Yesterday we decided to leave the farm behind to discover yet another of the “plus beau villages de France”. This is an official designation here in France and we are blessed to be surrounded by them. Rocamadour happens to be absolutely stunning - set into a cliff face (photo above) and among other things, famous for goats cheese which is not for everyone but something we’re particularly partial to which is just as well because it features heavily on the menus around here!
It’s just over an hours drive away for us and makes for a lovely day out. They also have “Le Rocher des Aigles” and it’s a bird sanctuary of sorts (eagles and vultures and owls and the like). For those of you who don’t approve of keeping birds in cages, you will at first be rather upset by it all but once you’ve had the benefit of watching the “spectacle” (show) you may be surprised to discover you leave in full support of what they’re doing there. It’s an educational facility as much as an entertaining one and they do take their responsibilities quite seriously it would seem. They also have parrots and they made a big point of asking everyone to never buy any products made entirely or partially from parrot feathers and said that those who do should be considered accomplices to the massacre of these beautiful animals.
You can only imagine what it was like to see the birds pictured above being let loose to fly away and from something like a kilometre above us, swooping back in to the handlers once they spotted them tapping 2 fingers on their forearm - absolutely amazing!
The owls were particularly lovely and it was nice to see the ones that we hear most nights, up close and personal. The entire presentation was in french and although good practice, I probably only caught about half of what was said - hopefully I shall have the opportunity to return and figure out the other half! I understood perfectly when they made the point that the more common barn or 'attic' owl is struggling since so many english people in France started converting their attics in to 'gites' and 'chambres d'hotes'!!
Today, we need to get back to farming - we've been a little slack on the farming side of late however have enjoyed our time with our latest house guests immensely. We still have alot of plants to get into the ground - seeds we started some time ago - probably about a dozen more carrots, courgettes, tomatoes, enormous amounts of arugula - in addition the beds with the gladioli (now about 35 of the 50 have sprouted) and sunflowers (now around 100 of which have sprouted - I lost count as to how many I planted!) need weeding so I think we're going to have to spend a bit more time farming and a bit less time entertaining - it is a delicate balance during these bountiful summer months.
Bon weekend!
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