Chris and Rors went shooting, Caiti was in bed for the long haul and Benj was nursing his sprained ankle. So I had Easter morning to myself. I went for a bike ride.

The young cows in the field opposite our gateway were interested when I appeared. Did I mean feeding time? They came over for a closer look.

These guys are a mixture of Charolais and Charolais/Limousin crosses

I turned right and went to investigate the new sign Caiti had spotted further down the road, passing a huge bunch of Solomon’s Seal flowers on the way. This plant is lily-of-the-valley’s big brother.

I soon came to the new sign. It declares: 9 juillet le tour de france passe par ici. It’s very hard to read though! There are some jolly and patriotic blue, white and red stripes too. We still can’t quite believe how close the Tour is coming this year!

It's the tall wooden sign ...

Tucked behind the roadsigns and is a wooden cross, inscribed with ‘La Croix de Bléron’. I shall have to look into this.

I stopped at the edge of Nouzerines to admire the view of the nearly-finished new spire.

Still scaffolding around the tower but the work is almost done

Just a little further down the road is a stone cross and St Clair’s miraculous fountain.

The water of St Clair's fountain cures eye diseases

The next cross I came to was on the other side of the village. This time it’s an iron one.

I put my head down and chewed up the kilometres for a good half hour, stopping only to take a picture of the death slide. This hangs precariously over the road. Someone didn’t like their kids!

I wouldn't fancy climbing up there!

The next photo is quite close to home. Chambon is a derilict farmstead down the road from us. There are connections between it and Les Fragnes, our farm, that I’m in the process of investigating.

A typical sight in Creuse - an abandoned farm

The cows opposite the gate had decided it was going to rain when I got back. They were all lying down. I nipped down our drive, put my bike away, downloaded my photos and tucked into one of the Chef in Wellies’ wonderful hot cross buns. All in all, a very pleasant morning.

Yum.

Daily snippets for 25 April

Today’s saint: St Mark, who introduced Christianity to Africa

Famous French person born on this day: in 1270, King Louis IX of France

Famous French person died this day: staying on a royal theme, in 1566, Diane of Poitiers, the mistress of Henri II

Today’s French word: vélo – bicycle

Today’s French expression: Ça remonte à la nuit des temps That’s as old as the hills. (Perhaps my crosses are.)