St. Fraimbault, Bagnoles de l'Orne, etc.

I have to say that I am embarrassed by my lack of French.  Oh, I can get a bagette from the bakery and even figure out some signs posted in town, but as for taking full advantage of the area, I am handicapped.  For instance, today I wanted to go to a little town the visitors' bureau in Bagnoles de l'Orne said had some street artists.  But I did not fill up the tank on my cute little red rental car yesterday

and I did not know if gas stations open on Sunday.  So, with a little less than a quarter tank, I drove to Domfront, the closest "big" town nearby, and hoped the station I knew of would be open--but it was not.

With no way of asking where another station that was open might be, I just drove home and am waiting until tomorrow when I know at least one station--the one connected to the supermarket (that is closed on Sunday) will be open.  It's kind of pathetic.  I could promise myself that I will learn French before I return to France, but the truth is that it is really hard to learn a language in a place where no one speaks it.

So with nothing to do but wait, I walked around St. Fraimbault a little.  The town is known for its flowers, but I have to say, almost every town in Normandy is covered with flowers.  And here in St. Fraimbault, they are a little past their prime, but still lovely.

Our own house has a number of petunias out front, looking less than healthy....

And suffering mightily from comparisons to the flowers on the house two doors down.

Or at the end of the street.

Hope you can see them in this picture.  It's so hard to get the full flavor of the profusion of flowers in these photos.

I walked down toward the lake and saw this house, which I had noticed when I was here last in April 2012.  Back then, it looked pretty macabre with the big bare vines covering the front.  It's a different story in the summer.

There are flowers on every corner of the town.

And along the road leading to the lake.

But the flowers are definitely past their peak.  I think you can see in the picture below that there are people who tend the flowers, removing dead blossoms.

But there are still signs that autumn is approaching....

The lake itself has a lot fewer flowers than I expected.  Maybe the annuals have all been removed.  The lake is still beautiful, however.

And there are a lot more ducks than the last time I was here.

The paddle boat place is open for business--though there were no takers when I was there.

On the way back, I walked up the stairs along the road, just on the town-side of the lake and came across what looks like a patch of corn but was really the backdrop for some flower displays.  Apparently there was a competition for the tableaux, but for the life of me I cannot figure out any of the themes.

This one had cinder blocks...

this one the moon and planets....

and two used playing cards.

One pretty much had no flowers at all...except paintings of them.

strange.......

I decided to go across the road and look at the cemetery.  Like all cemeteries, it's kind of spooky.  But it looked like there were very few burials before the 1950s.  I saw two that were from this year.  The thing that was different was that many of the monuments, which were mostly horizontal rather than vertical, included little plaques from various friends and relatives, commemorating aspects of the deceased.  This is an example.

On this row, the tombs are covered with the plaques.

Some say "most beloved uncle" others appear to be indicating that the deceased had been a soldier.  There were a lot of live flowers in the cemetery, meaning that a lot of people tend the burial places of their departed loved ones.

Yesterday, I drove to Sees, about an hour and 15 minutes away, because it was market day there.  When I got there I thought to myself, why am I here?  I don't really want to buy anything.  And that's where I am now.  Markets with clothes, handbags and fruits and vegetables are not really appealing to me.  I thought for a while about it and decided what I really was interested in was art--pictures, paintings, prints.  Other than that, I have everything I need right now--and I don't want to put anything more in my suitcase--which might be a problem if I do buy some art.

In any case, Sees looked lovely.  It had a very nice town hall.

And was apparently restoring some buildings on the church square.

I couldn't tell if there had recently been a fire, or if these buildings had long been derelict.

The only thing other than art that I enjoy buying is pastries and bread, so I made a beeline for the bakery--and had to wait in line.

There is a very grand cathedral in Sees.  I didn't get a good picture of the entire edifice, but I did take this photo of the carvings next to the main door.

In my mind, this was an example of the decay of the church.  But around the corner was a story in English of the cathedral--the fifth on the spot--and it said that during the French Revolution, the statues in the facade had been destroyed.  What a shame.

I tried to get into the church, but it was locked.  Later I saw a poster about some musical event that is happening in the church each Saturday in September.  I'm going to try to get back for that.  The event tells the story of the church--and includes simultaneous English translation.  Who could ask for anything more?

On the way back home, I stopped in Bagnoles de L'Orne, a really beautiful place with a lot of life and interest.  And flowers.  here are just some of the flowers I saw while I was there.

Again, I don't think you get a full appreciation of the beauty of these flowers in the pictures.

It was at this point that I should have filled up my gas tank, but unfortunately I did not.  So I'll wait until tomorrow for my next adventure.