Normandy

Jardin des Plantes in Avranches, Normandy; in the far background one could see the mont St Michel, however not visible in the photo; there were quite a few exotic trees and plants in htis garden, notably a eucaluptus tree from Tanzania with long pointy leaves, I of course collected a few and have thought about sewing them into a piece, the fragrance reminding me of summer once winter cold has arrived....

wooden man staring back at us through time; he dwells in the Scriptorial, situated in the town of Avranches; a museum dedicated to the written word and all that accompagnies putting letters to paper, making marks, leaving a readable trail over the centuries. In a climatized room there were even several manuscripts from the monastery of Mont St Michel (which we have yet to see)

the boys walking on a beach in Saint Pair sur Mer, a coastal village close to our campsite

and this is how we make coffee these days!

 we love shopping in French supermarkets, they sell everything: from live crabs to every kind of salt you can imagine....clothes, kettles, school stuff, oh yes regular food; there was even a barber shop where D went for a hair cut, whilst I roamed the aisles

 again the beach near Saint Pair sur Mer, further away from the village; as you can see the weather is amazing! finally the best café creme to date, with the luxury of a news paper; I have concluded that reading a quality news paper, such as Le Monde, in French is easier than trying to read a tabloid, which has so much slang and references to persons unknown to a foreigner; I'm now up to speed on Mexican affairs and the anti-gay-marriage sentiments in France, which took me by surprise as I had considered France to take a more liberal approach on all matters sexual.....a lot has changed since I lived here thirty years ago.

 this type of shell is new to me, they seem to be common on this coast, as always I'm collecting them; note the one with families 'living' in them and the one on the bottom right hand side with lots of tiny holes in it, what on earth did that?

these are two beach pieces, started in the What If diaries concerning all things white, I feel they are particulary appropriate to work on whilst here; I love how the shells and colours match

 on our evening walk last evening we found two dead butterflies and this feather, which I think comes from a woodpecker

ending on a basic note: managed a wash this morning and as we forgot a washing line: we used two tent poles stuch between the trees instead

p.s. a sad fact of camping life: despite the 5 stars we have to pay for the wifi, so my blogging time is limited.....alas no time to visit other blogs, or if I do it's gonna cost; hope you are all well and enjoying summer as we are here in sunny Normandy