day we went to see Chateau Milandes mainly because of the falconry they keep behind the House. well you know I never like to miss an oportunity to snap some birds now!! This bird was having a nice feed at the end of the display.. Yuk! I think this was a Harris Hawk, my schoolgirl French was learnt over 25 years ago and I don't think we ever covered Birds of Prey.

The barn owl was tiny in comparison to the eagle owl (see below), she also flew very very fast and was almost impossible to photograph

An amazing eagle owl, that was huuge. I lost a little in the translation and I seem to remember her being three stone. . . . but on reflection that can't be right. I will try and see if either of the children have better memories than me!

Another Americal Bald Eagle called Cheyenne. It had been raining somewhat that afternoon and Cheyenne was not remotely interested in flying.

We didn't see the Snowy Eagles flying, I think they were too busy auditionning for the next Harry Potter movie, but they did look cute!

Whipsnade

Such a lovely day today at Whipsnade Zoo, with lovely food and great company! My favourite photo is the first one, I hope you like it too!

Lemur Island is a new attraction to Whipsnade and you can walk right inside the Lemur's enclosure. The lemurs are so tame you really feel you could reach out and stroke them. They are beautiful creatures.. except their eyes bear an uncanny resemblance to pigeons.. Yuk!!

The rhinos really rule Whipsnade, and the giant one horned rhinos, must surely pre-date dinasours. They look like they are wearing armour plating, although they have enough cellulite to make even me feel good!

this one was enjoying a wallow in the midday sun - very sensible too

Back to an old favourite the peacock. Why won't they ever ever swish up their tails when they see me with my camera. Peacocks obviously don't fancy me!

The penguin pool is as ever a delight. Caught this black-footed penguin having a swim, and was delighted with this photos. Of course there are about 20 in my recycle bin where I pressed the shutter too late and you can only see his feet!

the bears were the first stop at Whipsnade. I don't think I have ever seen them before as they usually hide in the bushes. But today we struck bear-gold! It was feeding time. I even got to throw her a carrot. Bears don't seem to like carrots.

The bears at Whipsnade are European (European??? where exactly in Europe are these ferocious animals roaming free??)

I always love tigers, you know that. This one has a huuuge tongue, very big teeth and ginourmous feet!

We decided this was definitely Rudolph, as according to my fellow guests, Rudolph's nose is only red on Christmas eve and he has to camouflage himself for the rest of the year. You heard it here first!