Anzac Day - lest we forget

 Tuesday 25th April

Another cold day today with rain overnight, but not as cold as yesterday.

Today we have moved on a little further south and west and now in a town called Vierzon (and the weather has improved). We weren't really expecting anything much to see or do - it was just about getting from a to b. Our first detour was as we were driving through a village we could see all these crooked, half wood, medieval buildings. We stopped and had a wander through the town. It is sometimes known as little Scotland and in the tourism office they had a piece of McLeod family tartan (which is Rob's family clan). This town called Aubigny sur Neve is 600 years old this year. Apparently a lot of the town centre burnt down sometime in the 1500s and was rebuilt. You've got to wonder why it is that 600 yr old buildings are still standing - and we can't build anything to last these days.

Crooked as ....

Centre ville - burnt down in 1500s and rebuilt

Rob spotted this beautifully kept Peugeot 403.

On to our final destination of Vierzon and spotted a Chateau along the way. They usually have quite impressive gates and are set a long way back from the road. This one had some large statues along the driveway and a few trees stopping us from getting a good photo.

We were too early to check in at our hotel so we visited the local tourist office and found a castle to visit and from there a porcelain museum - this is the area for porcelain, we are not too far from Limoges. We got a guided tour of the castle - in English  - it was great. The castle had quite a long history of who built and owned it - the last owner was Charles VII of France.

This looked like a good puff of wind would blow it over. Apparently the castle used to be 60m higher but the top 60m was taken off by a storm.  

This piece was actually a fountain and the water fell from the hair.

There was also a small exhibition of dresses from a designer (whose name I don't remember). These I think really are art pieces, not dresses to wear - or certainly not where I come from. 

And what else does one do when on holidays? Spotted this little fixer upper in the agent's window. There seem to be a few cheapies in the area.

Easy dinner tonight - microwave meals from the supermarket, and for Rob, a 3euro bottle of red from the supermarket.