The staircase

While visiting the restored medieval abbey of Noirlac last year, I was struck by this almost abstract composition of a curving staircase and austere stone walls. Another homage to M C Escher and suitable for Cee’s Black & White subject of ‘Walls’ this week.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Walls

Hot Dinners

In the schoolroom of the living museum of rural life at nearby Montrol-Sénard you can still see these cooking pots, in which the pupils would bring their lunches from home, sitting them on top of the stove to keep warm.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge 18 January 2018

Roman right-angle

At the Roman site of Cassinomagus, archaeologists have excavated the steps that surrounded and led down to the fountain or spring that would have provided the settlement with most of its fresh water.  This is a detail of one corner.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Corner

Farming In Miniature

Some may recall that last October I put up some of my photographs at a local ‘Expo’ of hobbies and ‘passions’. One of the displays was a table-top homage to agriculture – still the main form of activity around here- including these models of agricultural machinery. Whether they are toys for children or adults I leave it to you to decide.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Toys

The Weir

A different angle on the River Vienne as it flows over the weir in the middle of the town of Chabanais.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Water

Domes

So is it arches you want for Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge this week? Or domes?

Here’s an image with plenty of both – from the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. The figures at bottom right give an idea of scale.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Arches, Domes etc

Off The Road

This old Renault just up the road (i.e.three miles away) in the village of Saint Barbant hasn’t moved in all the five and more years that we’ve been living here in France. I think it’s been abandoned.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Abandoned

House of Remembrance

This model house, in the architectural style typical of the Alsace region of eastern France, stands outside the village hall in nearby Saint-Martial-sur-Isop.

This part of France lay just outside the area of direct German occupation during World War II, but the town of Seltz, on the Rhine in Alsace, was one of the first to be ‘annexed’. The plaque commemorates the refugees from Seltz who were given shelter in this locality after they fled the Nazis in 1939.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Houses

Fence

Bright sunlight casting strong shadows made this fence by the riverside in Chabanais a good subject for Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge this week

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Fences

Table Setting, Medieval Style

This week, Cee’s theme has come round again to anything that might be found in a kitchen. Strictly speaking, I suppose, this table setting in the restored refectory of the Abbaye de La Réau isn’t exactly kitchenware. There again, where else would the dishwasher be?

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Things That May Be Found In A Kitchen