theonlyD800inthehameau
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Thursday Doors: Tranquility Base
Posted on January 5, 2017
Over the past year or so I’ve posted a number of pictures of doors that are to be found in Tranquility Base, my working title for the little hamlet we live in. Thus you’ve seen Emily’s Henhouse and Bernard’s Barn, amongst others.
Now, I certainly don’t want to give the impression that everything in Tranquility Base is falling down, but here are a few more very local doors, beginning with front and side view of what may once have been a shed that belongs to our nearest neighbour:
Fortunately, this barn is in rather better condition:
Although it’s a bit dodgier round the back:
This one doesn’t see much traffic either:
Nor do these doors, which many years ago would have served to keep the pigs shut in:
Thursday Doors 5 January 2017
Thursday Doors: Lesterps (Part 2)
Posted on December 29, 2016
For the second instalment of doors from the village of Lesterps, we’re going a bit downmarket, beginning with this gloriously ramshackle garden shed…
…which doesn’t look much better from the side:
This one is in slightly better condition…
…and this one’s positively pristine:
But this is just a fire hazard:
Here’s my favourite though. Probably the most pointless door in the world. Not only is it a doorway with no walls on either side, but it’s open. It must be (fanfare) the 2016 Ramshackle Door of The Year.
Thursday Doors 29 December 2016
Thursday Doors: Lesterps (Part 1)
Posted on December 22, 2016
Lesterps is yet another of those charming old villages that surround Tranquility Base at a distance of an approximately twenty-minute drive. It’s best known for its very large 11th century church (more specifically, it’s an Abbatiale, which means there must once have been an Abbey there), which dominates the village, to the extent that it’s virtually impossible to get a proper photograph of the whole edifice. The image from Google Earth at the bottom of this post gives some idea of its relative scale.
This is the main door:
and this is one of three substantial archways, which I think qualify as doors for this purpose:
This walled up doorway on a building just acrooss the road from the church could well be a remnant of the accommodation of the monks who must once have lived here:
Elsewhere, this house (also opposite the church), with its massive beam, looks like it might once have been a byre, housing livestock:
We visited Lesterps last weekend for the Marché de Noel, so here’s something in the Christmas spirit. You’re welcome.
And this is quite possibly the smallest door in the entire commune. It’s at about head height but it certainly doesn’t look like a shutter, and I can’t imagine it’s the meter cupboard:
Next time, more from Lesterps – including some very strong contenders for Ramshackle Door of the Year.
Thursday Doors 22 December 2016
PS here’s that screenshot from Google Earth:
Thursday Doors: Honfleur
Posted on December 15, 2016
Honfleur is a small port in north-west France, at the mouth of the Seine. Now dwarfed by its neighbour Le Havre, back in the Middle Ages it was a key European trading entrepôt.
We made a detour on our route back from Zeebrugge to home to have a look. Unfortunately, it was the middle of a long bank holiday weekend so, despite it being the end of October, the harbour area was very crowded.
In the back streets, though, and more specifically in the rather menacingly named Rue de la Prison, I came across some interesting old doors, the first one with a highly topical question posed outside:
And finally, with a welcome splash of colour:
Thursday Doors 15 December 2016
Thursday Doors: Haddington Part 2
Posted on December 8, 2016
As foreshadowed last week, some of the shop and other commercial doors that can be found in the East Lothian market town of Haddington
This one’s hard to miss:
And I particularly like this door set into the corner of the building:
An old building that’s seen rather better days. I derive no reassurance whatsoever from the message on the door:
A rather more modern – although still dated – shopfront:
The local estate agencies don’t stint themselves when it comes to imposing doorways:
Thursday Doors 8 December 2016
Thursday Doors: Haddington
Posted on December 1, 2016
For the next couple of weeks, Thursday Doors will be coming from Scotland again, more specifically the market town of Haddington in East Lothian, a still largely rural area to the east of Edinburgh.
Rather like St Andrews, there’s a bit of a Calvinist streak in a lot of the local architecture, as in the gate to the old manse:
and this building – whose purpose isn’t immediately obvious – just along the way:
Like something a little more colourful? Bad luck:
To be fair, though, it’s not all John Knox inspired gloom:
We stayed in a holiday cottage just outside the town. It was converted from the old byre (cowshed) and is all mod cons. The same can’t be said of these other outbuildings, although you can’t complain about the vivacity of the doors:
Next week, some of the commercial premises of Haddington, which I promise are much more colourful.
Thursday Doors 1 December 2016
Thursday Doors: Mezieres-sur-Issoire – the gates
Posted on November 24, 2016
As promised, this week we feature some of the more interesting gates to be found in our local village of Mézières-sur-Issoire.
You’d expect the grander houses to have gates and indeed they mostly do, like this rather commanding set:
although personally, I found this next set more interesting. I particularly liked the way that the autumn leaves wrapped themselves around the gatepost.
Whereas those two examples are a bit off the beaten track, the gates below are on the main road, and at least you can see the house that sits behind them (the architecture is quite typical of the maisons de mâitre around here):
Notice also that those gates and railings could do with a lick of paint. As indeed could the long-unused gate at the corner of the garden of the same property:
…or this one in front of a much smaller terraced house a little further along the street:
And, of course, gates don’t always have to belong to houses – or even lead anywhere:
Thursday Doors 24 November 2016
Thursday Doors: Mezieres-sur-Issoire
Posted on November 17, 2016
Everywhere in France is part of one commune or another (and every commune belongs to a canton, and every canton belongs to a département, which in turn is part of a region and so on). Our little hamlet is about four miles from the eponymous village in the commune of Mézières-sur-Issoire.
Although we’ve now lived here for over four years, there are still parts of the village that I’ve never explored or looked at in any detail, but a recent Sunday afternoon provided an opportunity to redress that shortcoming and discover that there is no shortage of previously unseen – or at least unnoticed – interesting doors (not to mention gates, although that’s for next week).
For example, this charming wooden outbuilding, set back from the main road:
as is this barn:
Along a little lane which I’d never previously ventured down was this door in the corner of the garden wall of one of the village’s larger houses:
Much more familiar is the very grand house right in the centre of the village that’s lain empty for years. Somebody’d just bought it for a knock-down price, but now faces the mother of all renovation projects. Good luck with that (he said from personal experience).
This imposing edifice, also on the main road used to be a commercial premises of some sort, but the sign has faded to illegibility:
On a smaller scale and down a side road is another former commercial outlet, to judge by the door on the left, but again I’ve no idea what sort of business used to operate out of there:
Next week’s post will be devoted to gates rather than doors. On my wanderings around the village, I came across some highly photogenic ones.
Thursday Doors 17 November 2016
Thursday Doors: St Andrews (part 2)
Posted on November 10, 2016
As promised, this week we have some more of the interesting doors on offer in St Andrews – although, just to be awkward, we begin with a gateway: to one of the old buildings of the University (the Latin expression over the gate reads ‘In principio erat verbum’: ‘in the beginning was the word’).
This is a wider view of one of the most prominent commercial buildings in St Andrews, the J & G Innes bookshop, with its original windows and wooden frontage:
Rather more dourly Scottish is this example:
Down by the harbour is the rather more modern Harbourmaster’s Cottage:
Some more traditional doors, gentrified by the people who live behind them:
Thursday Doors 10 November 2016
Thursday Doors: St Andrews
Posted on November 3, 2016
In a previous existence, we lived in Scotland for twenty years and it’s always good to return, as we did recently for a week’s holiday.
One of our favourite places is St Andrews – home of golf and also Scotland’s oldest University (established between 1410 and 1413) . We know it pretty well – not least because our daughter went to school there – but never tire of it. This is one of the gates to her alma mater, St Leonard’s:
The town centre is very compact and there are plenty of solid old stone buildings to admire – together with their characterful doors:
Some of the architecture is not only old but comparatively unusual, like this stone porch:
Not so unusual, but still attractive is this old half-spiral staircase:
The overall impression is one of solidity:
More from St Andrews next week.
Thursday Doors 3 November 2016
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