T Stands For Taking It All In...

 Hi everyone, those celebrations last week were so good that I interrupted our journey in France.

It wasn't the only interruption though!

We decided to visit St Pierre Sur Dives market with hubby driving us all in our car, as we turned into the road up to the market square we heard a loud noise under the car. We thought we had some stones caught up in the wheel arch but when we stopped in the square we found that the edge our fan belt had ripped off. Fortunately the recovery firm organised someone to come out but it took some time. Our friends went off around the market and after a while hubby suggested that I did too. I met them in the mediaeval food hall but went straight back to hubby while they continued to look around.

I only remembered to take these photos after the market had cleared away.

This is where we had to park. We were asked by a very helpful man if he could do anything - he rang his friend, a garage owner and that is where we eventually arranged to take our car.

After the breakdown man had made an appointment with the garage and told us to drive carefully, we went for lunch - of course the market had totally finished by then.

We had a lovely meal in the sun and made our way to the garage (fortunately in the direction of our gîte)The mechanic looked at it and told us to come back at 9.30 the next morning.

We were to find out the significance of the brasserie name the next day....

We were at the garage by 9.30 and the mechanic told us to come back in around half an hour - so different from home!

Our friends had followed in their car so we went off to St Pierre

We checked out opening times of the abbey and then went for a coffee

I called into this newsagents and bought a couple of magazines

We picked up our repaired car and went back to the Abbey at St Pierre.

This floor (roped off) is the original floor from the 11th Century

The most interesting feature is also connected to the name of the Brasserie we ate at the day before 

A line is carved into the floor from north to south. In line with the meridian, a small hole has been drilled into one of the windows. When the sun passes through this hole at midday its rays illuminate a zodiacal sign on the floor according to the season.

Feel free to translate this if you wish. There is also a link here

The delights of St Pierre continued with this beautiful garden..

It contains 450 species of plants from the surrounding district, my friend and I were fascinated with some of the plants.

Feverfew

Hops

Jerusalem artichokes

Not sure what this is

Sneezewort - we think!

This translates as fly grass

I know a lot of you would love this garden!

From here we went to a Logis de France restaurant and possibly one of the best meals of the holiday

First a taster from the chef - a delicious fish mousse with crusty bread

A delicious pate for me

Then Pork with a sauce

Finally fruit cheesecake

We had water and tonic water to drink and they are my ticket to T Stands For Tuesday at Bleubeard and Elizabeths place - The Altered Book  Lover.

The afternoon was going to prove interesting and fun - more next week!

Thanks for looking, Chrisx