Today, we got back to our daily walks, and it felt good to be back and active again! We went earlier than usual this morning because it’s hot, and we returned to the Seine, which we always love to walk along. We walked on the opposite side of the river from Thomery, which we visited a couple days ago (Thomery). As always, we had some surprises…
Here’s the road we walked along. About a third of the walk was on a trail, then we reached this road. Fortunately, not one car came along the road in the hour-plus that we were on it.
We knew we were walking on the other side of the river from Thomery, and we knew we’d see some sights from that town, but this one surprised us:
This chateau, named “La Rivière,” is on the northern edge of Thomery. We knew it was there from our earlier walk in Thomery, but we could not see it then. Today we saw it in its full glory. Rather nice, eh? The open windows indicate that someone is living there now. I’m trying to figure out to get a dinner invite, but since I don’t even know who lives there, that might be difficult.
After another ten minutes of walking we could see the small ancient port of Thomery and got a different and lovely view of it from across the river:
Laurie likes the shutters and beautiful willow tree in the picture above.
After sitting and enjoying this view for a while, it was off again. As we walked down the road we paralleled a railroad track and came to a road going under the track with this sign on it:
“Les Pressoirs du Roy” translates as “Presses of the King,” presses in this case being cider or wine presses. Totally disregarding the Private Propery sign, we walked under the railroad and came upon this:
Took a little research (reading a sign) and we learned that this is the “Cognac-Jay Maison d’Enfants À Caractère Social.” I don’t know of a direct comparison with anything in the United States; it’s a home for children who, for some reason or another – usually legal; delinquency, that is – cannot remain in their home and school setting, so they come to a facility such as this. French law established these homes in 1945.
We walked almost two hours today. Going earlier meant it was cooler, and much of the walk was in the shade. We’re glad the temps have cooled a bit (though it’s still sultry). Not much we like better than walking along the river, unless it’s drinking wine, which we like a lot.
We’re off to our favorite place in France day after tomorrow: La Rochelle, a city with a rich history and today entirely dedicated to serving the best seafood in the world. Looking forward to that road-trip!