The scenic route – part 2

To read ‘part 1’, please click here.

We crossed the Loire River in Orléans and made our way south, following the D2020 in the direction of La Ferté-St.Aubin. Having driven through the village on several occasions, J.L. suggested making a brief stop and shooting some photos of the local Château. The village which is located in the Loiret (45) department is part of the region Centre. A small stream, the Cosson, gives the village an almost ‘Touraine’ feel. We were hoping that there would be an inviting little bar with a sunlit sidewalk terrace to sip a cool glass of Loire Valley wine.

The bridge over the Cosson at La Ferté-St. Aubin.

We parked the car near the bridge over the Cosson and thought we were in luck, because, a little further up the road, we saw a building with a nice deep red marquis over the door and lit lights along the façade (which were completely obsolete as by then the sun was shining brightly). We strolled over to the castle gate and were stopped by a sign that read that from that point forward a paying entrance ticket was required to enter to castle grounds. We were also informed that the castle hosted a large collection of children’s games. As we didn’t intend to visit the interior of the castle, nor ‘la collection de jeux’, we obediently stayed on the public side of the gate and made some photos of the castle in the distance and the nearby ducks, geese and swans that were floating on the surface of the Cosson.

 The castle seen from the gate. Unlike the Loire castles (white lime stone)
bricks were used to build it.
If you follow the link, you'll see that it's also
a B&B and gîte; something we didn't know at the time.

One particular brown goose was clearly fishing for food, hanging upside down in the water, with its tail and webbed feet sticking in the air. The scene reminded me of the bedroom curtains I had when I was a ten year old. My mother had bought some colourful fabric with a recurrent print of three cartoon-like ducklings against a clear blue background. One of them was hanging upside down too, with its bright orange feet dangling in the air. In the morning when the sun shone behind the curtains, it looked as if the scene was actually coming alive. And with a little imagination, you could hear the splashing of the water … or was it the sound of my grandfather watering his tomato plants out in the back garden?

But back to La Ferté-St.Aubain 2013: I tried to shoot a photo of the feeding goose in action, but failed to get a proper one. The bird was just too fast for me.

Geese foraging.

Despite the warm sunshine, the air was really chilly, with a stiff wind blowing for the north-east. In de shadow cast by the tall trees, temperatures couldn’t have been much higher than 12 to 14°C. We therefore briskly stepped towards what seemed the sunlit terrace of the local bar. Coming closer, though, we saw that what he had mistaken for tables and chairs from a distance, was actually a display of plants and flowers. The bar turned out to be a flower shop. Slightly disappointed and increasingly thirsty, we returned to the car and drove on, hoping there would be a ‘watering hole’ in the next village.