Fondettes, Les Pivottieres and a glimpse at Blois

 These are some more pictures of the gite that we stayed at in Fondettes, a little village just outside of Tours.  The first picture is of the back of the house that belongs to our host and hostess, an absolutely lovely couple with whom we spent quite a few hours chatting about all manner of things. They were very easy to talk to and were very gentle with my stumbling french.  A very enjoyable experience.
The next picture is taken standing just outside the courtyard that leads into our gite.  (The owner's home is on the right just outside the picture.) Such a lovely setting, don't you think??

 This next shot was taken by simply turning around 180 degrees from the picture above.  It was early in the morning and the sun was just coming up.  And always, the delightful coquelicots (poppies).

 Here I simply moved over a few feet and took a picture of the gate on the other side of our gite.  You can see how early it is by the sun just peaking over the house and through the slats of the gate.

And here is the little pathway we went down to get out to our car.  You can see the iris and the fence from the picture above in the left hand corner and at the right you can see one of the windows in the sitting room of our gite.  

 For this shot I walked back to the courtyard entrance and stood at the opening you can see in the second picture above.  All very lovely.

 We have been so successful with all of the gites in which we have stayed.  "Les Pivottieres" is the name of this particlar gite and it stands on a hillside overlooking the Loire, just 15 minutes outside of Tours.  The owners are literature, art and music lovers and the gite is a faithful reflection of who they are.  (It is gite number 10891 through Gites de France, in the gites-touraine.com region.  Do stay here if you are in that region of France.)

 This is a large brass bowl that now sits in the fireplace of the gite.  It was formerly used by our hostess's family for making jams and was brought by her from Normandy, where she was raised.

 This is my version!

 While we were in Blois we walked around the Eglise Saint Nicholas.  This shot was taken around the back.  I love the black against the white.

 This is my first attempt at the picture from the Eglise Saint Nicholas. I am tempted to try it again without the little bit on the top left.  What do you think?

 The Chateau at Blois has these gargoyles on the side and since I have always been intrigued by these fanciful downspouts I just had to have a go at painting one!  Aren't they fun!!??

So that's it for our week in Tours.  The condensed version.  Tomorrow I'll show you the start of my week in Brittany.  It's all good!!!  Back soon.