Jarnac

26/9/2018


Our week on Le Boat ended in Jarnac. A fine town bordering the R Charente,  warehouses storing wine, cognac- this morning we walked past a gleaming tanker pumping its cognac cargo into a warehouse, as we went to retrieve the car from the rambling gated compound of nettles, rusting machinery, trailered boats.

Yesterday we moored early afternoon at Bussac, to walk into the village to a large abbaye - cathedral, citerne, gardens - a sleepy medieval treasure. The boulangerie supplied us with baguettes and glazed pomme tartes, the apple slices delicately ridged. A baguette vending machine outside, for after hours supply.

The village houses with vegetable gardens festooned with bright orange pumpkins, artichokes, fennel, tall red tomatoes.

Near the river, a graveyard stand of trees, scythed by a tornado, splintered trunks, fallen giants, some  bowed away from the wind.

Approaching Jarnac, the last lock, bordered by the fine municipal gardens, drowsing in the late afternoon sun.

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