Normandy; Zeese ees beautifool countryside!

Normandy is so pretty. Fields of flax (the flax is just beginning to flower, everything is very late this year because of the cool weather and all the rain) and oats and canola, all fringed with daisies, buttercups and jaunty red poppies, like a lace trim on a lovely patchwork tablecloth. Some of the fields dotted with sheep or dairy cows. Lovely old stone barns and homes covered in moss and ivy and climbing roses. Always with lovely lace curtains in every shuttered window. Almost always with window boxes or pots heavy with red geraniums. Miles and miles of hedges. Many, many apple orchards and always, it seems no matter what direction you look the spire of a church from one of the many hamlets or villages. The country roads so narrow there is barely room for you to meet another vehicle. 

And always, always, always a boulangerie or maybe two or three in each village. The French love their breads! 

I almost forgot! ...yesterday we met a very interesting local woman, named Blanche. in a former life she was the wife of a French Ambassador. now, she is a midwife and organic farmer who lives about 30 minutes from our place. she was here to tend to "Eeyore" our donkey. in the course of our conversation, she noticed some of my needlework on the table and we got talking "shop". she asked if I liked linen. it seems this area is the linen capital of Europe! she offered to take me to a shop to purchase local linen yardage, AND also to a linen festival this weekend. We spent a wonderful afternoon together and learned a lot of local culture.

This morning after a wonderful breakfast of fresh market strawberries and yogurt, and offerings from a local bakery, (first time eating fig and nut bread), we headed out to find the Canadian Cemetery in Dieppe.

After arriving at Dieppe we spent a couple hours at the beach, just enjoying the view and looking for sea glass. I was really hoping to find blue sea glass, but no luck! I did find a piece of pottery, several shades of green, a couple clear, and a couple light aqua pieces of glass as well as a very pretty blue rock. All in all, not a bad haul!

We grabbed a quick lunch along the beach and headed off to find the cemetery.

Such sad heart wrenching stories of men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Normandy still bears the scars of the years of war. This is a plaque commemorating the Canadian army in a nearby town where we go to market.

It must have been so sad for these people to see their beautiful homeland ravaged by war. All around us we see evidence of the war. We are so blessed to live in a land not physically touched by the horrors of war. In a couple of days we will go to Vimy...sad, so sad, but for now I will enjoy the beauty around me.

P.s.

I will end today's post With a little explanation. I want to show a photo that dropped off of my last post.(well it dropped off my version of it, not sure if you got to see it.)  When I wrote about the cobwebs and cleaning... This was some of what I was referring to.

...a little authentic Norman cottage "charm", oui?