Adventures Close to Home
A beautiful sunset on the fields above our house
We have a bad habit of getting lost in our projects and forgetting to get out and explore our environment. When we do, we're always pleasantly surprised with what we find. For instance, our nearest semi-big town is Tonnerre, where there are supermarkets, a bio-coop, a train station and a garden center, all of which we patronize. So we go into town about once a week. But we have always considered Tonnerre to be rather sad and dilapidated. It definitely was once a very noble town as the architecture is spectacular in some neighborhoods, but that must have been decades ago, since there is a definite air of disrepair almost everywhere and the modern shopping centers have grown up without much visible urban planning. Apparently Tonnerre was once a manufacturing center. It was bombed both by the Germans and the Allies in WWII.
Tonnerre has a kind of grimy charm. Photo by Martin Hewitt
,
May 2023
Tonnerre's biggest claim to fame is the Fosse Dionne. We had been here a year before we actually visited it for the first time. It is quite an unusual geologic feature, as water bubbles up from under ground at a rate of about 300 liters per second. Beneath the surface are a deep network of caverns which extend for at least 40 km. These depths have been explored by some divers, although due to the loss of lives in two of these endeavors, there is limited access allowed.
Around the "fosse" or "pit" there is a lovely covered porch constructed in 1758 to allow women to wash their laundry at the source and stay protected from rain and sun. This structure became a historic monument, thus protected by the State in 1920.
It's actually pretty cool gazing down into the mysterious waters.
The Fosse Dionne.
It took us eighteen months of living here to discover the Tonnerre highlands.
Just above the city center is a road which leads up a hill where there is an old abbey, now a restaurant and a beautiful view back to the church and town. The countryside around is full of hiking trails and pleasant woodlands.
The view above Tonnerre.
Another revelation, of which we were completely unaware until Daniel pointed it out to us this summer, is that we live only a few miles from the second oldest cave paintings in France. Chauvet Cave in southern France has the oldest, created about 37,000 years ago. Paintings in Les Grottes d'Arcy-sur-Cure, just down the road, date to about 28,000 years ago, while the Lascaux paintings were made some 25,000 years ago.
Of course once we realized what we had missed, we made a reservation to go visit one recent hot Friday afternoon. We were not disappointed. The paintings themselves are not nearly as spectacular or prolific as at Chauvet or Lascaux, although perhaps they used to be. Unfortunately some well-meaning group decided to clean up the calcifications from the walls in the early twentieth century and in the process destroyed many of the images that were preserved beneath.
That said, the cave is an absolute marvel, a vast network of caverns beneath the earth and here you see the original location rather than a skillfully created simulation, as you do in Lascaux.
We were only able to take a photograph at the very entrance of the cave.
We entered one space which was enormous and thus known as the cathedral. Our guide asked if anyone would like to sing something. We all hung back, much to her displeasure, so she herself broke into song, a very beautiful aria, which filled the chamber in a most magnificent way. The acoustics were perfect.
A hand print. Reproduced from a postcard.
I suppose it was really the space itself which was most impressive. There were grand columns created where the stalactites and stalagmites met in the middle. We were told that these features grow at a rate of 2cm a century. It really was impressive.
Perhaps a mammoth. Reproduced from a postcard.
Last weekend our Paris family, minus Jos, who has already gone back to work, came to visit us in the countryside. We took the opportunity to pull down our kayaks. This is something we have not done much since moving to France. In California we went kayaking at least once a week.
It was such a pleasure to get into our little boats and paddle around the River Serein. Serein means serene and the river definitely is that. You can go either way and still come back to where you began. The current on many rivers makes it difficult to turn around and head back to where you put in, where your car is parked, and that makes it a bit more complicated.
We took turns, although Quinn and Emily went the furthest...they actually paddled all the way into Noyers and past. The river meanders all through the countryside, presumably you could paddle all day long and travel a good long distance.
The river in Noyers.
Sunday morning is the street market in Chablis. We enjoy going for a few specialty items which can only be found there. The drive was very beautiful past vineyards where the grapes are beginning to ripen and will soon be harvested. It was a lovely day.
Chablis grapes growing on the hills surrounding the town.
Chablis is also on the Serein. As most of the villages and towns in our area, the buildings are made of white limestone which makes for a very pleasant ambience.
Besides buying fresh vegetables, my favorite sheep cheese, the best local olives and some rabbit paté, we bought lunch supplies for a picnic by the river on our way back home.
Crossing the bridge to the main street of Chablis.
In the town of Poilly-sur-Serein, half way between Chablis and home there is a picnic spot where the Serein takes a meander and spills down on one side creating a little waterfall. There are tables here and lush grass, making for a very pleasant place to stop and relax. The day was perfect, warm and sunny, but not hot.
Our sweet picnic spot by the river where there is a little waterfall.
Emily and the kids were able to stay in James and Daniel's house, which is not at all finished, but at least has two working bathrooms and bedrooms. They were impressed with how much progress was made during the time they were off visiting the U.S,
Of course having the family come stay with us is always a great pleasure and tends to get us out to do much more interesting things than we do on our own.
After our picnic,
Quinn and Zinnie walk across the river to the car...we took the bridge.
On Saturday evening we had dinner at our charming pizza restaurant in Noyers. The owner now knows us by name, as we are frequent patrons. We also saw some of our neighbors there and they stopped at our table to chat for a few minutes. We begin to feel a part of this very lovely little community we've come to live in.
Our local pizza place on the corner as you enter Noyers. They sell wine and gourmet food items as well.
Earlier in the week, we drove to the Loire Valley, our former stomping grounds, to visit our friend Nelly. She is moving house and had a few things for sale. I bought her late husband's painting easel from the nineteenth century, a real beauty. I also aquired an antique quilt which was part of her mother's collection. I'm very happy to welcome them both into my atelier, although I must say that the easel is giving me a kind of complex. I don't usually paint in oils, especially at the scale the easel calls for. It seems to be asking me if I've bought him simply as a beautiful decoration or if I'm actually going to put him to good use. We'll have to wait and see which it is.
I rearranged the entire atelier to make room for the antique easel from Nelly's house.