A bit of lateral thinking along the lines of driving, some of you may know that my main home is the Isle of Man, which, when I moved here some 35 years ago, I thought to be a quite, peaceful place to live (except during TT fortnight!!).
Well, I have just been removing the weeds from outside the house, where the wall and hedge meet the pavement. I was out there for some half an hour and, possibly, for the first time, realised how busy and noisy the traffic was. During that half hour, the longest time that went by without a car, lorry, van, bus trundling past the house was less than 10 seconds and even then I could see the vehicle coming down the road.
No wonder our home in Pepieux is so relaxing and peaceful, can't hear a thing there except for the Church Bells, which is very therapeutic!!
So, back to the headline, how peaceful is your part of the World, France or otherwise?
Lets just say we have grass growing down the middle of the roads near us!!!!!
Despite living in the centre of town and on the main route through, it is still peaceful. I rather enjoy a little traffic racing by (being a Londoner I need a noise fix!). Peaceful is when my OH cycles 100 kms and sees only two cars, even after 16 years here it still amazes him. And as I type the church bells have rung, perfect timing.
Yes Carol peace can be found anywhere.
Sometimes in our tiny garden at the back of the house there would be moments...and more
when everything was still and so calm.
I have really fond memories of that part of London Carol ...
spent a lot of time there.
As a teenager, working at a west end hotel I moved to a flat in the Goldhawk Road...and my son now lives in central Shepherds Bush...in their garden flat...you could hear a pin drop! we went to a local pub for lunch recently on a sunday...a central London pub with a wonderful beer garden...there were about 40 people there having lunch and lounging on the grass..and honestly, it was quieter than sitting in our local Dordogne square, no traffic noises...backing onto other peoples gardens....so peace can be found anywhere.
I Lived for many years in Holland Road where Shepherds Bush met Holland park and Westfield
shopping centre is moments away....Holland Road must be busier than ever...hardly possible
but it stretches down to High Street Kensington towards the arab owned shops with there massive
arrays of fresh fruits. Silence sometimes excisted around 6 ...early on a sunday morning...just too
early for the cleaners and to late for the returning clubbers.
Here in Gensac there is a sound of silence most of the time.
Errupted at rare moments when there is some attention paid to the grapes which surround
my property, pruning, spraying...and soon picking.
The tranquility is part of the magic of the countryside and for a city girl it takes a lot
of getting used to....but it is wonderful...theraputic and so, so different from the dramatic sounds
of busy London.
Ah, a fellow Francophile currently on the IoM. Raining just now Jon as you probably now, but fine weather for Sunday I believe, so bon chance. If you fancy a coffee/tea etc whilst your over here give me a shout, I'm in Douglas, Ballanard Road (not far from the Grandstand)!
The IOM isn't very quiet at the moment what with all these old bikes here for the MGP. I shall definitely add to the noise levels when I crack my 70s Ducati up on Sunday (if it doesn't rain....)
heard from a friend in Provence about the hail stones....not got to us...hope it misses! we had a storm..but just rain...wind....and the temps have dropped from 40 to 20 which is wonderful!!!
We are normally very quiet, except when the army jets from Dijon fly over in pairs. I could see the pilot the other day. We have all the normal countryside activities, cows moving around, tractors and some combining.
We have just had two enormous storms,one on Tuesday with exceptional winds and loads of trees and branches down, but last night we had a huge hail storm with some of the hail
stones as. If as small satsumas. Lots of damage to car roofs, tiles, windows and our pool cover is quite badly damaged. I think we got away lightly compared to some.
!!well, we live in Amiens...and all the camera footage of the recent rouble was shot down our former road...at work today I heard that the stagiaire from Russia had had her friends back there asking if she was ok..!! However paradixically the part we now live in is so peaceful you can hear the church bells from the surrounding villages
just been caught in a 4 car tail back at the lights in Momtpon.. at least the next set are 10 miles away in Mussidan.. two jets went over yesterday.. trying to blow the heads off the sunflowers, made the cats jump!!sometimes the trucks starting to roll at 05h on the A89 can be heard if the wind blows from Bordeaux.. or sometimes it's the trains from half mile away the other direction.. otherwise..it's lovely and peaceful here.. Compared to just off Friday hill, London,E4.. constant traffic, loonies using the block as a race circuit.. Fire and Police sirens at all hours[friday hill is a main through route to and from anywhere, with both services close by].. plus we were under the met police chopper route directly into london.. my journey to work was 4 miles.. 10 minutes at 05h30.. 45 home at 14h30.. Ahhh,, the peace and quiet here is soo goooood!!! i've not returned in 6 yrs.. no plans to do so..
No problem Roderic, perhaps I should join the digression! Seeing as you are a motorbike fan, have you been over for the TT? If not, I think it would be right up your street.
Like start your engines, out of the gate, the first day of the ipad release, the race of the wagon trains westward, or...?
Yep like that Susan, Try and imagine the Easter Egg run then, when all the bikes start and strt to move out of the carpark. Sorry Phil seem to have hi-jacked your original post, how we digress.
I think the key phrase is "advanced rider." Two of my sons have motorcycles . My ex-husband had a 1956 Harley. When I lived on the island, commuting to work via ferry on motorcycles was the least expensive way to go. I loved the sound of the engines revving up as the signal came for them to get off the ferry. However, posturing by unnecessarily gunning your engines in a neighborhood is another story. Context is everything.
Oh dear Oh dear I feel like a real outcast now after reading Susans' post, as you can see from my picture I ride a motorcycle, with quite exhausts I must add. I really don't like the sound of the Harleys though far too noisey. I might add in my defence that Iam an Advanced rider with the IAM. The picture was taken at a charity ride organised by the Durham Motorcycle Police. Called the Easter Egg run I think this year around 2000 riders turned up to deliver Easter Eggs around the hospitals in Darlington and Durham. Good fun and great social day out. Right I'm off to hide in the naughty corner :-) :-)
I live outside of the village of Newfield in upstate New York. The remnants of quiet surround me. These are survivals from another era. I have an old blacksmith shop from the early 19th century on my property. Previously, I lived on a nine-acre farm in an old farmhouse on an island at the end of a road. It was always quiet. The quiet brought a continuity of time which carried a sense of peace. I experienced this when I stayed in Brossac France. While living on the old farm in Washington State, I found that in the quiet we as neighbors we could hear each other and speak more slowly. The noise is constant in the rural area I live in now. Cars speed by invariably over the speed limit every 10 seconds or so, motorcyclists feel a need to gun their engines as they pass Trumbulls Corners, the hamlet where I live. The noise of farm equipment passing and children laughing give me a sense of peace, the cars and motorcycles do not. I don't think we as neighbors hear each other as well as we might here. I created a beautiful zenlike garden around me to counteract the noise with visual impressions. I drew designs of the sound of water. I retreated more into myself in a creative sense. Some of the noise became subliminal, yet it is there. At this time we are fighting the advent of fracking moving up from Pennsylvania to our area, which seems inevitable. There will be visual and audio noise. If that happens, my road will be the natural route for trucks that will go back and forth 24/7 from Pennsylvania. I will live in an industrial area that ignores its past. I find areas to go to that are peaceful such as the large conservation area above me, but I suppose the concept of peace might require another meaning because rural life appears to be changing here as I know it is elsewhere.
Sorry Yes I was first on Gemini the aerobatic pair, then that was converted to The Swords in 1974, told you I never grew up.