Such a shame the bikeways let you down on such a blue sky day, especially when it was a tad warm. The cathedral and town were definitely worth the effort. I love your shot of the Monumental Staircase.
The blue flowering plant is possibly a plumbago.
Rosemary Kneipp
August 15th, 2015 at 5:58 pm
I have to admit I didn’t realise at the time it led to the château 🙂 But we couldn’t have taken our bikes up anyway.
Thank you for the plumbago.
Judi
August 15th, 2015 at 2:19 am
Yes, as Helen says – the blue flowering shrubs certainly look like Plumbago. Very prolific here in Australia – can even be used as a hedge.
Your bike rides always sound so wonderful, rutted paths or not!
Rosemary Kneipp
August 15th, 2015 at 6:00 pm
Could a shrub grow in a planter like that though? If it’s a perennial, it’s useful. We do enjoy our bikes rides. The wide selection of bike routes is one of the reasons we chose this area.
The pale blue flowered plant is plumbago, a lovely garden plant, very well behaved. It will be fine in a big pot or in the ground.
The trees which are losing their leaves are horse chestnuts (not to be confused with sweet chestnuts, and not related). Horse chestnuts are native to the Balkans, but have been in Western Europe for several centuries. It’s taken that long for the pest that attacks them in the Balkans to catch up with them here. It is a leaf mining moth with a very complex lifecycle which means that there is currently no solution once trees are infested. Every year the leaves will go brown and fall in mid-summer rather than late autumn. The moth doesn’t kill the tree but probably weakens it, and spoils the look of it once the leaves are damaged.
Rosemary Kneipp
August 17th, 2015 at 10:24 pm
I read that it doesn’t like the frost. Do you know if from anywhere else than Australia?
Very interesting to hear about the horse chestnuts. I didn’t realise they were native to the Balkans.
karlfest
August 17th, 2015 at 4:54 am
yes, i was going to chime in with ‘looks like plumbago’. It all brings back my wonderful two months driving around France…..
[…] We end our walk along the Cher. We can see a couple of people on the “beach” where we enjoyed a welcome ice-cream the summer before last after a hot ride along the river. […]
The Chateau and the town are beautiful… rutted bike paths or not, you had ideal weather.
Yes, we did have ideal weather!
Such a shame the bikeways let you down on such a blue sky day, especially when it was a tad warm. The cathedral and town were definitely worth the effort. I love your shot of the Monumental Staircase.
The blue flowering plant is possibly a plumbago.
I have to admit I didn’t realise at the time it led to the château 🙂 But we couldn’t have taken our bikes up anyway.
Thank you for the plumbago.
Yes, as Helen says – the blue flowering shrubs certainly look like Plumbago. Very prolific here in Australia – can even be used as a hedge.
Your bike rides always sound so wonderful, rutted paths or not!
Could a shrub grow in a planter like that though? If it’s a perennial, it’s useful. We do enjoy our bikes rides. The wide selection of bike routes is one of the reasons we chose this area.
The pale blue flowered plant is plumbago, a lovely garden plant, very well behaved. It will be fine in a big pot or in the ground.
The trees which are losing their leaves are horse chestnuts (not to be confused with sweet chestnuts, and not related). Horse chestnuts are native to the Balkans, but have been in Western Europe for several centuries. It’s taken that long for the pest that attacks them in the Balkans to catch up with them here. It is a leaf mining moth with a very complex lifecycle which means that there is currently no solution once trees are infested. Every year the leaves will go brown and fall in mid-summer rather than late autumn. The moth doesn’t kill the tree but probably weakens it, and spoils the look of it once the leaves are damaged.
I read that it doesn’t like the frost. Do you know if from anywhere else than Australia?
Very interesting to hear about the horse chestnuts. I didn’t realise they were native to the Balkans.
yes, i was going to chime in with ‘looks like plumbago’. It all brings back my wonderful two months driving around France…..
Everyone seems to know plumbago except me!
[…] We end our walk along the Cher. We can see a couple of people on the “beach” where we enjoyed a welcome ice-cream the summer before last after a hot ride along the river. […]
Though Saint Aignan’s temperature is little bit high it’s a great place.
Thanks for sharing your post.