Photos of the cliff top walk

Yesterday, Wednesday 19th June, I decided to walk the cliffs again. I’ve not felt well enough to do this for a while but since retirement; I’ve been getting out and walking, gradually building up the distance until yesterday, when I felt confident to tackle the 5 mile walk along the cliff tops from my home town to the tiny village 5 miles away. It was the hottest day of the year, I had my bottle of water, a packet of peanuts, a small bar of dark chocolate and of course my camera. I even stood the cold water on top of the chocolate to prevent melting. 

The only provision I forgot was sun block, but that wasn’t such a disaster, partly due to the years I spent on the south coast I’m blessed with skin that tends to tan not burn. 

I learnt I need proper walking shoes, my casual shoes that I’ve always said are comfy enough to wear any where, turned out to be totally inadequate for a five mile cliff top walk.
Another reason I’ve not done this in a while is because; over the last couple of years there have been a few landslides where great sections of rock face fell into the sea and some of the pathways collapsed leaving the path closed to the public.

( this is a section of the old path that fell into the sea) 
I’m not sure I will be doing it again either, there is a section of path that is far to close to the edge for me to feel safe. I don’t ever remember feeling afraid up there before, the cliff top path has always been one of my most favourite places in the whole world.  

I’m not sure if the path really is closer to the edge and narrower than it used to be, or if it’s me being less confident than I was. I’m all too aware these days I could easily fall or stumble and I can’t sit on the ground and get up again with out a lot of difficulty (and total loss of dignity). I’m not 100% sure, but I really do think that could be my last time walking the whole 5 miles.

 I feel quite sad about that, it’s taken me a couple of years to get round to doing it again only to find that maybe I should find somewhere else to walk in future. But weather or not I do the whole walk again, the first part is quite safe and I’m sure I’ll go there again.
I took loads and loads of photos, and I’m very disappointed in most of them. I’m not sure why but many of the photos are out of focus and not very good at all. The sun was bright, I couldn’t see properly at times and the LCD screen was more like a mirror than a viewing screen. But some turned out ok.

The views are just the best. It was so hot the sea was that pure deep blue that’s you see on the very best days of summer and the sky was almost the same colour just a shade lighter with the occasional white fluffy cloud. 

I wish there was a way to share just how beautiful it all was because those cliffs, at their best as they were yesterday, are unbeatable for breathtaking scenery and awe inspiring beauty.
How different it was this morning. It was still very warm, but every thing was misty and overcast, the colours were muted and pastel and that has altogether another kind of beauty.

Looking out to sea with the camera.

Probably of no interest to any one else but….. this is why I love my new camera with its 30x optical zoom

And to think they were no more than dots on the horizon. 

The village of Pamproux

Pamproux; is a small village in the west of France. Originally a small walled town perched on top of a rocky hill above a fast flowing river.

The hill, the ancient buildings, the old town walls and the river are all still there but now the village has outgrown the confines of the wall and  spread itself around the base of the hill. 

From the river there are views of the hill top village and from the top of the hill, the views of river and surrounding countryside are breathtaking. 
Tourist information from here

http://www.map-france.com/Pamproux-79800/population-Pamproux.html
The village of Pamproux is a small French village located west of France. The town of Pamproux is located in the department of Deux-Sèvres of the French region Poitou-Charentes. The town of Pamproux is located in the township of La Mothe-Saint-Héray part of the district of Niort. The area code for Pamproux is 79201 (also known as code INSEE), and the Pamproux zip code is 79800. 

Geography and map of Pamproux :
The altitude of the city hall of Pamproux is approximately 100 meters. The Pamproux surface is 36.30 km ². The latitude and longitude of Pamproux are 46.395 degrees North and 0.055 degrees West. Nearby cities and towns of Pamproux are : Bougon (79800) at 2.98 km, Salles (79800) at 3.43 km, Avon (79800) at 3.96 km, Soudan (79800) at 5.27 km, La Mothe-Saint-Héray (79800) at 5.81 km, Exoudun (79800) at 5.91 km, Saint-Germier (79340) at 7.69 km, Sainte-Eanne (79800) at 7.70 km.
(The distances to these nearby towns of Pamproux are calculated as the crow flies)

A medieval walled town in France; Parthenay

Parthenay

I spent an afternoon here with my sister. At times it terrified me; she has mobility problems and as such can’t park the car and then walk for miles, she needs to park close to where we want to be. Also her car is quite a big car, it needs to be because she would have problems getting in and out of a smaller car. Parthenay is a very beautiful, medieval, walled town.

The original part of the town has tiny winding streets that curl and twist up the hill to the top of this old walled town. My sister still drives a right hand drive car even though she lives in France and they drive on the right, which leaves me in the passenger seat, on the left, in the middle of the road. You can see my problem, large right hand drive car, driving around unimaginably tiny winding streets on the right. OHHHH yep that was a bit scary, especially if someone else was driving the opposite way down the same street. But apart from the scary driving bit, I loved it there. 

We visited the little local museum. They had an exhibition of comic book drawings on the ground floor and apparently, comic book drawings are very popular in France, there are all sorts of competitions and exhibitions for this type of art. Upstairs there were the permanent displays of local history and art work.

 It was fascinating, I loved it, I even found a new painter, a chap by the mane of Ernest Pidoux 1865- 1936 who specialized in painting local scenes from Parthenay. Several of which hung in the museum. This is one of his paintngs of Parthenay as it used to be.  This is the FB page for the museum, which if you are like me and completely unilingual, its not a lot of use because its all in French, but there are plenty of pictures there.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mus%C3%A9e-de-Parthenay/108650685842859

This is the official museum video of its permanent collection
 


a video ( not mine) of the town
 


a link to good old Wiki which gives you more info about Parthenay that I will ever know. The info begins 

‘’ Parthenay is an ancient fortified town and commune in the Deux-Sèvres department of the Poitou-Charentes region in western France. It is sited on a rocky spur that is surrounded on two sides by the River Thouet. The name of Parthenay first appears in written records at the beginning of the 11th century. The castle, situated on an easily defended site at the tip of the rocky promontory surrounded by the loop of the river, was built in the 13th century’’
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenay

 
And here are more views of the town.