Juignac at Charente in 2006

Juignac is what the French call a 'bourg' - not a village nor a 'town' but something rather in between the two. I spent two nights in an abbey (quite a modern one) with my neighbours Michele and Marie Francoise back in 2006 just to find out how it feels to live in a convent. My neighbours go there every now and then to 'refresh' themselves from living in the city. Well, being a religious abode, food was quintessentially simple and everyone had to pitch in with the cleaning chores after meals. Otherwise, the quarters are simple, clean and comfortable...like in a convent should be. A note here that most who come to places like these have religious retreat in their minds but I wasn't in for that...I was in for the experience. I did, however, attended one of their many masses in the afternoons just to listen to the beautiful Gregorian singings accompanied by the wind pipe organ. Loved it.

While Michele and Marie Francoise were going through their routines at the abbey, I spent mine reading, promenading and doing nothing but watch time passes. Everything just seemed to stand still here and time was forgotten even though it was just 2 days.

Calm morning.

The abbey from afar.

Rolling hills.

Summer's work's almost done - dried up flower heads of sunflowers, called tournesols in French...which effectively can be literally translated to 'turn to sun'.

An old 2CV, France's cultural icon and an almost indestructible old junk that works on any fuel.

A neighbouring plot to the abbey's.

Another view at sunset.

We walked a lot. There are many trails, called chemin de randonee in French around the bourg. This is a view of a heath forest that houses wild orchids among others. I plucked my very own Juniper berries for the 1st time in my life! I always thought that Juniper berries come from a big juniper tree but they actually come from a prickly bush no taller that your knee's height...

A quince, called coing in French. Looks delicious but has a rather tough texture and is only used for making tarts. Sour.

Juniper berries in the wild.

A small moth.

The church/chapel...

The main street. Quiet and surreal on a Sunday morning.

This strange contraption is actually the turn-key to control the water inlet of a small canal. Looks like a perfect photo subject.

At the edge of Juignac on route D142...

Wild blackberries ripe for the picking. I ate quite a bit along the trail.

The journey home on a hot afternoon was tiring and seemed further than anticipated. On reaching the periphery of Poitiers, the most amazing thing happened - a deer crossed the auto route and in a blink of the eye, almost crossed path with our Peugeot and caused an accident!