“Call that a haircut”
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“I’m sorry dear, but we’re not your type”.
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A quintessential sight in the Pays d’Auge: Saint Vaast, with its little church, its Commonwealth graves, and other hand-carved tombs that have stood the test of time. And the silence!
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Interesting - so, from what I can gather the church was a field hospital in 1944 and presumably the commonwealth graves are those of former patients who didn’t survive?
These are the graves of twelve soldiers whose plane crashed here. For more details, here’s some reading material
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I wonder why the second headstone on the right of the back row has a different cross on it ? 
Good question – you’ve got a keen eye! I’ll go back there as soon as I can to try and figure it out 
It looks as if there is a cross shape but with an engraving of Buddha in it. And my eyes need sorting, because this is the gravestone:
@Rachel05
I took a closer look: the headstones are inscribed according to the regiment to which the fallen soldier belonged. There are two others from the ‘Royal Artillery Airborne’. All so young 
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I have visited the Cemeteries at StDesir near Lisieux a few times. The Allied one has about 600 graves, including 4 from WW1. The German cemetery next door is about the same size.
I was taken back when I realised that each headstone there is for four fallen. Well over 3,600 of them.
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This Weds’ walk was from Port D’Agres, from where we’d set off a couple of weeks, but this time we were heading east, up through the forest and across the plateau to Ch Gironde which stands on an outcrop high above the river. It’s one of my favourite walks because of the variety of terrain and views, and of course the Chateau itself, whose environs are an absolute delight.
Heading down to the Lot
A wildlife observation hide that some locals have just constructed. Nice idea.
Chinese black bamboo. Maybe not such a good idea…
A reminder of Lamborghini’s less glam agricultural origins (I’ve photographed this one before)
Eventually - start to climb - it’s long way up, but very gradual and a very much smaller group than usual - tho’ there’s still a poodle (just visible)
Don’t know what this is about - someone doesn’t eat apples?
There’s a lot of this before we reach the plateau - mix of conifer plantation and chestnut wood - rough logging trails and narrow paths
But up on top it’s another world with vast amounts of open space and sky -
and a solar powered milking parlour
And a completely illegal fire on the far side of the Lot… happens all the time and usually very conspicuous, yet the law isn’t enforced…
Meanwhile above, the sky is changing incredibly rapidly…
I think this is a Camargue Roma garden - black bull, white horse, les Trois Maries -
… and on the garage wall, the clincher -
Thought I’d include a link to a short video, which although a bit hammy captures some of the mysticism of the Maries and Black Sarah - it’s all the more weird for being in the middle of a typical french holiday resort. For me it’s also interesting because worship of the black skinned Isis also probably arrived on this coast around the same time and there’s a lot of overlap between the two sets of beliefs. the smoky crypt of the church and the bedecked statue seem closer to voodoo or African fetish cults than to European religion
Meanwhile back in the Aveyron, or possibly now the Cantal, there’s some cows on the skyline -
And our little band continues along the lane that eventually leads to the Chateau
This windpump always reminds me of being in the Great Karoo and the sound of them creaking in the wind on the empty veldt
…and the dusty dorp of Cradock where the main street is wide enough to turn an ox wagon and for about a km along the main highway at the roadside people sell model windpumps made of wire.
Walking is looking and conversation, but can also evoke other times you’ve walked this way and in turn can recall other times and places.
A couple of years ago friends tried to buy this place when it was just an empty ruin that we went inside and explored. Afterwards, they made an offer close to the asking price, but never got a reply. However it now looks like someone else got a favourable response…
There’s a fine view from the front…
Eventually we reach Chateau, where every building is a treat - what a fine barn!
The front of the main building was in deep shadow and you can’t get back far enough to do it justice, so here’s a side view
And then there’s the lovely chapel
And from the front of it a view of the Lot with our starting point in the far distance -
And then we set off down into the valley by a rather more direct and much steeper route than the way we came up.
Gigi (newly coiffured) quickly found an apple, that we then had to kick down the track for her to chase and bring back, so by going down and coming back up, she probably covered twice the distance that we managed.
But eventually we neared the road at the bottom and time to be put on the lead.
A n excellent walk, less than 9 kms, but over two hours long and one sees a lot, plus the steep descent from the chateau, though only about twenty minutes, takes its toll on the knees - so must be good exercise -
and still feeling it a day later …
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What did Gigi think of the abandoned apples in one of the earlier pictures Mark ?
Thankfully she ignored them - wrong variety or too rotten..?
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And I wonder what the sheep in the previous posting would have thought of her new ‘haircut’. I must say she looks a smart little wooffer. And I bet you or your wife don’t go to the hairdressers as often as Gigi does !
When my elder daughter was 5 in West London she made friends with someone and we got friendly with her parents. They had a cottage in the Forest of Dean where we’d go on weekend visits. There were plenty of old railway tracks to walk as well as the sculpture trail of course.
One day our host spotted an old signal box, investigated and bought it and installed it in his back garden in Acton.
As an aside, for Mark’s interest his wife was a fashion lecturer, I think it might have been St. Martins, or possibly the London fashion college round the corner from John Lewis in Oxford St. They were quite connected I think, and are now all University of the Arts London. Tragically after several years she died of cancer, we were all devastated.
So your post brought back quite a few memories. Mostly good, tempered with sadness.
Maybe you can buy the tower and have it reconstructed in your back garden Mark. 
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We’re staying at the very northern tip of the Cotentin peninsula, Cap de la Hague, right below France’s vast, highly protected nuclear reprocessing site, just visible n the background in the first photo below.
It is a little disorienting as the beautiful coastline is very reminiscent of Pembrokeshire, Cornwall, N Devon, and the stone hamlets reminding us of Yorkshire Dales settlements. Yet we’re in Normandy…
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I’m surprised they let you take the (top) photo - if they’d have caught you it would be off with your head !
Actually, about 30m directly above our back garden there’s the remains of a 1000 year chateau that used to control the Lot . However, the tower’s a national monument that’s not on our land and its internal size would be too small for my ideal.
And, I’d hate to be responsible for it…
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Looks tiny if it’s just 30m up the hill - maybe perspective?