Out in the country

I've just spent an all too short but very relaxing weekend at Balajo's place.

He lives at about an hour and a half away, by car, from Paris.

If you look on a map and go North-northwest and about 150kms from Paris, you'll see a town called Evreux.

From there you need to trace a line about 20kms east and there, in the middle of nowhere, is a town called Conches.

It's in a departement called L'Eure (after the river that runs through it) which is part of the region known as Haute Normandie.

It's a very rural area with farms, isolated villages and market towns.

It's a very picturesque region and not surprisingly, the architecture reminds a little bit of the south of England - This being due to the Norman conquest / invasion and what have you.

Between us we call it 'roots country' for it's degree of isolation and (probable) lack of contact with people from outside.

All of which leads us to talking about people 'keeping it in the family' and inbreeeding (all very unkind but always in jest).

All that being said, there is a good rail connection to Paris (about an hour or so) for people who choose to live in the country side but work in the smoke.

His neighbours used to have a bit of a menagerie but since their goat keeled over and died a few years ago, the 'livestock' has been reduced to a dog and two beautiful but very territorial geese - the male (top photo) greeted me with a stunning display of his wingspan, whilst his wifey kicked up a deafening din.







Evreux










Conches