Le Vignaud Rotating Header Image

The Region

Les Hérolles Market

A few photos from the Foire des Hérolles poultry market this morning. A somewhat surreal and overwhelming experience waking up at 5:00am and ending up surrounded by literally thousands of squawking chickens, ducks, geese, guinea hens, quails, turkeys, and every other imaginable fowl… (all squawking in French.)

Vendor and customer in front of market stall

Vendor and customer in front of market stall

Baby ducks for sale

Baby ducks for sale

Caged poultry being unloaded

Caged poultry being unloaded

Young chickens for sale

Young chickens for sale

A Look Back at Winter

Now that winter is officially over, here’s a quick look back in pictures…

The view from the bedroom window in winter.

The view from the bedroom window in winter.

(more…)

Snow in Les Verrines

La Chapelle du Mas Saint-Jean

La Chapelle du Mas Saint-Jean

Winter has been in full force in Les Verrines for the past few weeks… Dark days, lot of rain, and sometimes even some snow! After a week of unseasonably warm weather, the last week of February we found ourselves buried again under a fresh 25cm that’s still sticking around… Now the days are slowly growing longer, and there’s some warmer weather forecast for this week. Here’s to enjoying the snow while it’s around, and looking forward to SPRING!
(more…)

A Day in the Fog

Apple Tree in the FogSometimes the fog seems to define autumn in La Creuse… but there is some kind of a haunting beauty to those really foggy days.
(more…)

Foire Agricole Dun-le-Palastel

It’s just one fête after the next in Creuse, and each one even more exciting that the last! Check out the Foire Agricole in Dun-le-Palastel… This was definitely a day of good wholesome entertainment. (And lots of cows…)

Beautiful Limousin Pedigree (more…)

Saint Sulpice en Fete

Yes, it’s that time of year again. August is time for les vacances, and it’s also the time of year when we Sulpiciens dust off our flea market table, oil up the rifle, tune up the tractor, grab a case of beer, and head down to la fête.

Frederik Contemplating his Chances

Contemplating his Chances

(more…)

“The Saints” in La Sout’

Brought to you by the 5th annual “Journée Estivale du Washboard” in La Souterraine… Who knew one could feel so close to home, so far away?

[stream base=x:/www.seekingfocus.com/levignaud/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ flv=washboard_festival.flv img=20120605_5898-620×411.jpg embed=true share=true width=620 height=350 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=high autostart=false /]

Mass at Mas Saint-Jean

June 26 is the name day of Saint Jean to which the tiny chapel in Mas St. Jean is dedicated. Every year, once a year, on Saint Jean’s day, the chapel is opened up, dusted off, and a mass is held (outside since the congregation has outgrown the chapel’s size) under the great Tilleul tree which stretches over the tiny tiled roof. I’m probably not the most devout Catholic, but I had never seen the inside of the little chapel, and I had a few sins to wash off my hands anyway- so one warm Sunday in the end of June, I headed down the dirt path through the woods to Mas St. Jean to attend my first mass in a few years. This is everything church should be! Warm weather, fresh air, SUNSHINE, friendly greetings, and of course, the obligatory goûter afterwards…

Les Ternes (Pionnat): Or, five MORE reasons I love spring in the Creuse (edit)

1)

Cloudy Skies Over Castles

(more…)

Market Day

Saint-Léger-Bridereix