With Catharine and the boys in Canada, I took the opportunity of a four-day weekend to spend some time at Le Fief. Deep in the countryside of the Limousin, Le Fief is a lovely old house, owned by my Uncle Michael and Aunt Irena. They kindly have made an open invitation for us to use it when they are absent, which is more often then they'd wish. We have come to love our time there, and this weekend was no exception for me.
The countryside is quite rough compared to the manicured plains that surround Paris. The Limousin is the poorest and northernmost of the rich Langedoc country that extends from the Loire to the Pyrenees. It is the beginning of the geographical feature known as the Massif Centrale. The land is used mostly for livestock, principally sheep, and there are many hills, woods and streams. It is the sort of country where one could almost expect to find hobbits living in sandy banks. Small lizards, a muskrat and large moles called taupes are the principal creatures one encounters, aside from sheep, cows, horses and mules.
The weather was uniformally hot and sunny and I spent most of my days in the shade by the pond reading. I finished a collection of short stories by Edith Templeton which were remarkable. I then set about on a biography of Eleanor of Acquitaine, once Queen of France, and later, when she married Henry II, the Queen of England. Le Fief is some 80 km south of Poitiers, her favourite residence. She ruled all of the Langedoc, including the Limousin.
I waited for the golden light of evening to set out with my camera and lenses to capture the shady nooks and hollows, streams and fields of the area. Click here to see a slideshow or here to see the photos individually.
