Thursday Doors: Chabanais – the old railway station

I recently revisited the town of Chabanais in the Charente departement. There have been a few posts of doors from there in past years, but – to my pleasant surprise – this time I found, by striking out in a different direction, previously unexplored areas with plenty to offer fro this weekly challenge.

I didn’t even know that Chabanais had a gâre – railway station. Well it does, although it doesn’t actually have any trains: the replacement buses leave from just outside.

With the station building itself now permanently closed, the exterior is starting to show the signs of neglect…

…even those on the more sheltered side:

Thursday Doors 17 October 2019

Abandoned Railway, Chabanais

On a heavily overcast day there’s more than a touch of gloomy sadness about the now unused railway lines that run through the town of Chabanais.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lines

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Back Catalog(ue)

A very interesting challenge from Frank this week. He invites us to go to our back catalog(ue) and take a new look at an old image – probably something we could all benefit from doing more often.

This is part of the exterior of a hotel on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The original – reproduced in the smaller photo below – is pretty ho-hum: no doubt why I’ve never done anything with it. However, after some cropping and ‘popping’ in Lightroom post-processing it becomes a more striking abstract geometric composition.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Back Catalog(ue)

Monday Window: The Church at St-Martial-sur-Isop

I’ve just heard about the #MondayWindow challenge that’s being hosted by Ludwig Keck.

Here is my initial contribution – a stained glass window high up on the wall of the old church in the nearby village of Saint-Martial-sur-Isop.

Monday Window 14 October 2019

Formal Gardens at Chateau Azay-le-Ferron

Topiary at its best.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Tree Art

Thursday Doors: Bussiere-Poitevine (5 – and final)

This week, we have a final instalment of doors from the nearby village of Bussière-Poitevine.

Particularly notable  in this first example is the characteristic Limousin sink on the right: a common feature of many old buildings around here. In fact we have a couple ourselves.

This is on the main road that runs through the village. It looks like it used to be a shop of some kind, although it’s looked like this for as long as we’ve been coming here (so over fifteen years). The only things you’re likely to see in that window nowadays is a selection of cats.

An equally neglected set of doors (a former workshop?):

In rather better fettle. Note the old postbox:

Just your average green door:

And finally a shout-out to the charity shop where Madame volunteers. I can attest to the quality of the cakes sold in the café – Madame makes a lot of them.

Thursday Doors 10 October 2019

Through a glass, darkly

Detail of the stopper of an antique coloured glass decanter, seen at an exhibition of old glassware and ceramics in our local village.

Posted in response to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Circles, Curves and Arches

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Tourism

No prizes for guessing which popular tourist destination is pictured here:

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Tourism

Not drinking water

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge this week could be said to require some lateral thinking, as she is setting the theme of ‘side of things’.

In the medieval centre of the town of Cahors there is a hexagonal water fountain, with each of the six sides featuring a carving of a different dog’s head. This image shows two of them.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Side of things

Thursday Doors: Bussiere-Poitevine (4)

A fourth instalment of doors from the village of Bussière-Poitevine. (We’re almost done here, I promise.)

By definition, it wouldn’t be a village if it didn’t have a church:

In last week’s post I showed an old shopfront. Here’s another:

Sometimes you need to look around you a little more carefully than usual to spot some interesting doors, like these two sets of ground-level cellar doors that happen to be opposite each other on the same street:

And down a little endroit:

Just a basic example, although the stonework is quite striking:

Thursday Doors 3 October 2019