Ville Cario and Loire Valley visit with Dad

Click on my  PhotoBox album to see some photos of our mini-family gathering in August and early September in Brittany.

A lovely couple of weeks plus, with a visit to Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou, where Dad's great grandmother x 21 (I think) is buried, alongside her second husband, Henry 11 of England.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, or in French, Aliénor d’Aquitaine; Éléonore de Guyenne (1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204) was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe. 

Lyulph sourced and collected additional family tree info. Alan took 'Claud' out for a ride and we visited a 'Cave' and sampled the sparkly.

Back at Ville Cario, we kept snug with roaring fires, collected fallen fir cones from Cap Frehel and generally indulged ourselves in some of the finest and freshest local produce on offer!

Of course, the usual mini-golf and vide grenier expeditions, but also some snooker, backgammon and foraging. 

Piano progress

First, an old favourite - "Can't help loving that man of mine" (Jerome Kern) 

Thanks to my lovely and talented young Russian piano tutor, alex nikiporenko, I am again seeking to improve and consolidate my piano playing expertise (or lack of it!) I am working on two pieces by Erik Satie - wow, what a composer! They look and sound simple, but are really quite complex and require quite a bit of effort on my part.

Aside from learning the piano, the technology to get these pieces recorded and uploaded is also proving challenging and I definitely need to work on updating my tech skills!