Month: May 2024

The old and the new, the textile edition

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It was while I was at my friend Cate’s checking my route on the map, that I realised I was going to pass very close to the town of Aubusson. For anyone who is into textiles, you will recognise the name as being famous for thousands of tapestries, made in this town and the nearby ones, and they had a museum! So of course I had to go and visit.

Aubusson tapestry was designated in 2009 as one of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity aspects, and the museum is just a small part of the preservation of the heritage, along with preservation of other aspects of the craft, and exhibitions in the area.

Aubusson itself is a very gorgeous little town, with an essential river running through it. As in my home village in Yorkshire, once famed for its woollen mills, access to water is vital for the industry, and you could still see the mills around the river area, as well as the buildings that now house the original designs, or cartoons, for the tapestries.

As well as examples of the heritage of the weaving, apologies as they were understandably in low lit, glass cases. so no good photos, what was really interesting was the focus on the process of weaving, and the tools of the weavers.

Tapestry has never been one of my favourite textile forms, I think because most of the ones that I encounter in National Trust properties and castles are faded, and the subject matter is generally not that interesting to me. However I have always appreciated the huge amount of time and effort it takes to create these woks of art.

It was especially lovely to see photos of the weavers, both from the display of the historical archives, and the weavers working on current projects.

They had two exhibitions of modern weaving, which were really impressive. The first was of illustrations from a Japanese artist called Hayao Miyazaki. I am familiar with these, through my son Jake’s interest in anime, and these were illustrations from a film called The Moving Castle.

The level of detail here is amazing, the colours are so rich and the way that they have been blended is stunning, look at how the cloud has been woven over the other colours here. Just amazing work.

The other exhibition focused on illustrations by Tolkein, again such beautiful colours. It was also really interesting to see the back of the Rivendell piece.

Seeing these modern pieces really makes you realise how stunning places like Hardwick Hall must have looked when their tapestries were first hung in the 1600s.

Abusson also offered a free park up, in a car park just outside the town, with free water, free electric, and a lovely backdrop of woods and a little stream, so Katy and I spent a peaceful night there, once again very grateful for the foresight of French tourist boards.

A lovely, and totally unexpected day, and I am so pleased that I managed to visit. My next post will be about another unexpected visit as well, to somewhere that had been on my wish list for around 20 years.

I have had a great week with Sue and Ange, here in Spain. We have had lots of pool time, delicios tapas, and been to visit Cartagena, one of my favourite local cities. They are now in Granada for a few days, visiting the Alhambra, and I will see them briefly before they return to the UK. Meanwhile I have a fox outfit to finish knitting before they get back, there was a major error with a pair of dungarees so they have had to be unravelled, and knitted again ;-(

I will be back soon with the next unplanned stop en route. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

29 years later …..

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I left Cahors for a short drive into the Dordogne. One of the reasons for choosing this particular route, aside from seeing the beautiful countryside and towns of this area, is that my friend Cate has lived here for many years. Cate is another friend from Huddersfield Polytechnic days, in fact she was the very first person I met, in my halls of residence, the day I moved in.

We have kept in touch for nearly 42 years, but haven’t seen each other since her wedding in Ireland, 29 years ago. As I have mentioned before, one of the best things about retirement is the time to go and re-connect with people face to face, last year Dave in Cyprus, and Helen in Devon, and Ange and Sue over the past couple of years in Scotland and Yorkshire, and now in Spain!

It was another stunning drive, as you can see from the map above I was driving into the heart of the natural park of the Perigord- Limousin region, and it is the most amazing countryside. I am definitely going to see about getting a dash cam for my next European trip, so that I can capture more of the scenery as I drive. France is especially beautiful at this time of year, although the weather was not brilliant, the wisteria was in bloom everywhere and the clouds just added to the drama of the rivers and wooded valleys.

I stopped in Souillac, a little town on the Dordogne, for coffee and a wander. At this point I had decided not to use motorways for the middle of the trip, excellent though they are in Europe I was keen to do more small roads, and this little town was a lovely break in the journey.

Cate, and her husband Billy, bought a derelict farmhouse and barn in a tiny village in the Dordogne, and have spent the last twenty years rebuilding it. The views are amazing, and they grow most of their own food.

We had a lovely, if a little damp, walk with her two dogs, though the country lanes here. It really is a completely idyllic place to live, and I can see why so many British people have chosen to move here.

Cate was an estate agent before she retired so she knows the area very well, and took me to see some of the most beautiful places in the area. We went to the little town of Brantome for lunch, which has some gorgeous houses around the abbey and the river.

The abbey had the longest candles that I have ever seen. I always light two wherever I visit, one for the living, and one for all my friends and family no longer here.

We then went on to St Jean de Cole, one of the prettiest villages in the area, complete with a privately owned chateau. Cate had sold most of the houses in the village, and was based here during her career, what a gorgeous place to work!

I love the contrast of the blue shutters with the pale stone, and the wisteria on the houses here.

As well as the sightseeing, we had a brilliant catch up, and lots of lovely food. It was so nice to see her, and hopefully it won’t be 29 years until we see each other again! I know that I have said this many times before, but I am so lucky to be able to do this, and live this wonderful life.

My poor colleagues at the university went through a dreadful time last summer, with the closure of the department, and losing about half the staff to redundancy, and the same is happening again this year, with a further round of course closures and job losses. I feel so sorry for them, as I know how hard they have all worked, and it seems so unfair, especially after the stresses of the Covid years. I am eternally grateful to have been able to leave at a time of my choosing, and to have the life that I have now.

I will be back again later in the week, to share a surprise textile treasure, that meant a slight alteration to the route, that led to a wonderful extra visit to somewhere very special. More details in the next post. Until then, have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

Sur le pont …..

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I was lucky enough to learn French from the age of 7 to 16. so my French is actually a lot better than my Spanish. One of the things I remember doing was lots of singing, including the song, ‘ sur le pont d’Avignon’… which means on the bridge at Avignon. I didn’t get to Avignon this trip, but I did get to see a stunning medieval bridge in the town of Cahors.

When I was route planning for this trip I had some fixed points that I needed to be at, but the rest was just looking in the general direction of where I wanted to be. That was how I found Cahors, which is the blue symbol just above Montauban on the map below. As soon as I saw it had an old bridge, and a park up, I added it to the stopovers list and I was really glad that I did, as it was a beautiful place to spend an afternoon.

The town is on the River Lot, in a wooded valley, so the drive in was lovely.

The park up that the town council have created only has three spaces, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to get in there, but there was a car park listed near it. I missed the sign for that the first time, and after a lovely detour up the sides of the valley, and some very steep roads, I spotted the sign on the way down.

This is why I love travelling in France, not only was there a large car park, but also a free bus into town in you wanted it. The park up also came with added chickens, sadly it was a bit wet the morning after so I didn’t get any free eggs for breakfast as they were all hiding.

However, I did meet some very nice fellow van lifers parked up next to me, a French man who had been fossil hunting nearby, the region is famous for pterodactyl fossils, and a French and Lithuanian couple who had just come back from 6 months in Spain. I love meeting people on the road, it is so interesting to hear about everyone’s travels. It is one of the best bits of van life.

The park up was a short walk from the river, so I wandered along the park beside it for a while, then into the town towards the Pont Valentre bridge. It was built in the 1400s, when Cahors was a very important town on the river for trade, and is a World Heritage site.

It is an absolutely stunning construction. There is a weir just beyond it, so boats pass through a lock under the end tower. You can take a boat trip up the river, and there were lots of people enjoying that and the little cafes along the river bank.

After the bridge there was time for a wander around the old town, there were so many gorgeous buildings, some in need of a lot of restoration, in the oldest part, and a beautiful cathedral.

It was a perfect day on the trip home, one that I will always remember. I was enjoying the driving so much, and it was brilliant to be off the motorways, and back on more rural roads. Just perfect van life!

I am back in Spain now, so fingers crossed my internet will stay stable and I can catch up with the many, many posts I have waiting. I have friends arriving on Sunday for a week, the same people I have just spent time with in Scotland and Yorkshire, so that will be brilliant. Before they get here I have to finish a dress and shoes for a fox, as one of them has just had a first grandchild. It is lovely to be back home, I would say chilling, but it is about 25 degrees, so a perfect temperature for relaxing.

I will return soon with more of beautiful rural France, until then, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.