Lyons-la-Foret, again

After we left Giverny we made our way north and re-visited the delightful village of Lyons-la-Foret.  You may remember that this is the village that is surrounded by the enormous beech forest, the Foret de Lyons, that was a former hunting ground of the Norman dukes.    Filled with Norman colombage houses, apparently Lyons-la-Foret has often been used as a film set.  The market hall, Les Halles, an 18th century timber structure, is especially popular and I can imagine it has been photographed numerous times.  Apparently, Henry I, King of England and ruler of Normandy, died in Lyons-la-Foret in 1135, and the composer Maurice Ravel  came here to write in the 1920's.  And I came here in 2012!!

 I took this shot while we were sitting having coffee, looking toward Les Halles.

 This is another shot taken from the town square.

 I was especially taken by this beautiful structure.  It is where Ravel stayed in the 1920's.  It was just down the street from where we had our coffee.

 And so I took quite a few photographs!!

 This is Les Halles.  Can you imagine what it must have been like on market days so many years ago?? And even now I am sure!  What a perfect spot for a market!

 This shot is taken standing inside Les Halles.  We sat outside and had a coffee in the little cafe just in the middle of the shot and the building where Ravel stayed is just down on the left (and the boulangerie where I bought the croissants and the baguette is just behind the flower basket!!).  The little town that has everything!!  Sigh.  All so lovely.

 I love magpies but I understand they can be a bit of a pest.

This is the gite we are staying at this week.  It is a former 'pressoir' for making cider and behind the house, beyond some storage barns, is the cider apple orchard. We are staying on the second floor (the premier etage in French) and it is the area downstairs that was used for cider-making.  The windows you can see are in the sitting room looking south-east.  The gite, renovated two years ago and very modern, takes up the whole of the second floor and we have had the building to ourselves all week.  Lovely. (It is Gite number G4062 in La Seine Maritime.  Worth a visit!)
More later.....